Recently, HTC said that the world's first blockchain mobile phone Exodus will officially open beta in the third quarter.
In addition to the uncertain application prospects of blockchain technology, the technical thresholds for portfolio innovation and other industries are in need of direct confrontation. The founder of the Energy Blockchain Lab, Cao Yu, bluntly stated that the security functions and virtual currency of Exodus refer to cold storage. Universal wallet technology has yet to be reconsidered. However, HTC, which has a brand advantage, chooses to launch blockchain mobile phones now, which is a wise move to maintain the current status of mobile phone business.
HTC, which relies on mobile phones to embark on the commanding heights of development, is also suffering from losses due to the mobile phone business that is left behind. However, mobile phones are still regarded by HTC as a strategic main business with VR. HTC told the China Business News that the company is Committed to the seamless integration of mobile devices and immersive experiences.
Old tree new flower?
It is reported that Exodus has cooperated with the world's first blockchain non-replaceable token (hereinafter referred to as 'NFT') game "Mystery Love Cat". Developers can use the platform to distribute blockchain games, collection systems and NFT content. Exodus also Universal wallet technology that will gradually support virtual currency for cold storage. HTC Chief Blockchain Technology Officer Chen Xinsheng said that the company aims to create a blockchain asset market that promotes cryptocurrency transactions between users through Exodus.
Since entering 2018, Candy, Changhong, Lenovo have launched blockchain mobile phones. Among them, Candy Creation Edition blockchain mobile phone, Changhong R8 Kirin mobile phone are the main mining function, Lenovo S5 main payment security. From the technical dimension, the industry It is considered that the value of blockchain has revolutionary historical significance. Blockchain technology has the characteristics of decentralization and transparent synchronization of multiple nodes. Based on cloud and distributed ledger technology, it is mainly used in the financial field.
However, Cao Yu bluntly said that the encryption game application store involved in Exodus and other security-related functions and blockchain technology based on data traceable, verifiable, non-tamperable, protection of data integrity and information security is not the same thing. The universal wallet technology covered by Exodus for cold storage of virtual currency is not new technology. Mobile phones generally have this function. In addition, blockchain analyst He Xiao said that the blockchain asset market represented by Bitcoin is skyrocketing. Behind it, it also brings doubts such as fraud and manipulation of prices. At the same time, the blockchain technology is the product of the current transaction center based on 'trusted trust', and the centralization of intermediaries is bound to constitute the authority and deconstruction of the institutional framework. Blockchain technology Institutional risks, application scenarios, pseudo-demand, and other landing risks and even legality risks need to be clarified.
In addition to the unclear application prospects of blockchain technology, Cao Yu also said that blockchain technology is a combination of multiple technologies: time-series data structure, consensus algorithm operation system, smart contract rule generation and execution, encryption Algorithmic peer-to-peer network. This is far from what mobile phone companies can overcome.
Chen, the head of a mobile phone foundry company in the Pearl River Delta, said bluntly that in the competitive state of the competition, the head of the mobile phone manufacturer is rarely involved in blockchain technology because of the risk control. In the first mobile phone industry research institute, Sun Yanwei It seems that, in contrast, niche mobile phone manufacturers and mobile phone manufacturers that have left the main track have introduced blockchain mobile phones, which is quite a bit of a slap in the face of it. At the same time, compared to candy, Changhong, HTC The blockchain mobile phone has a brand advantage.
Wang Yanhui, the founder of the China Mobile Alliance, also expressed similar views. The mobile phone market with significant head effect, the brand's ups and downs are unpredictable. 'HTC's mobile phone business adopts a new concept of blockchain technology, which may enable it to maintain the status quo. As for the old Whether the tree's ability to open a 'new flower' is still unknown. ' He admitted.
Fall from the mainstream to the minority
The mobile phone business borrowed blockchain technology was partially interpreted as HTC's open source behavior. On July 2, HTC announced that it will reduce the number of employees in the manufacturing department by 5% at the end of September, accounting for 1/4 of the total number of employees worldwide.
In recent years, HTC has implemented a number of festivals around the mobile phone business. HTC has laid off 15% of its work globally in 2016. In March 2017, HTC sold its Shanghai manufacturing plant for 630 million yuan to streamline its production line. In September 2017, HTC was $11. The sale of the team that had participated in the Google Pixel mobile phone business to Google once caused concern in the industry about the HTC mobile phone business. The introduction of the combination punch strategy did not help HTC reverse the trend. HTC's after-tax profit was listed in FY2017. The lowest in the year, the net loss reached NT$16.9 billion. The company's stock price has recently reached around NT$50 per share, compared with the highest point in 2016. The market value is currently only maintained at around NT$45 billion, which is less than the market value of the peak period. 1/20.
Today's HTC has led the mobile phone industry with a ridiculous attitude. The HTC, which started from the OEM, has sprung up through the Android system, and compared with Apple and Samsung around 2010. In addition to the lack of highlights in the industry's criticized marketing, neglecting the socialization of layout. Outside the channel and e-commerce channels, HTC performance quickly turned into a loss in 2013 due to weak emphasis on the low-end mobile phone market and the mainland China market, and product positioning was blurred. IDC data shows that HTC mobile phone market The share of shares has fallen from 8.8% in 2012 to 0.68% in September 2017.
However, the performance in the mobile phone market has not affected HTC's insistence on mobile phone business. In addition to using blockchain technology to boost the main business of mobile phones, HTC also implemented an overseas optimization organization plan in early 2018, in which mobile phones are still considered as Two core business segments of VR parallel.
It is worth noting that the downside of HTC's mobile phone business is that R&D expenses are rising. HTC official data shows that innovative R&D investment rose to 14% in FY2016. Although some analysts said that this part of the funds is likely to be Betting on the VR sector, but the person in charge of the above-mentioned Pearl River Delta mobile phone foundry revealed: 'The mainland China’s first-tier mobile phone manufacturers’ R&D investment is basically 5%, and the Taiwanese-owned enterprises’ technology precipitation and R&D talent reserve are higher than the mainland technology enterprises. . '
This seems to the industry, giving HTC a counterattack in the mobile phone market.
However, Sun Yanxi pointed out that even Samsung, which has the advantage of vertical industrial chain, has a global software brand integration model, and has a global brand appeal to endorse the loss of the established market share. At the same time, the marketing route OV, the cost-effective route of Xiaomi The Chinese mobile phone companies such as Huawei, which is a technology route, are attacking the city in the global mobile phone market. HTCs that do not have competitive advantages in various competitive dimensions return to the mainstream from the niche. The uncontrollable variables in the middle are too many and the foreseeable opponents are too strong.
Dual main business strengthens VR vision
Another important reason why HTC's mobile phone business cannot be abandoned is that the two main business linkages between mobile phone and VR are the strategic needs of HTC. HTC introduced that the company is committed to launching a seamless connection between mobile devices and immersive experiences. .
It is reported that LG, Huawei, Xiaomi, etc. have launched similar products. In the VR observer Zhao Ziming, the rise of seamless VR products is closely related to the rapid development of mobile VR.
Looking back at the VR industry, VR has rapidly warmed up after 2014, but since the second half of 2016, the industry has been chilling. Mobile VR has achieved multiple growth compared to PC VR since then. GFK China's VR retail market data shows that mobile VR accounts for more than 80% of China's VR market in the past two years. Samsung GearVR has been the best evidence to support the VR market with over 4 million units sold in the past two years. Zhao Ziming pointed out that Driven by mobile phone manufacturers to buy mobile phones with VR, mobile VR growth rate in the short to medium term exceeds PC VR is a foreseeable trend.
HTC entered the VR market in 2014, and built the virtual reality ecosystem from Vive series hardware products, VR/AR accelerator Vive X, application store Viveport and Vive Studios focused on content development and distribution, which also consolidated HTC Vive. The first echelon status in the field of PC VR.
HTC's latest flagship smartphone HTC U12+ and VR product Vive Focus linkage, in the eyes of the founder of the ant vision technology, this will help HTC to complement the shortcomings of mobile VR products.
According to the Tuoba Research Institute, the output value of VR hardware and software will reach 22.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2020, which will be more than six times the value of 2017. However, when talking about the future development direction of VR, respondents showed a high degree of consistency: VR with AR technology can bring users a more natural immersive technology interaction mode.
This has already attracted the attention of HTC. 'Accelerate the scale of VR and AR technology' by the HTC Chairman Wang Xuehong as the opportunity to overtake in the 5G era.
However, respondents also pointed out that VR hardware is not mature, lack of quality content support, low cost performance, poor user experience and other old problems have intensified in the past two years. This also led to the VR application scenario has not been breakthrough today. Progress. 'VR is still stuck in games, movies and other civil entertainment scenes, and has not made great progress in the commercial market.'
As early as two years ago, the industry was regarded as the VR on the eve of the outbreak, and today there is still no dawn. This is a systemic problem.
On the one hand, high-quality manufacturers such as Sony are worried about the failure of innovation, resulting in the loss of established advantages, lack of innovation, while inferior manufacturers lack funds, technology to promote innovation; on the other hand, due to high PC hardware costs, content shortages, etc. PC VR has made little progress even in the field of entertainment verticals. At the same time, the ecological foundation of mobile phones and PCs as computing platforms is stable, and VR does not have the strength and timing to challenge. 'Zhao Ziming said that HTC continues to bet on VR without sinking costs. In the face of the market, HTC can only choose to side by side while watching.