Xiaomi, an undervalued research and development platform enterprise

What does mobile phones mean for China's technology industry?For a considerable period of time, this was a problem that often came to mind but was often suppressed.On the evening of April 18, 2023, as the Xiaomi 13 Ultra press conference progressed, this voice continued to expand in my heart, and the answer gradually became clear

What does mobile phones mean for China's technology industry?

For a considerable period of time, this was a problem that often came to mind but was often suppressed.

On the evening of April 18, 2023, as the Xiaomi 13 Ultra press conference progressed, this voice continued to expand in my heart, and the answer gradually became clear. This machine has been equipped with a one inch large bottom and variable aperture Summicon lens that has been collaborated with Leica, and the mobile imaging system formed in collaboration with this top-level lens is a 2K professional supercolor calibration screen from Huaxing Optoelectronics, a pure domestic type.

Prior to this, no one had ever been able to cram an inch camera module and a variable aperture into such a small space as a smartphone, which was an uninhabited area in the industry; Few people will make up their minds to use a domestically developed high-end screen on the imaging flagship with extremely high screen requirements like the 13 Ultra.

This made the subtle feeling in my heart gradually clear: perhapsIn the past two decades, the driving force of China's mobile phone industry and manufacturers on the industry and supply chain has been underestimated.

Mobile phone: an undervalued technology research and development platform

I often encounter a question from ordinary readers when writing about mobile phone manufacturers: If all the components come from suppliers, what is the difference between what mobile phone manufacturers do and what assembly factories or OEM factories do?

My answer is: if we consider a mobile phone as a miniature building, then terminal manufacturers like Xiaomi are architects who provide architectural drawings, while assembly plants or contract factories are on-site contractors.Mobile phone design is an art of integrating the most advanced technology in limited space and maximizing performance. Mobile phone products, on the other hand, are undervalued technology research and development platforms.

The cooperation between Xiaomi and Leica on the 13 Ultra has given me a particularly strong feeling.

This machine miniaturizes the jewel on the Leica optical crown, the Summicon lens, and fits it into a 163.17mmx74.97mmx9.06mm phone. It is also equipped with a large aperture in the full focus range, and the main camera is equipped with an inch IMX989 sensor. It can also achieve two variable aperture switches of /1.9 or /4.0.

Xiaomi introduces the lens module of the 13Ultra at the press conference

At the press conference, renowned British street photographer Matt Stuart said, "This is a professional imaging device, not a camera phone. Reminds me of the LeitzPhone that Leica had previously collaborated with Sharp. The leading party of that collaboration was Leica, and Sharp was almost a OEM role, but the imaging system produced had both advantages and disadvantages, and did not achieve the comprehensive competitiveness of the 13 Ultra.

In the field of photography, there is a saying that goes: 'The bottom is one level higher than the bottom, crushing people.'.

It is commonly believed in this field that the larger the "bottom", the better the imaging ability. Under the absolute suppression of physical hardware performance parameters, any algorithm is a paper tiger.

LeitzPhone is the world's first mobile phone equipped with a one inch large bottom Leica main camera, which has obvious advantages in color, depth of field, and image quality. However, the algorithm level is weak, and there is only one main camera, no sub camera, and no telephoto lens. Therefore, when it comes to HDR imaging, night scenes, telephoto, and recording, there is a significant gap between it and the mainstream flagship on the market.

LeitzPhone, a collaboration between Leica and Sharp, only has one main camera, no sub cameras, and no telephoto lens

Mobile phone manufacturers have been struggling with imaging systems for a decade, and there is a group of people who always feel that apart from chips and imaging, this product has no technological content at all. Therefore, these mobile phone manufacturers like Tian Tian Hei China lack core competitiveness. One day, a professional imager came to make a mobile phone and found out that their own images were also unfamiliar. It was only then that many people realized that the complex consumer electronics industry was deeply immersed, and that some products had much more knowledge than they had imagined.

One of the biggest knowledge is in the use of space.

A one inch base can be inserted into a phone, and a variable aperture can also be inserted, but what about after inserting it?

How can we maximize the best performance of this' big bottom ', miniaturize professional level Summicon lenses, design stacking schemes based on new lens structures, ensure optical performance is not compromised in limited space, and achieve continuous zoom and telescopic lenses?

These are all the overall design solutions that Xiaomi wants to provide to suppliers, many of which are innovative directions that suppliers have never dared to think about.

Disassembly diagram of Xiaomi 13 Ultra lens module; Image source: Lei Jun Weibo

A terminal manufacturer that integrates complex industrial product technology and is the top-level designer of an industry.Xiaomi's pursuit in imaging is promoting equal cooperation and technological exchange between Leica, the most professional optical giant, and us, while reshaping the standards and landscape of the entire mobile imaging industry. This not only affects mobile phones, but also professional camera manufacturers and optical manufacturers.

We have said more than once,The so-called cooperation, if one party does not have sufficient technical capabilities as the foundation, then the cooperation will not bring any core technology to it, but only obtain a certain range of technology usage rights.Most of the joint venture car companies back then were in this situation.

But Xiaomi is not. In the era of mobile phones, Chinese terminal manufacturers have not only become designers and controllers of complex system engineering, but are also continuously expanding their research and development stage to basic scientific research fields such as optics along this path.

From the moment the first beam of light enters the lens of the lens, the light changes. Good optical design requires the transmission of the most accurate and reproducible image signal to the image sensor and the photosensitive sensor, thereby increasing the freedom of post lens and image processing. Many of the fields involved in this are concentrated at the level of basic scientific research: optics, physics, and materials science all play an indispensable role in it.

For the 13Ultra imaging system, Xiaomi adopts a lens design of "ultra high order even polynomial", with lens fitting accuracy reaching the nanometer level, approaching the optical limit; Each lens has been coated with ALD ultra-low reflectivity, and the technology of light cutting and ink coating for professional camera lens has been introduced, and new cycloolefin materials have been used.

Using mobile phones as the research and development platform, Xiaomi is collaborating with the best partners in joint research and development, deeply participating in the self research and innovation of various related core technologies.

Bold Industry Empowerment

What caught my attention, like the image module, was the screen of the Xiaomi 13 Ultra this time.

Lin Baojun, the chief designer of the Beidou-3 global satellite navigation system, once told a story that when he was working on Beidou-3, due to the unique inter satellite link requirements of Beidou-3, it required a lot of computing power to group global satellites. Previously, European chips were used on satellites, but they no longer meet this demand very well. Lin Baojun also doesn't want his building built on someone else's foundation, so he wants to find domestic chips.

He found Hu Weiwu, the chairman of Longxin Zhongke Technology Co., Ltd. at the time, but Hu Weiwu and Lin Baojun said: Mr. Lin, I have been studying this thing for many years, but I am ready to give up.

Lin Baojun asked him why, "Hu Weiwu said." Many bosses came to me and they asked me, "Have you ever gone to heaven with this thing? I said I haven't used it before, so they said they haven't used it before. We dare not use it.

But no one dares to use it, it will never reach the sky.

On June 23, 2020, China successfully launched the last global networking satellite of Beidou-3

A satellite costs 400 to 500 million yuan, and too many people dare not take any risks. So there has always been an unwritten rule in the aerospace industry that a new technology on a satellite should not exceed 30%. But after thinking for a long time, Lin Baojun finally said to Hu Weiwu, 'I'll use it.'. Longxin ultimately gave an excellent performance test.

Such stories are often staged in the Chinese industry. Many products in many fields in China are not impossible to produce, but if they are not used by anyone, they will not be produced.

The Xiaomi 13 Ultra has put tremendous effort into the imaging system, and together with the lens module, it forms the screen of this imaging system from Huaxing Optoelectronics. This is quite surprising to me, but it also feels quite uplifting.

As is well known, screens are an extremely important component of imaging systems. Xiaomi is willing to try using high-end domestic screens on such a top-level imaging flagship, which is the most powerful support and empowerment for China's local manufacturing industry.

This 6.7 inch professional 2K ultra color quasi screen was jointly developed by Xiaomi and TCL Huaxing. The C7 new luminescent material used in the screen has reached the peak of domestic primary color screens in terms of luminous efficiency, visual angle, and the highest peak brightness of 2600nits in low brightness mode, even surpassing the global benchmark Samsung Electronics' top screen luminescent material DisplayE6.

Xiaomi introduced this primary color screen at the press conference

It is obvious that achieving such a breakthrough is not achieved overnight. This company has always attached great importance to conducting joint research with domestic supply chain enterprises to help itself with technological reserves. The screen is even more important. As early as 2016, the company established a dedicated research and development team for screen display technology,Advanced technologies such as "primary color screen" were first introduced into the industry by Xiaomi.

The screen luminescent materials that have made a breakthrough on the 13 Ultra screen this time, as well as many technologies, come from the joint laboratory established by Xiaomi and Huaxing Optoelectronics in August 2021. This laboratory previously produced a top-level domestic 2K straight screen at the end of 2022 and installed it on the RedmiK60 series, which was later widely recognized in the industry. It took more than 700 days and nights for both parties to produce this screen, and 10000 test screens were used.

As of the end of 2021, Xiaomi Industrial Investment has invested in 100 domestic enterprises, covering 100% of mobile phone core components, and 54% have been introduced for cooperation. According to statistics, there are nearly 60 domestic supply chain partners for the Xiaomi 12 series.

In the field of intelligent manufacturing, Xiaomi and Lansi Technology have jointly established a joint research and development center, and Xiaomi has also established an intelligent manufacturing department and a dedicated research and development team. We are continuously verifying new technologies through our intelligent factories, and in the future, we will be able to output comprehensive intelligent manufacturing solutions to our partners and even the entire industry.

At the same time, Xiaomi will continue to strengthen its industrial investment and support in the field of intelligence. Since its establishment in 2017, Xiaomi Changjiang Industrial Fund has invested in supporting nearly 100 enterprises by the end of 2021, covering multiple basic support areas of intelligent manufacturing in China, including advanced manufacturing, 5G, integrated circuits, and AIoT industries.

Xiaomi must move towards a high-end era at a critical moment

Like cars, mobile phones can also be seen as a research and development platform, from which terminal manufacturers can gain comprehensive capabilities.

Both Xiaomi and Leica have gained a lot of optical research and development experience and systematic imaging system capabilities through cooperation; Xiaomi and Huaxing collaborated on screens and created many of their own patents, all of which are clear evidence of this argument.

In the book 'Key to the Great Power', we once discussed with readers the relationship between terminal manufacturers and technology research and development platforms.

In the book, we cite two failed cooperation cases, one is a car and the other is a large airplane. They have a common characteristic: in the process of so-called "technical cooperation", Chinese enterprises have never been able to truly intervene and lead the development process of end products.

The earliest large aircraft research and development platform in China, Yun-10, was moved out of the main factory building

Before mobile phones, there was always a lack of true "terminal manufacturers" in the consumer goods industry in China, let alone well-known terminal manufacturers.

Automobile is the most typical case, even though joint venture car companies often have a 50% to 50% equity ratio, in fact, for a considerable period of time, the tasks undertaken by the Chinese side were only to conquer the localization and mass production of components, rather than the design and development of products.

The former is a production perspective, it is a question of whether you can create something by looking at the drawings given to you; The latter is a research and development perspective, which is the question of whether you can draw the drawings. It was not until the rise of electrification that car manufacturers began to have the latter's capabilities.

But phones are different.

Returning to the question I asked at the beginning of the article:What does mobile phones mean for China's technology industry?

I think it means at least that China is the first successful technology research and development platform in the consumer electronics industry.If viewed on the timeline of the development of China's technology industry, the analogy between mobile phones and China may be that computers are to the United States.

There has been a lot of discussion about complex industrial products such as automobiles and large airplanes as research and development platforms, but the role of mobile phones as research and development platforms seems to have been intentionally or unintentionally overlooked.

One of the reasons for being overlooked is that the Internet era, coupled with the rapid development of China's economy, has to some extent played down the difficult choices faced by mobile phone manufacturers in public opinion, as well as the painful experience of adhering to the path of self research.

For example, Xiaomi has experienced adjustments and pains due to attempting to develop its own chips, and even was misunderstood by public opinion for this reason. In 2014, Xiaomi sent a small team from the mobile hardware research and development team to develop the SoC for mobile phones. However, due to underestimating the difficulty of the chip industry, it ultimately decided to adjust its goal to IoT chips.

There has been public opinion accusing Xiaomi of lacking strategic determination on this point, but my view is exactly the opposite. I believe that this misestimation adjustment at least means Xiaomi's clarity and persistence in direction:

As a terminal manufacturer, Xiaomi has a very clear overall perspective and accurate judgment in the overall direction of product and technology evolution. Even if there has been a misjudgment about the speed of technological progress, it will not affect strategic judgment due to temporary differences, but rather start from more fundamental goals and gradually conquer chip technology. For example, the 13Ultra uses its self-developed power management chip, the surging G1, and intelligent fast charging chip, the surging P2. Through hardware level chip capabilities, it ensures stable and safe battery life and fast charging experience.

Two chips work together to form a battery management system for the 13Ultra

Any terminal manufacturer who wants to start as a research and development platform from the foundation must make great determination and experience a lot of pain. It took Huawei 10 years to complete marketization from the K3V1 to the Kirin 990. Xiaomi has launched four chips in the past five years, quickly achieving systematic capability building in multiple chip segmentation fields such as SoC, imaging, and charging.Almost all domestic terminal brands have climbed mountains and crossed obstacles, gritted their teeth, and walked forward. Especially in strategic highlands such as self-developed chips and operating systems, it is a quite long and arduous process.

As a research and development platform based company, Xiaomi is benchmarking against Apple and Tesla internationally. Their core is the integration of software and hardware, with a high degree of self research and innovation capabilities, coupled with a systematic manufacturing methodology that has been precipitated, to promote the accelerated transformation of the entire industrial chain and supply chain. This is also the only way for all Chinese domestic brands to reshape the world landscape.

Xiaomi is no exception in accumulating its own manufacturing capabilities. The company's smart factory in Beijing, as a verification space for the manufacturing industry, is exploring the industry's advanced processes and best practice cases. Against the backdrop of China's economic development reaching a certain stage and the irreversible trend of some manufacturing industries moving out of China, terminal manufacturers such as Xiaomi are key factors in China's ability to maintain supply chain and manufacturing competitiveness, as well as the backbone of China's new industrialization, industrial upgrading, and supply chain empowerment.

In the process of domestic substitution, a dilemma that will inevitably be experienced is that latecomer industrial countries often find it difficult to break through the barriers of the first mover countries in terms of products and enter the sectors of the industry that can generate high profits. Many countries end up in the middle-income trap due to their inability to enter the high-end sector.

But today, Chinese mobile phone manufacturers such as Xiaomi actually have the strength to compete with so-called high-end brands such as Apple and Samsung in their products. At the product level, their flagship models are fully qualified to go high-end, but still many people are wearing "colored glasses" to see our own brands.

Brand premium is sometimes a superstition. If Apple can sell for 13499 yuan, why can't Xiaomi sell products like the 13Ultra for 7299 yuan?

Only when Chinese brands truly achieve high-end development can the entire technology industry in China truly achieve a closed loop of domestic substitution. China's consumer electronics industry is currently at this critical juncture of growth. The path of high-end development is the fate of the Xiaomi generation of mobile phone manufacturers.

epilogue

I once wrote an article called 'Making Cars is the Duty of Xiaomi and Huawei'. In that article, I asked everyone to review their lives 15 years ago, before the rise of mobile phones as a new generation of smart terminals.

And now, I want you to remember the life you are living, because this is the eve of the wave of intelligence sweeping through this world, and soon you will find that humanity is moving towards an era that science fiction films have portrayed. In the next 5-10 years, global consumer electronics will enter a new stage of intelligence, and China will be the most critical innovation market in this new stage.

As an intelligent terminal, the trend of consumer electronics in automobiles is irreversible, and AI artificial intelligence and big models will become the processing center and underlying support for all data.

If you abstract human life scenes into office, home, and travel, you will find that the terminals covering these scenes will be: mobile phones, AIoTs, and cars.

And coincidentally, Xiaomi has all of them.

On a global scale, both Apple and Huawei have chosen this direction, while Xiaomi is almost the most balanced consumer electronics manufacturer in these three aspects. Its AI big model research based on massive user touch points and interactive big data, as well as the layout of biomimetic robots, are all stepping on key nodes.

This has brought almost infinite imagination space to this company. When it is no longer just an ordinary mobile phone manufacturer, looking behind it, you will see the starry sea of global electronic consumer industry transformation.

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