Photo source: Oriental IC
30 seconds quick read
1, Gree came out with a 5G phone, and when some people look at Gree's cell phone making as a joke, Dong Mingzhu is serious and persistent, and she has never thought that Gree's cell phone has failed.
2, half a month after the listing, Gree 5G cell phone official website sales only broke 2,000 units, the 2018 listing of Gree three generations of cell phones have also been off the shelves of the official website, this cell phone has been listed for three years, and only sold more than 10,000 units, and is not even comparable to the sales of millet cell phone part of the style of a month or a day.
3, why Dong Mingzhu on the phone never forget? Is it a gamble with Lei Jun, or to layout the entrance to the smart home? Gree 5G phone, another serious joke?
People who like to catch up with the trend will surely smell the flavor of the 5G replacement tide, whether it is the hot iPhone 12 or grounded thousand dollar machine, have hung on the prefix of 5G.
However, when Gree Electric, a star company, also caught the last train of this 5G year, launching a 5G phone named after its sub-brand Dasong, it was greeted with yet another Waterloo of its sales in the cell phone world.
The fashion world's famous saying "trends die hard, style lasts forever" seems to be quite applicable to the head of the manufacturing industry, Gree. Just last month because of a "CEO narcissism and its economic consequences of the study - to Gree Electric as an example of the master's thesis," Gree Electric Chairman Dong Mingzhu became a topic of conversation, and recently was just listed on the Dasong 5G cell phone on the "Dong Mingzhu do not think that Gree cell phone failure "The hot search.
Making cars, making cell phones, making chips, even if Gree's many cross-border attempts have sparked a lot of public controversy, Dong Mingzhu has never questioned his own decisions. Following the release of the first cell phone in 2015, Gree has never made a name for itself in the industry. If this time the Gree 5G cell phone also "overturned", then what will be the reason for dissing it?
In November 2019, Gree Electric revised its articles of association, deleting the "operation of telecommunications business and value-added telecommunications business". For such an adjustment, the outside world can not help but speculate that Gree Electric is ready to give up the cell phone business.
However, the official response said that they did not give up making cell phones, but only handed over the cell phone business to its subsidiary, Gree will not only continue to build cell phones, but also build 5G phones.
More than a year later, Gree stumbled to make good on its promise of a 5G phone. on December 7, Gree's official mall went live with a Datsun 5G phone built by its sub-brand Datsun.
Screenshot of Gree Dasong 5G phone on December 8, Source: Gree Official Mall
Equipped with Snapdragon 765G Extreme 5G chip, supporting 4-band dual-mode 5G full network pass, up to 8GB + 256GB RAM, and equipped with a 6.81-inch FHD+ full-screen as well as a flagship 64-megapixel four-camera at the rear, and priced at 2,699 yuan and 2,999 Yuan in two grades.
The Snapdragon 765G is a mid-range processor that is commonly used in cost-effective models such as the Redmi K30, Vivo Z6, and Xiaomi Mi 10 Youth Edition, mostly priced in the 2,000 yuan range.
Taking the Redmi K30 as an example, the main configuration is the same as the Datsun 5G phone, and the price is only 1999 yuan, which is 1000 yuan cheaper than the Datsun 5G high end version in the same class.
According to media reports, the Datsun 5G phone sold less than 30 units on the first day, and failed to break a thousand a week after it hit the shelves. As of December 21, 15 days after the listing, the sales of Dasong 5G cell phone on the official website of Gree is 1956 units, and the sales of Gree Dongzhu store small program is 2,284 units, of which the Phantom Night Aurora two models of cell phone sales, the small program and the official website is exactly the same.
As of 14:00 on December 21, the official website shows that Dasong 5G cell phone **** sold 1956 units, Figure source: Gree official mall
"Low-quality high-price" trolling, since the first generation of Gree cell phone in 2015 since the introduction of the first generation of Gree cell phone has never ceased.
Gree generation phone with Snapdragon 410 quad-core processor, 1GB + 8GB RAM, rear 8 megapixels and Android 4.4.4 operating system, priced at 1600 yuan.
This kind of price/performance ratio is not even comparable to the first-generation Redmi Note phone released in 2014, the Redmi Note 4G Enhanced Edition, which comes with a MediaTek MT6592 octa-core processor, 2GB+16GB of RAM, and a 13-megapixel rear, for just 999 yuan.
By the time the third generation of the Geli phone was listed in 2018, the configuration still lagged behind the market in the same period. At the hardware level, at that time, the Snapdragon 855 processor and 6GB+128GB phones were already full of streets, but the third generation of Gree's phone is still using the Snapdragon 821 processor released in 2016 and the 4GB+64GB storage combination, and the same configuration of the LeTV Pro3, Xiaomi 5S, and other models with Snapdragon 821 are being eliminated from the market.
At the software level, the Android 7.1.2 system used in the Gree III phone was also two full generations behind the Android 9.0 system that was common at the time.
Another major difference in Gree's phone was that it came preloaded with a photo of Gree's head honcho, Dong Mingzhu.
When the Gree generation of phones hit the market, a photo of Dong Mingzhu was used as the boot screen.
Source: Internet
In this regard, Dong Mingzhu said: "Why do Gree phones use my photo as the boot screen? It's not because of saving advertising money, it's because I want to tell consumers that I'm the founder of Gree cell phone, which is respecting consumers. "In her opinion, Gree cell phone does not use price war to rush sales, it is the performance of the consumer responsible.
There is no market, no word of mouth, talk about whether it is too early to be responsible for consumers?
In the face of dismal sales figures, the "Iron Lady" adopted a "self-production and self-sale" approach to digestion. 2017 early, Gree second generation cell phone was included in the year-end prize for employees, after the Spring Festival, all employees were also required to use Gree cell phone, otherwise they can not enter the company.
Source: Network
In addition to employees, Gree cell phone has also been "bundled sales" to the procurement of air conditioning suppliers, and forced to "amenable" to the installation of workers, otherwise it will not be able to log on to the system to receive the work order, so that the latter called out "The company's website has been updated with the latest information on the company's website.
Source: Network
Chen Zili, then Minister of Marketing of Gree Electric, said that Gree did not force suppliers to purchase cell phones, but only mutually beneficial cooperation. And Dong Mingzhu's response is even more domineering: " You are my employees have any reason not to use my phone, you have no confidence in their own products, by what let the market recognition? "
Outside the "downturn" did not shake the determination of Dong Mingzhu to do cell phones. She believes that Gree cell phone has not failed, do cell phone can bring a lot of technology extension, Gree has been insisting on independent research and development, success is only a matter of time.
Gree cell phone technology extension will point to where? The boot screen seems to be the answer, the head of the photo below is an "ambitious" greeting: " This is Gree cross into the global top 500 after the launch of one of the first cell phones, not only can have interpersonal communication, but also to open Gree! 'Smart Eco Home' door. "
When did Gree, which mainly operates the air conditioning business, start to participate in the blueprint of the smart home?
In 2018, "Gree Zero-Carbon Healthy Home" made its global debut, combining "energy-saving" and "intelligent" two main features. "
As early as the first day of the year, the home was a one-stop shop for energy management and control.
As early as in the 2014 annual report, Gree said that the future will enter the field of smart home, and will Gree cell phone as the center of the smart home connection.
Figure source: Gree 2014 annual report
According to the Home Appliance Industry Information Center estimates, by 2020, the intelligent rate of white goods, living appliances, kitchen appliances will reach 45%, 28% and 25%, respectively, and it is conservatively expected that smart home appliances will bring 1.2 trillion yuan of market demand in the next three years.
Source: Prospect Industry Research Institute
Gree did not choose the wrong course, just compared to the more successful product diversification of the U.S. and Haier may have more say.
In the revenue composition of the United States Group, HVAC and consumer appliances accounted for 43.12% and 35.72%, respectively, and in 2018, the United States launched the AI technology home appliance high-end brand COLMO, according to the official war report COLMO this year's double 11 sales increased by 2,994% year-on-year, and has been awarded a prominent share of the high-end market in some categories.
Haier, on the other hand, with its industrial Internet platform COSMOPlat, allows users to participate in the whole process of the intelligent manufacturing system, and the Haier Wise Home App was launched in December 2019, which changes the "selling of single products" into "selling scenes", and consumers can not only buy goods online, but also conduct a survey. The Haier Smart Home App was launched in December 2019, turning the "selling of single products" into the "selling of scenes".
Although Gree's sub-brands include Daisong, which focuses on life appliances such as heaters, rice cookers, humidifiers and electric fans, and Jinghong, which focuses on refrigerators, washing machines and large kitchen and bathroom appliances, none of them have a large market voice. Putting aside the air conditioning, Gree's life appliances revenue accounted for only 3.19%.
Gree Electric revenue composition by product share, Figure source: 2020 semi-annual report
In the category of home appliances is still difficult to expand the map, and how to rely on the phone to pry open the door of the smart home?
Instead of seeing the prospect of a smart home, Gree's obsession with cell phones is more like a "tragedy" triggered by the "billion-dollar bet".
Figure source: network
In 2013, Dong Mingzhu and Lei Jun bet one billion, agreed that after five years, which company has a high turnover even if who wins.
Since then, Gree officially entered the field of smartphones, but unfortunately, bearing the label of "low-compatibility and high-priced", Gree's cell phone has not been able to occupy a place in the market.
The official mall "Gree Dong Mingzhu store", 3400 yuan from the Gree three-generation cell phone as of December 16, three years of total sales of only 10,000 units, even less than millet phone part of the style of a month or a day's sales.
Nonetheless, in the fight with millet, Gree has never been defeated.
IPRdaily, the intellectual property industry media IPRdaily and incoPat Innovation Index Research Center jointly released the "2019 first half of the global smart home invention patent rankings" shows that Gree ranked second in the world and first in China with 219 patents, and Xiaomi ranked third with 121 patents.
This year, Gree ranked second in the world and first in China with 219 patents and Xiaomi ranked third with 121 patents.
In August this year, Dong Mingzhu also talked about the "billion dollar bet" in the CCTV "Relativity" dialogue program, millet products are basically OEM production, belonging to the light assets, while Gree's home appliances have always insisted on doing it themselves, belonging to the heavy assets, the two are not on a plane. When the five-year period, Gree won.
Figure source: network
Interestingly, just after the expiration of the bet on the second year, millet's revenue back over Gree. However, Dong Mingzhu did not see the sixth year as a close victory for millet, laughing that this is the beginning of the second "five years".
If you really start counting the second "five years" from 2019, then Gree's smart home story has just begun, and can still rely on the core technology of air conditioning to steal the show?
Caiyin International research report in December pointed out that the current smart home market competition pattern is relatively decentralized, Apple and domestic cell phone brands (Huawei / millet / OPPO / vivo) have a layout, in which Xiaomi enjoys a first-mover advantage, the use of "smartphones + AIoT" dual-wheel drive model to build a perfect product The company is also expanding its smart TV series products as the next stage of its goal.
The claim that the phone as a carrier to connect the smart home Gree, whether there is an imitation of Xiaomi's meaning?
Throughout the millet industry chain layout, cell phone manufacturing, smart hardware, life supplies, communications, chips, finance, etc. are involved, almost covering all IoT products.
The cell phone manufacturing ecosystem alone includes a number of enterprises, including screen, battery, display motherboard, glass, ceramic appearance, ODM, etc.
The cell phone manufacturing ecosystem has been developed by Xiaomi.
Figure source: network
Industrial research said that by 2020 Q2, Xiaomi has invested in more than 300 upstream and downstream industry chain companies, net profit after tax of RMB 1.16 billion, an increase of 413% from the previous year, and has now entered into the "harvest" from the "seed". The company has entered the "harvest" period. Even with the decline in smartphone sales, IoT revenue still maintains a positive growth rate of 2.1% year-on-year.
On the contrary, Gree, even in recent years, frequent cross-border, but also do not see in the field of cell phone technology and industry chain investment, the recent foreign investment is also focused on medical equipment and energy.
Therefore, the questioning of "Gree's cell phone is a waste of money" is always heard. In response to the latest launch of Dasong 5G cell phone, although the Gree Electric side called the deployment of the group level, hoping to use this will be its secondary sub-brand better to the foreground.
Associated with Dong Mingzhu once announced that Gree will successively invest 50 billion yuan to enter the field of independent chips, as well as "Huawei (cell phone) to sell the first, we will be the second" of the grandiose words, when we can see Gree cell phone "masterpiece" I am afraid that is still It's hard to say.
Edit/Kicked Girl
Layout/Huang Jian
Image/Direction IC, Gree official mall, Gree financial report, Prospect Industry Research Institute, the network
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Source / IT Times public number vittimes