Giant Intel folds for Shenzhen

Recently, at the Shenzhen billion Dao tablet seminar, when he saw the company out of more than 40 flat molds, and the Shenzhen IT industry chain dealing with many years of Intel China CTE sales manager Wang Yidong, somewhat shocked.

A year and a half ago, when he was appointed by the headquarters to take charge of the tablet business in China, there was a lot of pressure. The biggest pressure is that the headquarters let them open the mold, they can come up with one or two, "it has been sweating."

At that time, Intel had just set foot in the Chinese flat-panel market, not many people care about this giant in the field of PC processors.

“The change in 18 months is very large. Shenzhen is a place with miracles. Intel and Yidao Road, Intel and Shenzhen cooperation are also places where miracles can be created. Another purpose that we come here today is that we are prepared for next year, after 12 months. Create the next miracle.” Wang Yidong said with emotion: “I want to tell everyone that Shenzhen is not only a cottage. We can also do excellent things.”

Seeing Intel's professional managers talk and talk about it, I've seen it swarmed by a bunch of tall international partners. It is a bit embarrassing to see Intel as the site of China's cottage industry town.

Giants are slouching?

From the author's point of view, this scene is related to its future: Shenzhen has become a key springboard for Intel's journey to expand the global mobile Internet. In the past years, although a group of Intel executives has made a lot of contacts with the Shenzhen industrial chain, they mainly focus on notebooks, desktops, and boards. Today, Intel has used Shenzhen as its tablet, smartphone, and integrated mobile Internet ecosystem.

The same interesting scene is: As if at night, people in the Shenzhen Shanzhai industrial chain began to greet Intel's tone frequently.

There are lots of interesting places in the mutual action of these platforms. In my opinion, the market has opened a key window period for Intel for mobile internet.

You must be able to think of the topic of afflicting Intel for a long time. The giants have no disadvantage in the global PC processor industry, but the mobile Internet sector has suffered repeated setbacks. In the early years, he used the ARM architecture to expand mobile services and he was unwilling to marry him. So he sold it to MARVEL. After three years of eagerness and quick success, Netbooks in the background of Atom found that it not only sacrificed user experience, but had not established a business model, but had accumulated difficulties and eventually collapsed. During the period, Intel also built a lot of MID and tablet industry ecosystems, but none of them were truly successful. That hot Meego was once embarrassing.

This cycle, external macroeconomic changes, the financial crisis transmitted to the technology industry, Intel has undergone major internal adjustment, once passive, it basically missed the global mobile Internet boom from 2004 to 2013, the outside world even took the view that the hardware industry has As a result, the giants may fall. Intel did not increase its earnings forecast for the 11th consecutive quarter, which further deepened this impression.

I have repeatedly criticized this ignorant voice. However, the public actually follows the power of capital. Whoever can earn it means success. I have been waiting for the giants to reorganize their strategy and find the path that suits it.

In early 2013, Intel finally refocused, stepped into the core cornerstone of competition, re-started from chip design and manufacturing, and started from the basic computing power. The focus of the mobile Internet fell on the tablet business, and concentrated its force areas. Shenzhen IT Industry Chain in China. This is exactly what Wang Yidong said 18 months ago.

After a year's work-up, in early 2014, Intel opened the Solution Summit (ISS) in Shenzhen. This system-building conference for the mobile Internet has formed a great contrast with its IDF summit, which was too tall and ungrounded: wearing a business suit. There are fewer businessmen who tie their necks, talk more about lofty ideas, and have more free-spirited and even rural-style atmosphere.

Hong Litan, Intel’s director of marketing for China’s industrial chain, said that Intel’s use of the best ingredients, getting the kitchen to make Sichuan cuisine, not buying Chinese bean paste, and taking the sauce from the United States, made it strange. ". He said that there is no place in the world that is more democratic than Shenzhen's IT industry chain, and it can turn things from tall to something that people can use. Each year, Shenzhen delivers more than 100 million flat panels to the world, which is achieved through the advanced level of division of labor.

Today, the giants have already folded back for Shenzhen. Hong Li said that the company has set up a technical and marketing service team in Shenzhen. There are dozens of people in the company. The office is no longer able to sit and training classrooms is often overcrowded. In addition, more than 3,000 R&D personnel from Intel China, covering a wide range of channel networks, have also focused on the tablet.

You may say that this is no different from the past. But in my opinion, Intel's focus on the mobile Internet from the tablet is indeed a rational return.

Tablets of this type have mobile features, but as of now, it is more focused on video entertainment than the social and communication capabilities of smartphones. The business model between the two is significantly different. This difference gives Intel enough time and space to inject new vitality into the tablet PC, that is, integrate more elements of business and office, and integrate them with entertainment and more popular communication in the future.

This difference and the future trend is exactly the past half a year. Countless Shenzhen tablet businessmen are also saying that Intel's background is the same.

I believe in the experience of the scene. When the outside world still thinks that the ARM architecture is the only ruler, Liu Chao, deputy general manager of the motherboard solution designer for key products of flat products in Shenzhen, said: “We are the only company that does both X86 and ARM. Design company, but in the future will pay more attention to Intel architecture, this is a trend."

Speaking of why there has been such a big adjustment in just one year. He said that Intel can provide five advantages that the ARM camp cannot provide: brand advantage, performance advantage, quality advantage, process advantage, and service advantage.

Is Qualcomm better than Intel? Liu Chao said that Qualcomm is very bullish, but he still does not know how to go to their people to do business, find it can not be found, "it is a study of the temperament of the company."

Hong Li said that Qualcomm is indeed very good, but in Europe, Latin America, Poland, it is impossible to imagine Qualcomm's sales staff went to the local recommendation program that can be bought in Shenzhen which OEM, and Intel accumulated in the PC field network of contacts and channels, It is very useful all over the world and can communicate with customers directly.

Ma Dajun, deputy director of Yidao Road, said that when Intel had just set foot in the tablet business last year, it was still a bit above and beyond, but soon, it was highly effective. Both parties often communicated with each other, and often challenged the night battle together to solve problems and had common friendship. Speaking of cooperation with a partner in the ARM camp, he shook his head and said, "It used to be OK."

However, what I have learned is that the fact that Qualcomm of the ARM camp has not been able to participate in the tablet on a large scale is not the core reason. This is not a purely technical reason but Qualcomm’s commercial considerations.

Although the tablet is defined as a mobile Internet terminal, the business model or application model is different from the smart phone, and even there is no so-called business model. The application of the tablet is relatively single, there is no complete business and office functions of the notebook, and there is a lack of portable and mobile social networking application scenarios.

In this way, the strong patents accumulated by Qualcomm in the field of communications will be difficult to use in the tablet market. It should be noted that in the past few years, Qualcomm's performance was so good that it was not the processor itself but the various patent pools, which contributed more than 70% of the profits.

The above-mentioned application mode of the tablet has seen bottlenecks and the market has long been a Red Sea. Even the giant apple ipad, for two consecutive seasons, is also significantly down. The existing tablet has become a chicken rib.

In my opinion, this is precisely the time window of Intel's tablet. If you can infuse the tablet with new computing power and portable models and improve business functions, you will be able to reactivate its vitality. Not long ago, an Office product for the Apple iPad was popular, confirming that there are still many market spaces for commercial tablets.

Giant Intel's chances are back. Because this is its advantage. Of course, in terms of it, it is not just for the tablet but for the entire mobile Internet ecosystem that Shenzhen has been folded. It covers the future of smart phones and various wearable devices.

Moreover, the greater chance is still two years later. Global 4G has already started. In 2015, China's 4G is expected to break out. The flat-panel market has ushered in a wave of converged communications. The giant Intel has accumulated many core patents through acquisitions in the 3G/4G space and is expected to become a weapon. According to Gao Yu, the regional technical director at Intel, in the second quarter of 2015, the company’s new products will be introduced, and it is expected that the tablet will become a truly integrated business, portable, communications and entertainment terminal.

Although it claims to have 40 million shipments this year, it has not actually disclosed the specific data. But I feel that the giant's intention on the tablet this time is exactly what Wang Yidong said. "This time it's really playing."

Of course, Intel's mobile Internet journey should not be easy. Its flat-board trip has seen some improvements, and it is more like the Red Sea dilemma caused by the ARM camp and the dull application mode of the tablet itself.

But the opponent is there. In addition to Qualcomm, and Apple's own ARM-based processor, the current core processor solution provider is MediaTek, which continues to ship, confirming that the turnkey solution is still valid. Of course, there are also certain deliveries of Rockchips in mainland China.

Although Intel has also adopted a turnkey solution, the IDM model determines that it cannot be as efficient as ARM. Billion Road executives revealed that this aspect is indeed a difficult problem for both parties to cooperate. However, Intel is a systemized company. Cooperation with it often starts with a lot of trouble and clues, but once the two sides establish trust, many aspects change. After becoming a standardized process, the follow-up is actually more efficient.