The Millennium Semiconductor Survival Guide.

Chapter 368 Progress on both sides

At Xiaomi's press conference in Europa, the MIPad was full of new ideas, while the Y series, which focuses on mid-range cost-effectiveness, has gone through a lot of parameters. We have more advanced chips, larger screens and narrower borders.

This set may still be a bit novel to foreigners, but to the Chinese audience who used to listen to Xiaomi’s press conferences twice a year, this set is already out of date.

We know that Xiaomi is the most cost-effective mobile phone equipped with the same new core CPU. Xiaomi's promotion in China is that it is a bucket phone with no shortcomings, and they have indeed achieved this.

It has even established an image in the minds of consumers. If you don’t know what mobile phone to buy, then Xiaomi is the right choice.

Xiaomi is a smartphone brand that will not let you down and sometimes bring you a little surprise.

But every year they hype up how advanced the chip is, how much nanometer technology it uses, how much more benchmarks it scores and how much its power consumption is reduced compared to last year. These numbers have made Chinese consumers indifferent. Everyone has little interest in Xiaomi’s marketing. Promotional routines are useless.

No sense does not affect Xiaomi's leading sales in China and it is the best-selling smartphone.

Therefore, in China, which is the most popular country in the field of smartphones, mobile phone manufacturers have two routes. One is to imitate Mphone, polish a product to maturity, and use it to surprise everyone with its skills, leading all competing products, and preparing for their own new products. All smartphones are prototyped before the machine is released, for example, from Mphone2 to Mphone3, all smartphones are more or less imitating Mphone2.

The other way is to follow Xiaomi's example, create a series, and then launch new phones every year. Micro-innovations in hardware and software can be publicized.

Most domestic manufacturers follow the example of Xiaomi and launch new phones every year. The main reason is that not all mobile phone brands can have such strong brand appeal and technology research and development capabilities like Mphone.

Of course, there are a few who are not afraid of death and imitate Mphone, trying to benchmark against Matrix.

Take Meizu for example. At the beginning of its business, Meizu relied on industrial design to launch two well-known models, and then relied on sales to successfully obtain financing before the financial crisis.

After receiving financing, Meizu and Huang Zhang showed off their skills and launched their classic product in 2007, which was similar to the later Meizu3, including Meizu's most classic breathing light design, and the Flyme system that was carefully polished for Android. The combination of punches has made Meizu a quasi-first-tier brand in the industry.

Limited by sales channels and brand image, Meizu is not yet a first-tier brand at this time, but Meizu, which has fully demonstrated its potential, still received financing even during the financial crisis, and it was a large amount of financing.

After receiving this financing, Meizu and Huang Zhang, who were not short of money, became confused. They did not launch a new phone in 08 and did not even plan to launch a new phone in 09.

As an investor, Cao Yongluo could not understand Meizu's business strategy. After entering 09, the board of directors learned that Meizu still did not plan to launch new phones this year. Cao Yongluo approached Huang Zhang and planned to have a good chat with him.

“Mr. Huang, I disagree with Meizu’s current business strategy. If we don’t launch new phones this year, the Meizu brand will be forgotten by consumers.

Brands such as Xiaomi, Bird, Sony, Samsung, etc. release new phones every year, and there is more than one new phone to capture the attention of consumers.I can understand if Meizu doesn’t release products for a year, but if it doesn’t release products this year, consumers will not have the brand image of Meizu in their minds. "

Cao Yongluo said it very straightforwardly, but it was enough to give Huang Zhang face, and he did not point out his dissatisfaction in person at the board of directors.

At the board meeting, I heard Huang Zhang say that there is still work to be done this year to polish Flyme and new mobile phones, and plan to release them again next year. The expressions of the board representatives representing investors were not very good.

Cao Yongluo looked around and felt that everyone was thinking: Huh?Why?Why?
He came to talk to Huang Zhang not only because of his wishes, but also because of the unanimous opinions of the investors behind him.

Huang Zhang said confidently: "Mr. Cao, some birds are already famous without singing.

Brand image is only temporary, haven’t you noticed?In the smartphone market, consumers follow the product, not the brand.

If consumers followed brands, well-known brands such as HP, Dell, and Microsoft would not fail miserably in the smartphone field, and brands such as Meizu, Xiaomi, Gionee, and HTC would not have room to rise.

What Meizu wants to do is to become a blockbuster without making a name for itself. What we want to do is to polish a product that is good enough and can leave a deep impression on consumers, instead of just promoting how much progress the chip has made and how many more running scores it has gained every year. .

This makes no sense and is not what Meizu wants to do. "

Because Matrix comes first, there is no problem with this logic.

This is just like after Tesla was launched, it only had S, Y and 3 models for a long time. This led to many new energy brands that imitated Tesla to have very few models at the beginning. Release a new car.

Later, everyone discovered that China's corporate volume is the king. It is better to release one model in a few years than to release several models in a year.

The most typical one is Ideal, which has gone from having only one to having three models in the L series alone.

The development of cars is more complex than that of smartphones, but electric cars are not that difficult.

Cao Yongluo was amused after hearing this: "Two questions, no new phone was released last year, and the next one will be next year. In other words, what should I do if the new phone I spent three years building failed?
What to do if you fail?Will it take another three years? "

Cao Yongluo felt that Huang Zhang was too naive and thought of everything so simply.

“You just said that consumers recognize the product, not the brand.

If consumers don’t recognize the brand, then when Microsoft launches a new phone, why do so many people discuss it and buy it?It’s because they didn’t do a good job that the brand was consumed.

So much so that Microsoft's smartphones have been labeled as low cost performance in the minds of consumers. If they were not Microsoft, then Microsoft's smartphones would not even have this label and would disappear into the world in obscurity.

As for Meizu, Meizu has succeeded before, so what?Does it mean that your next carefully polished mobile phone will also be successful?Not necessarily.

Even Zhou Xin cannot guarantee that his products will be popular among consumers.

Success in the past does not mean success in the future. This is not a logical deduction. Consumer preferences will not change due to your subjective will.

The second point is that Matrix will release a new phone next year, and Huaguo and Amerika will be released at the same time. Why do you compete with Mphone4 for consumers next year? "

As the head of Yongxin Technology and the core supplier of Matrix, the credibility of Cao Yongluo's news is at least 90.00%.

The release of Mphone4 next spring means that throughout the year, all smart phone products will revolve around Mphone4, and not a blade of grass will grow in its path.

Every time a new generation of Mphone is released, it reshuffles the entire industry. The closer the design is to the new generation of Mphone, the better the sales will be.After hearing this, Huang Zhang was no longer as confident as before. He was crazy, not stupid. He didn't think that Meizu could be a rival to Mphone.

Benchmarking refers to the future, not the present.

"Mr. Cao, thank you for your information. I will discuss it with the management again." Huang Zhang said.

Cao Yongluo's personal information has long been stripped away by social media. He is Zhou Xin's roommate at YSU and the head of the core company Matrix Supply Chain.

Because the money was obtained openly and he started a business in partnership with Zhou Xin, Cao Yongluo's personal information was not concealed on Sohu and could be directly found through search engines.

Huang Zhang was very polite to Erdai from Yanjing.

Cao Yongluo obviously didn't want to be polite anymore, "This is not a negotiation! We can't delay it any longer, we must launch new machines this year, and the second half of this year will even be too late!"

Because in the second half of this year, various media will start to break the news about Mphone4 and start to warm up Mphone4.

Meizu 4 will be released in the first half of this year!This is an order, not my idea alone, but the idea of ​​all investors on the board of directors.

If you can't do that, wait for a management reorganization! "

Cao Yongluo is particularly strong. He has invested more than 2 million yuan in this project. On the one hand, he does not want to see his 2 million yuan wasted. On the one hand, he hopes to build a consumer electronics brand that can compete with Xiaomi. It is more important. s reason.

Xiaomi is expanding its presence in the global consumer electronics market, and domestic consumer electronics manufacturers are gradually eating into the market share of foreign giants.

In the field of consumer electronics, Xinxin companies have resisted the disadvantages brought by Amerikan, while in the semiconductor field, ASML's offensive has made it difficult for Xinxin lithography machines to withstand.

At this year's Western Semiconductor Show in San Francisco, ASML launched a number of new lithography equipment to help chip manufacturers continue to reduce the size of semiconductor components.

These include programmable lighting technology and feedback control mechanisms that enable ASML to achieve integrated lithography technology. The integration of lithography machines can help make the chip manufacturing process more stable and further improve the yield rate.

The development of the semiconductor industry has always been driven by the trend of miniaturization, which can not only reduce production costs but also improve component performance.

Like the photolithography factory that China will build in the future, Lidazhuanfei is the technical route chosen by Mao Zihui. It is not that this technology is not good, but that this technology is not suitable for the economic globalization and high division of labor in the semiconductor industry in the past 20 years. the trend of.

When the trend ends, miniaturization of lithography machines will no longer be important. Making things is the most important thing.

We are still in the golden age of economic globalization, and ASML's integration of photolithography machines has made the semiconductor companies participating in the exhibition shine.

Everyone thinks this is ASML’s response to the new core lithography machine at the Tokyo Semiconductor Equipment Show after five years.

Responses spanning five years.

As the size of semiconductor devices shrinks, the process window (the allowable process deviation for producing qualified chips) will also decrease accordingly, making parameters such as overlay accuracy and device size uniformity more stringent.

ASML can integrate photolithography machines because the technical advantages accumulated in Europe and the United States over the past few decades can meet the requirements for integration of photolithography machines in terms of accuracy. If Xinxin can obtain support from the upstream and downstream of the supply chain, they can also do the same. arrive.

The problem is that many of these companies are restricted by the Wassenaar Agreement, causing Xinxin to fall behind again in terms of manufacturing processes.

Burt, senior vice president of ASML's application products department, said: "For a long time, chip manufacturers have optimized each manufacturing process step independently, but when it develops to 32nm.

This independent optimization mode is no longer applicable.We effectively integrate computational lithography technology, wafer lithography technology and process control to provide a comprehensive solution to optimize the process window and lithography system settings for mass production requirements, ultimately achieving smaller device sizes.

Yes, this is the first time that we have overtaken Xinxin lithography machine and Nikon and become the No. 1 in lithography machine technology in the world. "

Bert is very proud that European and American capital's support for ASML can be described as sparing no effort.

Even during the financial crisis, first the Netherlands gave ASML an interest-free loan of US$10 billion, and then Intel and TSMC participated in ASML's refinancing.

You know, TSMC has laid off 1 people.

ASML not only did not lay off employees, but also expanded its R&D department.

Xinxin is not idle either. It has also expanded its support for Xinxin lithography machines and upstream and downstream domestic suppliers. At the same time, in order to suppress the ASML market, Xinxin lithography machines have also reduced prices.

The direct consequence of the competition between Xinxin and AMSL in the field of lithography machines is that Nikon and Canon are dying. Most of the employees for the expansion of ASML and Xinxin lithography machines come from Nikon and Canon.

Nikon, not to mention expansion and research and development, they can't even maintain their previous production capacity.

If Washington hadn't been watching, Nikon would have even wanted to spin off its photolithography machine business and sell it to Xinxin.If you don't let me play, I won't play at all.

“During the chip design phase, ASML’s integrated lithography technology uses actual lithography machine configuration and tuning capabilities to maximize the process window to create designs targeting specified process generations and applications.

They use new light source mask optimization technology that brings flexibility to pupil shapes and provides additional design freedom. ASML made many big moves at this conference in San Francisco. The combination of these technologies enables unparalleled collaborative optimization of light source masks and lighting sources, helping them obtain the largest process window. "Lin Benjian looked solemn.

Because ASML released news in advance, saying that they will have many new technologies this time.So Lin Benjian went to the Electronics Show in San Francisco. After returning to Zhangjiang, he felt even more stressed.

"During the manufacturing process, ASML's integrated photolithography technology makes full use of unique measurement technology and feedback loops to monitor etching accuracy and CPU performance in real time, allowing the system to continue to be centered on process specifications." Lin Benjian continued. .

Technical experts of Xinxin lithography machines gathered together, and everyone was discussing ASML's big move this time, the impact it may have on Xinxin lithography machines, and how they can catch up.

"To be honest, we can do this. The problem is that we need to know what patent walls ASML has set up in this technical route. If there are too many patent walls, we may have to find ways to bypass them." Xinxinguang A technical expert on the engraving machine said.

(End of this chapter)