The "headwind" of NIO's mobile phone
As soon as he woke up, Bai Jian, the new vice president and head of the mobile phone business of Weilai Automobile, began his "god operation": he made a lot of nonsense on social **, saying that Weilai mobile phones can easily take screenshots with one hand, provoking the functions of other mobile phones. As a result, the remarks drew a wave of ridicule, and the outside world began to question the vice president's business capabilities.
This time, NIO is playing a reverse out of the circle, trying to seize the market through the mobile phone business. But in fact, from the launch of the NIO mobile phone to the present, the outside world has never stopped questioning it. When the project was first established, people were thinking: in the case of red sea competition in the mobile phone market, why did NIO want to make mobile phones across borders? And judging from the market performance after the release of the new machine, the sales volume did not meet expectations, which further intensified the suspicion of the outside world.
Data shows that China's smartphone shipments will decline in 2023, and the market share is not optimistic. NIO phones need to compete with other mobile phone brands for less than a fifth of the market share, which is undoubtedly a difficult task. So even if the new person in charge, Bai Jian, bluntly said "Yali Mountain" when he took over, it is understandable.
NIO said that the purpose of building mobile phones is to improve the car owner's experience, not to pursue commercial success. But even if all NIO owners buy NIO phones, sales will not meet expectations. Therefore, the distrust and disoptimism of NIO's decision to "build a mobile phone" inside and outside the industry is indeed justified.
NIO is not the only car company star playing "headwinds", Geely is also among them. In the face of the decline of the consumer electronics market, many automakers want to seek breakthroughs through the mobile phone business. This is not unreasonable, as accelerating the convergence of consumer electronics with the automotive industry may be a good option. In the future, the connection between mobile phones and on-board systems will be more in-depth, which is one of the reasons why major car companies are eager to "build mobile phones".
Overall, the connection of mobile phones to cars is still in its early stages. Although cooperation can reduce R&D costs, the separation of data between the two parties will become a problem that needs to be solved. At present, it will take time for the specific results of "vehicle-machine interconnection" to bring to car companies. NIO and Geely's "mobile phone manufacturing" may not be useless, but the success of the market still needs to be observed.
Therefore, Bai Jian's "god operation" may be just the beginning, they are playing a somewhat crazy, a little unreliable, but full of creative "headwind game".