Meizu has a new machine. Two weeks ago, Meizu quietly announced that it would bid farewell to traditional mobile phones and devote all its energy to AI. At that time, Meizu friends thought that Meizu had said goodbye to domestic friends and businessmen with serious involution, and was ready to say goodbye to the rivers and lakes on a different track. The once "small and beautiful" ideal of science and technology seems to have come to an imperfect end. Surprisingly, on the evening of February 29th, Meizu 21 Pro was officially released, the long-lost former senior vice president of Meizu, Li Nan, president of Meizu and Yang Yan, the "father of flyme", were invited to appear on Changqin Island, Zhuhai, and announced in the cold wind of spring: Meizu 21 Pro is not only the end of the smartphone era, but also the beginning of the AI era. For this reason, the Meizu 21 Pro will be open to all large models. Meizu terminals equipped with Flyme AI will launch more AI functions in the future. 
Li Nan, the former president of Meizu, said goodbye to Meizu mobile phones for a "limited time return". (Screenshot of Meizu Technology's live broadcast).Today, when Apple's headset is still full of defects, AI mobile phones are actually a more secure choice for consumers. But Meizu's determination to transform doesn't stop there. Despite being equipped with a number of AI concepts, the Meizu 21 Pro is still a literal stop for Meizu smartphones. At the press conference on February 29, Meizu also announced another news: they will release a completely independent AI device from the mobile phone during this year's "Black Friday" sale in the United States. You know, although many old Meizu friends have already switched to other manufacturers, Meizu has indeed picked up in the past two years, and the Meizu 21 that will be released at the end of 2023 is among the best in the Android mobile phone fluency list and performance list, and the sales results are far higher than the previous generation flagship Meizu 20. To regain the lost "fan faith" is not an overnight thing. A Meizu 17 user admitted to New Weekly, "Compared with Meizu 21 Pro, I actually want to know if Flyme will update our old users." But I'm also ready to change my phone, and the next one won't be Meizu. But just like when it withdrew from the market, in a rising period with visible turnarounds, Meizu once again decisively chose to change the track. In the "post-Huangzhang era", the "Zhuhai Xiaochang", which had a twist and turn, still seems to retain a bit of maverick paranoia. 
Whether All in AI is a big gamble, Meizu has given itself three years. (Photo: Visual China).
Meizu,Once glamorousYounger netizens may not know very well that in addition to the new energy vehicle force "Wei Xiaoli", there is still a "Hua Xiaomei" statement on the Chinese Internet - not only these three have crossed smart cars from the mobile phone field, but also because Meizu was also a "new smartphone force" that rose shoulder to shoulder with Huawei and Xiaomi. In 2003, Huang Zhang, whose real name is Huang Xiuzhang, pulled together with his colleague Bai Yongxiang who left his job and founded Meizu Technology in a two-story gray building in Gongbei, Zhuhai. Prior to this, this 27-year-old Meizhou young man had been working outside for 10 years, worked as a chef in Shenzhen, moved goods, and sold VCD, audio and *** in a Singapore joint venture company called "Aegean" For an electronic product enthusiast who lacks the blessing of academic qualifications, he can join a fairly good company under the favor of fate, and work hard from technician all the way to the general manager, this is a quite beautiful counterattack fairy tale. But the workplace is a grass platform team where people come and go, and there is never any permanent encounter. When Huang Zhang, a part-time worker focusing on product research and development, and his boss who wanted to increase advertising investment had a conflict for the first time, the outcome of leaving was already doomed. Soon, on the i*** flash memory forum, Meizu, which no one knows yet, posted a post announcing that it was about to release *** products. Like Luffy, who just went to sea at the age of 17, Meizu can't wait to let the rivers and lakes remember their name. And Meizu's stirring fate is indeed very similar to that of a hot-blooded boy. After a year of OEM, Meizu soon captured a large number of die-hard fans with the Meizu E2 that supports self-service shell replacement. In the next three years, relying only on 10 products, Meizu will sit firmly on the throne of the first place in China. After the launch of MiniPlayer in 2006, its industry status reached its peak. 
It can be seen on social ** that there are still netizens who collect Meizu miniplayer. (Screenshot of Xiaohongshu).At that time, a machine resembled an Apple iPod, without a single screw on the body, with a rare touch screen, a delicate and charming appearance, beautiful and moving sound quality, and a beautiful and touching priceMiniPlayer, in the hearts of young people, is no less important than today's iPhone. However, Huang Zhang waved his hand and cut down this cash cowWhen Android was still nowhere to be seen, it was invested in the smartphone market that everyone coveted but did not know where the road was, to challenge the newly born iPhone, and Nokia, which has not yet woken up and the throne is already crumbling. It is worth mentioning that before the transformation into a mobile phone, Meizu did not only develop 10 models, but most of them could not enter the eyes of Huang Zhangfa - this man was dissatisfied with the floor and smashed the headquarters canteen three times; It was also due to 0With an error of 7mm, 18 sets of molds were modified for Meizu MX3. It's no surprise that he's demanding on his products. The Meizu M8, built by feeling the stones, is the first real domestic smartphone, selling 100,000 units in two months, and because of its epoch-making design, it was collected and exhibited by Microsoft headquarters. Its successor model, M9, has caused thousands of people to queue up to buy it in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. 
A nostalgic generation of magic machine Meizu M8. (Screenshot of Xiaohongshu).The Meizu MX series, the "dream series" in Huang Zhang's mouth, is equipped with a deeply customized FLYME system for the first time. In terms of design, the MX1 adopts black glass that reflects the aesthetics of the screen, and the metal bezel full of texture, which is unique among the plastic body. During this time, Yang Yan, who led Flyme, and Li Nan, who was in charge of marketing, joined Meizu successively, plus Bai Yongxiang, and Meizu's "Three Musketeers" were all in place. After that, Meizu MX2 and the "god machine" Xiaomi 2 were bright for a while, standing in the first echelon of domestic smart phones. The MX3 was sold to Eastern Europe as the first 128G large-capacity mobile phone, and before Chinese mobile phones were sold all over the world, the Western world realized the "charm" from the East. 
Compared with Huang Zhang, who rarely shows his face in public, Bai Yongxiang often appears at Meizu's new product launch conference with a plastic Mandarin. (Photo: Visual China).It can be said that even after withdrawing from the daily management of the company in 2010, Huang Zhang's almost paranoid pursuit, as well as Bai Yongxiang, Li Nan and Yang Yan's "Three Musketeers" and othersIt still infuses Meizu with impeccable technical idealism. 
I never lost the voteSales have not wonFrom the moment Android was born, the logic of the smartphone market has been completely changed. Essentially, it's become a game of "if you have money, you can get in." Under the high degree of involution, the former overlord Nokia can be pulled off the throne, the "small and beautiful" feature phone representative Sony Ericsson has become a broken fairy tale, HTC, Dopod and the Japanese mobile phone that has completely collapsed have been left yesterday. In this situation, the "Zhuhai small factory" obviously does not have enough volume to meet the wind and waves of the market. The Meizu MX4 series released in 2014 detonated Meizu's hidden dangers. Although the hardware configuration is almost full, because Huang Zhang is unwilling to compromise with Qualcomm, the MediaTek MT6595 carried by MX4 can't beat the more mainstream Snapdragon 801 at the same time, and the Samsung Orion 5430 processor of MX4 Pro can't support that 5The 5-inch 2K screen and the signature flyme are experiencing the embarrassment of being poached, and Meizu has encountered the first Waterloo since the mobile phone was made. When the wind leaked everywhere, Huang Zhang came out of the mountain in December of this year, but he failed to reverse Meizu's decline from prosperity. Chinese InternetSince then, there has been an exclusive Meizu meme: I have never lost the vote, and I have never won the sales. Aesthetic advancement, turning its back on the mainstream, and being overly paranoid, Meizu's maverick is still often looked down upon, but netizens who are honest and honest do not give more support in terms of money. 
The Meizu 16S Pro released in April 2019 exploded in word-of-mouth, but the sales volume was not popular. (Photo: NetEase's 2019 Top Ten Netizens' Favorite Mobile Phone Selection).To be fair, Meizu has not had a chance to turn over. After Huang Zhang came out of the mountain, he pulled to Alibaba 5 in February of the following year$900 million investment. The MX5 launched this year, the all-metal body aesthetic is still the best, the 24W fast charging has been leading the manufacturers for many years, and the MT6795 Turbo processor is even more than Qualcomm's Snapdragon 808 and 810. Coupled with Meizu METAL, which more purely implements the concept of "small but beautiful", Meizu, which goes hand in hand with both lines, ushered in the last highlight of this year - the achievement of 20 million mobile phones, which has tripled compared with the previous year. And then there was no then. The victory of the MX5 and the loneliness of the MX4 can even be simply and crudely summarized as the chip battle between Qualcomm and MediaTek - after all, for consumers, no matter what level of smartphone, the smoothness, heat, and speed experience in daily use always come first, and other hardware configurations are just frugal and frugal. In the era of smartphones, Qualcomm has maintained its technological superiority over MediaTek most of the time. But when other manufacturers obediently paid Qualcomm patent licensing fees, Huang Zhang was unwilling to compromise for a long time. 
The battle for smartphones, the most critical is the battle for chips. (Picture Insect Creativity).A similar story has been repeated over and over the past decade. For example, when Xiaomi Mi MIX started a wave of full screens, Meizu Pro 7 still did not keep up with the mainstream, and made a secondary screen that was jokingly called"Smart Window", let alone the mainstream play of "bucket machine"; For another example, because he felt that it would reduce Meizu's "brand image", Huang Zhang did not hesitate to cut off the entire Meizu business. The direct consequences of these two waves of riotous operations not only caused Meizu to return home in the market, but also led to Bai Yongxiang and Li Nan leaving one after another. The much-talked-about Meizu "Three Musketeers" have fallen apart so far, leaving only Yang Yan, the "father of flyme", to remain in office. And Huang Zhang himself, after Geely became the owner in 2022, officially parted ways with Meizu. 
All in AI,Is Meizu still beautiful? After Meizu "remarried" Geely, the "Hua Xiaomei", which had risen together, met again on the smart car track. In March last year, at the 2023 Meizu Autumn Unbounded Ecosystem Conference, Meizu Group released a number of products such as FlymeOS, a new "hand-car integration" solution, and announced the launch of the DreamCar co-creation plan. At that time, Shen Ziyu, chairman and CEO of Meizu Group, said, "We are born with the genes of automobiles" and hoped that the Meizu series could empower many automobile companies. He also announced that the company will launch a "Meizu custom car" in 2024.
After the crossover vehicle machine system, AI is the direction in which Flyme is anchored. (Photo: Shen Ziyu Weibo).Meizu's luck lies in the fact that the mobile smart device market may dream back to the scene of 2006The road ahead is vast but the depth is unknown, and the opportunity belongs to every player. AI is a must-go, and Meizu, which still has Flyme in its hands and Geely's support behind it, does not need to rely on the courage of desperate bets to cross the river completely by feeling the stones as 18 years ago. You see, from the Snapdragon 8 Gen3 processor, 2K screen, million fast charging to periscope telephoto, compared to the configuration of Leica image and Hasselblad lens of similar models of competitors, the hardware of the Meizu 21 Pro is still somewhat inferior. Meizu dares to price 4999 yuan to start, there is and only AI. According to Yang Yan's introduction at the press conference, Flyme AI can currently meet some daily use scenarios, such as AICY voice that can answer questions and answers, AI gallery that can realize functions such as magic elimination, ** expansion, and generating personal photos, and can generate copywriting, chat replies, and AI-assisted input that generates reply suggestions with one click, etc. It's basic, but it's more than that. As the "world's first open hardware" mobile phone, after opening up to all large models, Meizu will provide developers with system permissions, FlyMe API documentation, allow LLMs to request data from users, and open up the AI computing power of the processor. It is not difficult to see that part of Meizu's intention is to build the ecosystem of Flyme AI and lay out the use scenarios for the new All in AI devices in the next three years. The choice of All in AI seems to be ahead of its time and even radical, but in fact, it also hides some stability mentality. It's very Meizu, and it's not Meizu. After confirming that Li Nan will appear as a guest, many Meizu friends are asking, will Bai Yongxiang, who is most suitable for Meizu mobile phones, appear? It's a pity that Li Nan put an end to this possibility early on, because "Mr. Bai" has no interest in Meizu now, and the reunion of the "Three Musketeers" is just a fantasy.
On February 26, Li Nan posted three Weibo posts in a row, confirming that Bai Yongxiang would not appear at the Meizu 21 Pro press conference like him. (Figure Li Nan Weibo).After all, the era of Meizu mobile phones has passed, just like the glory taken away by miniplayer, Meizu's attachment to the past has never been very light. As for Huang Zhang, who no one believes will appear, I don't know how to feel. Huang Zhang has experienced too many gatherings and disagreements, and Aigean, who does not agree with the concept, can't go to the end, and Meizu's "Three Musketeers" parted ways one by one, and Meizu, who has been injected with strong idealism, can only wave goodbye in the end. For this paranoid idealist, perhaps loneliness is the norm of a long life. It's just that at some time in the midnight dream, Huang Zhang, who has already met Qualcomm with a smile and hatred, I don't know if he has ever remembered Nokia, which was unwilling to cooperate with Android in the past, whether he has reviewed the Meizu that is not so big, and whether he should have maintained excessive arrogance and reserve in every choice.