Chapter 83 Supply Chain Security
Chapter 83 Supply Chain Security (th Update)
Among the three domestic operators, China Mobile is currently the most miserable. Not only is the TD network itself not very good, but more importantly, up to now, no manufacturer has launched a smartphone that supports the TD standard... This is very embarrassing.
They urgently need a smart phone that supports the TD standard, and a real smart phone like the Apple iPhone and Zhiyun C1, rather than a half-baked or half-cooked smartphone.
To do this, they are willing to pay a certain price...such as huge orders and high subsidies.
For Zhiyun Technology, it is actually a bit difficult to develop a mobile version of a smartphone at the moment.
Because currently no mainstream mobile phone SOC chip manufacturer has launched a high-performance SOC chip integrated with a TD communication baseband.
Qualcomm, FourStar, Texas Instruments, STMicroelectronics, etc. do not have...
This also means that Zhiyun Technology cannot achieve the corresponding design goals by simply replacing the SOC.
We also need to make a single chip and then add an external TD communication baseband... Although it seems like a simple matter, it actually means a completely new architecture for the internal core design, and even a new set of circuit boards must be made, which is still very troublesome.
If it is really made, it will not be called the C1 phone anymore... Except for the outer shell, the internal structure has completely changed, and the core CPU has also changed.
But China Mobile is very wealthy and they said that if you do it, the order volume will be beyond your imagination...
Zhiyun Technology naturally could not refuse such a huge order, so after entering March, after reaching a certain cooperation agreement with China Mobile, it officially launched the TD mobile phone project, preparing to build two mobile smartphones based on C1 and future flagship phones, and launch them into the market together with other models in the fall.
At the same time, Weiku Electronics has also launched corresponding mid- and low-end TD smartphone projects.
After all, the mobile market is so huge, and many people’s mobile phone cards are mobile cards... There is still a lot of market potential for the mobile version.
In addition, taking advantage of this opportunity, Zhiyun Technology also began to contact Four Star and Texas Instruments, and STMicroelectronics tried to finalize the second chip supplier.
The existing Qualcomm SOC chip with integrated communication baseband does not support the mobile version. If Zhiyun Technology wants to develop a mobile version, it can only adopt the single-chip external communication baseband solution.
This means that new CPU and GPU integrated SOC chip suppliers are needed!
After hearing the news, Qualcomm sent a senior executive to Zhiyun Technology in March, hoping to win the single-chip order. They said they could also launch a single chip without an attached communication baseband, and the price they offered was actually quite favorable... After all, for Qualcomm, it doesn't matter how much money they make from this order. What matters is getting the order and squeezing out other competitors.
However, in order to ensure the diversity of chip supply, Zhiyun Technology still refused Qualcomm's supply.
Finally, they chose to cooperate with Texas Instruments and plan to adopt their OMAP36XX series chips which have not yet been launched on the market.
Xie Jianyong from the R&D department said: "The performance of this chip is quite good. The main frequency of the high-end model can reach 1GHZ, which is at least the same specification as Qualcomm's 8X50 series in terms of main frequency."
"The video support is also very good, and it can also support the use of 512MB of memory. The support in other aspects is also OK!"
"At least that's the case based on the paper data they provided. We'll have to wait until they deliver the test samples to find out more about the details!"
The new vice president, Gu Zhiming, who had been in charge of supply chain affairs at many international mobile phone manufacturers and was invited by Zhiyun Technology to be in charge of supply chain affairs, put down his cigarette butt and said:
"I have talked with Texas Instruments many times, and they have given us a written promise that they will be able to provide us with some samples for R&D testing by mid-June at the latest." "They will be able to start mass production for us by August at the latest, and it will not affect the mass production plan of our new flagship mobile phone!"
Gu Zhiming is also quite old, nearly 50 years old. He went abroad to study in his early years and later worked in some large international companies for a long time in charge of supply chain affairs. He is a relatively old but very capable supply chain manager.
Xu Shenxue was contacted through a high-end headhunting company and was finally invited to return to China to work. He has a good ability in managing supply chains and has begun to take measures to reduce supply chain costs.
This time, Texas Instruments' chip supply plan is the first important project that Gu Zhiming is responsible for.
At this time, he continued: "Texas Instruments is very concerned about this cooperation... After all, we are the first mobile phone manufacturer to adopt their top-level chips, and we have a good reputation in the industry."
“They also want to use us to enter the high-end smartphone market!”
A high-end smartphone comparable to fruit, this sentence alone is enough to prove the market potential and influence of Zhiyun Mobile... Many spare parts suppliers are eyeing Zhiyun Technology.
It’s different from last year when we tried our best to find various supply chains, but many large supply chain companies didn’t pay much attention to us, and even if they did, the prices were expensive!
Today, Zhiyun Technology's voice in the supply chain has risen overnight. Various manufacturers, even suppliers of large international companies, have taken the initiative to contact Zhiyun Technology. Some important suppliers even rent an office in the Insurance Building and station their permanent representatives and engineers there to have close contact with Zhiyun Technology and work together to solve many technical problems.
For this newly emerging mobile phone manufacturer, which has been aiming at the mid-to-high-end field from the beginning and has achieved success, whether it is Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, or other categories of spare parts suppliers, they actually attach great importance to it and want to firmly grasp the orders from Zhiyun Technology!
For Texas Instruments, the cooperation with Zhiyun Technology is also a key battle for their OMAP36 series chips to pry open the high-end mobile phone chip market, and it is the kind that cannot be lost!
In order to cooperate with Zhiyun Technology in developing the mobile version of its flagship phone and to debug the SOC, communication baseband and other spare parts, they even said they could send a technical team to work here and provide various technical solutions at any time!
As for the chip itself, they have also begun working overtime to carry out the final testing and research and development, striving to provide samples and mass production as soon as possible... otherwise they will not be able to catch up with the normal release of the mobile version of Zhiyun Mobile's future flagship phone.
On March 16, Zhiyun Technology and Texas Instruments officially signed a cooperation agreement.
According to the cooperation agreement, Zhiyun Technology will purchase the advanced OMAP36 series chips from Texas Instruments, which have not yet been released. This will be used as the mobile version chip for future flagship models...
The 1GHZ chip is definitely a top-level high-end chip in the contemporary era. Only this kind of high-end chip can support the appearance of Zhiyun’s autumn flagship phone. People can tell at a glance that it is a high-end product!
Some low-end models of the 36 series, such as 3620, are intended for use in the C2 mobile version.
In addition, they will also purchase some of their existing OMAP34 series chips to use as C1 mobile chips...even if they are preparing to launch future flagship phones and C2 phones.
However, the C1 mobile phone will not be discontinued for the time being, but will continue to be mass-produced, but the price will be gradually reduced.
Subsequently, sister manufacturer Vicoo Electronics also signed a relevant cooperation agreement with Texas Instruments, and Vicoo Electronics will also purchase OMAP34 series chips for use as their mobile version chips.
The research and development of mobile phones by Wecoo Electronics is relatively smooth. There are no major technical difficulties. The main issue is how to control costs while ensuring certain performance... After all, Wecoo Electronics is producing mid- and low-end smartphones, so the prices cannot be too expensive.
This means cost control is very important!
(End of this chapter)