AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)03/03 Report--

On the evening of January 5, according to an internal email from Xilai Automobile, Yin Shuijun, Assistant Vice President of the New Strategic Business of Lilly Mobile, was no longer in charge due to personal and physical reasons, and the company appointed Bai Jian as the person in charge of the new strategic business, reporting to Li Bin.

It is understood that Yin Shuijun, a former president of Meitu Automobile, joined Lai Automobile in February 2022 and took the lead in charge of the mobile phone business. At present, Yin Shuijun's personal Weibo certification is still "head of NIO Phone business", and the latest Weibo post was forwarded and updated on January 4.

Yin Shuijun's departure does not mean the termination of the mobile phone business, and mobile phone-related jobs are still open.

Starting from 2022, Lailai has recruited R & D personnel from companies such as OPPO, Meitu and Huawei to form a mobile business team of more than 1000 people. On September 21, 2023, Weilai officially launched the NIO Phone, with three models priced at 6499 yuan, 6899 yuan and 7499 yuan respectively.

As the first mobile phone launched by a Chinese automaker, the NIO Phone carries a leading version of Qualcomm Snapdragon 8Gen 2 chip, which uses an 8-core CPU configuration of 1 X3 super large core + 2 A715 large cores + 2 A710 large cores + 3 A510 small cores, which should be the most powerful chip in mainstream Android phones. Glory Magic V2 and Xiaomi MIX Fold3 phones both carry this chip.

In terms of storage, NIO Phone provides 8G, 12G and 16G running memory, as well as 256G, 512G and 1TB body memory of consumer choice. At the same time, the machine with 6.81in Samsung E6 material 2K screen, support 120Hz LTPO high brush, the highest brightness 1800nits. In terms of battery, NIOPhone uses 5200mAh large battery, which supports 66W wired charging + 50W wireless charging + 10W wireless reverse charging.

As a flagship machine, the camera function is also of concern to users. It is understood that the NIO Phone is equipped with three cameras, the main camera, ultra-wide-angle and periscope telephoto are all 50 million pixels, the main sensor area is 1.28 inches, the wide-angle and telephoto use a 1.56-inch sensor, all three cameras can be used as the main camera.

So far, Weilai has not made a profit in building cars, and there is a great controversy over the construction of mobile phones. As to why mobile phones are built, Li Bin explains, "it's not because mobile phone companies are building cars, and it's not because Weilai doesn't make money to make money from mobile phones, but because Weilai users need a mobile phone that connects seamlessly with Lulai cars. Li Bin said that it will take three years to judge whether it is right or wrong to make a mobile phone." At least now the design and user experience of this phone have achieved the goal we had at the beginning of the project. However, the input and output of the project itself does take three years, which is not entirely of financial significance. "

In fact, Li Bin only mentioned one of the reasons. Li Bin has revealed that 50% of car owners are using Apple phones and 40% are using Huawei phones. After Huawei was suppressed by the United States, the proportion of car owners using Apple phones has further increased, reducing the proportion of the Android camp, but "Apple is very closed to the automobile industry, such as the standard UWB for the second-generation platform models of Xilai, and Apple does not open the interface, which makes us very passive."

According to Li Bin, the NIO Phone can be said to be a mobile phone for Weilai car owners, making a number of innovations in the car-centric mobile phone experience. First of all, NIO Phone is equipped with UWB ultra-wideband technology, which can completely replace car keys and support no electrolytic lock within 48 hours. Secondly, the left side of the fuselage has a Weilai first NIO Link car control button, 30 drivers interconnection functions with one button, such as quick check the status of the vehicle, parking location, easy to complete the vehicle unlock, fall window, trunk open, air conditioning remote adjustment, etc., even in the case of no mobile phone network can also achieve unlock, open the trunk, flashing lights whistle, vehicle summoning, remote parking and other functions.

One owner of the NIO Phone said: "non-owners are totally unnecessary. If you are an older generation owner, there is no difference between the NIO Phone and the NIO App. If you used a flagship Android phone, you will find that the NIO Phone lacks a lot of features that Android phones should have." The starting point of Weilai mobile phone is to realize the integration of car and machine, so as to produce better service value-added, but this mobile phone is not very attractive to ordinary users, in terms of long-term development, should Weilai reconsider the incremental value of continuing to be a mobile phone.

Welcome to subscribe to the WeChat public account "Automotive Industry Focus" to get the first-hand insider information on the automotive industry and talk about things in the automotive circle. Welcome to break the news! WeChat ID autoWechat