Why is the Xiaomi 4 4G version so late?

On July 22, 2014, the stainless steel Xiaomi 4 was released as scheduled. But surprisingly, when 4G mobile phones were popular, Xiaomi 4 did not have a 4G version. China Mobile's 4G version will not be available until September. The 4G license has been issued for a while, and all flagships support 4G. Why is Xiaomi 4 so late?

1. 4G is not a cheap product

Although 4G has become popular, it is not a simple matter to support 4G. MTK's 4G has just started to be supplied, and HiSilicon's 4G has not yet been used by other manufacturers. If Xiaomi wants to use 4G, it can only use Qualcomm chips and pay patent fees to Qualcomm. Now Qualcomm's patent fee monopoly has just entered the penalty stage. If Xiaomi 4 uses 4G now, it will have to pay "Qualcomm tax", which is a big burden for Xiaomi, which sells for 1,999 yuan. In addition, the current cost of Qualcomm's 4G version chip is also higher than that of 3G, and Xiaomi 4 is a product that pays more attention to profits. If the 4G version is delayed for a longer time and the lower-cost 3G is sold first, the profit will be better.

2. 4G mobile phones are not simple

Compared with 3G mobile phones, the development difficulty of 4G mobile phones is higher because China's current 4G network is not very mature for switching between calls and data. In addition, the RF antenna part of 4G is also more difficult than 3G. As a result, the development difficulty is greater and there are more testing links. It is not easy for Xiaomi to have a small technical difficulty. Judging from Lei Jun's Weibo, the 4G version of Xiaomi should still be under testing. In addition, there are reports that the 4G version of Xiaomi 4 is likely to use CSFB technology with a poor user experience (4G data and 2G/3G voice cannot work at the same time), and Xiaomi has always attached great importance to user experience. Due to technical reasons, it is understandable that the 4G version of Xiaomi 4 was released later.

3. China’s 4G is not yet mainstream

At present, among the three major operators, only China Mobile's 4G is in full swing. However, this time China Mobile did not continue the "three no" policy of the previous 2G to 3G era. Mobile users who switch to 4G not only need to go to the business hall to replace the SIM card, but also change or add packages, and the mobile phone must also be replaced with a 4G mobile phone, which is a very troublesome process.

China Mobile added 5.834 million 4G users in June, totaling 13.943 million. Although the growth momentum is good, it is still a small proportion compared to the hundreds of millions of China Mobile 3G and 2G users. China Unicom and China Telecom are still in the early stages of 4G, and the number is not worth mentioning. Xiaomi originally targeted high-cost users, and whether it supports 4G at this stage will not have much impact on the experience of these users.

4. 4G popularization by the end of the year

Judging from the roadmaps of various manufacturers, by the fourth quarter of 2014, MTK's high-end and low-end 4G chips will be popular. Qualcomm will naturally reduce its prices. Moreover, with the result of the Qualcomm monopoly case this year, Qualcomm is likely to be exempted from part of the patent fees, which is good for reducing the cost of 4G mobile phones. As for HiSilicon, with the large-scale popularization of K920 and K910, 4G will also be sold at a bargain price. There will be no problem with hardware by the fourth quarter of 2014.

China Mobile has been accelerating the popularization of 4G since June, gradually launching low-priced packages. Although subsidies are limited, the threshold for 4G popularization will become lower and lower as the terminal price becomes cheaper. It is difficult for new phone buyers to buy phones that do not support 4G, and 4G will naturally become popular. The 4G version of Xiaomi 4 was delayed until September, which seems to be late, but it does not have much impact on the market that will be launched at the end of the year.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.