Xiaomi Pinecone processor is really coming. Will the battle for core mobile phone components start with the CPU?

The Xiaomi Pinecone processor, which has been rumored for a long time, is getting closer to its official release.

Lei Jun once said: As long as we make our own chips, we can reduce the price of chips to a bargain price. But even if Xiaomi does not have the ability to make its own chips, it has successfully become a disruptor in lowering the price of mobile phones.

So, given the current mobile CPU situation where there is Qualcomm above and MediaTek below, why should we develop our own processors?

The indispensable killer weapon for mobile phone manufacturers with independent chips

From Huawei's rapid development of HiSilicon Kirin chips, it is not difficult to see whether domestic mobile phone brands are just assemblers of foreign mobile phone parts or independent brands with rich connotations in the eyes of consumers and industry insiders, which may only be a short distance away from a processor with its own logo.

It is not just a face-saving project. From upstream manufacturers to terminal manufacturers, the competition for mobile phone chips has been going on. Having their own chips can further enhance the manufacturers' bargaining power, and then enhance the market competitiveness of the entire brand product line, especially today when mobile phone components are collectively rising in price and the currency exchange rate outlook is uncertain.

As we all know, Samsung has the ability to develop and independently produce chips, and naturally becomes the one with influence in the mobile phone industry. Not to mention its own Exynos products, even as Qualcomm's foundry, Samsung has the ability to be the first to enjoy priority use rights for new models such as Snapdragon 835, allowing other mobile phone manufacturers including its compatriot LG to continue to polish old models such as Snapdragon 820/821. Although this seems unfair, it is indeed reasonable.

Domestic mobile phone brands have naturally suffered a lot of "losses" in processor chips. For example, including Xiaomi, talking about the Snapdragon 810 that was "hot" two years ago must be a heart-wrenching past. Xiaomi's old rival Meizu has been selling its flagship phones with Samsung processors and a group of MediaTek chips in the past two years. It must have its own helplessness.

Are independent chips really “independent”?

There are many dimensions to evaluate a processor. In the field of mobile chips, each manufacturer's independent architecture has a crucial impact.

Except for the "rushed release" Snapdragon 810 and some mid- and low-end models, Qualcomm has always insisted on using self-developed CPU architecture cores based on the ARM instruction set, such as the previous Krait core and the Kryo core used in the Snapdragon 820, which have become performance benchmarks in the mobile field.

As for mobile phone manufacturers, Apple, the industry's profit king, has paved the way for independence since the Swift architecture of the A6 chip in the iPhone 5. Now it has even implanted chips designed with its own architecture into the Apple Watch and Beats headphones. The Mongoose architecture launched by its main rival Samsung has also shown its strength in Exynos in the past two years.

In contrast, domestic manufacturers' independent chips have not yet entered the stage of independent architecture. For example, Huawei's latest Kirin 960 chip still uses the ARM public version Cortex-A73 core design. For the upcoming Xiaomi Pinecone, the possibility of saying goodbye to the public version architecture from the beginning is also very small.

Therefore, if independent processor chips are an important step for mobile phone manufacturers to bid farewell to their identity as assembly plants, then the domestic manufacturers that are now visibly equipped with independent chip capabilities are still in the initial stage of this important step.

On the other hand, the test of independent architecture chips is not only reflected in the CPU. To be precise, the mobile phone processor should be defined as SOC, which is a complex covering CPU, GPU, memory, and communication baseband. The technical barriers faced by the communication baseband have been the lifeline of various chip manufacturers in the past two years.

Take the CDMA patent, which is indispensable for domestic "all-network" mobile phones. Currently, only Qualcomm and Micro Devices own this patent in the world. The latter was acquired by Intel in the middle of last year. Apple iPhone 7 achieves all-network function by utilizing the baseband support of Qualcomm and Intel. However, it is not easy for the majority of mobile phone manufacturers who do not use Qualcomm chips to achieve all-network. If they do not sign a costly licensing agreement with the patent owner, they will inevitably be like some domestic brands last year. Even if they use MediaTek chips, Qualcomm will chase them and ask for a more expensive infringement fee.

The chip autonomy controversy marks the beginning of a new round of reshuffle in the mobile phone world

At the beginning of 2017, Xiaomi vowed to become another mobile phone manufacturer with independent chip capabilities. Being able to manufacture its own processing chips is far from enough to influence the mobile phone industry chain and ultimately the market trend. In addition to chips, there are also mobile phone screens, cameras and other links.

Just like the television industry, which has already fallen into the dilemma of having to raise prices, the supply of mobile phone screens is also a hurdle faced by mobile terminal manufacturers. The mature and market-popular OLED screen technology is only in the hands of a few upstream manufacturers. This year's new iPhone is predicted to be a major downstream customer of OLED technology. The space left for domestic mobile phones is bound to become increasingly crowded.

In addition, although Sony, a major manufacturer of mobile phone camera sensors, has just clearly stated its support for the development of domestic mobile phones not long ago, too many unpredictable reasons are still not enough to reassure people. Domestic brands such as Meizu, OPPO, and Nubia have begun to attract Sony's first launch and customized sensor components last year, which is also a reflection of adding insurance to the upstream lines.

"If you don't have guns! If you don't have cannons! Then you have to learn to make them yourself!" The emergence of Pinecone can also be said to be a proactive move by Xiaomi to solve problems on its own after a long period of ups and downs in development. However, whether this Pinecone can become Xiaomi's second "Qualcomm" is unknown.

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.