Xiaomi's Wang Chuan: Redefining high-end TV with three love letters

Xiaomi has released a new TV.

The difference is that the person who stood up for Xiaomi at this press conference was Wang Chuan, the head of Xiaomi TV, instead of Lei Jun.

At the Xiaomi TV strategic launch conference held on March 23, Wang Chuan repeatedly reiterated to the outside world that Xiaomi TV's strategic positioning is to "only make high-end flagship TVs." Regarding the practice of traditional manufacturers releasing multiple models of the same size, he asked on the spot: "Who does technology serve? Manufacturers' profits or user experience?"

He believes that instead of arguing with those who always disapprove of Xiaomi products, it is better to spend more time trying to please users who love Xiaomi, so he brought "three love letters" to Mi fans today.

The first love letter——Xiaomi TV 3S 43 inches

As the first choice for small-sized TVs at home, 43-inch TVs are loved by countless users who live abroad or in small households. Although 4K smart TVs have become the mainstream in the market, 1080P smart TVs are also the first choice for many users in small households. In order to meet market demand, the newly released Xiaomi TV 3S adopts a 43-inch size.

This TV uses an original LG/AUO LCD screen, has a 178° wide viewing angle, and is equipped with the MStar 6A908 flagship FHD TV chip. It is equipped with a Cortex-A9 quad-core 1.45GHz CPU and a 4+2-core Mali-450 MP4 GPU, as well as 1GB DDR3 three-channel memory, 1080P 60fps H.265 10bit hard decoding, and supports mainstream video formats such as RM/FLV/MOV/AVI/MKV/TS/MP4, and dual decoding of Dolby and DTS audio.

It is understood that in 2015, the TV market share of 40-43 inches accounted for 31.5%. In other words, small size actually has a big market. However, most TV brands do not pay attention to this big market, and mostly use plastic shells, because in their logic, small size means low price and no profit. Wang Chuan said, "We just want to tell users: small size can also be high-end." In terms of appearance and craftsmanship, Xiaomi TV 3S uses an all-metal body, and the aluminum alloy frame is as thin as 10.9mm, which is 24.8% thinner and 6% lighter than the previous 40-inch generation. The price is 1,799 yuan.

The second love letter - Xiaomi TV 3S 65-inch curved

Amidst speculation and doubts from the outside world, Xiaomi's first curved TV has finally been released.

Officially called "the most beautiful Xiaomi TV so far", this model has a metal body and a full metal panel on the back, with the thinnest part of the body being 5.9mm. The Xiaomi 65-inch ultra-thin curved TV still uses a split design and has a built-in MStar 6A928 TV processor. At the same time, the TV is equipped with a Cortex-A17 quad-core 1.4GHz CPU and a 4+4-core Mali-760 MP4 GPU, with a main frequency of 1.4GHz and an overclocking of up to 1.7GHz. It supports 4K 60fps H.265 10bit hard decoding and is equipped with 2GB DDR3 three-channel memory. According to the official introduction, this TV is the first to make a major breakthrough in "ultra-thin curved" technology, using a Curved Slim dedicated panel, a dedicated light guide plate and an optimized design.

The Third Love Letter——Xiaomi TV Membership

Xiaomi also officially announced its membership strategy for Xiaomi TV and launched Xiaomi TV membership (iQiyi VIP membership) in cooperation with iQiyi. Users only need to pay RMB 199 for their first purchase to enjoy unlimited viewing of paid content on Xiaomi TV within one year, and also receive one year of iQiyi PC and mobile gold VIP membership.

Wang Chuan said, "Xiaomi TV has more high-quality content than its competitors, and the membership price is less than half of that of its competitors." It is reported that the free content of Xiaomi TV has reached 83.7%, and the introduction of membership is mainly to meet users' demand for popular and high-quality content, but its greater significance lies in unifying the experience of the content platform and eliminating the trouble of users being charged multiple times on the platform.

Friends are very anxious

In the TV industry, whenever a manufacturer releases a new product, a tit-for-tat war between competitors is inevitable, not to mention the sharp-edged Xiaomi. The day before Xiaomi's press conference, traditional TV manufacturers launched a round of poster attacks on the curved TV that Xiaomi was about to release, and the wording was quite explosive.

"TV terminal manufacturers are all anxious. No matter whether they are traditional brands or Internet brands, no matter how the market promotes it, the fact is that no one's TV is easy to sell." An insider in the home appliance industry told.

Xiaomi's move into the high-end TV field with curved TVs may seem to have disturbed the cheese of traditional TV manufacturers, but overall, the Internet TV market is in a period of opportunity with many brands and a growing opportunity. The more intense the industry competition, the faster the technological development. If an industry lacks strong competitors or is dominated by one company, it will only regress or perish. After all, no one wants to be the second Kodak or Nokia. In many cases, the pressure from competitors is conducive to the prosperity of the industry.

Therefore, facing the attack of Xiaomi, traditional TV manufacturers cannot remain indifferent, and a fierce battle is inevitable in the high-end color TV market in 2016. In terms of curved TV display technology, the gap between the companies is not widening, and Xiaomi, as a latecomer, still has the opportunity to catch up.

For Xiaomi, which claims to be a "new domestic product", the high-end market is a very tempting piece of fat, whether it is TV or mobile phone. Because of its low price and product factors, Xiaomi is eager to get rid of the label of "low-end product". This is related to strategic layout and brand image. Perhaps Huawei is the best example. In the mobile phone market, Huawei took two years to successfully upgrade from a "contract cheap phone" to a representative of "domestic high-end mobile phone". The change in brand image has accelerated the rise of Huawei mobile phones.

When talking about Xiaomi TV, we have to mention its rival LeTV. At the press conference, Wang Chuan also compared LeTV's products many times. But after seeing the configuration of Xiaomi TV, Liang Jun, president of LeTV Zhixin, also expressed his opinion in WeChat Moments, "Xiaomi's 43-inch TV, 1+8 storage configuration, plus the old 908 chip, is too far from being a fever. The 65-inch 928 is also the configuration of LeTV's previous generation. These two products are completely the practices and flavors of traditional TV manufacturers. It seems that Xiaomi has successfully transformed into a traditional TV manufacturer."

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.