In the name of security: Will 360 phones repeat BlackBerry’s mistakes?

Recently, Qihoo 360's investment in a joint venture with a mobile phone manufacturer has caused a sensation in the industry. On Christmas Eve, 360 Chairman Zhou Hongyi sent an internal email to all employees, explaining why 360 makes mobile phones. The entire letter is full of passion and affection, and we have no doubt that these are the first elements for 360's future success in the mobile phone field. But everyone knows that the final decision to success or failure is still the product itself.

So we paid special attention to the content of the mobile phone product itself mentioned by Mr. Zhou in the letter. If we understand it correctly, the main feature or selling point of 360 Future Mobile Phone is security. The industry knows that there has been a wave of security among domestic mobile phone manufacturers recently, and various so-called mobile phone security technologies and terms are quite dazzling. So the question is, what is the selling point of 360 Future Security Mobile Phone? Or what is the essential difference compared with other mobile phones currently and in the future that are also released in the name of security?

However, 360, which started out as a security company, will naturally use its PC security capital to prove its advantages and experience. These also occupy a considerable amount of space in Mr. Zhou's letter, so I will not repeat them here. In the introduction, Mr. Zhou also seems to reveal that 360's future mobile phone security is more about the security at the mobile phone operating system level (this is probably the essential difference between 360 mobile phones and other secure mobile phones that Mr. Zhou wants to convey to the outside world). Since mobile phone security has been raised to the operating system level, we can't help but think of the research and development of domestic mobile systems proposed by Academician Ni Guangnan not long ago. The reason we mention this is to ask Mr. Zhou, which is safer, a completely independent mobile operating system or security based on an operating system (which may be someone else's)? I wonder if Mr. Zhou's goal is the former or the latter? If it is the former, then we believe that Mr. Zhou's goal has greatly exceeded the scope of the security of the mobile phone itself, and it is not something that can be achieved by the efforts of 360 and Coolpad alone. If it is the latter, on top of someone else's operating system, even if it is a customized system, how high can the security factor be? At least it will not meet Mr. Zhou's requirement in the letter to achieve the ultimate in mobile phone security.

Maybe some people (including Mr. Zhou) will think that we are being too serious. The value and comparability of 360 mobile phones are only compared with mobile phone manufacturers in the same industry. If so, we can only bring up BlackBerry. As a mobile phone manufacturer, BlackBerry should be the most secure mobile phone at present. So how did BlackBerry achieve this? I think Mr. Zhou, who has a background in security, knows much more than us. We only know roughly that it took BlackBerry about 10 years to establish the position of the most secure mobile phone in the mobile phone industry, and the security of BlackBerry mobile phones is by no means determined by the security of the mobile phone terminal itself, but the result of the joint effect of its closed system, applications, transmission, network, etc., which are completely self-built. For example, BlackBerry devices generally use 256-bit encryption, and the encrypted information is released to the outside through BlackBerry's own NOC (Network Operation Centers). This is one of the main reasons why BlackBerry has obtained 45 security certifications, far more than any other mobile phone supplier, including the only certification granted to mobile terminal operators to date, which gives them full authority to operate on the US defense network (remember that this is only the security component of BlackBerry phones). It is not difficult to see that even for mobile phone manufacturers, achieving the ultimate in security is a systematic project.

Of course, we are not denying 360's ability to make the ultimate secure mobile phone. In fact, before this, some manufacturers have attempted to challenge the security of BlackBerry phones. For example, the BlackPhone at this year's CES exhibition won the attention of many consumers with the slogan of "the world's most secure smartphone". In addition to running the "PrivatOS" system customized based on Android, it also provides professional applications to ensure that you can search, browse, send text messages and video communications in an absolutely safe environment. For this reason, BlackBerry and the manufacturer of BlackPhone have also started a war of words over which is the most secure mobile phone. BlackBerry said that BlackPhone only provides "consumer-level" security protection, but not enterprise-level. BlackPhone refuted it, mocking that the "Playbook, Z10, and Q10 released by BlackBerry were completely ignored, and attacked the recently released Passport model of BlackBerry, saying that its BlackPhone is the mobile phone that consumers really need and want to buy. But unfortunately, at this year's Black Hat Security Conference, this Blackphone, which claims to be the most secure mobile phone in the world, was hacked within 5 minutes, and hackers successfully obtained its root privileges.

I wonder what kind of enlightenment and thinking Mr. Zhou got from the war of words between these two mobile phone manufacturers who both use security as a selling point. Let's talk about our own thoughts here.

Given the existence of BlackBerry, any manufacturer that claims to be the most secure or has achieved the ultimate in mobile phone security has to use BlackBerry as a benchmark. Although they cannot surpass it, they should be almost the same. However, the question that follows is that the current situation of BlackBerry, the world's most secure mobile phone, in the mobile phone market is not optimistic. It was even in danger of being acquired and is still on the verge of life and death. This also makes us wonder whether the so-called security can independently support the survival and development of a mobile phone company, or in other words, in the smartphone industry, how much do the market and users need for security? How deep is the degree? If most of the market and users only need relative security (in fact, there is no absolute security) or only regard security as an attribute of smartphones (the fall of BlackBerry also proves that security is only a factor in determining the success or failure of mobile phone products), then the value of 360 mobile phone's ultimate security advocated and promoted by Mr. Zhou will be greatly discounted in the competition with other mobile phone manufacturers who also pay attention to or use security as one of their selling points, or even no difference.

At this time, the so-called competition is nothing more than returning to the mobile phone products and the industry itself. As Mr. Zhou mentioned in the letter, having mature product design and supply chain like hardware manufacturers, controllable costs and stable quality are the key. So in terms of these factors and levels, what are the advantages of the combination of 360 and Coolpad? This is probably a topic that needs to be discussed separately. We just want to prove again that if we follow what Mr. Zhou said in the letter, entering the mobile phone market in the name of security may seem like a good reason at first glance, but as long as we think about it, it becomes nonsense. Perhaps what will eventually come true is what Mr. Zhou said at the end of the letter: Let us face reality and let us be loyal to our ideals! Bring your AK47 and follow me to the south to make mobile phones! This slogan itself has the flavor of entering the red ocean without bloodshed, but who is not like this in the Chinese smartphone market?

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.