A small media communication will formally put the "millet box" in front of everyone

"Millet box" behind the puzzle: mobile phone accessories or smart blueprint Leading role?

The veil of the "millet box" was finally uncovered.

On the afternoon of November 14, millet company held a small media communication meeting in Wangjing office, and put "millet box" in front of everyone. Lei the distribution of millet boxes as "not doing". The whole communication, Lei did not mention the word "set-top box", he gave the Millet box definition is only a mobile phone accessories.

According to Lei, the millet box is by far the "most fever of mobile phone accessories", rather than a simple set-top box phone is still the core of millet unchanged.

box, protagonist or Supporting role?

Millet box after the official release, Lei in micro-blog impatient for new product characterization: Today released a "Do not do" products: Millet box. "This is the first time since Lei founded Millet, the hardware product line from mobile phones to other areas."

But three words do not leave the bank, the meaning of millet box is still rooted in the millet mobile phone. "Five or six years ago I thought that the hand opportunity replaces the computer to become everybody most commonly used terminal, the television will become the handset monitor." From this point of view, the Millet box is the most important link to realize this idea, is the most important mobile phone accessories, Lei said.

His vision is to bring the millet box Internet-rich content into the home TV screen, the future smartphone will replace many of the PC's applications, television as the family's most important terminal equipment, the Millet box can connect the smartphone and the TV to do more interaction.

But is the Millet box as accessories really a supporting role?

As we all know, Lei's Millet kingdom mainly consists of three major business sectors: Millet mobile phone, rice chat and MIUI, these three primary and secondary relationship has been widely discussed by the industry, but now the situation is that the adhesion between the three is not easy to break: The mobile phone is the lowest level, MIUI is intermediate transition layer, rice chat is the most top.

But at present, the top of the industrial chain of Millet is not firm. Data show that under the impact of Tencent Micro-letter, rice Chat active users have a significant decline. This May, Lei disclosed that the number of active users of rice chat 13 million, or to a large extent, thanks to the brothers products Millet mobile phones, the latter 90% of the users are rice chat active users.

Analysts believe that it is precisely because of this millet need to expand the broader bottom, to stack more top content, bring users. And a set-top box is a good choice. As a mobile phone fever accessories exist, the Millet box can be unicom mobile phone and intelligent TV, providing a large number of video and application content, so as to get through the bottom to the top of the chain.

In fact, the idea of getting through the whole chain does not start with millet. Prior to this, Lenovo and other traditional IT vendors have launched Smart Television, and realize its connection with mobile phone, PC, but the chain of Lenovo is relatively flat, terminal compatibility is insufficient, the content is relatively scarce, while another kind of attempt comes from the video website (300104, stock bar) and so on, the route of the music network and millet phase, Select from the end of the video content to the set-top box hardware, and through the upcoming "Super TV" to form a link to build its declared "platform + content + Terminal + Application" complete ecosystem, but unfortunately, Le Video network does not "music video phone."

The hardware map of millet has been suspected to involve the tablet computer first, but has been denied many times. Millet co-founder Li Vanchang that the tablet market to the enemy but Apple and Samsung, Millet will not touch. The smart TV market is different, this is a niche market. Apple's TV is still less than tens of millions, even though the iphone and ipad devices have sold more than 200 million units.

Li Vanchang said, millet on the box is not too high expectations, but the future of Millet mobile phone will do a lot of peripheral applications and value-added services, eco-chain attempts, in smart home appliances more interesting small products.

Related reports • Coping with Millet box video network next month push 1.5G dual-core set-top box 2012-11-14 · Millet Box 14th Li Vanchang Self-exploding motherboard gold 2012-11-12 • Lei: Millet purchase more than 100 million yuan 2012-11-14

How the box breaks through the frame

The number of long term plans hidden behind the release of the Millet box may have to be watched. But for now, the millet box faces several big challenges.

The issue of licences. Operating the Internet in China requires an integrated business license for Internet television issued by government departments. So far, SARFT has issued 7 Internet television integrated business licences (integrated broadcasting control Licences), are for the radio and television system, the 7 are CCTV International CNTV (CCTV for the main application), Hangzhou Hua (Zhejiang, Hangzhou TV Joint application), Shanghai SMG (Shanghai TV station for the main application), Southern Media (Guangdong TV station for the main application), Hunan TV, China International Radio and Central People's radio.

Video site selection from the above units to purchase content and output: Le video network and CNTV cooperation, its set-top box and CNTV Internet TV integrated broadcast control platform binding, Le Video network All content will be placed on the platform, each set-top box will have the SARFT issued a unique number , as a content partner, the southern media, which has the same broadcasting control licence, is selected.

How does the Millet box cross this threshold? Lei now the answer is, millet box will strictly abide by the policy of the Department, the second will be with the 7 licensing units close cooperation, but with whom and how to cooperate to wait until the formal release of the product can be announced, "We and the 7 license to obtain business relations are very good."

This means that the millet box, in addition to cooperating with the video site that provides the content, also needs to work with units with integrated business licences (and in the context of a partnership that has been or may be concluded). Whether can deal with the relationship between the three, for millet, is undoubtedly a big challenge.

Second, cultivate the market. Lei the Millet box in a fever accessory. But some netizens believe that for the price of 1999 Yuan mobile phone purchase price of 299 yuan (Millet mobile phone users ex-gratia price, open price of 399 yuan) accessories is not enough to convince users. In addition, the TV audience and smartphone users of the degree of overlap, for which type of consumers, whether it is consistent with their habits ... Are all questions that need to be considered.

"Who is watching TV?" I haven't seen it for years and the set-top box is gray. I use a flat panel and HDMI to see. Just asked my colleague from the other side, he didn't look. "There are netizens in Lei's microblog this comment.

Meanwhile, the set-top box market is flooded with traditional practitioners and some of the internet peers of millet. In order to deal with the release of the Millet box, the same day, Le Video network announced in the same day next month will release the new smart set-top box products C1, flagship dual-core, sound effects and other selling According to people familiar with the TechWeb, the price of this product is expected to be lowered to thousand yuan, the purpose is to sniper millet box.

But perhaps a few words of Yang, vice president of the network, can simply summarize the upcoming changes, she said: "Welcome to join the Millet box ... We consider ourselves a pioneer in the (Set-top box market), but we are delighted that the industry is about to enter a fast-growing period.