Do not give up to do mobile phones, Zhou 祎 search for new models support 360 mobile phones

Special machine mode after the failure of the Zhou, has not given up on the idea of mobile phones, but has been looking for a new model to support his 360 mobile phones.

Nearly hundred days after the two sides cooperated, Tencent technology from the internal channels to obtain the latest news that 360 and cool set up the joint venture will run two brands: one is the original great God, positioning in the low-end market; another brand from the 360 team to build, positioning in the high-end market, brand name program has been through preliminary screening, The final choice is still under discussion, its code name is "AK47", before "360 User special special machine" Weibo resurrection and renamed as "mobile phone code AK47".

Tencent Science and technology learned that the first product price is not earlier Zhou said more than 5,000 yuan, but focus on about 3000 yuan. The two sides are completely interoperable in the investment resources of the Great God and the new brand in the future, and there is no external responsibility for their respective brands. such as research and development, supply chain, etc. are based on the cool pie.

According to its internal planning, this year from May to June 360 OS began to test the grandfather, the official products are expected to be launched in August. The initial channel will focus on the online platform and follow the traditional channel of cool. At the same time, as the CEO of the joint venture, Zhou 祎 set a new company's year-end sales target of 10 billion yuan.

April officially operational

Last week, some executives of 360 and cool joint ventures faced the media for the first time, giving clear answers to questions about how the two sides would collaborate in the future.

From the understanding of Tencent Technology, the joint venture is composed of two staff and Waizhao personnel, Shenzhen is mainly based on product development, supply chain support and so on, mostly cool team, but also a small number of 360 of research and development personnel, and Beijing is mainly marketing, brand promotion, channel sales and other links, Most are composed of 360 of the team.

Management, 360 Vice President Pan Zhiyong in charge of marketing strategy, cool executive vice President Li Negative supply chain support, channel sales, cool-sent mobile internet and electric business President Hao Fanghao is responsible for product design research and development, reporting to CEO Zhou. At this stage, Zhou's focus is on product design.

To create a consistent "red leader" differentiated products, Zhou is willing to hire heavily. It is reported that 360 for product design, research and development and other personnel issued at least twice times the original wages, and some even as high as three times times the conditions, and the company officially put into operation will also take out 15%-20% of the equity incentive staff, the implementation of the company's full shareholding. At present, the company's overall number is not much, in various posts after recruitment in place, is expected to be officially put into operation in April.

Products, 360 days ago announced the beginning of the recruitment of the first 360 OS Beta members, successful users will receive the first 360 OS Beta qualification, the first batch of trial experience and other opportunities. As at 2 o'clock in the afternoon yesterday, the number of applicants reached 5308.

According to 360 insiders, 360 mobile phone Forum recruitment in the following group, the future will be played as a geek and mobile phone class of large communities, so that users and fans in the use of mobile phones, experience 360 OS, while enhancing the network interaction and sense of participation. "360 per se is a highly technical company with a very strong culture, and it is hoped that the geek culture will settle down in 360 mobile phone forums." The insider said.

There are insiders to Tencent technology revealed that the significance of the mission is Zhou hope to attract more young engineers, product designers and other personnel, to arouse their resonance, so as to establish the beginning of millet MIUI professional fan atmosphere, and quickly enhance brand awareness.

Again round hardware dream

At present, no one can accurately judge the 360 with the cool pie This marriage future can go far, from the current situation, the heavy mobile phone is Zhou to round his "hardware Dream" to find a new opportunity.

As early as 2012 360 began to dabble in the hardware market, and Alcatel and other brands have teamed up to launch a special for the machine. 360 because the implementation of antivirus free and great success, Zhou want to put this "free thinking" to continue to achieve on the phone. But lack of hardware product design, supply chain management experience, the final special for the machine.

But he did not give up. The next few years continued to launch a variety of intelligent hardware, including 360 portable WiFi, 360 security routes, 360 guard against loss, 360 family defender, 360 child defender, 360-chi key 6 products. This constant attempt strengthens Zhou's proficiency in hardware products.

So, when the internet giant first wave of mobile phone "beach" failed two years later, in the Baidu injection hundred mobile phones, Alibaba investment charm, such as stimulation, plus hardware experience, Zhou again embrace mobile phone is not surprising.

So why so persistent to do mobile phone?

Zhou in the internal mail to all employees have this explanation: "We want to be in the mobile Internet security to the extreme, we must do their own mobile phones, so as to deeply intervene in the bottom of the operating system, on this basis to build a real mobile phone security, to achieve user demand for safety." "And that's an important reason to choose cool rather than other mobile brands."

Cool security research and development began in 2005, from 09 onwards adhere to do the C-Net encryption communications business. In the state of business certification, more than 15 cool pie. In the case of more and more government information security, encrypted communication security label makes the cool faction the only choice in some fields, such as the only safe mobile phone purchased by the Shanghai municipal government is the cool pie S6.

So, 360 has the security software advantage, the cool faction has the Security hardware foundation, both sides very natural hit.

The internal and the new company

Although the business development trend is consistent, but with the previous two years Zhou to do the special machine, the handset market competition is more white-hot. The new joint venture has both internal and aggression.

Obviously, two companies of the genes are completely different, adapt to each other will be a long-term process, for products, marketing and other decisions on how much of the right to speak is not a simple few executive division of labor can be solved, the actual work will reveal problems.

In addition to internal adaptation and integration, the company faces a tougher market environment than it did two years ago. According to the Ministry of Industry data, the 2014 full year China Mobile phone market cumulative shipments of 452 million, compared to 2013 579 million decline 21.9%.

From the 2014 China market smartphone sales rankings, Apple, Samsung, Huawei, Millet, cool pie, Lenovo, ZTE and other manufacturers firmly grasp the forefront of sales. Ranking from high to Low is: millet (60.8, million units), Samsung (58.4), Lenovo (47.3), Apple (46.6, including parallel imports), Huawei (41.3), Cool faction (40.1), Vivo (27.3), Oppo (25.5), ZTE (18.2). The total share of other brands is 40.5 million units, the market share under 10%.

Clearly, the market has few opportunities for the latter, especially in the new-generation Internet handsets that do not dominate the supply chain, even though traditional handset makers such as Huawei have had insufficient capacity due to supply chain problems.

But Zhou is now optimistic. "Now the mobile phone is to fight a scale war, as long as you like hardware manufacturers have mature product design and supply chain, with controllable cost and stable quality, coupled with Internet enterprises in the user experience on the continuous innovation, why not succeed?" He confessed in his internal mail.

Zhou also set a goal for himself and the joint venture: this year, the joint venture in the proportion of the big God accounted for 40%, the remaining 360 to build a new brand, the overall goal of the year-end achieve 10 billion yuan sales.