"We are like Apple in 1984, ‘when Apple had the revolutionary power to break IBM’s monopoly on the computing technology market.’ But now, ‘Apple is the behemoth it once accused of trying to control markets, stifle competition and stifle innovation.’"

The new payment system undoubtedly violated Apple’s App Store policies, and Apple responded quickly and aggressively by removing Fortnite entirely from the App Store. Epic was clearly well-prepared. Shortly after being taken down, Epic released a small video of "Fortnite", in which it mocked Apple from a former dragon slayer to a dragon, borrowing a meme from Apple’s famous 1984 MAC ad.

The classic 1984 Apple ad was about revolution and breaking IBM’s monopoly. But the video was more than a satire. Minutes after the video was released, Epic announced that it had filed a lawsuit against Apple.

The rivalry between the two sides is still escalating. Apple has taken down Epic’s developer account and iOS and MAC power builder. Epic claims this will prevent them from developing software for Apple’s platform, including Unreal Engine support for third-party developers on the iOS.

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However, according to an annual survey called "All Things Valve Should Know 3.0": Since 2018, game developers, especially in the West, have become increasingly negative about Valve and Steam, and have begun to lose confidence in Steam. They do not believe that it is reasonable to pay 30% of the platform’s commission to the store.

Epic became the initiator of this battle for platform royalties. Previously, with the popularity of its games such as Fortnite, Epic established its own game platform, Epic Games Store, packaged all its games, and used ultra-low royalties as a means to attract game developers. From previous news, Epic did not intend to treat Steam as a competitor, but more to convey that it wanted to change the 30% cut of computer games (PC) platforms. From the original game developer Deep Silver’s announcement that "Metro 2033" would be exclusive to Epic for a limited time for one year, to the later announcement of a limited time exclusive to the Epic platform by popular game developers, and then to Ubisoft’s removal of "The Division Blockade 2" directly from Steam, game makers and platforms are using actions to demonstrate their views on the cut.

Is 30% reasonable?

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The 30% platform commission is a traditional system, originally formulated by first-party console manufacturers such as Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. The financial resources of Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft to operate platforms are unmatched by PC platform operations. They have also shown players that operating a PC-side platform, even a 12% commission, is also very profitable. Since the operation of the host platform and the operation of the PC platform are completely different from the difficulty level, it is indeed unreasonable for Steam to operate according to the platform commission of the host manufacturer.

Some netizens broke the relevant commission data of Tencent’s platform: if you just log in to Tencent’s platform, there will be a 30% commission; if you want to promote and use the server, the commission will increase to 50%~ 60%; if it is a mobile game, the commission will be 70%. In addition, the application treasure is 70%; the WeChat mini-game props internal purchase is 40%; the part of the single-day advertising revenue within 100,000 yuan, the developer can get 50% of it; the part of the single-day advertising revenue exceeding 100,000 yuan, the developer can get 30% of it. From this point of view, is the 30% commission not high?

In fact, this is not the case. In China, Tencent owns the vast majority of traffic, and even with a 70% cut, game developers or publishers earn more than many other platforms that take a 10% cut. The main reason why it is unreasonable to say that Steam’s 30% cut is that even in an ideal situation, the income of most profitable game companies is equivalent to the income of the platform, and even the income of the platform is higher than that of the game company. And online game platforms such as Steam,Neither do they have to bear the high costs associated with physical stores and logistics, nor do they have the obligation to help game companies promote their games, which has caused many game makers to be dissatisfied with the 30% cut in recent years.

For an indie game studio, such a high cut would pose a dilemma for the entire team.If the game is handed over to a large company for distribution, and the large company cooperates with Steam, it is equivalent to being drawn twice. And if the independent game team wants to log in to Steam by itself, it will encounter more resistance. On the one hand, Steam will not provide these studios with upfront funding, and it is difficult for an independent development team to complete the game independently without the help of the operating company. On the other hand, the promotion and marketing of the game is very important, and most independent studios do not have the ability to do the follow-up work themselves. In addition, for low-cost indie games, publishing on a high-traffic platform like Steam represents more opportunities, and the advantages outweigh the disadvantages than the high commission.

The fantasy video game website (IGN) has sorted out the sales data of major online sales platforms from dozens of information sources. Surprisingly, the data provided by the vast majority of sources is exactly the same, that is, 30% of the platform. Not only Steam and Apple, but also online sales platforms such as Microsoft, Sony, Google, Nintendo, and offline sales platforms such as Amazon and Walmart draw 30%.It can be seen that a 30% cut is a common practice in the industry and a major environment in the game business community.

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In the eyes of most game developers, Epic played the role of a revolutionary pioneer, a "leading brother" who explicitly proposed that the 30% cut was unreasonable. However, in the eyes of players, this was not the case. Negative comments on Epic were widely circulated among players. In the eyes of many players, Epic was a speculator, doing things to occupy the market under the name of lowering the platform’s cut.

This phenomenon is very easy to understand, because the level of the platform does not affect the price of the game too much, players can not feel the intuitive benefits, and Epic as a latecomer, the player group is far less than the predecessor Steam, in the platform function and user experience are not as good as Steam, most Steam users are not surprising to Epic.

But there are still reasons to believe that Epic is determined to change the platform’s commission. A 12% commission will undoubtedly attract more and more games to the Epic platform, and Epic expands its player base through a large number of free games and benefits. The substantial benefits that low commissions bring to game developers will gradually emerge, and more outstanding studios in trouble can show their talents on the Epic platform.

In the new game market system, a model full of reform and innovation may be vacated, and Epic has become the person who raises the revolutionary banner, but whether it can become the ultimate winner remains to be seen.

(Li Meng is a master’s tutor at the School of Animation and Digital Art, Communication University of China; He Yucheng is a graduate student at the School of Animation and Digital Art, Communication University of China)

　　A few days ago, starring Chen Turin and Li Chengbin, Mao Zijun starred, Lai Meiyun and Zhang Zining starred, Xu Muchan starred in a special friendship, Chen Xiaodong and Zhang Li starred in a friendship, and Jiang Yiming, Wang Xichao, Yang Yi, Xie Chengze, Xie Zichen, Zhang Tianqi and other co-starring Oriental fantasy film "Hua Qiangu" released the theme song "Painting for Life", composed and sung by singer Xu Song. "Painting for Life" focuses on the cause and effect of love, and writes a touching love song based on the story. The protagonist experiences love, hate, and anger, and is torn between personal love and helping the world. Based on Oriental fantasy colors, the film presents the rich theme of growth, transformation and relief. After nine years of companionship, it invites audiences to join the long-term stay. The movie "Flower Thousand Bones" will be released nationwide on January 20.

　　Beautiful Melody Interpretation of Unparalleled Love

　　In the theme song released today (January 11), with the melodious sound of the piano, a peerless love began, from the encounter between the girl Hua Qiangu and the master Baizi painting, to the mutual understanding attracted by each other in getting along, and then to the irresistible love. Despite countless hardships and ups and downs in the six realms of common life and pure love, they were still in danger to deal with their fateful choices, and finally achieved the transformation of life. And Xu Song used short words to write the pounding and regret in the story, using the painting as a metaphor, from the pounding of "the figure is longing, only your voice is taken", the longing of "who can love without me", to the trap of "painting as a cage, sealing the destruction and praise of life", to the yearning of "ink dyed the sky", "rain shaded wilderness mound", until the conclusion of "lighting the long-lasting candle with a smile", with imaginative deep strokes to outline the thoughts of life. Combined with Xu Song’s gentle tone, he sings leisurely to connect the thousand-year-old immortal world and the current mortal world.

　　In terms of music, "Painting Life" describes the film style, uses a large number of classical musical instruments to arrange, and the whole song is antique, combining the beauty of the immortal world and the love of Hua Qiangu Baizi’s painting. Whether it is the delicate and elegant folk music, the magnificent and solemn orchestral ensemble, or the affectionate singing, they all highly resonate with the texture of the "Hua Qiangu" film. The melody is integrated with the tone of the story, and listening to this work alone can not only feel the expression of personal emotions, but also read the inspiration for the meaning of life. The songwriting of music genius Xu Song, the arrangement of Chinese classical charm, the melody of modern pop, and his own unique natural and profound singing voice make the whole music seamless and pull the listener into the peerless love song full of fate.

　　Take the painting as a thought and sing a fantastic love

　　In the promotional video released, introduced by the melody of singer Xu Song’s "Painting Life", Hua Qiangu and Baizi Painting began to become attached to their teacher, and an undetermined fate entanglement began. Hua Qiangu experienced a solo adventure, and finally stayed to become an apprentice for a long time, spending a quiet time with Baizi Painting, and then the storm broke out, and the disaster came. Hua Qiangu experienced love and hate, obsession and delusion in the arrangement of fate. As the melody of the song approached its climax, "Ink dyed the sky, missing like a trapped beast", the loss and greed, resentment and grievance given by fate pushed Hua Qiangu, who was once pure and happy, into the abyss of pain. Watching the loved ones leave one by one, the broken thoughts have been broken, even the pen and ink "painting life" in the song can no longer heal the scars in the hearts of Hua Qiangu and Baizi.

　　In the song, Xu Song sang about the love-hate entanglement between Hua Qiangu and Baizi Hua. He only hoped that the people in the six realms could not be trapped by their own obsessions. Suffering and bliss are all fate. If they are obsessed and persistent, they will only turn the brush that writes a better future into a cage that prohibits the soul. Near the release of the movie, the song "Painting Life" is even more exciting. In the movie, Hua Qiangu, Baizi Hua and a group of characters will write how this long life will be written.

　　The movie "Hua Qiangu" is produced by Tang Lijun as producer, Li Jinwen as producer, Zhang Chaoli as director, Zhu Yuhan as screenwriter, Zhang Wenbao as director of photography, Guo Yongren as action director, Li Zhou as director of modeling, Wang Jingjing as art director, A Kun as music director, Lin Aner as editing director, the film will be officially released on January 20, so stay tuned for this romantic fantasy love story.

Disclaimer:

The purpose of reprinting this article is to convey more information and does not represent the views and positions of this website.

The content of the article is for reference only and does not constitute investment advice. Investors operate accordingly at their own risk.

1905 movie network news Produced by Chen Sicheng, directed by Sam Quah, starring Shawn, Tan Zhuo, Chen Chong and Jiang Haowen, the pre-sale of films specially starred by Qin Pei exceeded 10 million, and the popularity continued to soar. Moreover, the total number of people who want to see the film on the ticketing platform is as high as nearly 400,000, ranking first in the same period, and the high degree of attention can be seen.

Previously, after the advance screening of the film, it was praised by critics and audiences in unison. Cat’s Eye scored 9.6, Taobao Film 9.2 and Douban 7.6, ranking first in the opening of the film in December, and the recommendation degree of Big V was as high as 100%.

In the film, the storyline and carefully designed details that stimulate brain burning won unanimous praise. Some viewers said, "The montage design is full of high energy, and the plot is well-laid. Every second is the focus. It’s amazing! Civilian father VS police chief, diamond cut diamond wits. The most enjoyable anti-killing film of the year, a domestic film conscience that should not be missed! "

The amazing performances of powerful actors such as Shawn, Tan Zhuo and Chen Chong were also highly praised. "This film is not only the highlight of Shawn’s performance, but also the confrontation between Tan Zhuo and Chen Chong’s two mothers makes people’ blood boil’, and their hearts will jump out in the next second. Being a father is strong, being a mother is rigid, and they can be desperate for their children, which is really great … …”

The film Sheep Without A Shepherd will be officially released nationwide on December 13th, 2019.

On August 29th, 2021, the 24th Chengdu International Auto Show will be grandly opened in Rongcheng. The theme of this year’s auto show is "the tide is moving, Rongcheng is driving brilliantly". On the basis of last year, there is a new exhibition hall with a scale of 200,000 square meters. The next 10 days will be the highlight time for the world’s highest-selling A-class auto show to show its huge energy consumption.

Chengdu International Auto Show, which has been held for 23 consecutive years, has formed a tripartite confrontation with Guangzhou International Auto Show and Beijing and Shanghai International Auto Show held alternately every other year, and has become a battleground for major auto manufacturers to seize the western region, especially the Chengdu market. This year’s Chengdu International Auto Show attracted German, American and Japanese car companies as well as independent car companies such as Great Wall, Geely and BYD, and more than 130 well-known brands at home and abroad participated. At the same time, many new energy automobile brands, such as Weilai, Tucki, Lantu and Tianji, will also show the latest achievements to consumers here. More than 1,500 new cars were airborne in Xibo City, and 60 conferences were held, revealing dozens of world-first or domestic first-time models, bringing a car feast to Rongcheng consumers. BMW, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar Land Rover, Volvo, Lectra, Changan Ford, Geely, BYD and other participating brands all brought the latest models here. The brand-new mercedes benz c class, brand-new Audi Q2L and BYD Ocean Series all met the public at the auto show for the first time.

In January last year, the Central Financial and Economic Committee proposed to promote the construction of the twin-city economic circle in Chengdu-Chongqing area. The twin-city economic circle in Chengdu-Chongqing region is an economic circle integrated by Chengdu metropolitan circle, Chongqing metropolitan circle and the axis belt affected by the new polarization and strong radiation of the "twin cities". Chengdu will usher in brand-new development opportunities, and the regional advantages of leading engines will be more obvious. Today, Chengdu has a permanent population of 20.938 million, making it the fourth national central city with a permanent population of over 20 million. Pushing the window to see snow and pushing the door to see green, "Park Chengdu" is also the most livable city in China, and cars have become an important carrier to push up the happiness index of citizens.

At the same time, Chengdu has a high economic activity and strong purchasing power, and the global mainstream automobile brands are selling well here. The huge market with a population of 20 million and unlimited car purchases is extremely rare in the world. Therefore, Chengdu International Auto Show has become the world’s highest-selling A-class auto show event and the weather vane of Chengdu-Chongqing area and even China auto market.

As an important pole of China automobile market, Chengdu automobile market has developed rapidly in recent years. According to the data released by the Traffic Management Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, the number of cars in Chengdu has exceeded 5 million, which is the second automobile city in China after Beijing. First-tier cities with earlier economic development, such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, have already restricted the number of cars. Chengdu, the most dynamic city in China, is a hot spot of China automobile market and has become a new engine to promote the development of automobile industry in Chengdu and Chongqing.

At the 24th Chengdu International Auto Show in 2021, Chengdu Daily and Jinguan News New Media Cluster will create a series of special issues to interpret the happy life of 20 million citizens in Chengdu. At that time, a series of special reports on the auto show will be launched, and after the auto show, the "Hot Car List of Chengdu’s Good Life" will be released to cheer for those models that have gained a lot at the Chengdu Auto Show.

Colorful Chengdu auto show traffic exhibition strategy should have been known.

The venue of the 24th Chengdu International Auto Show-China West Expo City is a famous Expo hall and the permanent venue of China West International Expo. Xibocheng is located at the southern foot of Tianfu New District, with mature backbone road networks such as Tianfu Avenue, Zizhou Avenue and Metro Line 1. Due to the huge area of the exhibition hall, it is easy for first-time consumers to get lost and waste a lot of physical strength by walking to the exhibition hall from parking lots, subway stations and bus stops, as well as wandering between the exhibition halls. To this end, this newspaper has specially compiled a practical traffic guide for exhibition viewing.

Self – driving

Navigation "China West Expo City", there are more parking spaces in the southeast ground parking lot of Xibo City and the nearby temporary parking area. There are parking lots at the nearest exits of several main roads, and the number of parking spaces has increased significantly compared with previous years. At the same time, the traffic control department will reduce the traffic control distance. When the parking spaces in the exhibition hall tend to be saturated, the distance to the exhibition hall after parking in the periphery will be greatly shortened. Only licensed vehicles, buses, taxis and special vehicles are allowed on the roads near other directions of Xibo City. Please plan the route in advance when driving to the exhibition.

taxi

It is most convenient for the audience who arrive by taxi to get off near Gate 16 of Xibo City in the east section of Fuzhou Road.

bus

In order to support the Chengdu International Auto Show, Chengdu Public Transport Group will make adjustments. The departure density of G90 and 236 buses will be increased, and 18-meter-long large-capacity buses will be used to meet the demand during peak hours. Bus lines passing through Xibo City will also increase the departure density. T1 and T6 buses go directly to the exhibition hall, where T1 bus gets off at Tianfu New District Customs Station and T6 bus gets off at West Expo City West Station.

subway

Subway is the preferred means of transportation for most citizens. It is very convenient to take subway trains on Line 1, Line 6 and Line 18, get off at Xibocheng Station (exit D) and go out to the ticket entrance of the exhibition hall.

Off-site free shuttle bus

Running route: Gate 1 of Xibocheng-Guangzhou Road Station of Metro Line 1-South Square Parking Area-Southeast Square Parking Area-at the intersection of Guangzhou Road and Zizhou Avenue (one-way circulation).

Car ferry in the infield of the exhibition hall

Upon arrival at the venue, there is also a free infield car ferry for use. The running route is: Hall 1-Hall 5-Hall 16, with uninterrupted circulation. The boarding places are located outside Hall 1, Hall 3, Hall 5, Hall 11, Hall 14 and Hall 16, which is convenient for getting on and off. (Reporter Tang Ai)

Wen Yi connected with Insight, written by Han Ying and edited by Li Xin.

Near the end of the year, folding screen mobile phones have become a new competition field for mobile phone manufacturers.　

Recently, Huawei released the latest folding screen mobile phone, which once again stirred the market of folding screen mobile phones. Also in the same month, OPPO’s first folding screen mobile phone has also come out.

At the same time, glory, realme and vivo are also developing folding screen mobile phones. In addition, the news that Xiaomi MIX Fold2 is about to be released is also constantly coming out.　

At present, domestic folding screen mobile phones are blooming everywhere. In foreign countries, Samsung, as the head enterprise of folding screen mobile phones, has released three generations of folding screen mobile phones since 2019. According to analysts’ prediction, Apple is also expected to release the first folding screen mobile phone in 2023.

If the prediction comes true, it means that the mainstream players in the mobile phone market will enter the new battlefield of folding screen mobile phones.　

An obvious change is that from the perspective of the third-generation folding screen mobile phone, its price is controlled within 10 thousand yuan, and it is entering the era of parity acceptable to consumers. This also means that the folding screen mobile phone is undergoing technological upgrading and market testing.　

Undoubtedly, with the improvement of technology and the downward price, the penetration rate of folding screen mobile phones will increase. But the real problem is that the folding screen mobile phone is still a niche market, and its sales volume is less than 1% of the whole smart phone market. When will the folding machine really become popular?

In the smart phone market where the market is saturated and the growth is weak, manufacturers are trying to tell a new story. This time, the new story is to buy a folding screen mobile phone at a lower price.　

Different from the previous price of 10,000 yuan, after two years of market development, the price of folding machines has gradually entered the parity stage.　

Whether it is Huawei’s latest folding screen mobile phone, Samsung’s latest folding machine, or the first folding machine released by OPPO, its price has been lowered to around 7,000 to 8,000 yuan, which seems to be more close to the people than before.　

Last week, Huawei released the new flagship folding screen mobile phone P50 Pocket. From the appearance point of view, this folding screen mobile phone adopts the design of vertical folding, and the compact and exquisite appearance also breaks the disadvantages of heavy and horizontal folding in the past.

On the most important axis of folding screen, Huawei P50 Pocket adopts the design of water drop hinge, which has a smaller bending radius than the previous generation.Simply put, with the help of the drop-shaped screen space at the bend, the screen folding can be close to the seamless folding shape.At the same time, the unfolding thickness of the fuselage as thin as 7.2mm can realize a flatter unfolding of the inner screen.　

Unfortunately, the screen cover of Huawei P50 Pocket does not use ultra-thin electronic touch glass (UTG), but continues to use traditional transparent polyimide (CPI). Specifically, UTG is a flexible glass with better performance, while CPI is a plastic material.　

At the same time, as for the core processor, due to the shortage of chips, Huawei P50 Pocket is equipped with Snapdragon 888 chip and adopts 4G network.In this regard, Huawei said that with the support of HarmonyOS Smart Communications, the network experience was not greatly affected.　

Huawei tried to make up for the lack of hardware such as glass and chips with images and batteries. Following the exploration of Huawei P-series images, Huawei P50 Pocket adopts a super wide angle of 120 degrees, and at the same time, fluorescence photography and other modes have also increased the effect of post-shooting. In terms of battery, Huawei P50 Pocket is also equipped with 4000 mAh battery, which supports 40W Huawei super fast charge.　

On the whole, as one of the important players in the folding screen mobile phone market, Huawei is already the head player of domestic folding screen mobile phones.As early as 2019, Huawei launched Mate X, a horizontally folding screen mobile phone, and the launch of the vertically folding P50 Pocket also means that Huawei has completed a double folding layout in the folding screen mobile phone market. Huawei has also become the only brand in the industry to launch three folding forms of mobile phones: outward folding, inward folding and vertical folding.　

Earlier, OPPO released the first folding screen mobile phone OPPO Find N, and at the beginning of this year, Xiaomi also launched the first folding screen mobile phone MIX Fold, and the concept map of MIX Fold2 is also coming out.　

Not only do domestic mobile phone manufacturers keep moving in the folding screen mobile phone market, but Samsung, as the "leader" of folding screen mobile phones, has always regarded it as a heavy bet.In September this year, Samsung officially released the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G in China, which is Samsung’s third-generation folding screen mobile phone.In addition, Samsung also released a product that folds up and down — — Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5G.

In the past, the folding screen mobile phone has always been a symbol of high-end. At the beginning, the price of Samsung Galaxy Fold reached 15,999 yuan, and the price of Huawei Mate X reached 16,999 yuan. Even the lowest-priced Xiaomi MIX Fold had a starting price of 9,999 yuan.　

When Xiaomi MIX Fold was launched less than a year ago, its price on the e-commerce platform has dropped by more than 3,000 yuan due to poor sales.　

The trend of head players can better explain the development trend of folding screen mobile phones.　

At present, Samsung undoubtedly occupies an absolute dominant position in the folding screen mobile phone market. According to data from research institute DSCC, Samsung’s market share in the global folding market is as high as 87% in 2020. The price of Galaxy Z Filp 3 with vertical folding scheme reached 7599 yuan, only 60% of that of the previous generation. For this reason, this series has also become the highest-selling folding screen mobile phone in the world.　

For price-sensitive users, the most intuitive change brought about by price reduction is the increase in sales. Samsung’s first-generation folding screen mobile phone Galaxy Fold sold only 500,000 units worldwide. In contrast, the third-generation folding screen mobile phone exceeded 1 million units in one month.　

Compared with the mobile phone manufacturers that have already entered the market, the whole folding screen mobile phone market has been full of smoke.　

Up to now, Samsung has released eight folding screen phones.In terms of mobile phone shipments, in the third quarter of this year, the DSCC report showed that Samsung accounted for 93% of the shipments.In addition to strong mobile phone shipments, Samsung also has the ability to produce screens. According to a recent report by BusinessKorea, a Korean financial media, Samsung plans to increase the output of foldable screens from 17 million to 25 million a year, an increase of more than 40%.　

In China, Huawei, the first to enter the market, is the mobile phone manufacturer with the largest market share. The advent of Huawei P50 Pocket represents that Huawei has started to "walk on two legs" like Samsung, and has two models of horizontal folding and vertical folding.　

Xiaomi’s exploration of folding machine is not very smooth, and its heat dissipation, screen look and feel, creases and other problems have been repeatedly vomited by users, and the price has been falling after listing. OPPO will bet on the cost performance, and launch OPPO Find N with a price of only 7699 yuan, trying to open the market at a low price.　

Generally speaking, whether it is Samsung, which has been deeply involved in the folding screen mobile phone market for a long time, Huawei, which was the first to enter the market, and OPPO, a new player who just entered the market, parity strategy seems to have become the consensus of the industry.

From ten thousand yuan machines to parity machines, the road to price reduction of folding screen mobile phones is not overnight.　

Undoubtedly, in the era of folding screen mobile phone 1.0, the price of folding screen mobile phone has been high, which is a huge consumption threshold. Not many people can afford and are willing to spend a mobile phone with a price of 10,000 yuan. Sales are bound to be limited.　

And if you want to pursue sales and expand the audience, price reduction is the fastest way. However, before the price reduction, mobile phone manufacturers should first consider the production cost, otherwise they may "lose money and earn money".

Among the components of the folding machine, the hinge used to connect the fuselage and provide folding ability can be said to be the core of the folding screen equipment, which determines the strength of the whole fuselage. A hinge is composed of hundreds of tiny parts. Whether the hinge quality passes the standard directly affects the visual effect of the screen crease.　

At present, domestic mobile phone manufacturers, Huawei and OPPO all adopt the method of hinge self-research. Interestingly, at the recent press conference, whose patent is the water drop hinge also caused a confrontation between Huawei and OPPO.　

On the one hand, the research and development cost of hinge technology is high, on the other hand, there is no cost sharing in mass production of mobile phones, which undoubtedly requires a lot of money for the research and development of hinges. At the press conference of OPPO, Liu Zuohu, senior vice president of OPPO, revealed that the cost of this small hinge on Find N mobile phone reached $100, which was 1/10th of the final selling price, while the hinge quotation of other mobile phone manufacturers was generally 200 yuan.　

In addition to the mobile phone manufacturers themselves, upstream suppliers such as Huawei hinge supplier Yian Technology and OPPO hinge supplier Amphenol are also worthy of attention.　

Recently, some investors have asked questions to Yian Technology, a domestic hinge supplier, on the investor interaction platform. The question pointed out that besides supplying Huawei, which customers are Yian Technology? Yi ‘an Technology responded to this, and the company’s liquid metal hinges have been cooperated by five customers.

It is not difficult to see that with the price reduction of folding screen mobile phones and the increase of sales volume, the cost reduction of upstream suppliers is also an inevitable trend.　

In addition to the hinge, the flexible screen is also the key to the competition of folding screen mobile phones.Compared with the straight mobile phone, it is more expensive to adapt to the components in the bending scene. At present, there are two kinds of folding screen mobile phone covers on the market, CPI (colorless polyimide) and UTG (ultra-thin flexible glass). The former can be understood as a plastic material, while the latter is a flexible glass with better performance than AMOLED.　

In the whole folding screen mobile phone market, flexible glass, such as UTG, which has difficult research and development technology and high cost, has been monopolized by giant Samsung, which is also the reason for the high price of folding screen mobile phones.　

Just this year, Samsung opened the supply of external UTG ultra-thin glass, which is also the key to Samsung’s capital to reduce the price of folding machines. The OPPO Find N screen used UTG glass supplied by Samsung.

Obviously, this is a sure-fire business. At present, the folding screen mobile phone is a new trend in the mobile phone market. For Samsung, which is firmly in the top position of folding screen mobile phone sales, cooperation with domestic mobile phone manufacturers can not only increase its own sales, but also share the production cost by increasing sales, and also find new growth curves and broaden income channels.　

At the same time, domestic electronic suppliers are also speeding up the production of UTG glass. Side Semiconductor, Kaisheng Technology, Hui Jing Display and other manufacturers have announced the research and development progress or plans of UTG glass projects this year.　

In the glass cover, the mobile phone display screen is also a difficult problem that needs the homework of mobile phone manufacturers. According to online Insight, the flexible OLED screen of Huawei P50 Pocket was provided by domestic manufacturer Visionox. Data show that in the third quarter of this year, global smartphone OLED panel shipments were about 170 million pieces. Among them, Visionox shipped about 6.3 million pieces, ranking fourth in the world, second only to Samsung Display, JD.COM and LG Display.　

Admittedly, although China companies such as BOE, Vinozin and Rouyu have made great breakthroughs in screen technology in recent years, they still have a long way to go compared with Samsung.　

It is foreseeable that as Samsung opens the supply of UTG glass and the production capacity of domestic suppliers increases, the production cost of folding screen mobile phone screens will further decrease.

Generally speaking, the reduction of production costs of core barriers such as hinges, glass covers and screens directly lowers the market price of mobile phones with folding screens. In the future, with the popularization and mass production of folding screen technology, the price of folding screen mobile phones will be lower.

All along, there have been endless arguments about "folding machines are chicken ribs" and "losing money to make money" in the market.　

Yuan Bo, a senior communication engineer, once told Time Finance that the folding screen is not just needed, but meets the marginalized demand, but it is a symbol of the technical strength of mobile phone manufacturers, and even represents the manufacturers to enter the high-end threshold.　

However, with the gradual maturity of technology, the new folding machines of mobile phone manufacturers are intensively launched, and the superimposed prices are pushed down one after another, and the penetration rate of folding screen mobile phones is expected to accelerate.　

Market research firm Strategy Analytics predicts that in 2025, the shipment of folding screen mobile phones will reach 100 million units.Counterpoint Research, another research institution, also predicts that by the end of 2022, the global shipment of folding machines will reach 18.3 million units.You know, last year, the global shipment of folding screen mobile phones was only 2.8 million. If the agency’s prediction is accurate, the shipment of folding screen mobile phones will increase exponentially in the next two years.　

It is worth noting that Samsung, the head player, has been brave enough to "blood" on the folding screen mobile phone. A few days ago, according to Korean media reports, Samsung will stop the Note series and will take out more cost space to embrace the folding screen mobile phone. In addition to capacity expansion, Samsung also increased the marketing expenses of the folding machine to twice that of the Note series. Samsung also said that the chip supply gives priority to the folding machine, which shows its emphasis on folding mobile phones.　

Although many players bet and the market is promising, it is not easy for folding screen mobile phones to be popularized.　

The problem facing all players is that the price of the folding machine is almost the same as that of flagship machine, but there are still many restrictions on the configuration, which does not meet the standards of flagship machine.　

For example, there are few built-in telephoto lenses, the internal and external screens have not yet been high-brushed, and they can’t meet the high-frequency fast-punching, which have all become constraints for the development of folding machines. At the same time, it is still difficult to achieve unity in the adaptation of screens and applications. At present, the application adapting to folding screens has only increased from 75% to 90%. "The software workload is six times that of ordinary flagship models," Liu Zuohu, senior vice president of OPPO, mentioned at a media communication meeting.　

In addition, the current users of folding machines are still concentrated in the business crowd, and it is even more difficult for new players like OV and Xiaomi to get a slice of the business crowd.　

In this regard, Samsung and Huawei have taken the lead in targeting female users. This time, Huawei’s P50 Pocket has added the function of detecting sun protection. According to Huawei’s official introduction, Huawei Mirror provides an intelligent sun protection reminder function, and uses a hyperspectral imaging system to provide users with sunburn detection services. Earlier, the compact and portable design of Samsung Flip series was also suitable for female users.　

However, the time for folding screen mobile phones to enter the market is still short, and it will take time to test whether they can be bought by female users.　

In addition, when the technical difficulties of hard power such as hinges and screens are still being broken, the high maintenance cost has become a factor affecting the popularity of folding screen mobile phones. According to Huawei’s official website, Huawei’s P50 Pocket costs as much as 4,379 yuan only for screen maintenance, even exceeding some domestic high-end flagship machine. Other repairable components include the motherboard, upper battery cover (including external screen) and rear-view lens, and the prices are 3399 yuan, 579 yuan and 999 yuan respectively.

Obviously, immature technology and imperfect user experience have become a mountain in front of folding screen mobile phone manufacturers.　

Don’t forget that in the field of folding machines, Apple, a heavyweight player in the smartphone market, has not yet finished. If Apple joins, it will become a "killer" player and further expand the overall market of folding machines.Guo Ming Ti, an analyst with Tianfeng International who has been paying close attention to Apple for a long time, believes that the first Apple folding screen mobile phone will be available in 2023, and Apple is ready to increase the shipment of its first folding screen iPhone to 20 million units.　　

However, if Apple also introduces folding screen phones, the competition in the whole market will be more intense, and the pattern may also change.　

There is no new story about smart phones, which is a commonplace topic. It is reasonable that the imagination space brought by folding screen mobile phones attracts mobile phone manufacturers to compete.However, the real problem is that the folding screen mobile phone has been born for three years, but its shipment volume is far less than that of other smart phones, and it is still relatively deserted in the China market. Whether the price reduction tide can make the folding machine catch fire in the China market will soon be answered.　　

At present, mobile phone manufacturers including Samsung, Glory, Xiaomi, OV and Meizu have successively entered the field of AI mobile phones, and a new round of demand for mobile phone hardware is being set off, especially for related chips.

On March 18th, Qualcomm, an American chip manufacturer, held a new Snapdragon flagship product launch conference in Beijing, announcing the launch of the third generation Snapdragon 8s mobile platform. National business daily reporter noticed on the spot that in terms of basic performance architecture, Snapdragon 8sGen3 is still equipped with Qualcomm KryoCPU, which inherits the same CPU architecture as Snapdragon 8Gen3, including a super core with a main frequency of 3.0GHz, four performance cores with a main frequency of 2.8GHz and three efficiency cores with a main frequency of 2.0GHz.

However, from the positioning point of view, Snapdragon’s 8sGen3 is slightly lower than Snapdragon’s 8Gen3 released in October last year, which means that in addition to high-end flagship products, some mid-range mobile phones will also have AI functions this year.

Ma Xiaomin, Senior Director of Product Market of Qualcomm Technology Company, introduced that in terms of generative AI, Snapdragon 8sGen3 supports the multi-modal generative AI model running on the end side, and the model parameters are up to 10 billion. The person in chMetarge of Qualcomm also said that the chip supports a wide range of AI models, including Baichuan-7B, Google GeminiNano, Llama2, and ChatGLM of Zhipu AI. In terms of images, Snapdragon 8sGen3 supports real-time semantic segmentation of photos and videos, and it is more accurate to identify and segment objects and scenes.

Image source: Every photo by reporter Jing Wong

Referring to the parameters of the end-side model, Guo Tianxiang, a senior analyst of IDC China, said to the reporter of national business daily through online analysis: "At present, the 10 billion end-side model (for consumers) will not be improved and upgraded in a subversive way. Next, more applications will need to use the model of cloud measuring 100 billion or even more parameters. However, the improvement of model parameters will become part of the competition of AI mobile phones in the future, but more importantly, it is necessary to actually improve the consumer’s experience from the usage scenario. "

Traditionally, every time Qualcomm releases its flagship chip, it will be favored by major Android phone manufacturers. At the press conference, mobile phone manufacturers including Glory, iQOO, realme Realme, Redmi and Xiaomi indicated that they would adopt Snapdragon 8sGen3, and commercial terminals are expected to be available in the next few months.

In recent years, it has become the biggest goal of Qualcomm to promote the production AI to reach all kinds of terminals, including a wide range of consumer electronic products. In January of this year, Qualcomm CEO An Meng shared how AI will profoundly affect the way people interact with terminals. "The revolutionary significance of generative AI is that the information on the terminal can help AI become a ubiquitous personal assistant, promote the integration of mobile phones and the cloud, and bring new ways of interaction to smart phones. There are also many amazing AI use cases in major mobile phone brands. Will be deployed in mobile phones in 2024; Let the car become a new computing space and support users to really talk to the car. "

According to him, the Snapdragon platform has now supported more than 40 different models, and the generative AI application will become a reality in the new terminal products launched this year.

In addition to Qualcomm, another mobile phone chip manufacturer, MediaTek, has also launched a mobile phone SOC chip with AI computing power-Tianji 9300, which provides the underlying performance and technical support for end-to-end generative AI. For example, the SDXLTurbo engine of Wenshengtu can generate images in real time according to the text input by users; The video generation capability of Diffusion can generate continuous videos according to the text or pictures input by users, and supports various animation styles.

On the terminal side, major mobile phone manufacturers have announced artificial intelligence plans, introduced customized versions of operating systems, and developed self-generated AI models to seize the wave of AI mobile phones. IDC predicts that in 2024, the global shipment of a new generation of AI mobile phones will reach 170 million units, accounting for about 15% of the total smartphone shipments. Among them, in the China market, with the rapid iteration of new chips and user usage scenarios, the share of the new generation of AI mobile phones will rise rapidly after 2024, reaching 150 million in 2027, with a market share of over 50%.

In the view of Guolian Securities, with the release of a number of new AI mobile phone models and the improvement of user experience brought by AI, smartphone sales are expected to return to the rising cycle.