115: The fall of the overlord

The legendary mobile phone manufacturer, Nokia, is officially selling its mobile phone business to Microsoft!

Looking at the news on his phone, Chen Chen couldn't help but sigh. Market competition is just that cruel. This phone company, which launched its first mobile phone in 1982 and could be said to be a memory for a generation, is now, due to poor management and slow transformation, packaging up and selling its entire mobile phone business to Microsoft.

Even the company's last mobile phone was able to stun the entire world.

Last year, Nokia launched its final Symbian-based phone, the Nokia 808 PureView. This phone featured a 41-megapixel sensor, Carl Zeiss lenses, and pixel oversampling technology co-tuned with Carl Zeiss.

This top-tier imaging capability, not to mention 2012, would still be competitive even in 2022. In an era where everyone was still at 13 megapixels, this ultra-large sensor was essentially a dimensionality reduction strike on the market.

Logically speaking, Nokia could have completely relied on this phone's imaging capabilities to lead a revolution in mobile photography for the entire industry.

However, the closed system and high price tag meant the envisioned imaging revolution did not arrive as expected. Instead, Nokia sank deeper and deeper, and finally, this year, the news came that it would sell its mobile phone business to Microsoft.

Can you say that Nokia lacked innovation?

Obviously not, otherwise it wouldn't have held the throne of the number one market share in mobile phones for 15 consecutive years.

As early as 2000, Nokia already had a full-touch screen phone with only one button, whereas Fruit, which led the smartphone revolution, only launched a similar product seven years later.

Not only that. In its early days, Nokia placed great importance on technology R&D investment, with a scale that even reached more than five times that of the Fruit Company. It had powerful researchers and 12 branches around the world, including one in the Imperial Capital.

But when the android trend became unstoppable, Nokia wavered. First, it clung to the aging Symbian, thinking that increasing investment in Symbian could save this decrepit system.

Then, it was attracted by the prospects of the Microsoft WP system and turned to support Microsoft's WP system.

In the end, it felt it couldn't rely entirely on Microsoft, so it went on to develop its own MeeGo system. This hesitant, half-hearted attitude led to Nokia's product line becoming increasingly chaotic. Coupled with the arrogance of the management, it could only miss out on the android wave and the smartphone wave.

In fact, there is one saying that best describes Nokia's stagnation, and that is "technology is based on changing shells." This was the earliest description of Nokia.

In short, Nokia's technical level was still very high, but they were always just talk. They were unwilling to decentralize technology and commercialize it, leading to sales declining year by year, forcing them to choose to cede the mobile phone business.

Of course, this method of cutting off one's arm to survive is very similar to a company in the USA, which is Qualcomm.

In fact, in the beginning, Qualcomm also made mobile phones, but in order to focus on the development of the communications business, Qualcomm also chose to cede its mobile phone business and focus on semiconductor design and R&D of communication technology.

Chen Chen was someone who had experienced the 5G era, so he naturally knew that after Nokia ceded its mobile phone business, it focused on communication technology. In 2015, it acquired Alcatel-Lucent for 16.6 billion euros, and in the 5G era, its patent share accounted for more than ten percent of the total patents.

Regardless, Nokia selling off its mobile phone business signifies that this mobile phone overlord, which was once glorious for over a decade, has officially exited the stage.

The old god has fallen. And the new overlord, Fruit, has steadily taken over the baton of the mobile phone industry leader, while Samsung remains the perennial runner-up, always ready to challenge Fruit's position.

"It's mine! It's all mine!"

This quote from the First Emperor involuntarily echoed in Chen Chen's mind. Since this world has our Red Star, the future mobile phone overlord can only be Red Star.

"I want to make Red Star Shine globally!"

"However, since Nokia phones have fallen, their sensors are indeed good, and the tuning of lenses with Zeiss is well-known."

"Then..."

Chen Chen also attached great importance to this matter, trying to see if he could find opportunities in the technical legacy of this fallen giant.

Everyone knows the level of Zeiss. Even ten years later, that Nokia 808 still has a certain level of combat capability. If Red Star could get the support of Zeiss, plus the blessing of unique ISP algorithms, wouldn't Red Star be able to lead the revolution in mobile photography?

According to the normal timeline, Nokia's mobile phone business will complete the handover next April, and Red Star can also seek cooperation with Zeiss in half a year, thereby obtaining better imaging capabilities.

In this year, all major manufacturers are still promoting mobile phone pixels as the main parameter. After 2016, major mobile phone manufacturers will significantly upgrade their mobile phone camera sensors, gradually upgrading from the original 1/3-inch sensor to a 1/2-inch sensor.

Finally, it will reach the 1-inch ultra-large sensor.

In terms of pixels, they also started a crazy upgrade, from 16 million to 48 million, to 64 million, to 100 million pixels, and even in the future, there will be 200 million-pixel phones.

Chen Chen understood this, which is why he would invest in photography and algorithms earlier. To make progress, one cannot blindly work behind closed doors; one must learn from those manufacturers with real technical strength.

Meanwhile, Guan Liang finally made up his mind and called the 5678 customer service number to return the mi 3 in his hand.

Facing the red star 3, which has a stronger configuration, higher aesthetics, faster charging, and a larger battery, he still decided to "defect." Mainly, the "chip-swapping incident" of Xiaomi this time deeply hurt his feelings.

He felt foolish for having defended them online, telling people that the two chips were the same, only to end up getting slapped in the face in the end.

"Old Guan, I told you to return it a long time ago, but you didn't listen. You had to wait until after the red star 3 was released to return it."

Feng Fu, lying on the upper bunk, heard him calling to request a refund and couldn't help but poke his head out to say a word.

"Returned it, returned it. From now on, I'm a hater of Xiaomi for life."

"There's no class tomorrow. Let's go to Red Star Home together. I checked on the map; it's not far from our school. Just a few subway stops and we'll be there."

"Sure. It just so happens I can go and touch the red star 3 and the Kunpeng mobile phone in person. I'll keep this hongmi 1, and when my part-time salary comes in, I'll switch to a red star 3 too."

Feng Fu looked at the hongmi 1 in his hand and found it more and more unpleasant to look at. He should have gritted his teeth and bought a red star 2 back then.