Can virtual fire speakers save MediaTek?

After a few weeks ago, Ali and Baidu released smart speakers and DuerOS voice platform, the market was buoyant. However, a few days ago, the Internet suddenly appeared a lot of titles "best" article, the general content is the outbreak of the smart speaker market, MediaTek found a straw ... ... Is it that the smart speaker market that will fire? And will also be the second spring of MediaTek?

After seeing these market analysis articles, we found that there was a word “to be” in front of the description of the smart speaker explosion and the soaring shipments of MediaTek. Perhaps, the smart speaker market's "to be" hot, it is really just wishful thinking.

In the smart phone market, continuous attack on the high-end failed, and MediaTek, which has gradually reduced its mid-to-low-end market share, is currently somewhat distressed. A series of negative news such as the decline in revenues and the sudden layoffs, followed by how to find the second spring is the most anxious question for this mobile phone chip company.

Nowadays, a market other than a smart phone seems to be a "life-saving straw." This is a smart speaker that is generally favored by public opinion.

Recently, some media quoted sources as saying that a large number of smart speaker manufacturers such as Google, Amazon and Alibaba will purchase MediaTek chips. According to an article published on the Taiwan’s e-Times website, MediaTek has already received chip orders from Amazon’s next-generation Echo speakers and Google’s smart home “Google Home.” At the same time, the website quoted sources as saying that in the second half of the year, Tencent and handset maker Xiao Mi will launch their own brand of smart speakers, and they are expected to purchase MediaTek chips.

The article analyzed chip orders from smart speaker manufacturers, which will increase MediaTek's third-quarter results. More optimistic sources said MediaTek's chip (and solution) shipments for smart speakers will double this year and will double again next year.

However, does the seemingly popular smart speaker market really become a chance for MediaTek to overtake? I am afraid it is not so simple.

Virtual Fire in the Smart Speaker Market

Amazon Echo

Smart speakers currently interact with smart voice interactive television, and they have become a hot topic for AI to enter the home. Today, the industry seems to agree that in the future of artificial intelligence, smart speakers will most likely become the most important entrance. At the same time, Amazon’s Echo and Google’s Google Home have taken the lead, while Apple’s Homepod, Microsoft’s Invoke, Facebook, and even Samsung’s electronics have also been silent. Although the domestic market started late, but with the launch of JD.com, Himalayan Xiaoya and Tmall Genie X1, a large wave of new products are also on the way.

The consulting company, Strategy Analytics, predicts that the global shipment of smart speakers in 2016 will be 5.9 million units, which will increase 10 times in 2022 and the market value will reach US$5.5 billion.

However, the emergence of smart speakers in the Chinese market is only a "hot" sound, not the hot demand. In this world's largest consumer electronics market, smart speakers are just like other tuyere industries, but they are currently considered by giants as the next hurdle, and all manufacturers will embrace them. This seems to be exactly the same as the previous "Hundred Regiments Offensive," "Internet Mobile Wars," and "Bicycle Wars." There are many people who come in and there may be very little left.

Will smart speakers definitely become the entrance to the artificial intelligence era? No one can be sure that it will be difficult to predict in at least 5 to 10 years.

In this regard, Xiaode co-founder Liu De pointed out: First, the mobile phone as the only entrance, the next 10 years, 15 years, its monopoly in the smart home sector is difficult to be broken; followed by the next 10 years with the development of technology, very It is possible that all smart devices will become portals because they are all networked and intelligent. "When a lot of hardware in the home is converted into smart entrance, this entrance must be decentralized and decentralized."

In the same way, the Tmall Elves did not have a back-to-back fight. The person in charge at the press conference also emphasized that what Ali saw was the future evolution of Tmall Genie in the field of smart hardware. Therefore, judging from the current market conditions, most manufacturers have chosen to follow the trend and follow the big forces. Regardless of whether or not the smart speaker is the final entrance, whoever stays after the war will make a test.

Smart speaker chip pioneer

Then back to the smart speaker inside the chip, the Internet and smart hardware vendors are betting on the potential market demand for the future, MediaTek leading start in this area is also reasonable.

At this year's MWC Shanghai show, MediaTek launched its first single-chip MT2625 NB-IoT system, and together with China Mobile released the smallest NB-IoT universal module. At the next Google I/O Developer Conference in May, it introduced the system-on-a-chip MT8516 designed for intelligent voice assistant devices and smart speaker products, and stated that the current Elves, Essential Home, and Lynx X1 are both This chip is used.

After this year's MediaTek 2017 shareholder meeting, the company’s chairman, Cai Mingjie, said in an interview with the media: “MediaTek is one of the leading chip makers of the Amazon smart speaker Echo, accounting for more than half of the shipments.” In addition, according to MediaTek Deputy General Manager and General Manager of the Home Entertainment Products Group said that nearly 80% of the chips in the smart speaker market in 2016 were supplied by MediaTek.

For the future intelligent speaker market, visitors Jie is very optimistic, he said MediaTek's family entertainment business group, last year's revenue accounted for about 20% of MediaTek's total turnover. With the market improving, this year's revenue is expected to rise to 25%.

It seems that all this seems to be good news for MediaTek, but the problem is that competitors will allow MediaTek to swallow this whole piece of cake.

Those opponents

Faced with the rapid expansion of the smart speaker market, Qualcomm, Ziguang Zengrui and Intel are also actively preparing for the game, hoping to get a slice of it.

In the middle of last month, at a developer event in Shenzhen, Qualcomm officially launched its "Smart Audio Platform." In addition to the chip itself, Qualcomm provides developers with more development tools on this new platform. The purpose is very clear, and developers are expected to use these tools to build hardware products like Amazon Echo faster.

Both of the new models released by Qualcomm support Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. In addition, they can also support voice recognition, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and other functions. Obviously, their offensive goals in this market are self-evident.

In addition, Intel, which has been contemptuous in the mobile chip space, is also fighting its teeth. At the Amazon Developers Conference at the end of last year, Intel launched a very high profile "Smart Home Hub" smart speaker based on Amazon Alexa. Intel said that it hopes to use this as a reference design, allowing more third-party hardware vendors to learn from it.

At the same time, Ziguang Zengru’s smart speaker products carrying the company's chips have been shipped on a large scale, and they have begun to vigorously harvest the low-end smart speaker market below 300 yuan. A spokesperson for Ziguang Zengru said: “At present, there are about dozens of our speaker customers, mainly smart and Bluetooth speakers within 300 yuan. The price of the chips is very competitive.”

In the face of the competition of competitors, how can MediaTek avoid repeating the same mistakes in the smart phone market in the smart speaker market?

The mobile phone market is still safe

Lynx Elf X1

From the previous drones, robots, VR, AR, to today's smart speakers, science and technology industry has never been a lack of outlets, but these outlets are often to go faster and faster, and really can do a great few.

Faced with fiery expectations of smart speakers, large and small players and capital will flow in one after another. Under the mobilization of capital, the industry is likely to be the same as the previous VR industry. After the market quickly heats up, it quickly disintegrates and finally enters a tepid fire. The steady development period. It is likely that the smart speaker market will return to niche like VR and AR.

If it is only a niche market demand, even if the vast majority of chips are using MediaTek products, the weak market size can hardly make up MediaTek's decline in the smart phone chip market. Moreover, the bright market prospects of the Internet of Things cannot solve the immediate needs of the current smart phone market.

After trying to rely on the failure of the Helio X series to explore the high end, the P series also began to fall gradually after occupying the low-end market for half a year. The upside is unfavorable. Media terror in the backyard still needs to solve the pressing problem in the smart phone market.

According to the May 2017 operation announced by MediaTek recently, the monthly revenue was only NT$18.437 billion (approximately RMB 4.16 billion). Although it was up 3.9% from the previous quarter, it was down 25.2% year-on-year. More serious than the decline in revenue, MediaTek’s processors have now been tagged with low-end labels in the smartphone space. This dilemma is difficult to reverse in a short time.

It is not a wise decision to press the smart speaker that Fengbao is blown into the air. For MediaTek, whose gross profit margin has fallen below 40%, compared to the market where the prospect of smart speakers is still uncertain, the primary task is to tear it up. Get back to more market share by owning the "low end" label on the smart phone market.

Perhaps, the upcoming annual flagship chip Helio X30 will become the only means for MediaTek to counterattack. The Meizu Pro 7 equipped with the MediaTek Helio X30 will soon be released. If this card can be put to good use, the "real high-end chip" in its mouth may give a great improvement to the development.

It is the high-end smartphone market this year, or the entrance of smart homes after 5 to 10 years. The face of MediaTek is probably a single-choice question.

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