Is mobile phone chips "made" or "purchased"? Securities Daily: Adapting to the Times | Cooperation | Mobile Phone Chips
The path for domestic mobile phone manufacturers to make chips is obstructed and long. After several years of exploration, some achievements have emerged, while others have withdrawn. So, should mobile phone chips be "made" or "bought"?
From the perspective of "manufacturing", high-end chip design and manufacturing are still the difficulties of the entire industry chain. The sluggish downturn of the consumer electronics industry will also cause phased supply-demand imbalance in the chip market, and heavy capital and long-term investment pose market risks, and returns cannot be immediately realized. At the same time, the chip market is highly concentrated, and new entrants face enormous pressure, making it difficult to make breakthroughs in independent research and development. For mobile phone companies, choosing chip manufacturing should indeed be cautious.
But while buying chips may seem easy, it is actually not. At present, China's main high-end mobile phone chips still rely on imports, but in the context of unstable international chip supply chains, domestic mobile phone manufacturers have to find new ways out.
The author believes that there is no absolute good or bad between "making" and "buying", but it should be tailored to the times. It is inevitable to strategically transition from "buying" to "manufacturing" in some key areas. Enterprises should focus on "buying" in certain areas, cooperate for mutual benefit, and adhere to small-scale innovation in segmented areas as a breakthrough point to achieve breakthroughs in "manufacturing" and gradually gain autonomy.
After all, in the long run, having independent chip manufacturing capabilities can give mobile phone manufacturers greater control over design, performance, and cost, and having their own chips can also solve supply difficulties.
From a practical perspective, it takes a process from "buying" to "making". But we still need to be aware that it is the trend for domestic enterprises to achieve independent and controllable technology and industrial chain. Of course, more importantly, chips are industries that require industry chain cooperation, and domestic enterprises need to work together to strengthen cooperation and grow together.