Founder of Geely is looking at making smartphones by 2023

You may know Geely as the owner of Volvo and maker of the recent Proton SUVs, but it seems that its chairman, Eric Li, is looking to expand into the competitive market of premium smartphones. He will be launching a new company, with a tongue twister of a name: Hubei Xingji Shidai Technology Co. Ltd. to spearhead his smartphone ambitions. The smartphone company will have its headquarters in Wuhan, a city which HONOR also calls home.

Eric Li is reportedly not shy to place big bets on futuristic ventures like flying cars and helicopter taxis, although pushing into a market that’s already dominated by the likes of Apple and Xiaomi in China’s domestic market might not be the wisest of decisions. Eric Li believes otherwise though:

“There is a close connection in technologies within intelligent vehicle cockpits and smartphone technologies. The major trend in the coming future is to create user ecosystems across borders and provide users with a more convenient, smarter and seamlessly connected multi-screen experience.”

It will be interesting to see if the smartphones from Hubei Xingji Shidai will feature unique features baked in to pair up with Geely cars. Geely cars are “smart” with Geely’s in-house GKUI platform, with its systems even being a part of Proton’s “Hi Proton” feature. Geely even has the experience at developing processors, with their subsidiary ECarX developing the E01 and E02 SoCs in partnership with MediaTek. The chips are what’s powering the infotainment systems in the Proton X50 and X70.

The company is reportedly looking at releasing its first smartphone in 2023, with a target sales of 3 million units in its first year. It will reportedly be funded by a 10 billion CNY investment, with the company targeting the same figure for revenue in its first year. Assuming that we will only be seeing one smartphone in 2023, to achieve 10 billion CNY revenue with 3 million units sold, each device will come up to around 3333 CNY (~RM2161), which is pretty reasonable, considering that they are targeting the “premium segment.”

Analysts believe that the brand recognition that Geely enjoys will trickle down to its smartphone brand, and it might be quite the strategic time to enter the premium smartphone market. HUAWEI’s dominance in that area has withered away no thanks to the US sanctions, so the void left by the tech giant might be suitably filled up by Geely. I do wonder if the brand will target global markets, or just China’s domestic smartphone scene though. Well, I guess all we need to do is wait.

Source

Pokdepinion: Why don’t they just buy up a smartphone maker to get started faster? I would recommend checking out LG to see if they have any remnants of their smartphone business they want to sell.