Hangzhou-based Hikvision, the world's largest surveillance-camera maker, will release PCs and laptops, Chinese tech website Leifeng.com quoted several Hikvision insiders as saying.
As a security vendor with no experience in the PC field, this layout also has to make people curious: Is Hikvision going too far in a completely different field?
"Even without considering the external factors such as the list of US entities, Hikvision's PC and notebook products are quite natural."
An industry expert analyzed that Hikvision has already met most of the foundations of productization and material integration around more than ten core components of PCs.
1. On the system side, you can choose Deepin Linux and other systems, which have been successfully applied to Huawei, Honor, Xiaomi and other products.
2. On the storage side, since 2006, Hikvision has jointly developed monitoring hard disks with Seagate, and later also has a lot of intersection with Western Digital in red disk technology; today, Hitachi's helium disk technology has been mastered by Hikvision.
3. On the computing power side, the CPU performance of Zhao Xin Microelectronics currently ranks at the forefront of Chinese-made processors, and the measured level reaches i5. As one of the representatives of the Chinese-made cores of x86 architecture, it can be used with other processors of ARM architecture. Double insurance for Hikvision. Compared with Huawei Kunpeng's ARM-based processor made in China, they complement each other.
4. As for SSD, the Yangtze River storage has realized particle autonomy, which can solve Hikvision's main control chips and particles, such as c2000 pro, etc., and has a large cost advantage.
The above is where the HikvisionSSD address is located, and Yangtze River Storage is not far away from this.
Beyond technology, look at the trend. Why did Hikvision choose to invest heavily in this market segment?
The expert believes that there are three main reasons.
First, China-made's voice is getting stronger.
In the past few years, China has been raising the power of science and technology, but this road has not been smooth sailing, and Sino-US relations seem to have become the biggest variable.
Previously, the U.S. Department of Commerce also included eight Chinese companies, including Hikvision, in the blacklist of trade controls, forbidding cooperation with U.S. companies, and repression of Chinese technology companies.
Although the U.S. technology blockade has brought a lot of blow to some Chinese technology companies, it has also exposed China's backwardness in some high-tech fields and its dependence on developed countries.
Constrained by external environment, the process of Chinese manufacturing substitution needs to be further accelerated.
Second, the incremental security market is gradually saturated.
Change is painful. Without change, there is no chance of pain.
Over the past ten years, major companies, including Hikvision, have experienced a relatively comfortable period of their own development, relying on China's demographic dividend and large infrastructure bonus.
After the comfort period, the most direct manifestation is the strength of the company's survivability. If today is still eating away the past, it is likely that it will face long-term pain.
A transformation and upgrade from high-speed external development to internal high-efficiency development is imperative, which also forces companies to carry out a "self-revolution".
So I see that companies including Hikvision have been actively seeking change, and are working on all aspects of AGV and automotive electronics.
Third, PC and notebook are the best breakthrough points that Hikvision can currently see and do.
Right now, looking at the power of the global PC market, it can be roughly divided into two categories: one is the traditional manufacturers mainly in the form of ODM; the other is the Internet manufacturers represented by dazzling technologies such as multi-screen.
Either they have low technical barriers or a significant product premium.
Secondly, terminal products such as PCs have become an indispensable production tool to support the implementation of security scenarios. For users, the use of relatively mature technologies and superior supply chains can solve users' generally low-value and consumable value needs.
Looking back at Hikvision itself, it has 20 years of security genes, which is enough to clearly understand the actual needs of B and P end users; and its subsidiary Fluorite has penetrated the consumer psychology of C end users through more than 10 years of intensive cultivation. And habits.
In other words:
Whether it is B-side, P-side, or C-side, if you choose a common product such as PC, Hikvision can achieve full coverage on the home side, enterprise side, and industry side in the shortest time.
With one investment, the three ends benefit. At the same time, he can also take advantage of the current trend of autonomous and controllable technology. In his words, "This time Hikvision may cross the border, it may really be possible to hang on to the sea."
For a long time, Hikvision has been putting forward a point of view, for technology investment, not too fast or too slow, just half a step ahead of the market.
Three years ago, Hu Yangzhong, president of Hikvision, determined that "the industry has been shaped and Hikvision cannot be subverted, just as the computer industry subverts Lenovo and the communication industry subverts Huawei."
Hikvision net profit increased 9.2% in 2019 on the back of solid revenue growth, it said Friday.
It made a net profit of 12.40 billion yuan (US$1.77 billion), as revenue grew 16% to CNY57.75 billion.
Hikvision said it maintained a high level of research-and-development spending and enhanced its operational efficiency over the past year.
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