Intel is cautiously implementing their new strategy in the mobile market. Although it has not been officially acknowledged, judging from their recent moves, they are getting closer to smaller brands, hoping to support and utilize these smaller brands to promote the development of the Intel ecosystem.
On October 10th, Intel collaborated with Lamobo and TaiDian to launch several Intel chip-based tablet computers. These products are all priced at the thousand-yuan level, and paired with Intel's brand and performance advantages, they offer excellent cost-effectiveness. Compared with similar configuration products from major brands, their prices are at least half lower.
Lamobo and TaiDian both started based on Shenzhen’s advanced manufacturing capabilities. Their brands are slightly stronger than white-label brands but are far from being well-known brands. This is an asymmetrical cooperative relationship. In a recent interview with Lamobo General Manager Wan Qiuyang, he mentioned that Intel's humble attitude surprised him, something that had never happened before.
Intel's strategy can be described as "encircling the cities from the countryside," similar to Huawei's approach to entering international markets. When it is difficult to break through in the mainstream market, it might be better to build good relationships with smaller markets.
Previously, they collaborated with first-tier brands in the mobile market and launched some impressive products, such as Lenovo K900 and Samsung Galaxy Tab 3. However, the problem is that large manufacturers' resources will inevitably remain in the mainstream ARM end, and cooperation with Intel is more exploratory and symbolic. They are unwilling to abandon a mature platform to take risks with a new one.
The reason for choosing tablets instead of smartphones also involves consideration. The smartphone market has already become relatively stable with high barriers, while the tablet market is different—it remains chaotic and is experiencing rapid growth.
Data shows that tablets priced below 1000 yuan have a significant impact on the entire market. In the IDC statistics for Q2 of this year and last year (as shown in the above figure), excluding the top five manufacturers, the sales volume of Others increased from 7.4 million units last year to 17.5 million units. This includes Windows tablets, Amazon tablets, and white-label tablets, and the changes in the first two are not significant. Therefore, much of this growth can be attributed to low-cost Android tablets.
Cooperating with these manufacturers may bring unprecedented opportunities to Intel. Due to this asymmetrical cooperation, OEM manufacturers will fully support Intel. Lamobo's number of new tablet releases this year has significantly decreased compared to last year, and they have launched four Intel chip-based tablets at once. More crucially, they have a great advantage: speed.
According to Wan Qiuyang, the development of Lamobo i9 started at the end of July and shipments began in October, taking only two and a half months in total, which is an astonishing speed. Upon further investigation into their cooperation model, it was found that Lamobo only handles structural and appearance design, while chips, software, quality control, project management, etc., are almost entirely led by Intel.
In addition, Intel is responsible for market expansion, promotion, customer referrals, and virtually everything both in front of and behind the scenes. Of course, Lamobo itself has more than 200 offline stores and online channels, which will accelerate product sales. However, Intel's "generosity" clearly goes beyond what a normal chip supplier would do, and this has facilitated the miraculous speed of going from collaboration to product listing in just two and a half months, which is faster than MediaTek's "turnkey" model.
If Intel rolls out this model and allows more small brands to join in, launching a large number of new products at extremely low costs and in very short times, this force will have an impact on the tablet market. After all, manufacturers like Lamobo actually have a high shipping volume, having sold tens of millions of devices in the MP3 era. In the mobile era, they have won many users with their affordable prices. Moreover, as I mentioned earlier, the low-cost tablet market is currently booming.
What Intel needs to do is increase their workload, invest a large amount of financial and human resources, and possibly face brand dilution. But if they can create a future, it might be worth it.
The title image comes from Lamobo.