智能手機(jī)供應(yīng)商被迫轉(zhuǎn)向多元化

When the Apple tree is shaken, the effect is felt in the lower branches — the myriad companies supplying the hundreds of parts that go into a smartphone.

當(dāng)蘋果公司(Apple)這棵大樹顫動(dòng)時(shí)，下面的枝條——為智能手機(jī)提供數(shù)以百計(jì)部件的眾多公司——都會(huì)受到波及。

The tree has taken some shaking this year. Of the two companies that dominate the smartphone sector, Apple last quarter reported the first annual decline in iPhone sales volumes. Samsung has been burnt by the furore around the exploding Galaxy Note 7.

今年，這棵大樹出現(xiàn)了些許顫動(dòng)。作為在智能手機(jī)領(lǐng)域占主導(dǎo)地位的兩家公司，蘋果上一季度報(bào)告iPhone年度銷量首次出現(xiàn)下滑，而三星(Samsung)還在承受Galaxy Note 7爆炸所引發(fā)激憤的煎熬。

More broadly, Gartner, the consultancy, forecasts smartphone sales to rise just 7 per cent this year, half the rate of 2015, adding to worries that the vast industry formed about the production of smartphones will soon be starved of growth.

更廣泛來(lái)看，咨詢公司高德納(Gartner)預(yù)測(cè)今年智能手機(jī)銷量將只增長(zhǎng)7%，僅為2015年增速的一半，加重了對(duì)于圍繞智能手機(jī)生產(chǎn)形成的龐大產(chǎn)業(yè)很快將難覓增長(zhǎng)的擔(dān)憂。

“With sales of 1.5bn a year, smartphones are a monster market,” says Steven Pelayo, tech analyst at HSBC, who points to the relatively smaller PC and tablet markets. “It’s been a supercycle that has cannibalised everything. But what’s the next big driver?”

“一年銷量達(dá)15億部，智能手機(jī)是一個(gè)巨大市場(chǎng)，”匯豐(HSBC)科技分析師史蒂文•佩拉約(Steven Pelayo)說(shuō)，他以相對(duì)較小的個(gè)人電腦和平板電腦市場(chǎng)為對(duì)比。“這是一個(gè)消化了一切的超級(jí)周期。但下一股巨大推力是什么?”

That question is ricocheting around the boardrooms and factory floors across Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and China. Apple alone relies on more than 200 suppliers for its products, the vast majority based in Asia.

這一問(wèn)題正在日本、臺(tái)灣、韓國(guó)及中國(guó)大陸的董事會(huì)會(huì)議室、工廠車間內(nèi)回蕩。僅蘋果一家的產(chǎn)品就依賴超過(guò)200家供應(yīng)商，其中絕大多數(shù)位于亞洲。

As chief executive of Japan Display, which generates 85 per cent of its revenues from smartphone makers and half from Apple, Mitsuru Homma knows the quandary only too well.

日本顯示器公司(Japan Display, JDI)首席執(zhí)行官本間充(Mitsuru Homma)最清楚這一窘境，該公司85%的收入都來(lái)自智能手機(jī)制造商，一半的收入來(lái)自蘋果。

“If we stay with smartphones, then five to 10 years later JDI will probably no longer exist,” he says. “I feel very much the sense of crisis.”

“如果我們繼續(xù)守著智能手機(jī)，那5到10年后，JDI很可能將不復(fù)存在，”本間充說(shuō)，“我有很強(qiáng)的危機(jī)感。”

Even the Japanese government, JDI’s main shareholder, is in agreement, he adds. The display maker is looking to diversify into supplying the devices linked to the internet of things and artificial intelligence.

甚至作為JDI主要股東的日本政府也持相同看法，他補(bǔ)充說(shuō)。這家顯示屏制造商正尋求將業(yè)務(wù)擴(kuò)展至供應(yīng)與物聯(lián)網(wǎng)和人工智能相關(guān)的設(shè)備。

Mr Homma sees opportunities in self-driving cars, which will require interactive screens and maybe entire smart dashboards as well as medical monitors where the highest resolution can be, literally, a matter of life or death, and virtual reality.

本間充在自動(dòng)駕駛汽車、醫(yī)用顯示器以及虛擬現(xiàn)實(shí)領(lǐng)域發(fā)現(xiàn)了機(jī)遇。自動(dòng)駕駛汽車需要交互式屏幕或者一整塊智能儀表盤，醫(yī)用顯示器的最高分辨率實(shí)際上可能事關(guān)生死。

Cars also feature in Sony’s plans, along with the internet of things. The Japanese consumer electronics group staked its fortunes on image sensors and now boasts a 40 per cent market share by value. “Image sensors are input devices, so we believe there are new markets out there,” says Tsutomu Haruta, general manager. 在索尼(Sony)的規(guī)劃中，汽車與物聯(lián)網(wǎng)也占重要地位。這家日本消費(fèi)電子集團(tuán)將命運(yùn)押在影像傳感器上，如今自稱

按價(jià)值算占有這一市場(chǎng)40%的份額。總經(jīng)理春田勉(Tsutomu Haruta)表示：“影像傳感器屬于輸入設(shè)備，因此我們相信這里存在新的市場(chǎng)。”

Sony’s advantages, according to Shoichi Kitayama, general manager, are that its sensors can see bikes and people in the dark and pictures remain sharp even in high temperatures. Come 2025, he says, the average car will have two or three image sensors. At the top end that will stretch to 10.

索尼汽車團(tuán)隊(duì)負(fù)責(zé)人北山尚一(Shoichi Kitayama)認(rèn)為，索尼的優(yōu)勢(shì)在于，其傳感器能在黑暗中看到自行車和行人，且圖像即便在高溫環(huán)境中也能保持銳利。他說(shuō)，到2025年，每輛汽車平均將配備兩或三個(gè)影像傳感器，最多的將配備10個(gè)。

“The economies of scale will be comparable to smartphones and will come close in terms of wafers used,” he says.

“其規(guī)模經(jīng)濟(jì)將可以與智能手機(jī)媲美，以所用的晶片衡量將接近后者，”他說(shuō)。

But he concedes those markets are new and untested — and for now are going to be smaller than the smartphone bounty.

但他承認(rèn)，這些新的市場(chǎng)還未經(jīng)檢驗(yàn)，目前看來(lái)要比智能手機(jī)市場(chǎng)小。

Quite substantially smaller on Mr Pelayo’s reckoning. The semiconductor content per car is forecast to double from $350 to $700 by 2020 — equivalent to adding more than two iPhones, with about $150 in chip content apiece, in the average car over the next four years, or roughly one-half of an iPhone every year.

根據(jù)佩拉約的估算是要小得多。到2020年，每輛汽車搭載的半導(dǎo)體的價(jià)值預(yù)計(jì)將從350美元翻倍至700美元——相當(dāng)于未來(lái)四年平均每輛汽車增加兩部iPhone多一點(diǎn)(每部iPhone的芯片部分價(jià)值約150美元)，或者每年增加半部iPhone。

With about 80m cars shipped a year, this would equate to about 40m more iPhones “or less than two weeks of smartphone production”.

汽車每年的銷量約有8000萬(wàn)輛，因此這相當(dāng)于增加約4000萬(wàn)部iPhone，“或者不到兩周的智能手機(jī)產(chǎn)量”。

The numbers pan out similarly miserably for other applications: the 2m virtual reality headsets expected to be sold this year; the 12m annual servers sold or even the 20m Apple watches.

其他方面應(yīng)用的數(shù)字也同樣慘淡：今年虛擬現(xiàn)實(shí)頭盔的預(yù)計(jì)銷量為200萬(wàn)套，服務(wù)器銷量為1200萬(wàn)臺(tái)，就連蘋果手表的銷量也只有2000萬(wàn)塊。

Some are undeterred by the punier numbers, pointing out that smartphones are still in the picture for now, albeit growing slower and with an evolving modus operandi.

一些人并未被智能手機(jī)弱于從前的業(yè)績(jī)數(shù)字嚇倒，他們指出目前智能手機(jī)仍不容忽視，盡管增速放緩，且運(yùn)作方式發(fā)生變化。

“You’ve got to look at what the smartphone brands are doing,” says Cherry Ma, tech analyst at CLSA. She spots two trends that will drive growth in certain areas: smartphone makers upgrading cameras, sound and aesthetics in an attempt to win share; and a consumer swing towards Chinese handset manufacturers.

里昂證券(CLSA)科技分析師Cherry Ma說(shuō)：“你必須看看智能手機(jī)品牌在做什么。”她指出兩大趨勢(shì)將推動(dòng)一些領(lǐng)域的增長(zhǎng)：智能手機(jī)制造商升級(jí)攝像頭、音效及外觀，以圖贏得市場(chǎng)份額;消費(fèi)者轉(zhuǎn)向中國(guó)手機(jī)制造商。

This year will see as many as 20 handsets featuring dual cameras offering better image quality, up from just one device last year. While global handset sales have grown 1-2 per cent this year, Chinese brands combined are growing at 20 per cent, she says.

今年將有多達(dá)20款手機(jī)配備影像質(zhì)量更佳的雙攝像頭，而去年僅有一款。雖然今年全球手機(jī)銷量?jī)H增長(zhǎng)1%至2%，但中國(guó)品牌手機(jī)總銷量正在以20%的速度增長(zhǎng)，她說(shuō)。

“Even though the smartphone market is getting saturated, there is growth in dual camera phones so there are more image sensors in each phone,” says Sony’s Mr Haruta. He adds that while the number of smartphone players has been winnowed down, the top players are focused on cameras.

索尼的春田勉表示：“雖然智能手機(jī)市場(chǎng)正日益飽和，但雙攝像頭手機(jī)還在增長(zhǎng)，因此每部手機(jī)都會(huì)有更多的影像傳感器。”雖然很多智能手機(jī)制造商已被淘汰，但頂級(jí)廠商仍專注攝像頭，他補(bǔ)充說(shuō)。

“Requests have changed, even among the Chinese smartphone manufacturers. They all want special cameras,” he says. “Even among the cheaper makers, they are also looking to expand into high-end and are at the stage where they want to add more value.”

“要求已經(jīng)改變，即便中國(guó)智能手機(jī)制造商也是。他們都想要特別的攝像頭，”他說(shuō)，“即使是生產(chǎn)較廉價(jià)手機(jī)的制造商，也在尋求進(jìn)入高端產(chǎn)品，希望增加更多的價(jià)值。”

That trend, which has been detrimental to Apple’s sales in China in particular, is helping buoy some of the top suppliers: not just those with brand names such as Sony, but also the companies investing in research and development to gain market share in niche or proprietary hardware.

這一趨勢(shì)對(duì)蘋果的在華銷售尤其不利，但正幫助支撐一些頂級(jí)供應(yīng)商：不僅包括索尼等大品牌，還包括投資研發(fā)以圖在利基或?qū)＠布I(lǐng)域獲得市場(chǎng)份額的公司。

Ms Ma points to Sunny Optical, which is ramping up quantity and quality of its camera modules; while the desire for better sound plays to AAC Technologies, the Hong Kong-listed Apple supplier that is beefing up capital expenditure.

Cheery Ma提到了舜宇光學(xué)科技(Sunny Optical)和瑞聲科技(AAC Technologies)。前者不斷提升其攝像模塊的數(shù)量和質(zhì)量，后者則受益于人們對(duì)更好音效的追求，這家香港上市的蘋果供應(yīng)商正在擴(kuò)大資本支出。

Higher resolution and sound quality, added to more complicated specifications, means higher average prices for suppliers as well as boosting quantity, says Ms Ma. “With acoustics, there is no one standard design. Vendors have to come up with their own design, so have to spend a lot on R&D,” she says.

Cheery Ma表示，更復(fù)雜的技術(shù)參數(shù)、更高的分辨率和更完美的音質(zhì)，對(duì)供應(yīng)商而言意味著更高的平均價(jià)格，還可以增加銷量。“在音響效果方面，沒(méi)有統(tǒng)一的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)設(shè)計(jì)。供應(yīng)商必須拿出自己的設(shè)計(jì)，因此不得不在研發(fā)上花很多錢，”她說(shuō)。

That — like the brave new world of self-driving cars and self-filling washing machines — may help but a gap remains. Tech analysts have identified a plateau in smartphone design outside more incremental updates in advanced imaging, which means that many people are now happy to keep hold of the smartphones already in their pockets for longer.

這——就像無(wú)人駕駛汽車和自動(dòng)添衣洗衣機(jī)的美麗新世界——或許會(huì)有所幫助，但差距依然存在。技術(shù)分析師發(fā)現(xiàn)，除了在高級(jí)成像方面逐步升級(jí)之外，智能手機(jī)設(shè)計(jì)陷入停滯，這意味著如今許多人樂(lè)于更長(zhǎng)時(shí)間保留已在他們口袋里的智能手機(jī)。

At least until they are given a new, good reason to upgrade. Suppliers to the once-unstoppable smartphone makers will need to tighten their belts as they wait for the next wave of popular consumer innovation.

至少留到他們有一個(gè)充分的新理由進(jìn)行升級(jí)。一度勢(shì)不可擋的智能手機(jī)制造商的供應(yīng)商將需要勒緊腰帶，等待下一波大眾消費(fèi)創(chuàng)新到來(lái)。

“Over time, we suspect supply chain growth will be driven by an ever broader array of products, but no individual segment will probably catch the smartphone market any time soon,” says Mr Pelayo.

佩拉約說(shuō)：“我們預(yù)測(cè)，隨著時(shí)間推移，供應(yīng)鏈增長(zhǎng)將受到更廣種類產(chǎn)品的驅(qū)動(dòng)，但可能沒(méi)有任何一個(gè)領(lǐng)域能很快追上智能手機(jī)市場(chǎng)。”