发布自家处理器，小米能靠此挽回颓势吗？

小米CEO雷军在北京的一次产品发布会上介绍小米手机。该公司90%以上的收入来自于智能手机销售。

曾经红得发紫的中国智能手机创业公司小米近来遭遇了销量滑坡。不过昨天小米公司宣布，将自行生产用于智能手机的处理器芯片。这一决定究竟有多重要呢？

首先，此举将使小米成为继苹果、三星和华为（这三家公司也握有全球最大的智能手机市场份额）之后，第四家有能力自产芯片的手机制造商。至于这一决定究竟能给手机市场带来多大影响，则取决于你怎样看待小米之前的发展路径。

从2014年年底到现在，小米还没有进行过任何新的融资。当时，它以高达450亿美元的估值让全球科技行业都吓了一大跳。如果小米改在今天进行融资，它的估值可能要比这个数字低得多。2015年，小米的营收入表现平平，2016年的手机出货量更是令人失望，小米干脆选择了不披露去年的具体销售数据。最近，小米在智能家居市场上的尝试即便不说是失败了，起码看起来也非常令人失望。最近几个月来，围绕小米最值得注意的一则新闻，就是该公司知名度最高的一名国际高管雨果·巴拉从公司离职了，回国加盟了Facebook。

小米创始人雷军在本周二的一场新闻发布会上表示：“对于行业内的任何一家公司来说，处理器芯片都是手机行业技术的制高点。”据称小米只用两年多的时间就做出了自研芯片。

虽然智能手机的处理器对于改善电池性能、提高运行速度和优化整体功能至关重要，但它们本身并不能拉动智能手机的销量。小米一度凭借在线销售模式和廉价的组件，超越了苹果等竞争对手。但过去一年半的时间里，小米的本土竞争对手纷纷效仿这些策略，早已在中国市场取得了遥遥领先的优势。

现在发布处理器对于小米来说或许已经为时已晚，很难再凭借更高的手机性能吸引新的“米粉”。第三季度，小米在中国市场的份额大幅下滑42%，排在Oppo、Vivo和华为之后，位居第四位。

小米在全球市场的竞争中也已经处于下风。小米曾经是市场份额排在第三位的智能手机厂商，如今却被挤出了前五，被中国手机厂商华为取代。华为利用规模庞大的电信网络业务，在全世界扩大智能手机销售，获得了重要的市场地位，取得了许多人心目中小米本应达到的成就。

当然，这款名为澎湃S1的小米处理器，在中国依旧广受欢迎。据雷军在周二表示，北京市政府给予了该项目财政支持，并且中国中央政府多年来也一直在推动建立本土的半导体产业。

但这款处理器对于其他市场的意义不大，在这些市场，小米依旧要面临市场预期带来的压力。（财富中文网）

译者：朴成奎

Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun promotes his company’s smartphones at a product-release event in Beijing. Smartphones account for more than 90% of Xiaomi’s revenue.

Xiaomi, the formerly hot Chinese smartphone startup now struggling with declining sales, announced yesterday that it is manufacturing its own chipsets for phones. How important is this, really?

The move would let Xiaomi join the ranks of Apple, Samsung, and Huawei (which hold the world’s top three smartphone market share positions) as the only smartphone makers who create their own processors. But how much impact you think it will have probably depends on how you felt about Xiaomi’s chances before.

The company hasn’t raised new money since late 2014, when it shocked the world's tech community with a $45 billion valuation. If it were to raise money today, it would likely be at a far lower valuation. In 2015, Xiaomi’s revenue was flat, and in 2016 smartphone shipments were so disappointing the company chose not to release figures about them. A recent push into ‘smart’ household products looks disappointing if not doomed. And the most notable news surrounding the company over the last few months was the departure of one of its best-known employees, Hugo Barra, for Facebook.

Xiaomi’s founder Lei Jun said at a press event Tuesday, “The ability to create its own chipsets is the pinnacle achievement for any smartphone company.” The Xiaomi processor had been in the works for just over two years.

While processors are important for optimizing battery performance, speed, and the overall function of a smartphone, they don’t by themselves drive sales of smartphones. And in its home country, Xiaomi is facing competitors who have leapfrogged past it over the past year and a half by copying the very model of online-selling and inexpensive components that Xiaomi once used to surpass rivals, including Apple.

In releasing its processor now, Xiaomi may be too late to win over new fans with the better performance of its smartphones. In China, Xiaomi’s market share plummeted during the third quarter by 42%, to rank fourth overall, behind Oppo, Vivo, and Huawei.

Its plan for worldwide relevance has also been sidelined. Once the third largest smartphone maker by market share, Xiaomi has fallen outside the top five, replaced by another Chinese maker, Huawei, which has used a massive telecom network business to expand smartphone sales around the world, gaining the market presence that many thought Xiaomi once might achieve.

Still, Xiaomi processor, called Surge S1, is being celebrated in China. Beijing’s local government supported it financially, Lei Jun said Tuesday, and China’s central government has for years pushed for the creation of an indigenous semiconductor industry.

But the processor means little to the rest of the world, where Xiaomi continues to struggle under the weight of expectations.