Recently, Yu Hang, a Nubia executive said in an interview with The Paper that they had set up a professional technology team within the company. It happened in the third quarter of last year and will focus on the hardware technology for the metaverse.
If you are not aware, Nubia is one of ZTE’s three subsidiaries. Apart from this, there are also the original ZTE brand and Red Magic gaming terminals brand. According to Ni Fei, Senior Vice President of ZTE, Nubia is more suitable for the younger generation whereas the Red Magic brand is designed for game enthusiasts.
As for its performance in the market, last year, the company managed to ship over 100 million smartphones, a year-on-year increase of 150%. Moreover, 50% of the mentioned number was using independently developed chips. Its CPE (customer front-end equipment) ranks first in the world in terms of market share. Apart from smartphones, the manufacturer also designs and sells smart home appliances. Last year, it shipped 52% more smart home appliances reaching cumulative shipments of 580 million units.
Well, returning to the Red Magic brand, it is going to build up assets for the metaverse. In 2022, ZTE will also release a number of devices under the brand, including new smartphones and its own VR headset.
“At the end of 2021, we have formed an internal small team and have started the development of VR-related hardware technology and software technology. Although we feel that VR technology will take some time to cultivate the market, for the direction of the game business, it is very important for Red Magic to come. It is extremely critical and important, so our investment based on this area is also at the forefront, and we will continue to invest firmly.” Yu Hang said that the Red Magic brand has accumulated technology in both hardware and software in the metaverse field.
Ni Fei believes that the mobile phone industry is still full of uncertainties in 2022, and ZTE is cautiously optimistic and moving forward. “We have a strong supply chain foundation, and we have maintained a relatively good supply chain activity in 2021 with an overall shortage. Hopefully, this will continue to play a role in 2022.”
By the way, recently, we learned about the features of the upcoming Red Magic 7 gaming smartphone. The latter will be a very powerful gaming handset powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, a 6.8-inch 1080P resolution OLED straight screen supporting a refresh rate of 144Hz or higher, and a 4500mAh, which ought to come with the industry’s fastest charging solution of 165W.
Interestingly, there have been some rumors proving that the company will also launch its own folding screen smartphone.
Apart from the mentioned models, the company will release the brand’s first-ever monitor. We guess it will have a 3-side borderless design coming with strong Red Magic brand design elements. And we also think it will support a 165Hz refresh rate. Nubia also suggested it could be used alongside an appropriately chunky, serious-looking first-party router.
