Produced by Leadar Finance | Written by Ding Yu | Edited by Meng Shuai

Meizu, a smartphone brand that once thrived alongside an entire generation, is now navigating through another "tough phase."

On the morning of February 27, Meizu Technology, which had recently been entangled in rumors of its "smartphone team disbanding," issued a statement. The company not only vehemently denied these rumors but also officially unveiled its strategic transformation plans to the public.

According to the announcement from Meizu Technology, the company will halt its in-house development of new domestic smartphone hardware and pivot towards an AI-driven software product development approach.

Since its inception over two decades ago in 2003, Meizu once stood at the forefront of China's domestic smartphone industry, captivating countless consumers. However, amidst the intensifying competition in the smartphone market, Meizu gradually lost its competitive edge, with its market share continuously dwindling.

In 2022, Meizu was acquired by Geely, and the company's focus gradually shifted towards the in-car system, Flyme Auto. Although Meizu has since released several smartphone models, they have failed to make a significant impact in the market.

Perhaps, as Li Nan, Meizu's former Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), once remarked, Meizu's downfall "was primarily due to a series of strategic blunders"—failing to secure a partnership with Alibaba, missing out on the electric vehicle trend, and not making bold moves to thrive in the AI era.

Meizu Swiftly Refutes Rumors, Announces Comprehensive Overhaul

In the strategic transformation announcement released on February 27, Meizu Technology categorically denied recent online rumors and provided a detailed overview of the company's transformation direction.

Addressing online speculation and false reports about Meizu's "bankruptcy and restructuring, business closure, and withdrawal from the smartphone market," Meizu stated its resolve to take legal action against those responsible for creating and disseminating such rumors to maintain a clear online environment.

Meizu acknowledged that transitioning from pursuing scale to achieving high-quality development and finding a sustainable path for healthy operations and continuous innovation has become the ultimate challenge for all levels of the organization before and after the Spring Festival.

After careful deliberation and comprehensive assessment, Meizu officially announced in the statement that it would halt its in-house development of new domestic smartphone hardware and actively collaborate with third-party hardware partners, while its existing business operations would remain unaffected.

Regarding the decision to suspend in-house development of new domestic smartphone hardware, Meizu explained that the domestic smartphone market has become fiercely competitive in recent years, with many brands opting for strategic retrenchment. Despite Meizu's best efforts, the sustained surge in memory prices has made the normal commercialization of its upcoming new products unfeasible.

However, Meizu emphasized that the suspension of new domestic smartphone products is not a farewell but a well-considered strategic shift. The company is poised to embark on a comprehensive strategic transformation.

In the new AI era, Meizu will transition from a hardware-centric approach to an AI-driven software product development direction and build a robust enterprise based on the Flyme open ecosystem.

Meizu believes that proactively hitting the pause button will allow it to concentrate resources and enable the Flyme software ecosystem to empower, in a more open manner, intelligent devices across various scenarios, industries, enterprises, and brands with its system ecosystem capabilities, thereby extending the exceptional Meizu Flyme experience to a broader user base.

According to Meizu, its in-car system, Flyme Auto, has already achieved remarkable success. Last year, Flyme Auto surpassed 2.26 million installations, becoming China's leading intelligent cockpit system. This year, it will collaborate with Geely Group, aiming for 3 million cooperative installations, while also advancing collaborations with multiple internationally renowned automotive groups both domestically and internationally.

Meizu hopes that the Flyme+AI capability foundation can, through initiatives like Powered by Flyme, foster extensive open and win-win cooperation with partners across various industries, achieving even more remarkable performances in business directions such as all-scenario operating systems and intelligent mobility.

At the same time, Meizu revealed that its overseas smartphone business, AI glasses, and PANDAER tech lifestyle brand business will also commence market-oriented operations.

To ensure the ongoing protection of user rights, Meizu promised that its related hardware products would remain available for purchase, and the services and rights in Meizu's operating stores would remain unchanged. Additionally, the Flyme and after-sales service teams would continue to provide official after-sales, repair, and system security update services for existing users, safeguarding the rights of all users.

Meizu, Once a Pioneer in China's Domestic Smartphone Industry, Has Seen Its Glory Fade

According to Tianyancha, Zhuhai Meizu Technology Co., Ltd., was established in 2003. With the Flyme operating system as its core, the company has built a comprehensive smart ecosystem encompassing smartphones, smart wearables, AR/VR devices, and smart home products.

Before 2010, Meizu was hailed as the "pioneer" of China's domestic smartphone industry with its first self-developed smartphone, the Meizu M8, and was labeled as "small yet exquisite."

Meizu's early success was inseparable from the entrepreneurial vision of its founder, Huang Zhang. Public information reveals that Huang Zhang, whose real name is Huang Xiuzhang, was born in Meizhou, Guangdong, in the 1970s.

Due to his near-obsessive fascination with electronics, Huang failed to complete his high school education and was even "kicked out" of his home by his father, embarking on a journey of independent entrepreneurship.

Before venturing into the electronics industry, Huang engaged in various low-paying jobs, such as working as a dock laborer. By chance, he caught the attention of a manager at Aiqin, a Singaporean joint venture company, and became a technician, thus entering the consumer electronics industry.

With his outstanding performance, Huang once rose to the position of general manager at Aiqin. However, due to differences in management philosophy, Huang eventually left the company. Subsequently, Huang keenly captured the enormous potential of the MP3 market and founded Meizu.

Known for frequently marching to the beat of his own drum in the business world, Huang was dubbed "eccentric" by outsiders. In Huang's view, products should primarily win consumer acclaim through superior technology and outstanding functionality, rather than relying on a barrage of advertising to open up the market.

With this philosophy, Meizu quickly rose to prominence in the MP3 market with its high-quality products, achieving remarkable business growth and becoming a domestic leader. In 2006, the company's sales exceeded 1 billion yuan, earning it the title of the "No. 1 Domestic MP3 Brand."

When the tide of the smartphone era surged in, Huang once again demonstrated extraordinary insight and decisiveness, abandoning the MP3 market and diving into smartphone research and development.

In 2009, Meizu launched its first smartphone, the Meizu M8. As the first large-screen, full-touch smartphone in China, the Meizu M8 achieved sales of over 500 million yuan within five months of its launch, becoming a dark horse in the smartphone market at the time.

Subsequently, Meizu continuously released several classic models, with simple and smooth user experiences becoming its core competitiveness, and accumulating a vast fan base.

However, unexpectedly, in 2010, at the peak of his career, Huang Zhang, regarded as the top product manager in China's domestic smartphone industry, "retired in success" and withdrew from the company's daily management.

In the following years, competition in the domestic smartphone market became increasingly fierce. In addition to traditional international giants like Apple and Samsung, numerous domestic smartphone manufacturers also stepped up their efforts and caught up rapidly.

Even Xiaomi, which Huang once called a "fraud" and "thief," achieved a remarkable turnaround. In 2013, while Meizu's sales just exceeded 2 million units, Xiaomi was already racing towards a target of 20 million smartphone sales.

Faced with the increasingly severe market situation, Huang returned to Meizu in 2014, serving as CEO and also designing Meizu smartphones.

To boost sales volume, Meizu, which had originally focused on high-end models, adopted a "model deluge" strategy relying on the Mblu brand.

Initially, this strategy proved highly effective. In 2015 and 2016, Meizu's smartphone sales exceeded 20 million units for two consecutive years, and the company achieved annual profitability in 2016.

However, after 2017, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse. Affected by intensified industry competition, strategic misjudgments by management, and other factors, Meizu's sales continued to decline, falling below 10 million units in 2018, and its market share gradually shrank.

According to industry institution statistics, in 2023, Meizu's global smartphone sales were approximately 2.8 million to 3 million units, with a global market share of less than 0.3% and a Chinese market share of only about 1%, placing it out of the mainstream smartphone brand ranks.

"Obsessive" Huang Zhang and the "Lost" Meizu

Meizu's early success was closely linked to Huang Zhang, and its decline is also hard to disentangle from Huang's personal influence. Huang's "obsession" was not only vividly reflected in his extreme control over products but also deeply ingrained in the company's management.

According to Business Magazine, from Meizu's founding in 2003 to 2014, Huang held 100% ownership of Meizu and was extremely averse to investment banks, even stating bluntly that "they are all speculators." When it came to attracting talent, he did not employ equity incentive models.

When Lei Jun introduced talent for him and advised him to offer equity to senior executives to prevent them from being poached easily, Huang responded bluntly, "If he gets poached, I can handle it myself." This talent management philosophy indirectly led to a significant loss of senior executives and technical talent at Meizu later on.

Additionally, although Huang had long remained behind the scenes, Meizu's key positions were long controlled by members of the Huang family. According to Tianyancha, to this day, the legal representative and general manager of Zhuhai Meizu Technology Co., Ltd., is still Huang Zhang's younger brother, Huang Zhipan.

Perhaps realizing the dilemma Meizu faced in its development, Huang made a comeback in 2014, serving as Meizu's CEO. At the same time, he finally "relented," changing his previous attitude and announcing that the company would introduce investments and adopt employee stock and option incentive systems to attract more talent.

According to TMTPost, around the Spring Festival in 2014, Ma Lin, Meizu's former vice president and UI design director, left with a group of key personnel to join LeTV. Bai Yongxiang, then Meizu's president, nearly left as well. In the end, Huang compromised and agreed to allocate 20% of the company's stocks to senior executives and employees, thus stabilizing the situation.

According to Tianyancha, in 2015, Meizu received a strategic investment of $650 million, with Alibaba contributing $590 million. Subsequently, Meizu completed multiple rounds of financing. By 2016, Meizu's valuation had exceeded 26 billion yuan.

Shortly after Meizu released its transformation announcement, Li Nan, Meizu's former CMO, posted on Weibo on the same day, saying, "Actually, in 2017, I realized that the entire smartphone industry would reach its peak, and the Matthew effect would become evident. Therefore, the only way to secure a ticket for the final showdown was to bind more closely with Alibaba. This was also the most important reason I tried to facilitate Alibaba's investment in Meizu at the time.

"Unfortunately, the entire system department at Meizu still wanted to generate revenue on its own, believing that the backward capabilities of one of the world's strongest internet companies were inferior to their own. Yet, this was actually Alibaba's core demand for Meizu. This led to our pair of Aces ultimately becoming ineffective.

After the failure of models like the Meizu Pro 7 in 2017 and beyond, Meizu missed precious opportunities for a comeback. Bai Yongxiang, Yang Yan, Li Nan, and other core figures at Meizu gradually faded away or left the company.

In 2022, Meizu faced another major turning point in its fate: Xingji Era, a subsidiary of Geely Holding Group, acquired a 79.09% stake in Meizu and established Xingji Meizu Group, while Huang Zhang's shareholding ratio dropped to below 10%.

However, Meizu, which had "sought refuge" with Geely, failed to regain its former glory. Although Meizu subsequently launched new smartphone series like the Meizu 20 and Meizu 21, it failed to stage a "remarkable comeback" in terms of sales.

According to data from technology research and consulting firm Omdia, in 2025, Meizu's market share in China will be less than 1%, far behind its major competitors.

After formulating this new strategic plan, what fate awaits Meizu in the future? Leadar Finance will continue to follow the story.