Meizu Technology Co., Ltd.(Chinese:Mị tộc khoa học kỹ thuật công ty hữu hạn) is a Chineseconsumer electronicsmanufacturer based inZhuhai,Guangdong.[2]Founded in 2003 byJack Wong,Meizu began as a manufacturer ofMP3 playersand laterMP4 players.In 2008, Meizu moved its focus tosmartphones.Meizu is the 11th largest smartphone manufacturer in the world, and sold over 20 million units in 2015.[2]In February 2015,Alibabainvested US$590 million in Meizu, acquiring an undisclosed minority stake.[3]

Meizu Technology Co., Ltd.
Native name
Mị tộc khoa học kỹ thuật công ty hữu hạn
Company typePrivate
IndustryConsumer electronics
Founded2003;21 years ago(2003)
FounderJack Wong
Headquarters,
China
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Jack Wong(Founder & Chairman)
Aber Bai(CEO)
Li Nan (VP Sales & Marketing)
ProductsSmartphones,MP3 player
RevenueIncreaseUS$451.5 million (2013)
DecreaseUS$-1.47 billion (2015)
OwnerGeely(2022-present)
Number of employees
Decrease868 (2019)[1]
Websitemeizu
Meizu
ChineseMị tộc khoa học kỹ thuật công ty hữu hạn
Literal meaningMeizu Technology Co., Ltd
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinMèizú Kējì Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī

In June 2022,Geelyacquired a majority stake in the company.[4]

History

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Meizu logo from 2003 to 2015

Jack Wong(Chinese:Hoàng chương;pinyin:Huáng Zhāng) established Meizu in 2003. Initially a manufacturer of MP3 players, Meizu released their first MP4 player in 2006. Their most notable MP4 player was theM6 Mini Player,which was also marketed byDane-Elecoutside China.[5]

In January 2007, Meizu announced their first smartphone,Meizu M8,which was fully released in April 2007. The Meizu M8 ran on the Mymobile operating system, based onMicrosoft Windows CE6.0. The design of the M8 was based on existing smartphone technology, such asApple'siPhone.Meizu was subsequently sued byAppledue to theft of Apple's intellectual property of the originaliPhone.An upgraded version of the Meizu M8, the Meizu M8SE, was released on October 2, 2009.

On January 1, 2011, the company released theMeizu M9,their first smartphone based on theAndroidoperating system. This device was considered to be a large commercial success in China.[6]

Meizu opened their first branch office outside mainland China inHong Kongin 2011. Later that year, they also opened a branch office inRussia.[7]

TheMeizu MXwas released on January 1, 2012, exactly one year after the M9. It was the first smartphone to feature Meizu's Flyme OS, a deeply customized version of Android. It was the first Meizu phone officially released outside mainland China, being released in Hong Kong at the same time. A quad-core version of the Meizu MX was released in June 2012.[8]

In December 2012, theMeizu MX2was released. It runs on Flyme OS 2.0 based on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. The phone was produced byFoxconnand went on sale in mainland China, Hong Kong, Russia and Israel.[9]

TheMeizu MX3was released in October 2013 and was the first smartphone to have 128GB of internal storage. On March 6, 2014, Meizu held a product launch of the Meizu MX3 in France, announcing that it would go on sale there soon. Meizu also expanded to Italy and Eastern Europe in 2014.[10]

Meizu announced theMeizu MX4on September 2, 2014. It was the first Meizu smartphone to feature aMediaTekprocessor and LTE support. The Meizu MX4 was the first Meizu smartphone to also offerAlibaba'sYun OSaside from Meizu's Flyme OS for the Chinese mainland market. Later that year, theMeizu MX4 Prowas announced, featuring aSamsung Exynosocta-core processor and a 2K+ screen.[citation needed]

In December 2014, Meizu announced theM seriesof products, with the first product being theMeizu M1 Note.The M-series of Meizu devices focus on bringing powerful features for a relatively low price. In January 2015, Meizu released the second installment in the M series of products, theMeizu M1.

Meizu logo from 2015 to 2023

On June 2, 2015, Meizu announced the successor to theMeizu M1 Note,theMeizu M2 Note.It features a physical home button and a newMediaTekocta-core processor, among some other upgraded features. After theMeizu M2 Note,is announced theMeizu M2.It features the same physical home button, and aMediaTek6753 Octa-Core processor. It comes withFlyme OS4.5 preinstalled.

The successor to theMeizu MX4was announced on June 30, 2015, during a large launch event inBeijingand is called theMeizu MX5.During that event, Meizu also announced their firstpowerbankandvirtual realityheadset.

Meizu launched the new flagship series namedPRO seriesin September 2015 by announcing theMeizu PRO 5.This device was also later showcased at MWC 2016 and eventually commercially released in February 2016 as an alternative edition namedMeizu PRO 5 Ubuntu Editionrunning theUbuntu Touchoperating system.

TheMeizu PRO 6,the successor to the PRO 5, was unveiled on April 13, 2016. It features a 10-core Helio X25 SoC, 4 GB of RAM and a 5.2-inch screen.[11]

Meizu further extended its portfolio of M series products by releasing theMeizu M3S,Meizu M3 Note,Meizu M3EandMeizu M3 Maxin 2016. The current device of theMX seriesis theMeizu MX6,which was released on July 19, 2016. Recently, Meizu seems to be geared up for a new smartphone called Meizu M4. Although the company has not put a word about this mobile, the alleged upcoming smartphone has been spotted on TENNA certification.

On April 22, 2018, Meizu released Meizu 15 series to celebrate their 15th anniversary.

In April 2019, the Meizu 16s was announced with snapdragon 855 SoC and in-display fingerprint scanner.

On 8 May 2020, Meizu released Meizu 17 with Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 mobile platform, supplemented by the highest LPDDR5 specification high-speed memory as well as UFS3.1 flash memory.[12]

On 8 July 2020 Meizu changed its theme color from #00b3ff (0, 180, 255) to #008cff (0, 140, 255).

On 3 July 2022, a majority stake in Meizu was acquired by Chinese automotive corporationGeely.[13]

On 30 November 2023, Meizu announced their venture into electric vehicles (EVs) with the DreamCar MX. On the same day, Meizu shared a briefWeibopost teasing the Dreamcar MX as well as the launch of a new DreamCar co-creation programme arriving in Q1 2024, allowing users to express many customisation aspects such as exterior paint, interior colour matching and Flyme Auto themes.

On 18 February 2024, Meizu announced their decision to exit the traditional smartphone industry in an effort to move towards an "All in AI" centric focus over the next 3 years. Meizu's android flavour "FlymeOS" will also transition to focus on terminal devices such as vehicle infotainment systems for Geely.Meizu Announcement.

Flyme

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Flyme OS
Developer(s)Meizu
Stable release
10.5.0 / 30 November 2023;12 months ago(2023-11-30)
Operating systemAndroid
Websiteflyme

Flyme is a stock and aftermarket firmware developed by Meizu for smartphones based on the Android operating system. Some of its key features are completely redesigned apps, one-handed usability and performance optimizations. The current version of Flyme features distinguished flat design, various optimizations for performance. Flyme also has a feature calledmBack,which is specific for Meizu smartphones. It allows easier navigation using only one physical button without on-screen navigation buttons. The back button function is implemented by tapping the physical button, while the home button function is used by pressing the physical button. The overview of recent application, which is on regular Android devices usually triggered by touching or tapping a dedicated button, can be viewed by swiping upwards from beneath the display.

The initial version, Flyme 1.0 based onAndroid 4.0.3 "Ice Cream Sandwich"was released for theMeizu MXon June 12, 2012, and later for theMeizu M9.It was praised by critics for its simple yet beautiful interface design.[citation needed]

Flyme 2.0 was released later in 2012 together with theMeizu MX2.It brought improved cloud services and built-in root support, among other improvements.

Flyme 3.0 was released together with theMeizu MX3and later for the Meizu MX2. It was one of the firstAndroidfirmware releases to integrate a flat UI. Since Flyme 3.0, Dirac HD Sound is integrated, bringing an improved audio experience through a certain number of ear and headphones.

The successor of Flyme 3.0, Flyme 4.0 was released in 2014, initially for theMeizu MX4.It was the first Flyme firmware to be made available on non-Meizu devices. Eventually, it was officially released for devices fromSamsung,Sony,LGandHTC.Fans also ported it to other devices, includingZte,Huaweiand theOnePlus One.The Flyme 4.5 is based onAndroid Lollipopand comes standard with theMeizu m2,Meizu m2 noteandMeizu MX5.It was also made available for theMeizu MX4,Meizu MX4 ProandMeizu m1 note.

Flyme 5 is based on eitherAndroid LollipoporAndroid Marshmallowdepending on the device. For Meizu devices, Flyme uses different editions for international devices ( "G" release) and mainland Chinese devices ( "A" release).

Flyme 6.1.3 based onAndroid Nougat,which is now available only for Meizu Pro 7. Flyme 6.1.0 is the most popular Flyme 6 version available forMeizu Pro 6 Plus,M3 Max,MX6and other devices.

Flyme 7, based onAndroid Nougatand later, launched alongside the Meizu 15 series.

Flyme 8, based onAndroid Pie,launched alongside the Meizu 16s Pro on 28 August 2019.

Flyme 10.5, based onAndroid 13,launched alongside the Meizu 21 on 30 November 2023.[14]

Flyme has also been ported by the community to other devices as well:Zte,Huawei,OnePlus 2,OnePlus 3,HTC One M9,HTC One M8,HTC M7and other devices.

Meizu in India

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Meizu entered Indian Market for the first time with itsMeizu M1 Notesmartphone on 20 May 2015, and after the success ofM1 notethey come up withMeizu M2andMeizu M2 notein India in June 2015. These were the budget range smartphones, whereMeizu M2released for ₹6,999 andMeizu M2 notefor ₹9,999.

Meizu released many other models such asMeizu M3 note,Meizu MX4,Meizu MX5,Meizu U10,Meizu U20,and many others. Meizu was having online marketing where they Partnered withAmazonandFlipkart.Among these many products,Meizu M2,Meizu M2 note,andMeizu m3 notewas the biggest hit. After the lack of sales they quit Indian Market by releasing their last smartphone Meizu Pro 7.

During this market period, Meizu was having an official dedicated Flyme OS firmware for India.

After a long time Meizu Re-Launched in India with total 3 smartphones, 2 were budget range smartphones and 1 was premium Flagship phone. The budget phones were Meizu C9 and Meizu M6T, the Premium one was Meizu 16th.

This time Meizu started selling both online and off-line.

Products

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Smartphones

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pre-MX series

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MX series

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The MX series is a series of smartphones targeted for users wanting a device positioned between the general mid-range devices and top-of-the-line flagship devices.

PRO series

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The PRO series was introduced at the launch of the Meizu PRO 5 as a successor to the Meizu MX4 Pro. It represents Meizu's line of flagship devices for users seeking powerful devices with high performance.

Meizu Pro 5

M series

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The M series is a series of smartphones targeted for users wanting an affordable and functional smartphone.

V series

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Note series

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15 series

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16 series[18]

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17 series

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  • Meizu 17[20]
  • Meizu 17 Pro

18 series

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  • Meizu 18[21]
  • Meizu 18 Pro
  • Meizu 18x
  • Meizu 18s
  • Meizu 18s Pro

20 series

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  • Meizu 20
  • Meizu 20 Classic
  • Meizu 20 Pro
  • Meizu 20 Infinity

21 series

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  • Meizu 21
  • Meizu 21 Pro
  • Meizu 21 Note[22]

Other

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AR Glasses

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  • MYVU AR
  • MYVU Discovery AR

Smart Ring

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  • MYVU Smart Ring

Meizu Watch

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Electric Vehicles

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  • DreamCar MX

MP3 players

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MP3 playersdevices:

References

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  1. ^"Meizu company profile".8 August 2019. Archived fromthe originalon 8 August 2019.Retrieved8 August2019.
  2. ^ab"Inside Meizu: How The Rising Chinese Smartphone Company Is Looking To Tackle The West".Forbes.Archivedfrom the original on 16 January 2017.Retrieved11 January2017.
  3. ^"Alibaba Bets $590 Million on Becoming Smartphone Player".Bloomberg.Bloomberg L.P. 9 February 2015.Archivedfrom the original on 13 January 2017.Retrieved11 January2017.
  4. ^"Car maker Geely completes the acquisition of Meizu".GSMArena.Retrieved15 December2022.
  5. ^"Meizu M6 mini Player (Dane Elec): de l'ombre à l'iPod d'Apple?".Archived fromthe originalon 5 September 2016.Retrieved7 September2016.
  6. ^"Somebody Tell Me What All These People Are in Line For".Gizmodo.2 January 2011.Archivedfrom the original on 8 September 2017.Retrieved10 September2017.
  7. ^"Meizu's New Hong Kong Store Looks Ready for Upcoming Meizu MX Launch".Tech in Asia.Archivedfrom the original on 18 September 2016.Retrieved7 September2016.
  8. ^"Meizu officially announces the MX quad-core Android smartphone".WCCF Tech.16 April 2012.Archivedfrom the original on 15 September 2016.Retrieved7 September2016.
  9. ^"Foxconn to Manufacture Smartphone for Meizu".Marbridge Daily.Archivedfrom the original on 20 September 2016.Retrieved7 September2016.
  10. ^"Meizu MX3 with Exynos 5 Octa and 8MP camera goes official".GSMArena.Archivedfrom the original on 18 September 2016.Retrieved7 September2016.
  11. ^"Meizu Pro 6 - Full phone specifications".gsmarena.Retrieved6 September2019.
  12. ^"Meizu 17 goes official with Qualcomm Snapdragon 865".gadgetsay.8 May 2020.Retrieved8 May2020.
  13. ^"Geely Chairman Eyes Phone-Making by Acquiring Meizu Tech".Bloomberg.4 July 2022.Retrieved5 July2022.
  14. ^Michail (30 November 2023)."Meizu 21 announced with Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, 200MP main cam and FlymeOS 10.5".GSMArena.
  15. ^"MX4 - công năng - mị tộc official website".meizu.Retrieved13 April2019.
  16. ^"Note8 - Summary - Meizu".
  17. ^"At $210, the Meizu Note 9 is one of the cheapest 48MP phones money can buy".Matthew Hughes.7 March 2019.Retrieved9 March2019.
  18. ^"Meizu 16, 16 Plus revealed: The cheapest flagship with in-display fingerprint sensor?".Android Authority.8 August 2018.Retrieved8 August2018.
  19. ^"Meizu 16s Full specifications".Androidleo.26 April 2019.Retrieved26 April2019.
  20. ^"Meizu takes off the wraps on its 17 Series flagships".Alrigh.8 May 2020.Retrieved8 May2020.
  21. ^"Meizu 18 and Meizu 18 pro launched with 120hz display snapdragon 888 and more".gizmochina.3 March 2021.Retrieved3 March2021.
  22. ^"Meizu Note 21".DreamSmart Online.Retrieved26 September2024.
  23. ^"MEIZU X8 - Summary - Meizu".
  24. ^ab"C9 - Summary - Meizu".
  25. ^"Meizu watch unveiled with 178 amoled display esim and fast battery charging news".gsmarena.1 June 2021.Retrieved1 June2021.
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