I am a master in India

Chapter 411 Borrowing chickens to lay eggs
"This little guy is so naughty, he'll have to be disciplined later."

"No, you can't teach children like that!"

"Look at him now, he's really taking advantage of people's kindness."

Ron held Agalon in his arms as the latter punched and kicked him, wailing incessantly.

"Let me see." Kavia reached out and took it, then touched it. "She wet her pants."

"Huh? No wonder it's so hot!" Ron said, both amused and exasperated.

“You know women better than children,” Kavia rolled her eyes at him.

A servant came and took Agalon to change his diaper.

Ron pulled Kavia into his arms, his eyes sweeping over her. Being a mother really changes things; her size is several levels larger than before.

"The child isn't hungry, but I am."

"Pah!" Kavia laughed and pushed his head away.

Ron didn't care and plunged in. He wobbled and swayed, and the water completely enveloped his head.

I only enjoyed it for a few minutes before my phone rang in my pocket.

He impatiently took it out and looked at it, but finally sighed and accepted it.

"Boss?" It was Ashish's voice.

"what's up?"

"The phone design plan over there is ready."

“I know, I’ll go to Suer Electric Appliances tomorrow.”

Could you come earlier?

"Ok?"

"Uh, it's my sister's due date, and she hasn't been feeling well these past few days."

"Did you take her to the hospital?" Ron took two steps toward the window.

"I checked into the Suer Advanced Clinic a week in advance, and someone is taking care of me."

"okay, I get it."

Ron calmly hung up the phone, and as soon as he looked up, a torrent of water rushed towards him.

Caught completely off guard, he was hit all over the head and face with a full load of rations.

Ron was stunned. He opened his mouth wide and touched the corner of his mouth in disbelief.

It was warm, with a slightly fishy and salty taste.

Kavia gave him a charming glance, her expression smug and slightly provocative.

Ron Homelander possessed him, and in one swift motion, he captured her on the spot.

After NEC's phone blueprints were handed over to Huazi, they spent half a year working on it before finally coming up with a completely new design.

Since there were existing technical blueprints, and it wasn't starting from scratch, Hua Zi acted very quickly.

Suer Electric sent a twelve-person technical team to learn from them. They also allocated ten million US dollars for research and development, demonstrating a significant commitment.

They had money and manpower. Hua Zi didn't hold back either, teaching all the details and ideas of the design plan to the people at Suer Electric.

Not only did they return with their studies completed, but the other party also sent a technical team to serve as interpreters and consultants.

What Ron is holding now is the engineering prototype made according to the new blueprints.

The gold body and semi-flip design perfectly appeal to Indian aesthetic tastes.

It looks similar at first glance, but it still has a bit of the NEC phone feel to it.

This is normal, since the first generation of models were all imitations.

"Do the technical specifications meet the standards here in India?"

“Absolutely no problem, boss, it already has an Indian Mobile SIM card installed,” Ashish replied.

Ron didn't say anything, and started dialing. He wasn't dialing a Mumbai number, but a New Delhi number.

The call was quickly connected; it was someone from Suer Real Estate. He first inquired about the project's progress, then discussed the land acquisition, and the call lasted a good five or six minutes before ending.

The phone gets slightly warm, but it's within acceptable limits. The signal is so-so, but it doesn't affect normal use.

"If there are any after-sales technical issues, can we handle them?" he asked the returning technicians.

"No problem, each of us has disassembled the phone many times and knows everything inside." The other person nodded confidently.

What about the next generation of design ideas?

"Uh, we're still considering it, but we have a direction in mind." Their tone was no longer as firm as before.

"Mr. Suer, we will also provide assistance to the best of our ability, if needed," the people from Dongda University also chimed in at the opportune moment.

Ron nodded. He knew that the design of the next two or three generations of Suer phones would be inseparable from Hua Zi's help.

Their mobile phone design team is like a baby who has just learned to walk; without someone to help them, they can't go far.

“Alright, let’s talk about the most important question.” He held up the gold phone. “How much did it cost?”

“Based solely on the hardware cost ratio, it’s 4600 rupees,” Ashish replied.

"So tall?" Ron couldn't help but gasp.

"Boss, we've already used the cheapest materials. The black-and-white screen, nickel-metal hydride batteries, circuit boards, and casing are all manufactured by Suer Electric itself, but the chips are too expensive, accounting for more than 40% of the cost."

The phone placed in front of them used a Texas Instruments chip. It belonged to the low-end product series and could only meet the most basic needs of a feature phone.

This kind of junk is being sold for $40 a piece; it's all going to foreign diplomats for patent fees.

They may have put a lot of effort into its development, but this chip is not a new product; it has been sold for several years before.

The cost per chip today is probably less than $5, and you can't even imagine the huge profits involved.

Even so, if you want to place a large order, you still have to consider the supplier's attitude.

It's not that there aren't cheaper chips available; for example, NEC has its own, and they're about 20% cheaper than Texas Instruments'. But Ron doesn't dare use them. They're already trying to undermine NEC's core business; if the other side cuts off their chip supply, what's the point?

So when they were designing it, he consulted with Hua Zi. The chips had to be from Europe and America, so that NEC wouldn't be able to find any fault with them.

And that's where the price comes from—the cost is too high.

With a hardware cost of 4600 rupees, the selling price needs to be at least 6000 rupees to break even.

Imported brands such as Nokia and Motorola are often priced above 1.5 rupees, with net profit margins reaching a staggering 30%-40%.

Mobile phones have become the most profitable electronic products, provided that they are independently controllable.

For a phone to reach that level of quality, it would have to cost 1 to 1.2 rupees.

To be honest, this price isn't very competitive compared to imported goods.

Not only is it expensive, but the technology is also far behind.

They sell low-end feature phones, while others sell the latest technology products with many added features.

It offers poor value for money and doesn't provide any additional emotional value.

People who can afford tens of thousands of rupees to buy a mobile phone don't mind spending a little more to buy a foreign brand.

"After the marketing department's calculations, what price do you think is appropriate?"

“8000 rupees, otherwise it will be difficult to find a market.”

Ron sighed; he was now experiencing the same pain as his colleagues at East University.

If you want market share, you can't guarantee profit margins; you can only rely on low profit margins and high sales volume.

His initial motivation for making mobile phones was to expand the scale of mobile users as quickly as possible, so that India Mobile, Goldwing, and Suer Electric could ride the wave and develop rapidly.

Therefore, the price of mobile phones cannot be too high, otherwise no one will be able to afford them, and everything else will be just empty talk.

8000 rupees is still too expensive for the average person.

As a result, Suer Electric didn't make much money, only two thousand rupees. That's about the same as VCDs, and not even as much as some color televisions.

This is the pain of being held back – having no control over pricing.

"Let's start at this price. No matter what, we need to get our mobile phone products launched first."

"Yes, boss."

The vertical chess pieces are very important; whether they make money or not is another matter, but you need to have the items.

“If we can reduce costs after mass production, we will lower the price. My ideal target is six thousand rupees, which is a price that is suitable for today’s white-collar workers.”

“Boss, this could take a long time, the main cost is in the chips.” Ashish said, somewhat troubled.

If a mobile phone experiences a significant price drop, it's almost certainly due to the chip.

However, they don't have the power to decide this, and even after other parts are localized, the pressure can't be reduced to this extent.

“I know, we’ll do our best, and we’ll lower it as much as we can.” Ron tapped his fingers lightly on the table.

The price of 8000 rupees will deter many people, even though it is almost half the price of imported goods.

Logically speaking, when a product has a substitute with a 50% price reduction, it will inevitably become a hot-selling item.

However, this is difficult to replicate in India, as the situation is quite unique.

The reason is the excessive gap between the rich and the poor!

The rich are rolling in money, while the poor are so poor they have nowhere to stand.

Twenty or thirty thousand rupees is nothing to the upper class; they don't care at all.

Even after being cut in half, tens of thousands of rupees remain an insurmountable barrier for ordinary people.

The top of the pyramid is too high; even if a section is cut off, it would still be out of reach for the average person.

In Mumbai, most white-collar workers earn only six or seven thousand rupees a month, with a few earning close to ten thousand.

If a Sull mobile phone were to sell for 8000 rupees, only a small percentage of white-collar workers would likely be willing to buy it.

However, this is already progress; at least mobile phones will no longer be a privilege reserved for big bosses and the elite.

The luxury goods market is still quite small; Suer Appliances is better suited to a cost-effective approach.

Truly profitable companies are those that make money from ordinary people.

The consumer base is different, and once economies of scale are achieved, it becomes even more remarkable.

Unfortunately, 6000 rupees is a hurdle, a price that most white-collar workers can afford.

If Suer Electric can capture this group of people, it will be able to gain a foothold in the market and revitalize the Indian mobile market as well.

This is a whole game of chess, with far-reaching implications.

"How long would it take to achieve mass production?"

"The design details still need to be refined, and the internal production line setup also takes time. It won't be available until the middle of the year at the earliest."

"Let's proceed with this plan first; Suer mobile phones must be launched this year."

“Yes.” Ashish nodded.

“I’d like to talk about the chip again.” Ron said this to the University of Tokyo team.

"Mr. Suer, do you mean that the leader of the other side is a man surnamed Yu, who has a rather large mouth?"

He started taking charge of Huazi Wireless Products Division this year, and he is the one who led the commercialization of GSM base stations.

Thanks to the practical experience gained in Mumbai more than half a year in advance, Huazi's commercialization pace in Southeast Asia has accelerated significantly.

It is said that they are already developing 3G technology internally, and are even participating in the formulation of 3G international standards.

In terms of R&D capabilities, it certainly surpasses Suer Electric by a large margin.

This is also why Ron set his sights on them; the trick of using someone else to his advantage works very well.

"Are you interested in mobile phone chips?" Ron asked cryptically.

(End of this chapter)