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Chapter 430 0420 [A United Front for Domestic Mobile Phones]

Beijing.

Zhou Guangping, the head of HarmonyOS mobile phone R&D, was invited to a meeting at ByteDance.

ByteDance is not only the parent company of HarmonyOS, but it is also currently responsible for developing the application ecosystem for HarmonyOS phones.

Chen Guiliang said, "Tell me about the situation."

Luo Jianwei, who was in charge of contacting third-party companies, stood up and said, "Currently, the only company willing to develop applications for HarmonyOS phones is Xunlei. This is because Xunlei Mobile is competing with QQ Xuanfeng for market share. The two sides are already fiercely fighting, and Xunlei is unwilling to let go of any opportunity to expand its market!"

Chen Guiliang said, "Continue."

Luo Jianwei said, "Mobile phones must have an input method, and the most popular one right now is Dianxun. But Dianxun has long dominated the market thanks to Nokia. They have no incentive to cooperate with HarmonyOS. But Dianxun didn't go too far. They are willing to license their technology to HarmonyOS so that HarmonyOS can develop its own mobile input method. They just need to pay them a patent fee every year."

"Let me tell you!"

Zhang Pei, who is in charge of the overall mobile application business, stood up and said: "Because we cannot cooperate with third parties, but some key applications are necessary, we have been recruiting nearly two hundred employees since the beginning of this year to develop essential software for smartphones. We have so many employees that the Peking University Science Park building is overcrowded, and we have even rented office space in other office buildings in Zhongguancun."

"The input method I just mentioned is one."

"There's also the mobile browser. We can't have HarmonyOS phones sold out before consumers realize they don't have a browser on their phones, can we? Right now, UC Browser is the dominant player in the mobile browser market, with Tencent trailing behind and getting left behind."

"What is UC's attitude? They're too lazy to even start negotiations, telling us to wait until HarmonyOS phone sales exceed 10 units before talking to them. So, we poached five mobile browser engineers and started developing our own browser in May of this year."

Chen Guiliang did not poach talent from UC or Tencent.

He chose Opera (China) as his victim.

Opera (China) is located in Beijing. After poaching the browser engineers, the engineers no longer need to move.

Of course, Opera's employees are the easiest to poach.

This is an international giant originating from Norway, whose page rendering and seamless scaling technology is world-leading.

However, the super-strong page rendering effect can lead to an explosion in mobile data charges, which is a fatal flaw in China.

As for its so-called minimalist design, the user experience is absolutely terrible.

Opera (China) can be described as follows: an aristocratic company with cutting-edge technology, completely immersed in its own world of luxury, and utterly unaware of the needs of Chinese users.

Its business has been overwhelmed by UC and has been losing money for several years!

In addition, the economic crisis has reduced employee benefits to varying degrees. Some programmers have started leaving this year, and next year there will be a large-scale exodus of programmers, until all of them have left by 2013.

These browser engineers, after resigning from Opera (China), spread throughout the Chinese internet industry, especially to companies like Alibaba, Tencent, Huawei, and Xiaomi.

Therefore, Opera (China) is jokingly referred to as the "Whampoa Military Academy of China's mobile browser industry".

ByteDance poached five browser engineers from Opera (China) in one go. They didn't even need to raise their salaries much; they just needed to restore them to their pre-economic crisis salaries and resolve the non-compete agreement issues, and they would have happily come to work for ByteDance.

Zhang Pei continued, "For mobile music software, President Chen forced Xiami Music to develop it, and this music platform is controlled by ByteDance."

"And Skype's management was too lazy to meet with our negotiators. We decided to develop our own product called WeChat to replace it, but WeChat doesn't have Skype's long-distance calling feature..."

"besides……"

"In summary, apart from a few essential mobile applications that we develop ourselves, only Xunlei is willing to cooperate with us."

HarmonyOS phones are facing significant challenges in building an application ecosystem.

Zhou Guangping said, "Actually, Meizu's situation is similar. The application ecosystem can be built up gradually. I don't think there's any need to rush. Just develop a few essential applications on our own."

Chen Guiliang suddenly blurted out, "I plan to open-source the HarmonyOS system."

Nobody took it seriously, because they had already heard Chen Guiliang mention it before.

But Chen Guiliang added, "It's not just about open-sourcing the underlying code; I plan to open-source all the code except for the hardware drivers!"

"You are crazy!"

Zhou Guangping seemed offended: "The HarmonyOS system was developed by me and dozens of colleagues, byte by byte! Open-sourcing the underlying code is one thing, there will be plenty of opportunities to make money later. But what do you mean by making it completely open? Are you just throwing our hard work down the drain?"

These words were so harsh and showed no respect for Chen Guiliang that they left the other attendees at the ByteDance meeting dumbfounded.

But Zhou Guangping just has this bad temper.

In another timeline, Lei Jun deliberately smashed his phone at a Xiaomi product launch event for dramatic effect, only to be severely reprimanded by Zhou Guangping upon returning home.

Chen Guiliang explained, "Google doesn't make phones, so it open-sources the Android system, and other phone manufacturers aren't afraid of being caught out. But we are making phones ourselves, and we are in competition with other phone manufacturers. If we only open up the underlying code of HarmonyOS but control the core such as the app store, other phone manufacturers simply won't dare to use the HarmonyOS system."

Zhou Guangping was furious: "I don't understand why you're in such a hurry to build an app ecosystem? Right now, not only in the Chinese market, but in the global smartphone market, apps from different brands aren't interoperable. Users don't complain about this because everyone's pretty much the same; missing a few apps won't stop them from selling phones!"

Chen Guiliang patiently explained, "We need to take a long-term view. Currently, Nokia is the dominant player, while Apple is a rising star. They are the enemies of all mobile phone manufacturers. In the next two or three years, major mobile phone manufacturers will definitely unite and form an alliance using the same mobile operating system. Judging from the current situation, this alliance will inevitably be the Android alliance. If we don't fully open up, we will have to rely on Google in the future!"

“That’s alarmist,” Zhou Guangping said. “As far as I know, Samsung and Motorola are developing their own mobile phone operating systems and there’s no sign of them cooperating with Android at all. On the contrary, they are cooperating with China Mobile and using China Mobile’s system to make customized phones.”

“China Mobile’s mobile phone system is also based on Android,” Chen Guiliang said. “Google deliberately made things difficult for China Mobile, causing its self-developed system to lag behind by one version and become completely incompatible with Android. Companies like Samsung are now developing their own systems, but when they realize they can’t compete with Nokia and Apple, they will band together and form the Android alliance. Because Google doesn’t make phones, no one needs to be suspicious of each other when using Android.”

Zhou Guangping slammed his fist on the table and said, "This is all your wishful thinking. I absolutely disagree with the complete opening of the HarmonyOS system!"

Chen Guiliang softened his tone: "Old Zhou, I didn't expect you to react so strongly. I should have talked to you privately first. How about this, after the meeting today, let's go have some tea and chat."

No one knows what Chen Guiliang and Zhou Guangping talked about.

All anyone knew was that Zhou Guangping looked extremely grim for the next week, but he still agreed with Chen Guiliang's decision.

Chen Guiliang was awakened by the lack of cooperation from those third-party companies.

His attempt to emulate Google's open-source Android system is purely self-indulgent. No phone manufacturer is willing to use HarmonyOS, fearing that HarmonyOS technology will seize their lifeline. If everyone uses HarmonyOS, and Chen Guiliang suddenly goes crazy one day, wouldn't all the competitors suffer a collective setback?

Therefore, if the HarmonyOS system is to be opened up, it must be completely open!
Chen Guiliang left no loopholes in his hands, allowing all mobile phone manufacturers to confidently adopt the HarmonyOS system.

In this way, it seems that he has no profit to make.

Completely selfless, dedicated to benefiting others.

is it possible?
There are many ways to make money; who says you have to use Google's methods?

He's here specifically to stir up trouble, to prevent the company from ending up like Huawei, being sanctioned by Google at will.

……

The HarmonyOS system launch event was officially held, with hundreds of journalists and company representatives invited to attend.

Regardless of whether they have any conflicts with Chen Guiliang, he invited all the media outlets present today, including more than 100 print and internet media.

Representatives from some mobile phone manufacturers were also invited.

Even Lei Jun was among those invited. Chen Guiliang was happy that he would also make mobile phones and wanted to persuade him to adopt the HarmonyOS system.

This time, we didn't use any wireless connections; we stuck to a wired connection when demonstrating the phone.

Chen Guiliang operated the phone with unparalleled smoothness, making the guests at the scene extremely envious. Especially Lei Jun, who had previously coveted Meizu and had already bought one, and now was starting to covet HarmonyOS.

After giving his opening remarks and thanking the guests, Chen Guiliang suddenly announced, "I hereby announce that the HarmonyOS mobile operating system is officially open source starting today. It's not like Android, which is pseudo-open source. Android only releases its underlying code, keeping core features like the app store to generate revenue. This is completely open! All of HarmonyOS's code, except for hardware drivers, is open; we're not keeping anything, and we're not making money from it!"

"boom!"

There was an uproar.

Those who understand the technology, especially, looking at Chen Guiliang on the stage, either think he's crazy or they think he's a saint.

The representative from Tianyu Mobile, disregarding everything else, stood up and asked directly: "President Chen invested heavily in developing the mobile phone system, and now it's completely open to all mobile phone manufacturers? Not even the code for services like the app store is being kept?"

Chen Guiliang nodded and said, "Yes. Android is open source, but it still retains its core components, so it can easily find fault with phone manufacturers. I don't hold anything against them; I open everything up. For example, you, Tianyu, can directly take the HarmonyOS system and use it. You can easily modify some code to turn it into the Tianyu system. Moreover, I won't leave any leverage over you, and I can't make a single penny from Tianyu!"

A representative from Changhong Mobile also stood up: "Mr. Chen, are you really not joking?"

"Do you think this is a joke?" Chen Guiliang said. "Take the Changhong phones and use them as soon as possible. Even if you don't change a single code and just rename them to Changhong Mobile System, I won't pursue any legal responsibility. There are so many reporters here who can testify to that!"

The Changhong representative immediately beamed with joy, gave a thumbs-up, and said, "President Chen is so generous! If you were to visit Changhong, you would definitely receive top-tier VIP treatment."

The representatives from Waveguide and Xiamen looked at each other in bewilderment.

Bird also plans to develop its own smartphones and has decided to base its system on Windows Mobile. However, Windows Mobile licensing fees are very expensive, which will significantly reduce the profit margin of the phones.

Xiaxin's situation is even more tragic. They first developed a system using Linux, creating a smartphone that supported handwriting input. However, this device was an isolated ecosystem, with no third-party developers willing to participate. They've now abandoned that approach and decided to base it on Windows Mobile.

Chen Guiliang used Xiaxin as an example: "Xiaxin's stylus smartphones didn't sell well because of a lack of apps. Now I'm opening up the HarmonyOS system completely, and everyone can use it for free. Third-party developers only need to develop once, and it can be used on all our phones. This benefits everyone!"

A reporter stood up: "Mr. Chen, this is indeed beneficial to everyone. But what about ByteDance and HarmonyOS? Other companies invest heavily in developing their own systems, but they are reluctant to share them. You have also spent a lot of money, and you're just going to let everyone use them for free?"

Chen Guiliang said, "What does it matter if one person is full? No matter how well HarmonyOS phones sell, they will still be unable to surpass Nokia. If it cannot surpass Nokia, HarmonyOS will always be suppressed by Symbian. Symbian will always be the first choice for third-party developers!"

Chen Guiliang raised his voice and swore:

"The mobile phone market has been dominated by foreign brands from the very beginning. A few years ago, domestic brands had a period of glory, but they were always considered inferior and counterfeit. Of the once-prosperous domestic mobile phone brands, how many are still operating at a loss year after year?"

"The era of smartphones is just around the corner, and we cannot back down at this critical moment!"

"Nokia is monopolizing Symbian, and Microsoft is charging exorbitant licensing fees. If we continue to fight our own battles and are forever suppressed by Nokia and Microsoft, then domestic mobile phone brands will never have a chance to rise."

"I'm going all out today! Just like during the War of Resistance against Japan, we must form a united front and work together without distinction to break through the encirclement."

madman!

In most people's eyes, Chen Guiliang was a madman at this moment.

They spent so much money developing their own mobile operating system, and before their own phones even went on sale, they open-sourced the system. And it's not like Android's pseudo-open source; this is truly completely open, meaning they can't monetize it from users afterward.

Some emotionally sensitive people were moved to tears by Chen Guiliang's words.

The Changhong mobile phone representative shouted at the top of his lungs: "We, Changhong, weren't afraid of the TV wars we fought against foreigners back then, and we eventually crushed the foreign TV brands. Now we're not afraid of the mobile phone wars either, and we're willing to form a united front with Chen Jie!"

Representative Xia Xin, who had just finished a phone conversation with the chairman, added, "Xia Xin is willing to join the united front!"

The representative from Bird was still on the phone with his superiors: "It's true, Chen Guiliang is willing to open up everything, not just the underlying code. We can modify his HarmonyOS however we want, and he can't possibly charge us a single penny... I don't believe it either, but he said it in front of more than a hundred media outlets... Okay, I'll hang up now."

After putting down his phone, the representative from Bird quickly stood up: "Bird is willing to join the united front!"

The Tianyu mobile phone representative was dumbfounded. Their smartphone development had entered the final stage, so how could they easily give up their self-developed system?

But after Chen Guiliang did this, all the third-party developers flocked to develop applications based on the HarmonyOS system.

Who the hell still cares about Tianyu phones?

Someone even called the CEO of China Mobile: "Chen Guiliang is opening up the HarmonyOS system entirely, trying to create a united front for domestic mobile phones... Yes, this should be done by China Mobile. Chen Guiliang, a private business owner, is too audacious. He completely disregards China Mobile!"

Lei Jun looked at Chen Guiliang giving a speech on stage and muttered to himself, "This guy is amazing. Since the HarmonyOS system is completely open, can't I also make mobile phones? I can just change the skin and it becomes my mobile phone system."

After finishing his call, someone put down his phone and said, "TCL is willing to join the united front!"

Gionee is willing to join the united front!

"Konka is willing to join the united front!"

"..."

These guys, seeing that there was something to gain, all expressed their support for Chen Guiliang.

Anyway, Chen Guiliang is making the phone system free, so they're just joining in the fun. Even if they fail at making the phone, they won't lose that much.

What if it succeeds?

The Lenovo mobile phone representative looked around, unsure of how to react.

Like Tianyu, Lenovo is also developing its own mobile operating system and simultaneously making mobile operating system phones. It's impossible for them to abandon their hard-earned achievements.

A Tencent representative is on the phone with Pony Ma: "More than ten mobile phone manufacturers have agreed to adopt the HarmonyOS system. Let's just join them... Even if we don't join, we still have to release a HarmonyOS version of Mobile QQ, otherwise no one knows what similar applications will emerge to steal our market share..."

The application ecosystem problem is solved, isn't it?
With more than ten vendors using the same system, regardless of how many of them succeed, third-party developers must take it seriously.

(End of this chapter)