Those Years When I Was Forced to Top the Forbes List

Chapter 144 The Magic in Names
"Wukong Technology!"

"Great Sage Technology!"

Gou Hongyi and Lu Yiwen spoke almost simultaneously.

The two of them had clearly discussed this issue.

Which boy who grew up in this era hasn't wielded a broomstick a few times, fantasizing that he's the Monkey King?

Gou Hongyi chuckled: "Boss, we were just saying the other day that if you like the character 'empty,' you might as well call yourself Wukong."

"You know shit."

Chen Xuebing chuckled and cursed, then slowly nodded.

"You like mythological names, right? Okay, any other suggestions?"

“Hmm…” Gao Shu mused, “How about a more business-like name? Something with characters like ‘gold,’ ‘wisdom,’ ‘far,’ or ‘honest’—it’d sound more formal.”

Chen Xuebing immediately rejected the idea: "They're not even as good as mythological figures."

Zhang Hongbin, the technician sitting at the end of the table, suddenly spoke up: "President Chen, although I haven't decided to join your company yet, I think a technology company should have a name related to technology."

"Oh?" Chen Xuebing raised his hand at him: "What are your thoughts? Tell me."

"In the physics community, there's a term that evokes both love and hate: the 'singularity.' A singularity marks the collapse of a theory or the mathematical model describing it. However, some say that everything is contained within a singularity. Some interpret it as the starting point of the Big Bang, while others see it as the center of a black hole—a point that exists yet doesn't exist. The symbolism is also quite positive; it can be understood as a turning point, from which everything changes."

As soon as Zhang Hongbin spoke, Xu Wenfeng, who was standing next to him, clapped his hands in approval:

"Our future will not be one of evolution, but of explosion! The Age of Soul Machines!"

Qiang Xingyao, one of the four from South China University of Technology, also smiled.

“Von Neumann said that from the Paleolithic Age to the present, human development has not been a constant-speed movement, but rather a kind of accelerated movement, that is, the speed of progress increases exponentially as time goes on.”

Half of the people in the room looked completely bewildered, utterly clueless.

For Chen Xuebing, this word was not mysterious at all.

"I've also heard a saying: if technology is described as a mechanism that constantly breaks through various limitations, then the mathematical limitations of approaching the highest level of technology are based on logic. So logic itself is a limitation, which means that time itself is also a limitation. If we can break through the logical limitations of time, that would be the singularity of technology. If it exists, then we should live in a future world created by humankind."

Since his rebirth, "time" has become Chen Xuebing's biggest secret. He is very interested in this topic and has read many books on speculation about time.

Especially the question that Hawking raised.

If time machines were indeed built in the future, why can't we meet them now?

A bestselling American book explains it this way: if a technological singularity occurs, time will stop. What exists then might not be humans, but rather intelligence invented by humans; the development of genetic science is a prime example. This future intelligence has been observing the evolution of the universe since its inception. They have neither the need nor the interest to visit humanity at any particular point in time, because everything is pre-arranged like a script. Our existence, with technology far superior to the past, proves that a technological singularity will inevitably occur in the future. It can even be speculated that future intelligence has created time to shield itself from communication with ancient intelligence (humans), and time, in any frame of reference, cannot see the future, thus evading the questions of ancient humans. Therefore, we could even say that we ourselves are living fossils created by future intelligence.

It was very convoluted, and he couldn't understand the later concepts of higher dimensions, energy changes, and irrational number dimensions at all.

But he is someone who has brushed past time, and when he briefly experiences the bursts of inspiration, he feels a desolate and magical feeling that gives him goosebumps.

It can even evoke a brief empathy with those scientists who eventually realize that "the end of science is theology."

I was lost in thought.

Everyone sensed from the chairman's silence that he seemed quite interested in the name.

"Vote." Chen Xuebing raised his hand.

“Singularity, Singularity Technology.” Lu Weibing raised his hand first.

Besides Lu Yiwen, who also wanted to persist with "Dasheng Technology," even Gou Hongyi raised his hand.

"Then let's go with Singularity Technology."

Chen Xuebing felt that after the company fulfilled its needs, the name could be handed over to Chen Xuejin, which would be enough for him to study for a lifetime, which was also good.

"Xiao Zhang, distribute the information to everyone."

Chen Xuebing gave the order again, and a young man came over with a stack of papers to distribute.

The content on the paper was very simple, just two drawings, in black and white.

It shows the front and back of a mobile phone.

At the top of the front of the phone is a small dot, next to which is a slender cylinder, connected to the outside of the image by lines, labeled "Camera" and "Earpiece". The square gray shaded area seems to represent a screen, and below it is another circle with a cloud shape in the middle, which also looks like a river, labeled outside the image as the "Task Button".

On the back, at the top corner, is the camera, and in the middle is still the same pattern, only this pattern is displayed with shadow color difference, as if it has a gloss.

Future generations will immediately recognize this image: Holy crap, it's an iPhone 4.

At this moment, none of those present understood.

"Is this a cell phone? Where's the keyboard?" Gou Hongyi asked after taking a look.

"It's a slider, right? This is the screen, the keyboard is hidden inside, isn't it?"

The screen size wasn't marked on the image, Zhang Hongbin guessed.

Everyone nodded.

"With such a large screen-to-body ratio, it should look better than the Nokia 7650."

"I heard Nokia is going to release a music slider phone next year. Photos have already leaked online. It's aimed at young people, and several colors are very vibrant with a metal keyboard. What does the whole phone look like?"

Chen Xuebing smiled faintly: "No need to guess wildly. It's not a slider phone, and there's no keyboard. The body is quite thin. There's only one control button that you can see. There are also a few function keys and card slots on the side of the body."

Everyone was stunned.

No keyboard? Full screen?

"Oh! A touchscreen phone!"

Chen Xuebing then nodded slightly.

Full touchscreen technology is not a new concept. The Motorola A6188, a flip phone with full touchscreen, was already around in 2000.

The handheld learning machine manufactured by Xin Mengzhen's company is also fully touch-sensitive, with only a few auxiliary buttons.

The key issue is that it's not convenient to operate, and you also need to use a stylus.

Multi-touch is the key to breaking down the barriers to convenience.

Of those present, only Qi Guangming had a slight understanding of Chen Xuebing's thoughts and was amazed by the picture; the others were simply curious.

Chen Xuebing smiled and said, "The specific design and ideas have been perfected, but we can't show them yet. This project is confidential. Some of you here haven't signed contracts yet, so I won't go into details today. I can only tell you that this is a market-leading product, and the technology used will need to be sourced from all over the world, so our selling price will be very high."

The development of the original iPhone—the iPhone 2G—was driven by the fact that music phones had significantly taken away the market share of their iPod music players in recent years.

The project has been approved and is currently under confidential research and development.

They rejected the idea of ​​using a scroll wheel on the iPod to make calls, thus surpassing music phones, and instead adopted the second option—a touchscreen phone.

At this moment, they are locked in their room, racking their brains over the iPhone 2G.

The exterior design might already be complete.

Therefore, copying the appearance of the first generation is definitely not a good idea.

Therefore, Chen Xuebing planned to directly copy the most classic generation of iPhone, the iPhone 4.

As for functionality, he doesn't have to be limited to the iPhone. Over the next twenty years, many brilliant designers' ideas, which they earned by sacrificing their hair, will be in his mind. As long as the technology is up to par, he can immediately put them into use.

The iPhone was announced in early 2007. After the announcement, some of their suppliers were still being finalized. The actual launch was in June 2007. To achieve the most explosive publicity effect, it was enough to be about three months ahead of them in every step.

In fact, Chen Xuebing can produce a PPT in three months, complete the UI design and supply chain confirmation in six months, and start production of the low-end version before the middle of next year.

In terms of funding, given the current size of his company, bribing a bank wouldn't be an insurmountable problem.

But we are now in an era of technological explosion. If production is carried out a year in advance, the chips will be a generation behind, and the resulting product may be far inferior to the first generation of Apple products.

Instead of extending the design process, let your designers work out solutions step by step, creating their own underlying mind maps. This process might even spark new inspiration and design directions.

At the same time, we await the latest core technologies to narrow the gap.

The four newly arrived technicians are all in the semiconductor field, which is not entirely tied to mobile phones, but semiconductors always need a way of being expressed, and mobile phones are indeed a very good medium.

Their thoughts were sparked by the phone's appearance.

At the very least, such a full-screen phone is definitely high-end in the current mobile phone market, giving them a lot of room to maneuver.

Chen Xuebing's next words confirmed their suspicions.

"This is a true smartphone. Our phone system will be developed based on the Linux 2.6 kernel. In the process, we will also need to design our own chip. We need a chip design team to participate in the system development process. After the direction of the phone system is determined, I will give the chip team enough funding and autonomy to develop freely and ultimately find a suitable SOC (system-on-a-chip) development direction to carry out in depth. This project will be a long-term endeavor. The development of the phone will not stop, and neither will the development of the chip."

Linux is a general-purpose open-source operating system that can run on multiple platforms, including computers, PDAs, and mobile phones. It is also the foundation and kernel layer of the Android system, although the Android system is specifically designed for mobile devices.

During the years when mobile phone operating systems were in complete chaos, flashing ROMs was especially popular, allowing users to experience the possibilities of different operating systems on a single phone. Chen Xuebing was only in his twenties at the time, and he flashed several operating systems onto his Samsung phone. He talked to the ROM-flashing shop owner quite a bit about it.

That was around 2010, I think.

Four or five years later, this knowledge had become so widespread that even a mobile phone store owner could understand it. At that time, it still seemed magical to people. The Android system was still three years away from being released, and there weren't many people outside the industry who knew about Linux.

SOC chips are actually a clear direction, completely different from the MediaTek single-processor direction currently most popular in Huaqiangbei. The four of them were somewhat taken aback; this General Manager Chen claimed to not understand, yet he had already determined the specific research and development direction.

Does he really not understand?

Lu Yiwen didn't understand any of what he was saying; he was only focused on the pattern on his phone.

"Boss, is this little circle our brand logo? What is it?"

"Ethereal," Chen Xuebing answered succinctly, then leaned back in his chair with a smile: "What do you think our mobile phone brand should be?"

Everyone was stunned for a moment.

Isn't it called Singularity Phone?
But anyone can use a tape recorder.

Gou Hongyi immediately exclaimed, "The Misty Phone!"

The atmosphere grew even more silent.

What kind of name is this? It's not even as good as the Monkey King mobile phone!

Chen Xuebing laughed and said, "Piaomiao is a form, not a name. I think our mobile phones should move towards the path of domestic self-reliance in the future. They should have a Chinese name, preferably one that has a meaning, represents part of the culture, and is a name that cannot be translated into foreign languages, so that foreigners can only use our original name when promoting them."

For the last sentence, Lu Weibing, who was fluent in English, immediately came up with a word.

"effort."

Kung Fu Phone?

People were a little confused.

"Jianghu, can you translate this into English?" Even the illiterate Huo Xiaowen spoke up.

Everyone laughed.

"Why not? It's the mafia!"

"Fate, I guess it can't be translated?"

"Baozi and Mantou are also transliterations; these things don't exist abroad."

"Tai Chi!"

"Huh?" Chen Xuebing looked at Qiang Xingyao, who had spoken: "It's getting close."

Having said that, he stopped beating around the bush, looked around at everyone, and said:

"The Dao, the Dao of Daoism, the Dao of principles, what do you think?"

Dao, mobile phone?

Now everyone could see that the lines of the pattern resembled clouds, water, and the character "道" (Tao).

Then, many more people frowned.

"It doesn't sound quite right, does it? It sounds like a pirated phone. Actually, 'the way' in English can be roughly translated. Wouldn't it be better to just use the English number?" Lu Weibing pondered.

Chen Xuebing smiled.

You were absolutely right, this is definitely a pirated copy.

This time, however, Chen Xuebing did not respect Lu Weibing's opinion.

"Foreign mobile phones use English numbers, and domestic mobile phones follow suit. We want to be unique and become the leading mobile phone company in China. We will not use English letters. The word 'Dao' is similar to 'Singularity' and fully represents Chinese culture."

"The first generation was called 'Tao.' If we develop a second generation phone in the future, how will the number be added? Tao One? Tao Two?" Lu Weibing asked rhetorically.

"No need. The first generation of mobile phones can have a serial number added. This serial number is the year of release."

Chen Xuebing explained leisurely:

"If we release our first model next year, we'll name it 'Dao·2006.' This will represent our representative model and corresponding technology for that year, making it very intuitive to review our progress using the model's name in the future."

"The year is used as a number? We only develop one phone per year?"

Lu Weibing was somewhat surprised. The current mainstream mobile phone market is dazzling. Nokia is leading the way, using frequent updates and replacements to gain brand advantages. When it gets ruthless, it even kills itself. All the major manufacturers are eager to imitate it, and they always maintain dozens of R&D teams. They don't consider it complete if they don't release more than a dozen new phones a year.

He was very happy to know that Chen Xuebing wanted to conduct independent research and development, as this meant that the investment would be substantial. He also planned to introduce several IDH (design outsourcing) companies that he was familiar with to the new boss in order to gain a certain degree of operational autonomy.

Unexpectedly, they directly sent a picture, and the appearance, name, and design direction were all planned out.

It seems that we still need to limit ourselves to one research and development team.

Chen Xuebing vaguely sensed Lu Weibing's thoughts, lightly tapped his hand on the table, and said firmly:
"We don't release one model per year, we release a maximum of one model per year. We don't compete on quantity, we only compete on quality. We make one classic model, and every generation of our phones will be remembered by the times."

Lu Weibing touched his forehead, feeling that his new boss's ideas were completely different from his own and did not conform to the market, but considering that he was in a meeting, he stopped himself from speaking.

The four semiconductor engineers were deeply moved upon hearing this.

Yes, only with this attitude can you create truly excellent products!

“President Chen, I would like to join your R&D team,” Xu Wenfeng from Taiwan suddenly said.

Zhang Hongbin glanced at him and softly tapped the table: "I want to join too."

"Me too."

"Same as above."

All four expressed their opinions.

Chen Xuebing was not surprised by this. High salaries, funding, and a certain degree of freedom in their research—if they didn't agree to these conditions, they wouldn't have come here in the first place.

"Okay, let's finalize the contracts after the meeting. We'll talk about it again the day after tomorrow when more applicants have gathered, and prepare for R&D so we can start as soon as possible."

……

Lu Weibing was the first to sign the employment contract with an annual salary of up to 100 million.

However, on the third day after the contract was signed, he prepared a detailed industry report and had a heated argument with Chen Xuebing.

"Look, Mr. Chen! Motorola launched 54 models in 2004, 54 models! That's how they came up with the V3, which sold 1.3 million units in a year! The Nokia 2650 also emerged from ten phones released at the same time. They also successfully created four popular phones last year by focusing on different positioning and design. Even domestic manufacturers release more than five models every year! It's a true test of skill!"

"Mr. Chen, I suggest you go to the mobile phone market and experience the sales process firsthand. Music phones, multimedia phones, business phones, signal-leading phones—today's consumers have clear needs. The first thing they do when they enter a store is to ask about their preferences. How can a new generation every year satisfy the needs of most people?"

"Such a path cannot succeed!"

Setting a direction is the first step in everything. Lu Weibing used exclamation marks and question marks in his words to express his position vehemently, indicating that he would never back down. The two were locked in a separate office room, but Lu Weibing's voice could be clearly heard by people outside.

Since he'd already signed a five-year contract, he could get away with early termination with a penalty. If he angered the boss to the point of firing him, he'd still profit.

Chen Xuebing didn't expect this guy to be so stubborn.

However, Lu Weibing's words make sense. Before the iPhone gradually dominated the market, no one expected that one day the aesthetics of mobile phones would be unified.

The market dispute will take several more years to resolve.

"If we develop according to your ideas, how much funding would be needed to create a large, stable, and profitable brand?"

Chen Xuebing's sudden remark left Lu Weibing speechless.

But he didn't lose his composure; he immediately started calculating in his mind.

half an hour.

"With an investment of 150 million, I'll create five products for you. After initial market testing, we'll select one, increase advertising investment, find a celebrity to endorse it, run ads, and make it a representative model on the market. One product will break even, or even make a huge profit!"

That's a strong statement, but it also goes too far.

It's worth noting that Tianyu Mobile's initial investment at the same time was only tens of millions, and even Konka, a large state-owned enterprise, had an initial investment of tens of millions. He's factoring in the money he'll spend on advertising on CCTV later, determined to make it a blockbuster product.

Chen Xuebing frowned slightly: "1.5 million, how many phases of investment? How much initial capital is needed? Give me a plan."

"Give me three days, and I might not need that much. If our overseas plans go smoothly, we might be able to be mostly self-sufficient."

Seeing that Chen Xuebing seemed genuinely about to agree, Lu Weibing softened his tone.

Everyone is here to make money, not to fight. Making exorbitant demands without a feasible financial plan will only lead to failure.

Chen Xuebing's words, however, began to become sharp.

"Alright, from now on, Singularity Technology will develop two mobile phone plans. Plan 1 is my 'Way,' which I will lead. Plan 2 is your mobile phone; you can choose the topic yourself, and I'll guarantee the funding. It's a three-year term, and profits will speak for themselves. If you lose, you'll go from president to vice president, sign a new five-year contract, and work for me without worry."

Lu Weibing's expression changed.

"I'm only in charge of one project?"

"You're the CEO, and you'll oversee the day-to-day operations. I'll only be responsible for developing the 'Tao' plan; the actual execution will be your responsibility. However, I must remind you that competition is competition, but illegally suppressing projects is another matter entirely. I trust you won't violate professional ethics."

"it is good!"

(End of this chapter)