Those Years When I Was Forced to Top the Forbes List

Chapter 312 Post-Meeting Arrangements
Two minutes later, the press conference was officially adjourned.

Many people in the front row had already sneaked into the back.

Security guards were already present at the entrance, setting up a cordon between the entrance and the demonstration hall to guide the queue and prevent any safety incidents. As the flow of people began to surge towards the entrance, everything proceeded in an orderly manner under their guidance.

The following demonstration experience remains the highlight, where some parameters and details that have not been publicly disclosed will be answered to a limited extent.

For example, it will introduce the basic 4GB flash memory version of Kirin and the 8GB upgraded version which costs 600 yuan more, and explain why the upgrade is necessary.

Previous Symbian, Microsoft, Blackberry and other smartphones almost never used ROM memory; users who needed more memory could simply buy a MicroSD card to expand it.

However, Kirin has a fully enclosed design with no external card slot, and the starting 4GB is the optimal solution after discussion.

What viewers might not know is that the NAND memory comes from Hynix, and the expansion of NAND production capacity this year has led to a significant price drop in recent months, with 4GB flash memory falling from $52 to $48. Moreover, the recent appreciation of the RMB against the USD has further reduced the RMB purchase price by about 5 yuan.

The cost table of 3265 units shown earlier reflects the high prices from the previous few months. For a single flash memory unit, there was a price difference of more than 36 yuan.

This is all the profit from Qidian; 100 million units would be 3600 million RMB.

In addition, there is a preview of some peripheral products.

Headphone set, phone holder, and most importantly, power bank.

When the issue of fast charging cannot be resolved in a short period of time, power banks become the only backup option.

That is, a power bank.

Chen Xuebing discussed this issue with Xu Yanming. Xu Yanming believed that most of the battery cell technology is currently controlled by Japanese companies, and that the mainstream of power banks still uses lead-acid batteries or early 18650 lithium batteries, which have a particularly large casing, high loss, and poor safety. If research and development is really to be carried out, it is necessary to join forces with one or more Japanese technology companies, starting with intelligent controller and connector manufacturers, and optimize circuit control technology and battery cell management solutions to prepare for subsequent lithium battery upgrades.

If they can upgrade the lithium battery, their gel electrolyte technology could greatly improve safety.

Chen Xuebing offered some encouragement, mentioning that the "non-removable battery revolution" was about to begin in full swing and that the market would pay for this technology. Xu Yanming knew how much market he controlled, so he didn't hesitate and agreed to do it. He just thought that doing this might require financing later, but Chen Xuebing immediately said that he would give his full support.

Therefore, the future of the "non-removable battery revolution" is also one of the topics introduced in the demonstration hall, to let consumers know the benefits of making it fully enclosed, as well as solutions for insufficient battery capacity.

There's also WIFI.

Kirin chips have a Wi-Fi module provided by Huawei.

Huawei reacted extremely quickly. After obtaining technology licenses from Europe, the first batch of routers with WIFI modules has entered the production stage. They may be able to enter the market before the official release of Kirin. Moreover, this event also provided two demonstration units for Kirin.

These are all things that need to be explained to consumers. The demonstration hall has a TV for playing videos and a WIFI experience area.

In addition, audience interviews and executive interviews were also arranged in the demonstration hall.

Of course, Chen Xuebing did not arrange an interview.

After the crowd began to leave, he unbuttoned his suit jacket and stepped off the stage. He chatted with a group of online community members and college students who had become his fans, signed autographs for them, and then led the visiting guests to the upstairs lounge.

Jobs said he was leaving soon, so Chen Xuebing escorted him downstairs. The two of them dismissed everyone else at the door and chatted for a few minutes.

During this period, Chen Xuebing often chatted with foreigners, and he picked up his spoken English again, which he had taken several classes to learn in his previous life. In fact, he improved a lot, and his communication became smoother.

"I've prepared some whole grains to take back and make porridge to nourish your body," Chen Xuebing said sincerely. "I hope you stay healthy, my friend."

Jobs smiled slightly: "Instead of that, why don't you send me one of your prototypes, or rather, the commercial version that's already available now?"

Although it's a commercial product, it's not for sale now.

Steve Jobs was just joking.

Chen Xuebing immediately made a phone call and had someone bring over a Kirin phone that was used at the press conference.

When the device, which was not yet on the market, was handed to Jobs, the air seemed to freeze for a moment.

“It will get even better. We will make some improvements before production. We are partners and welcome exchanges.” Chen Xuebing’s voice was gentle but firm.

Jobs looked slightly surprised, hesitated for a moment, but still accepted the gift and shook hands with Chen Xuebing.

"Thank you."

Chen Xuebing continued, "You've seen our communication software, 'Starlink,' right? Honestly, Apple should consider developing a similar product. It's a huge market, and our phones can now perform its functions perfectly, making it irreplaceable. Now is a great opportunity to enter the market."

Jobs fell into deep thought, his fingertips lightly tapping the edge of the phone screen.

He certainly understood the value of this technology—the user experience that perfectly combined touchscreen and voice transmission was exactly what he had been dreaming of. However, the US market had already been divided up by established products like Yahoo! Messenger and ICQ, and negotiations with Facebook had reached a critical stage.
He wanted to do it.

But I'm too embarrassed to copy.

Moreover, there are already some mature products in the US market, such as Yahoo Messenger, ICQ, and Facebook, which made him hesitate about the original cooperation plan with Facebook.

"Chen, why are you helping us?"

During this time, he got to know Chen Xuebing well, and Jobs didn't believe that the other party would do something without a purpose.

“I’ve said it before, we are partners,” Chen Xuebing replied with a smile.

Their eyes met.

After a brief exchange of glances, Chen Xuebing sighed softly, "How about this, we jointly develop this software? After all, the US market is difficult for me to enter."

In the field of communications, the United States has stronger security controls than China. For Chinese people to want to do communications in the United States, even network software, is nothing short of a pipe dream.

The United States, however, is very keen to push their software around the world.

Upon hearing this, Jobs' eyes lit up with amusement, and he crossed his arms with great interest.

"What do you want? Even if we develop it, we can't share the database. You'd better not have any dangerous ideas."

“You’re overthinking it,” Chen Xuebing laughed. “I only need the software interface. Although our phones and systems don’t go into the US, software isn’t bound by cooperation treaties, right? We can make better software products, bridge them to Apple’s communication gateway, and Apple’s ecosystem can expand as well. It’s a win-win situation.”

The United States has the world's largest cluster of data centers and top-tier network infrastructure, and most of its root name servers are also located in the United States.

Only North Korea uses a closed intranet system. Some Pacific island nations and isolated regions are not connected to the US global internet. Even China has technical access, but it has a firewall, which is why circumvention software can bypass it.

This network node in the United States boasts high bandwidth and low latency, and offers the best global service response speed.

For his system to go global, he needs to establish an open-source community in the United States, and ideally, the software should first enter the United States for further distribution.

Chen Xuebing laughed and said, "I think Apple consumers will also see our press conference. You don't want your fans to ask you why your Kirin phones, which are supposed to be great learners of Apple, have software that you don't, right?"

As if he had just thought of something, Jobs gradually smiled.

“We are better at focusing on our core strengths and connecting with external innovations. Since this software is going to be marketed, you can do the technical research and development and updates, and we will do the promotion and use and build the database. Of course, we want to own 80% of the shares, since you are going to set up a research center in the United States, right?”

He admitted that the software was not as innovative as Singularity's, and that the software's concept was also Singularity's. Therefore, there would inevitably be many areas in the development process that would require Singularity's inspiration. Rather than doing that, it would be better to let them do it directly, and Apple could reap the rewards.

Chen Xuebing's lips twitched.

"67%."

The absolute controlling stake must be ceded to Apple.

Jobs, however, had a sly look in his eyes and remained unmoved: "80%." During this time, he had come to understand the tricks of Chinese bargaining and raising prices: first offer a floor price or an exorbitant price.

“I remember you don’t like wasting time,” Chen Xuebing said, getting straight to the point: “75%.”

“80%,” Jobs still said.

Chen Xuebing's face darkened.

"Then I won't pay a single penny! You'll cover all personnel expenses! And my software must have API support! These must be written into the contract!"

"Your software must comply with all U.S. laws."

"Nonsense," Chen Xuebing cursed in Chinese.

Jobs shook hands with Chen Xuebing with a smug look on his face and left, seemingly enjoying his advantage.

Chen Xuebing waited until he disappeared from sight before his smile slowly spread across his face, gradually deepening.

Now we have complete control over Apple's further research and development progress.

Next, we can take a closer look at Apple's supply chain.

For the next two hours, the atmosphere in the demonstration hall was extremely enthusiastic.

University students and forum users lined up in front of the fifteen booths, eager for just five minutes to experience firsthand and feel the future revolution of human-computer interaction.

Reporters weaved through the crowd, seeking out those who had experienced the event to ask about their polarized feelings about the press conference.

"They really want us to use our phones to access the internet! Not just WAP pages, but the real internet! It's even cooler than a computer!"

"WIFI! That's awesome!"

The voices expressing shock were extremely strong.

"I've bought domestically produced Hopen OS phones! I bought the first G800 in 2003!"

"It doesn't support software expansion, has poor operability, and lacks innovation!"

"I've waited three years for it!"

"Starting today, I'm not waiting any longer! I'm buying a Qilin!"

"Hopen OS is utter garbage compared to Kunlun OS!"

"The absolute worst of the worst!"

"I'm a huge fan of Kunlun OS now! A huge fan of Singularity phones! If you ask me how I feel, I only have two words!"

"Wow! Beep—!"

The reporter seemed to hear a long silence, and could only helplessly turn the microphone to a middle-aged man who looked rather composed.

"Sigh, I think this is a milestone in the localization of operating systems. As a Chinese person, Chen Jin's story pains me. We are currently lacking in chips and screens, and we should start from this crucial progress to promote the independent research and development of core components."

The nature of Chen Jin's case has not yet been fully determined. When the reporter heard the middle-aged man starting to pontificate, he quickly turned to a young man with a deep frown and interviewed him again.

"I think Singularity did a bad job!"

"Oh?" The reporter finally heard a dissenting voice. "What's wrong with it?"

The young man was somewhat indignant: "Nokia's first Symbian phone, the 9210! Five years ago! It sold for 6250 yuan! Why is the Kirin phone selling for 3999 yuan?"

"It's clearly better than Saipan's! Why does it only cost 3999? Are Chinese products really that worthless?!"

"If he sells it so cheaply, who will be motivated to do research and development in the future?"

"Reporter, tell me! Isn't this the truth?"

reporter:"."

Meanwhile, Chen Xuebing had a private conversation with Director Wen in a room upstairs.

"Public opinion should be controlled."

"Popular voices should not be too strong; I think it's best if they don't exist at all."

"Please set the topic for this report. We should focus on technical discussions and the importance of global scientific and technological cooperation to divert public attention. If the pre-sales of the Singularity phone are good, then we can shift the focus to the growth potential of the high-end market in China."

Chen Xuebing earnestly expressed his concerns.

Director Wen, with a slight smile, held his teacup, understanding what he was talking about.

But I don't fully understand it either.

"Are you afraid that Singularity will be labeled as a domestic brand and will have difficulty entering overseas markets?"

Chen Xuebing pondered for a moment, then nodded: "Today I deliberately downplayed the specifics of 3G technology, such as signal penetration through walls and stability. Our uplink and downlink channel ratio is set to 3:7. Under these conditions, the uplink speed can still exceed 200kbps, ensuring a continuous transmission capability of 15-30 frames per second without any stuttering. This shows that the domestic TD technology has reached the basic standard for comprehensive construction. We just need to keep these things in mind. Singularity Spreadtrum actively cooperates with the construction of domestic technology. This is the strategy. Tactically, we should still maintain independence."

Director Wen nodded slowly, lost in thought, as if remembering something, and said:
"In fact, when Huawei was about to be sold to Motorola, the ministry met with Huawei for talks, and Mr. Ren said the same thing."

"Oh?" This was something Chen Xuebing didn't know.

"However, he is rather pessimistic, believing that in the long term we will still have to rely on the communication technology of international manufacturers. The premise of developing independent standards cannot rely on one or two companies and research institutes. At least ten years of basic talent education and training is needed to cultivate people."

Director Wen laughed as he spoke: "He said that no matter where Huawei expands its market in the future, it has already done a great service by cultivating a group of technical foundations and talents for the Chinese people. I was just talking to him about this and asked him if his opinion had changed."

Chen Xuebing laughed too: "What did he answer you?"

“He can’t stop talking about you, always mentioning the phrase ‘immeasurable merit.’ He can live up to the first half of that, but it seems that the second half of his merit will have to fall on your Qidian to be truly immeasurable.”

"Hehe." Chen Xuebing remained noncommittal.

I'd be a fool to believe that; Huawei is probably secretly researching smartphones somewhere right now.

He then said, "Mr. Ren is right. The enthusiasm and debate sparked by Kirin's launch today precisely prove the weakness of our entire industrial ecosystem and the public's extreme thirst for independence and innovation. To truly solve this problem, what is needed is a consensus from top to bottom, continuous investment, patience, and, more importantly, an environment that allows companies like Singulato, Huawei, and Spreadtrum, as well as many other promising innovators, to not be held hostage by domesticism, but to participate in global competition with dignity based on their technological and product strength."

"Environment..." Director Wen pondered the word and smiled, "The Ministry has been promoting TD-SCDMA, and the support policies for Spreadtrum are all part of our efforts. Now our business environment is getting better and better. We were just discussing that a few years ago we couldn't have imagined that a private company could get so much support in the field of communication technology. Of course, it is also the result of your own hard work."

"Understood." Chen Xuebing said decisively, "The Kirin phone is just the beginning. Flash memory, screen, battery, baseband... we will tackle the tough challenges."

"Alright." Director Wen patted the armrests of the sofa and stood up. "I will report to the ministry on the direction of mainstream media reports. However, the sales of Qidian will definitely not be bad. Just now, President Wang said that he plans to talk to you about 30 contract phones and is prepared to set a precedent by not restricting your other sales channels and pricing at all."

The claim of two million units is obviously a gimmick. It's a high-end phone, and it's a phone bundled with a TD 3G module. For a single product, selling even one million units would be a miracle.

Let alone high-end phones priced at 4,000 yuan, even for mid-to-low-end phones, which manufacturer's million-unit sales volume isn't supported by several products?

Supporting 300,000 contract phones is a guarantee of top sales.

Chen Xuebing, however, smiled noncommittally again:
"I understand, I'll talk to him in a bit."

(End of this chapter)