My Age of Investment

After leaving Fleissen, Xia Jingxing led the team to T Mobile and Sprint without stopping.

When he went to T Mobile to negotiate, Android co-founder and current executive Nick Sears also made a special trip from Silicon Valley.

Sears was a marketing executive at T Mobile before joining Android.

It is because of this relationship that in the previous life when the iPhone and ATT formed an alliance to rampage in the United States, the first Android mobile phone Google G1/HTC Dream launched by Google and HTC was able to hug T Mobile’s thigh and achieved good results. sales performance.

At that time, the bare-bones Google G1 was priced at $400, not much cheaper than the iPhone. The price of the contract phone in the United States was $179, but users had to sign a two-year service contract with T Mobile.

T Mobile is a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom and the only mobile phone company that uses a unified brand in Europe and the United States. In addition to having tens of millions of users in the United States, T Mobile also has nearly 100 million users in Europe and a market share in Germany and the United Kingdom. The proportion is very high.

In the previous life, Google G1 landed in the UK with the help of T Mobile's operator sales channel, and also launched a "0 yuan purchase" campaign locally, with a monthly fee of 40 pounds, signed a two-year service contract, and the mobile phone can be taken home for free.

However, the Google G1 came out in 2008.

At that time, T Mobile saw that AT\u0026T embraced Apple's thigh and made a lot of money, so it gave subsidies at all costs.

Now, the company has the same attitude as Fleissen, and is dubious about the promise of the shipment of "5 million units in two years" for Fuxing mobile phones.

Xia Jingxing still followed the old rules, and mentioned three conditions, subsidies, the right to decide on sales strategies, and a share of phone charges.

T Mobile rejected the latter two items, and only agreed to the first subsidy, but it was a bit timid and hesitant about the subsidy level.

Although Sears kept reassuring and saying good things, T Mobile's executives still insisted on their own opinions and refused to offer a particularly large subsidy.

After figuring out T Mobile's attitude, Xia Jingxing left straight away and went to the last stop, Springfield.

The conditions of this company are even more outrageous than the previous two, and they actually want Fuxing Mobile to jointly provide subsidies.

This made Xia Jingxing very disappointed!

In his opinion, although the company is the smallest,

Moreover, it is burdened with debts, its performance is declining, and its management is in turmoil, but as long as it fully bets on Fuxing Mobile, it may usher in a counterattack.

Unfortunately, there are not many people with this vision and determination.

If Sprint really has this kind of talent, it will not gradually become lonely, and Sun Zhengyi will take over.

Real high-quality assets are actually very difficult for foreigners to buy in the United States, because local chaebols are not short of money, unless they look down on them.

After running around outside for a few days and negotiating, although it was very tiring, Xia Jingxing basically found out the situation of each telecom company, including the vision and level of the management, the real opinion on Fuxing Mobile, and so on.

With these situations in hand, they can then make a cooperative decision.

Back at Fuxing Mobile's Silicon Valley office, Xia Jingxing immediately held a closed-door meeting with the executives.

"After this round of discussions, as we expected, the priority of cooperation is Fleissen, T Mobile, and Sprint."

Lin Bing paused, looked at Xia Jingxing, and added: "Considering Sprint's own predicament and the conditions given, this company can be ruled out directly.

Moreover, this company has the worst network signal stability. If we cooperate with them, if Fuxing mobile phone users complain every day, it may affect our brand reputation. "

Xia Jingxing nodded. Lin Bing's worry was not unreasonable. It is necessary to be very cautious in choosing a partner, and they are a new brand, so it is very important to fire the first shot. That's why he made a special trip to try to be as good as possible for every potential partner. Partners know what they are doing.

After thinking for a few seconds, Xia Jingxing said, "Let's rule out Sprint directly! Let's discuss the remaining two companies now."

"Fleissen and T Mobile have similar attitudes towards the intensity of subsidies."

Lin Bing analyzed: "If you choose to cooperate with Fleissen on a larger scale to revive the sales of mobile phones in the United States, the network stability will be stronger than that of T Mobile.

And if you choose T Mobile, it means that while opening the US market, it also opens up half of the European market. "

Zhou Guangping suddenly said in a loud voice: "Then we must choose T Mobile to cooperate, we have to rely on the European and American markets for our mission of 10 million mobile phone shipments in the next year.

If we choose T Mobile, we only need to take down the Eastern European countries such as Russia, Ukraine, and Poland that T Mobile does not cover, even if it completely covers the two major markets of North America and Europe.

This is the fastest and most convenient way!

Our shortcomings in sales channels will also be filled as quickly as possible, and in the next competition with Apple, we will not lose the chain due to insufficient sales coverage. "

Lin Bing nodded, "Yes, that's why it's good to choose T Mobile. Their network signal in the United States is poor, but compared to the two giants AT\u0026T and Fleissen, it's not so bad that it can't be used.

But there is a long-term problem. T Mobile is relatively late in deploying 3G, and it is the slowest of the four US operators to deploy 3G.

According to the cooperation disclosed by Ericsson and T Mobile, T Mobile's 3G network will start commercial operation in 2007, and the network will basically take shape in 2008, and it will have to wait until 2009 for complete completion. "

Lin Bing turned his head to look at Xia Jingxing, and said, "We will launch a 3G version of the next mobile phone. If we choose T Mobile to cooperate, local users in those American cities that do not have 3G network coverage may not choose our mobile phone.

When friends around me are holding iPhones and experiencing the thrill of surfing the Internet on 3G, users of Fuxing mobile phones can only use 2G or 2.5G networks.

There is no harm without comparison, which will give users the impression that the ZTE mobile phone is not good. "

Xia Jingxing nodded, "You are right, apart from the 3G network coverage, there is actually another problem.

If we hand over the two major markets of the United States and Western Europe to T Mobile, don't you think it will be too big? "

Lin Bing, Zhou Guangping and others thought deeply, and nodded after a while.

Xia Jingxing said with a smile: "Divide the world into market segments, and choose two or more agents for each market, so that agents can catch up with each other and maintain a healthy competition.

If there is only one agent, in addition to creating inertia, it will in turn threaten upstream mobile phone companies. "

After hearing Xia Jingxing's long-term plan, Lin Bing felt that the boss had considered it well and was well versed in the way of checks and balances in traditional culture.

"But now we have no way to sign multiple agents, we can only be an exclusive agent." Lin Bing said.

Xia Jingxing nodded, "I know that, telecom companies are not fools, they just count on a best-selling mobile phone to improve and increase their number of network users and average income per user.

This kind of multi-agent agreement can only be thought about right now, because we haven't produced sales to prove our own value.

But in the future, this is not an incredible thing. "

Lin Bing nodded, the reason is very simple, that is, if you are strong enough in the future, you can turn your back on the customer. If you are not awesome now, you can only be a guest, be honest.

"Then if we cooperate to finalize Fleissen?" Lin Bing asked.

Xia Jingxing nodded slightly and made the final decision.

He doesn't like the old man Seidenberg, but business and personal feelings should not be confused. From multiple perspectives, Fleissen is the most ideal partner for Fuxing Mobile.

It's normal for the old man to put on airs and like to play tricks.

Because Fleissen's status in the United States is similar to that of China Mobile and China Unicom, with an annual revenue of nearly 100 billion U.S. dollars, ranking among the top 50 of the world's top 500 companies and the top ten of the United States' top 500 companies.

Willing to cooperate with one of their fledgling Chinese companies, in the eyes of the old man, may already be a kind of support and preferential treatment.

Of course, the old man is definitely not as optimistic about smartphones as he said in his mouth. He just wants to strive for more favorable cooperation conditions.

The power of the combination of ATT and Apple has not yet been revealed. Out of defensive psychology, Fleissen casually supported a revival mobile phone. It is a surprise if it succeeds, and it will not suffer too much loss if it fails.