Reinventing the Millennium

On the afternoon of the 19th, Fang Zhuo was in a good mood and continued to handle official duties at the company.

Yike M1 will go on sale tomorrow. Today, he found product director Xu Keden and deputy director in charge of supply chain Sun Qi to start seriously promoting the layout of mid-range products.

Because M1 is sourced from the best parts around the world, its factory cost is as high as 1,800 yuan. Including taxes and fees, the hard cost of selling a machine in a store is 2,100 yuan.

If you also include the 100 yuan profit distribution to different sales levels, the M1 store sales price must be above 2,200 to start pocketing profits.

In 2001, the per capita salary in Shanghai was 1,480. Even here, it took two months per capita salary to buy an M1. This price is undoubtedly beyond the reach of most people in a wider range.

Therefore, if Yike wants to capture more profits from music players, it must develop mid-range or even low-end products. Considering the brand's positioning, Fang Zhuo thinks that the machines produced directly by Yike will only be mid-range.

For lower-end products, you can consider establishing a new company and creating a new brand. This is also a preparation for the fierce price competition that will inevitably occur in the MP3 market where the technical threshold is not high.

Yike takes the mid-to-high-end products, and Majia Company takes the low-end products, introducing an appropriate amount of production lines to earn assembly money from other companies.

That is - I want them all.

"In the final analysis, M1 has no core technology threshold. If we can do it, others can do it if they buy our M1 and take it apart for research."

"What we want to do is mass consumer products. The positioning of M1 is to let everyone start to know that there is such a thing, and the P1 is to make more people can afford it with just a little grit."

When Fang Zhuo said the word "mass consumer goods," he was still thinking about the success of the Ipod. It should be considered a "mass consumer product," but the differences in national conditions meant that he had to lower his prices in order to maintain the first-mover advantage.

Otherwise, other domestic manufacturers will soon come in and a price war will inevitably begin.

"Mr. Fang, if we want to make a mid-range P1..." Xu Keden hesitated, "Including chips, display modules, and storage, we have to completely downgrade it. Compared with the Walkman, the sound quality is even more disadvantageous."

"Anyway, the M1 can't be compared. The sound quality is its shortcoming. Compared with this, the other advantages are hard to compare with the Walkman." Fang Zhuo said without hesitation, "Teacher Xu, I don't think we need to wait until the end of the year. P1 The order can be sent to the factory, and the Yangtze River Delta can also start looking for a suitable factory."

Xu Keden subconsciously glanced at the taciturn Sun Qi. His friend was in the supply chain, and the stability of global procurement depended on him.

Sun Qi slowly said: "Okay, I will try to buy a suitable one before the end of the year."

He looked at the young boss and continued: "Mr. Fang, we currently get our hard drives from Toshiba, but last time Toshiba used the purchase from an American company to modify the terms of cooperation, we must take precautions against this."

Fang Zhuo immediately paid attention: "You mean, Toshiba may still breach the contract?"

"I think the Japanese may not be reliable, but they are the best at micro hard drives on the market." Sun Qi was a little helpless. "I recently looked at the technical situation of global manufacturers. They do not use hard disk storage, and the price of flash memory is not low. .”

Fang Zhuo concentrated his attention and signaled Deputy Director Sun to continue.

"Toshiba, Hitachi, and Samsung are all making flash memory products. The current price I asked is about sixty or seventy US dollars per 512M, which is almost as much as the price of a hard drive. If the storage space of flash memory is the same as that of a hard drive, the price is too high. High." Sun Qi frowned.

Fang Zhuo asked: "512M, um, is there 256M? Is there 128M?"

Xu Keden and Sun Qi were both surprised. Compared with the 5G of the hard drive, this is much different, and instead of stacking it up, it also goes down?

"A Walkman tape only has 10 songs, and the MP3 format only has a few megabytes. Aren't 256 and 128 already more than the Walkman?" Fang Zhuo said calmly, "Don't always think about using hardware to surpass the Walkman. Really What can defeat this giant is the trend of digital music."

Xu Keden and Sun Qi nodded silently, with some approval and some disapproval.

Fang Zhuo chatted with the two core members of the product team for a long time before letting them go. He could see that the two of them had independent thinking and unconfident development judgments.

However, you know best where the times are going.

The trend of the times is vast, those who follow it will prosper, and those who go against it will perish.

Fang Zhuo was in a trance while sitting in the CEO's office. When he got up to go downstairs, he picked up his mobile phone and felt a little emotional. This was true for Sony and Nokia.

"Hey, Xiao Yuan, I'm going downstairs to the hospital now. You can drive."

He used the Nokia in his hand to dial the number of his administrative assistant Yuan Zhen.

The other party responded and hung up the phone.

At sunset, the clouds in the sky are quite beautiful.

Fang Zhuo admired the M1 billboard under the setting sun and stood where he was accustomed to waiting for the bus.

Five minutes later, the black Audi slowly stopped.

Just as Fang Zhuo was about to open the door, the car door was pushed open from inside.

A bald girl came out with a smile and jumped forward playfully.

"Qi, Qi Qi." Fang Zhuo was stunned. He saw his parents and aunt getting out of the car one after another. He had a vague guess in his mind, but... he had asked Yuan Zhen about her recent treatment situation a few days ago.

His eyes glanced at Yuan Zhen who got out of the driver's seat. The assistant felt guilty and hurriedly walked aside as if he hadn't seen her. A well-intentioned deception was also a deception.

"Brother, do you think my hair can still grow back?" Zhao Suqi winked at his brother.

Fang Zhuo squeezed the hard Nokia in his hand and looked at the thin but smiling girl in front of him. His nose felt sore and tears flowed down uncontrollably, as if the haze of a series of changes in his previous life had been shattered all at once.

Zhao Suqi didn't wait for an answer, but when he saw his brother's tears, he immediately panicked. He stretched out his hand to wipe him away, but more and more tears came out. He hurriedly comforted: "Brother, don't cry, brother..."

Fang Zhuo shook his head, took a deep breath, rolled his eyes with his hands, and asked, "Did the doctor say you are well? Have you done all the tests?"

"Well, I'm fine, but I'm not completely fine. I still need to be re-examined." Zhao Suqi said crisply.

Fang Zhuo knocked on his sister's bald head and looked at the family beside the car, the expression on his face became clear.

At this time, the screen of Plaza 66 cut to the next program, which was an interview with a news figure.

"Mr. Fang, do you think that after many years, someone will judge you as a hunt for venture capital?" A reporter sat down to interview.

"I don't understand why you ask that." Fang Zhuo on the screen looked serious, then suddenly smiled, "Someone is saying that now."

The family members invariably raised their heads to watch the interview clip.

Fang Zhuo also saw it, but he greeted him nonchalantly: "Dad, Mom, Auntie, how old are you? You still attack suddenly like this? You hid it from me before, right? Let's go, let's go have a meal to celebrate Qi Qi."

"Brother, why is it called hunting?" Zhao Suqi heard the voice on the screen and asked curiously.

"Because in this era, there are always people who are prey, and there are always people who are hunters." Fang Zhuo was in an unprecedented good mood, and said casually, "You hunt me, and I hunt you, just get used to it."

He smiled and said: "Let's go eat. After dinner, I will tell you about the weird things I encountered during this time. Well, let me tell you a story about gasoline first."

Zhao Suqi took his brother's arm, then his mother's hand, and pulled the two of them to run forward: "Let's go eat!"

Fang Zhuo stopped his efforts and scolded: "Slow down, slow down!"

The sun sets in the west, the wind blows in Huangpu, and the sky is high, taking advantage of the time.

(End of Volume 1.)