Reinventing the Millennium

"Aren't you threatening T-Mobile by telling him face to face like this? How did Legere react?"

"Have you really contacted AT\u0026T?"

"I'm afraid AT\u0026T is not easy to talk about. After all, it has a deep connection with Apple."

When Yu Hong heard the simple exchange mentioned by her boss after the red wine tasting, her attention shifted away from the prototype of the Yike Mars in her hand.

"Who says it's not? It's very difficult." Fang Zhuo shook his head slightly, "I actually contacted AT\u0026T, but they only maintained limited enthusiasm. It's difficult to talk about the operator."

He continued: "We and Google were too optimistic before. Whether it is AT\u0026T, T-Mobie or even V merchants, it is likely that there will be a change in the sales performance of Apple mobile phones."

AT\u0026T is willing to bet, but the bet is on Apple's side.

T-Mobile has increased its investment in 3G, but management led by Legere is not in a hurry to make an immediate decision on the bet.

Fang Zhuo commented: "This is bound to require multiple rounds of lengthy negotiations. Changes may occur between now and before our mobile phone is actually launched. As I said, Yike can talk about different cooperation methods."

Yu Hong looked at the serious Mr. Fang and suddenly raised her phone to take a picture of herself with the front camera.

Well, my expression is also very serious.

"45 degrees, 45 degrees." Fang Zhuo reminded.

Yu Hong corrected the way she took pictures. Well, she has a good-looking face this time.

Fang Zhuo glanced at Xiao Yu who was taking a selfie and thought: "There is also good news at the reception. Qualcomm's Anderson revealed to me that although the negotiation with V was not very good, they are still willing to cooperate more closely with us. They have already We are forming a more powerful R\u0026D team to carry out more optimization and development for the Android system."

Most of the Yike Mars mobile phones are equipped with Texas Instruments chips, and some are Qualcomm MSM series chips, such as MSM6245, which support image processing of 2-megapixel digital cameras, Bluetooth, 2D/3D graphics, and video streaming playback and recording. and video calling capabilities.

According to Anderson, Qualcomm can independently develop the Android system on the MSM (Mobile Station Modems) platform.

"Is it multiple cooperation? Including ice core wafer foundry?" Yu Hong asked.

Fang Zhuo nodded: "Operators are very stubborn. Qualcomm has a similar understanding of the future development of mobile phones as we do, and is willing to put aside the V vendor's position on communication standards. I also agree in principle to conduct multi-faceted cooperation with Qualcomm."

As the vice president who has always been in contact with Yike, Anderson was both frustrated and excited at the reception. One of the important factors why he left the stubborn V business behind is that Ice Core is expected to have 65nm production capacity in the third quarter of this year.

Qualcomm believes that the cooperation model from design to foundry to terminal can bring additional market competitiveness to Yike mobile phones.

On the eve of the era of smarter mobile phones, even looking at the market, there are not many manufacturers such as Yike that can be integrated. Although they are still immature, the prospects are very good.

Otherwise, Nokia has TI chips, Samsung develops them in-house and exports them to Apple, Sony Ericsson also purchases most of them from TI, and Motorola has many models that cooperate with Qualcomm, but it has been going downhill and is still developing communication standards. Create a hostile camp.

Qualcomm integrated various factors and chose a new company as a breakthrough direction in the 3G era.

Even if the Yike mobile phone fails this time, we can continue to look at the performance of the Android system that promotes open source.

Yu Hong put down the Mars mobile phone, which was becoming unstable again, and said thoughtfully: "This is good news from Qualcomm. If we still can't reach an agreement with the operators, we still have to come up with a charter in May, even if it is temporary."

She further said based on what Mr. Fang said: "Google and Yike are tied together. Qualcomm has decided to cooperate more now. What we are facing now is the attitude of the operators."

"What's changed in terms of Apple's real sales performance is carrier confidence."

"In this case, in May, before the Yike press conference, we can first work out the conditions for tiered sales with the operators. Otherwise, we can't mention our cooperation with the operators at the press conference, right?"

Fang Zhuo understood what Xiao Yu meant.

Ladder sales, or sales volume betting, for example, if the sales volume exceeds one million, what kind of purchase price does the operator charge? If the sales volume exceeds three million, the operator has different prices. In addition to the purchase price, if the sales volume exceeds four million, Yi Like Apple, it participates in sharing the revenue of new online users.

It can be a draft. Regardless of whether it can be implemented in the end, at the very least, Yike's press conference in June will have a complete outline.

My phone can be displayed, although it faces the risk of black screen and shutdown.

I have negotiated a carrier partner, although that may change again.

In short, Yike’s June press conference needs to be a successful one.

As Google's Schmidt disclosed, even if Apple's mobile phone changes the signal display on the screen, even if it allows operators to set up equipment in the venue, the conference must be held.

After a brief thought, Fang Zhuo agreed to Yu Hong's proposal.

This can also be regarded as a display of Yike Mobile’s own confidence.

The specific sales target still needs to be negotiated with Google and Qualcomm and then negotiated with the operators. Of course, the lower the sales target is, the better.

"Cooperating with operators is really a painful process, but the results may not be beneficial." Yu Hong sighed with emotion. What worries her most is that Yike Mobile may be overthrown because of the operators' opinions.

She is already quite satisfied with the Mars phone in her hand.

If such a mobile phone continues to be polished for nine months, it will definitely bring a better experience to consumers.

"Just keep making progress, and I hope it won't be sealed in the laboratory." Fang Zhuo said.

Yu Hong looked at the front camera on her phone: "I hope the ladies will give Mr. Fang a chance to make friends."

Fang Zhuo laughed.

Speaking of women’s friends, in addition to Yike Mobile’s efforts on front-facing cameras, domestic e-commerce has been negotiating cooperation with cosmetics manufacturers in Japan and South Korea, and may also hope to put it on the shelves this year.

…

The wine tasting was a great success.

Even the patron Zhang Chaoyang was very satisfied.

I thought that the head of Sohu could go back home, but he unexpectedly said that he would study in the United States for a week or two, and also planned to visit MIT where he was studying for a Ph.D.

Fang Zhuo admired Brother Chaoyang very much, so he lent him the somewhat expensive Qingzi number and let him fly over the United States.

When people go to New York instead of going directly to Silicon Valley, in addition to having connections with Sony, Qimonda, Qualcomm, etc., one very important thing is to have a clearer understanding of the situation of their own funds in the financial market.

On March 29, two more subprime debt institutions announced their closure.

On March 30, the wave of bankruptcies did not stop, and there was still a mortgage company that collapsed at the end of the month.

On March 31, Fang Zhuo met Kong Yu, who had flown back from Washington, at Yike's office in New York.

While waiting for Kong Yu to arrive, he took the time to read the latest "New York Times", "Wall Street Journal" and other media newspapers.

Anyone with a discerning eye can see that there is a problem with the subprime debt of U.S. residential properties, but there are still well-known institutions in newspapers claiming that the financial sector will not be greatly affected and will soon rebound.

For example, Dillon Read, a hedge fund under UBS Group, vowed that there is no future for short selling and believes in the adjustment ability of the U.S. market and the prosperity cycle of the U.S. financial sector.

UBS Group is well-known around the world and UBS is its brand.

Hedge fund Dillon Read is endorsed by UBS and has always been very influential in the US market.

Similarly, the well-known investment bank Bear Stearns has also spoken out, believing that the problems in the real estate market are regional and will be slowly digested, while the fluctuations of CDOs will not affect the entire financial market.

At nine o'clock in the morning, Kong Yu arrived at the office.

When he saw the newspaper his boss was reading, he gave his latest judgment: "Mr. Fang, UBS's hedge fund Dillon Read may be forced to liquidate. It will suffer losses of at least hundreds of millions of dollars this time."

Fang Zhuo was a little surprised and pointed to another section of the newspaper.

Kong Yu took a look and replied: "Bear Stearns has two hedge funds, and the situation may not be very good. There is no movement now. It will definitely explode in the next two or three months. The overall confidence in the market is declining. ."

"Look at the voices of these famous newspapers and well-known institutions..." Fang Zhuo shook his head and smiled, "What about Lehman?"

Kong Yu knew that Mr. Fang was openly shorting Lehman. Although he was not responsible for this, he was also concerned about it: "Lehman's CDO scale is relatively confidential. Its stock price may be relatively stable in the future."

He organized his language and explained to Mr. Fang: "From a certain perspective, Bear Stearns's voice in the New York Times also makes sense. The current residential market situation is not good, but the commercial real estate field is different."

"The U.S. housing market and commercial real estate, the latter has always had excellent loan default rates."

"Lehman invested a lot of money in commercial real estate, replicating the same logic of making money in the residential market."

Before this year, the housing subprime bond market was booming because it had low default rates.

Now, as housing subprime loans begin to default, Lehman is very smart to start doing commercial real estate where the default rate is still not high.

What does your housing default have to do with my commercial real estate?

The premise is that the former disturbance is localized and will not cause a chain reaction through the financial market.

Kong Yu didn’t know whether Bear Stearns was just trying to boost confidence or whether it really believed its rhetoric, but judging from Lehman’s actions, it believed that commercial real estate could bring new profit prospects.

What is the crisis?

Crises are also opportunities.

The housing market is facing a blow → fewer people are buying houses → the unchanged population still has demand for housing → the housing prices and rents of apartment real estate are promising.

Lehman is now vigorously developing commercial real estate and the bond market it formed.

Kong Yuzai carefully explained the logic and his observations to the boss.

"It's interesting, I thought Lehman would be in ruins soon." Fang Zhuo didn't feel bored listening to these things, but he just admired Lehman's spirit of taking advantage of the fire.

Kong Yu said in a low voice: "This is because our short sellers have different judgments. We believe that the movements in the residential mortgage market will be transmitted to the entire financial system and trigger a huge crisis."

The short-selling power in the market is gradually increasing.

For example, the funds of the big short Paulson have increased rapidly since the beginning of the year. When Kong Yu injected capital, the size of the fund managed by Paulson was about US$1 billion, and now it has expanded to US$7 billion at an alarming rate.

The market has formed two completely different judgments on future development.

You say you are right?

Could the European giants and well-known investment banks be wrong?

Right or wrong can only be left to time.

Fang Zhuo listened to the industry news from Kong Yu for a while. His own funds were steadily making money, but in addition to the residential market, the wider financial market was still relatively stalemate. Many institutions, like Lehman, even thought that it could Recreating the glory of subordinated bonds in commercial real estate.

At 11 o'clock in the morning, Kong Yu's report was basically completed.

Fang Zhuo plans to have lunch with the hard-working Mr. Kong and hear the inside story of the industry.

When a group of people walked out of the building, there was a dull "bang" in the distance, and suddenly there was an obvious commotion.

Fang Zhuo and Kong Yu stopped.

None of them came forward.

"There are many financial institutions nearby." Kong Yu said this, and then looked up at the tall buildings. It was very cold up there.

Fang Zhuo looked at the emergencies that had begun to be dealt with, thinking about Kong Yu’s analysis of Lehman’s issuance of commercial real estate bonds that he heard in the morning, and sighed: “How crazy it is when you are chasing profits, and how desperate you are when it collapses. "

Kong Yu no longer looked at the direction of the commotion. He had done enough psychological preparation for his market judgment and said, "Let's go, Mr. Fang, and we'll take a look when we're full."

Fang Zhuo glanced at Lao Kong in surprise. He chose to shave his hair, and he seemed to have more of a forager air.

…

Just when Fang Zhuoren was feeling the fluctuations of the financial market in New York, someone uploaded a blurry video on the American video website YouTube.

The picture is a bit shaky, probably taken with a mobile phone.

The owner of the mobile phone first took a picture of a yellow-skinned Chinese man, accompanied by a voiceover of "It's Fang, the Rockets boss", and then the screen followed the Rockets boss. After taking a few steps, he heard the voices of two other people discussing this year. of Rockets.

"The Rockets are only ranked fifth now, and they will definitely not win the championship this year."

"Hey, the Rockets' three consecutive championships are a dream. They are destined not to win three consecutive championships."

The Rockets once won two consecutive championships from 1993 to 1995, and now they are also winning two consecutive championships. However, this year's injuries are very serious, and the prospect of winning the championship is not optimistic. There is a sense of fate that it will be difficult to win three consecutive championships.

The Chinese in the picture stopped, and the discussion between the two continued.

"The Rockets can win the championship this year, unless the black man who announced his candidacy can become president, hahaha."

They all laughed. In February this year, the black Olympics announced his candidacy for the head of the United States.

At this time, the Chinese man continued to walk forward, walked up to the two of them, and spoke seriously.

"Why not?"

The two of them were a little surprised to meet the real owner in the restaurant. One of them asked with a smile: "Do you really believe that your team can win the championship? Really? Fang, from the bottom of your heart?"

Chinese people still say the same thing: "Why not?"

He even repeated loudly and even a little defensively: "Why not?"

The video ends quickly.

Unless a black man becomes president, the Rockets can win three consecutive championships.

This video has been spread and watched on YouTube, which is now the most popular website in the United States. Some people commented unceremoniously below.

"If the fifth-place Rockets can win the championship, a black man may really be able to become president."

"If I were Xiao Ou, I would pray for a miracle to happen to the Rockets right now."