Reinventing the Millennium

The communication between Fang Zhuo and Legere changed from the past, ah no, it was difficult in previous years, and became extremely smooth.

He talked about the prospects of 3G mobile phones, and Lai Tu talked about the support for the deployment of 3G equipment.

He talked about the human-computer interaction of touch-screen mobile phones, and Lai Tu talked about the stagnation of mainstream products.

He talked about the shortcomings of tea leaves and tea bags, and Laitu and Laitu made another cup of tea for Mr. Fang, pouring it first carefully.

After talking like this, I discovered that the once tough and stern Legere could also be so gentle and elegant.

Fang Zhuo was very happy to see the other side of Laitu today.

However, although he has felt the operator's strong position in negotiations since last year and has gradually become pained by repeated pulls, he is not so arrogant today because of a European pre-sale.

Everyone is just talking about cooperation, development, and how to make this thing more beautiful, that's all.

Although Laitou has lost some of his initiative in the cooperation with T-Mobile due to the intervention of Deutsche Telekom headquarters, Fang Zhuo agreed in principle to give him exclusive contract rights for a certain period of time.

For example, a mobile phone is exclusive to T-Mobile within six months of its release. During this period, even if the operator Verizon is willing to cooperate, the sales time will have to be delayed.

At the same time, Fang Zhuo also believes that T-Mobile’s purchase price should be given a fair status.

It's the same cooperation. Look at the $325 AT\u0026T gave Apple, and look at how T-Mobile can't even give you $300.

Laitu, you have to think about it again!

Legere's attitude in the exchange did reveal a new willingness to consider.

He even wanted to wait until the top management at the headquarters came tonight to continue discussing the terms of cooperation with Yike, so as not to wait and wait and wait for new prices.

At noon, Fang Zhuo was dining at T-Mobile. Halfway through the meal, he received a call from Europe. It was Obermann, the CEO of Deutsche Telekom who just took office last year.

In November last year, Deutsche Telekom changed its management, and Obermann succeeded the original CEO Rick and became the head of Europe's No. 1 telecom operator.

It is worth mentioning that Olbermann was Laitou’s immediate boss before he became the head.

Laitu is the CEO of T-Mobile USA, responsible for the US market, and Obermann is the global head of T-Mobile mobile communication services. The hierarchy between the two has increased with the latter taking over.

Fang Zhuo was somewhat surprised to receive this call.

Just saying that Deutsche Telekom is the largest operator in Europe seems hollow. Talking about revenue can show its scale. Last year's full-year revenue exceeded 90 billion US dollars, almost more than the combined revenue of China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom. More.

The head of such a giant asked about the new mobile phone manufacturer that the American subsidiary planned to cooperate with. This made Fang Zhuo re-evaluate the impact of his own mobile phone Mars and raised a small question mark in his heart.

During the call, Obermann congratulated Yike on the success of the press conference. He believed that Mars is an innovative and creative product and looked forward to further cooperation between the two parties.

In addition, he also talked about Deutsche Telekom's solo attempt to pre-sell 100,000 units, and gave more specific information that Lai Tu was not aware of.

Deutsche Telekom's pre-sale test of 100,000 units is indeed aimed at Nokia's home base, Finland. However, because they are both in the Nordic market, the orders for these 100,000 units are essentially divided into three directions: Finland and its two neighboring countries, Norway and Sweden jointly digested this pre-sale.

Even so, the simple survey conducted by Deutsche Telekom during the pre-sale period, including questions such as the operator of the pre-order users at this time and whether they are willing to change operators, also showed an optimistic tendency.

Olbermann showed strong ambition during his brief airtime.

There are 68 million 3G users in the European market, which only account for 10% of mobile users. There are still as many as 90% of the silent market waiting to be leveraged.

Unlike the United States, which has just begun to develop its 3G market, Europe is relatively mature and has complete conditions in all aspects, except for star products that can attract users.

Yike, which can integrate Internet trend ecology such as YouTube and Facebook, and cooperates with dozens of manufacturers such as Google, is considered to have such potential after testing.

All this will be further evaluated by the Deutsche Telekom team flying to Silicon Valley at this moment.

If Yike Mars is really what it showed at the press conference, Obermann is not as nagging as Lai Tu, and he has decisively expressed his willingness to cooperate on a deeper level directly on the phone.

When the phone call ended, Fang Zhuo looked at Lai Tu with a questioning expression and suddenly realized a problem.

The false Iron Triangle is false. Laitu is not someone who can take selfies with himself and Schmidt.

The real iron triangle is Google Schmidt, Yike Fangzhuo, and Deutsche Telekom Obermann!

Fang Zhuo scheduled a meeting with Deutsche Telekom executives tomorrow.

He is not worried about the performance of Yike Mars. He spent half a year optimizing it, something Laitu also knows. The prospects of 3G, touch screen interaction, the ecological development of mobile Internet, and the world's unique front-end, these are things that Mars cannot ignore. Competitiveness.

At one o'clock in the afternoon, Fang Zhuo shook hands with Laitu and said goodbye.

On the way back, the secretary compiled some more noteworthy information about Deutsche Telekom for Fang Zhuolai to sort out their cooperation.

Obermann, the head of Deutsche Telekom, has only been in office for seven months. He was originally responsible for mobile communications, which was related to 2G and 3G. It is precisely because of this that he gained the high expectations of the board of directors.

Therefore, Obermann is relatively willing to focus on an area he is familiar with - 3G mobile devices.

The reason why the original head Rick stepped down was precisely because Deutsche Telekom had poor profits in the past two years, its fixed-line business was sluggish, its 3G business was slow to develop, and it failed to maintain its advantage in the fierce market competition in Europe.

Although Deutsche Telekom is the largest operator in Europe, Vodafone, Telefonica, KLM and smaller operators in various European countries all maintain greater or lesser competitive pressure.

Due to various reasons, Deutsche Telekom announced in January this year that it had lowered its profit forecast for 2007, causing the stock price to plummet.

"Mr. Fang, Deutsche Telekom's profits in 2006 dropped by 43% compared to 2005. It's no wonder that Rick stepped down." Secretary Liu Zonghong paid attention to a key data.

For a telecom operator of this size, the annual profit dropped by 43%. This number is quite astonishing, and the trend can already be called bleak.

"No matter how much Deutsche Telekom declines, it will still be a giant, but it must be eager to find a breakthrough. Obermann, who comes from mobile communications, obviously regards 3G as a key direction." Fang Zhuo opened a new email and said thoughtfully. , "He chose the right direction."

He continued to read the information collected in the email.

The new head of Obermann proposed a development strategy, which requires maintaining competitiveness, achieving market growth through mobile communications, and focusing on mobile Internet and Web2.0...

Fang Zhuo felt that there was a broad basis for cooperation between this person’s idea and Yike. In addition to the purchase price, the sharing between Mars and new users could be discussed in a more targeted manner.

After a long time, the car arrived at the R\u0026D center. Fang Zhuo closed his laptop and finished browsing the information he had added in time. He had a clearer understanding of Deutsche Telekom's situation of testing alone before expressing concern.

“It’s going to be a win-win.”

Fang Zhuo greeted Xu Keden who hurried downstairs and commented on his secretary Liu Zonghong with a smile.

When Liu Zonghong saw Director Xu approaching, he just nodded and said nothing.

"Mr. Fang, Dorsey, the founder of Twitter, is waiting for you to come back in the conference room." Xu Keden was not very satisfied with Dorsey, the founder of Twitter, who came over temporarily. He didn't make an appointment and ignored him. Squatting in the conference room is indeed a bit ungraceful.

"Oh, Duoxi, didn't I tell him about tomorrow on the way back?" Fang Zhuo casually replied with a text message and asked, "Are you here to invest?"

Xu Keden shook his head: "I don't know."

Twitter, which was almost disintegrated, received an investment from Fang Zhuo and moved its office from the basement to a sunny place, but its development was limited to that, and there always seemed to be problems with the company's operations.

Fang Zhuo once considered whether to send a team to help develop Twitter, just like how he helped Xiaonei.com.

It was only two months ago that Twitter ushered in a turning point in development that made him give up the idea.

It exploded at the SXSW conference, and user tweets tripled during the event.

Fang Zhuo didn't quite understand the relationship between the SXSW conference, which was based on music and art, and Internet projects. He had never heard of such an event before. After looking at the information, he found that many previous conferences were about bands, rock, and movies. .

However, Twitter suddenly gained a lot of users, which is still not satisfactory.

As far as Fang Zhuo knew, the founder Dorsey should be very busy now, and he didn't know why he suddenly came to him.

Soon, he saw Dorsey in the conference room, typing on his laptop keyboard.

"Mr. Fang, Mr. Fang." Dorsey complained dissatisfiedly as soon as he saw Mr. Fang, "Aren't we at Twitter also involved in software development? Why didn't you introduce us at Twitter at the press conference? I was the first to watch YouTube. Search all over the place!"

Fang Zhuo smiled and said, "Is this why you came?"

Dorsey said confidently: "What if? Like YouTube, Facebook, and Yahoo, Twitter should be launched on Mars as soon as possible! I have had enough of the web for a long time. Mobile software applications are simply born for Twitter!"

He said firmly: "Mr. Fang, as long as your Android system can develop, Twitter will definitely develop rapidly with the convenience of software!"

Fang Zhuo asked rhetorically: "As long as Android develops and Twitter is not allowed to be used, wouldn't it be possible for others to develop as well?"

Dorsey was stunned and blinked: "Mr. Fang, you are an investor in Twitter! If you don't strongly support our development, do we still need to optimize Facebook more?"

"It's all the same to me. Time is very tight at this conference. It's enough to show the two software applications in that session." Fang Zhuo poured himself a glass of water, "Compared with YouTube and Facebookd My reputation is still a little small, so I have to impress the audience."

Dorsey actually understands that he came here just to ensure that when Mars is released, he will not leave Twitter behind.

He felt that he had to come in person and hear Mr. Fang's promise with his own ears.

"No problem, the Android system now needs an excellent application ecosystem, and Twitter is no problem." Fang Zhuo gave a clear answer. He was just about to talk about the development of Twitter when he suddenly felt that the person in front of him had good feedback, so he asked He said, "You came here so unexpectedly, do you think our Mars is good?"

Dorsey said naturally: "Of course it's good, I'm waiting to buy it for Christmas."

Fang Zhuo asked with interest: "What's a good idea?"

Dorsey thought about the displays at the press conference, this and that, and simply stated the reason: "It's cool."

For him, that's enough.

Fang Zhuo had also heard some reasons from yesterday to today, and when he suddenly heard these two words, his already good mood suddenly became even better.

It's a cool mobile phone. This will surely be the reason for many consumers to buy it. It may also be the reason why the pre-sale of 100,000 units in Northern Europe has been sold out.

He gave Dorsey a message that pleased both parties: "When Twitter needs financing, just call me."

Dorsey rode his bicycle back with Mr. Fang's promise.

Fang Zhuo calmed down a little, and continued to think about the important cooperation with Deutsche Telekom in his mind. Then he dealt with the work arrangements for suppliers, the European market, and the Chinese market in the afternoon, evening, and night.

Because there is a relatively certain procurement cooperation, Yike now needs to have more refined requirements for suppliers.

Originally, in order to reduce costs, we tried to add domestic suppliers to the supply chain, such as the back cover glass.

But after subsequent comparisons after receiving the goods, it was found that for the glass alone, the German craftsmanship was indeed better. Although the domestic ones could also be used, the situation was different, so the decision changed.

Fang Zhuo does not want to directly kick away the domestic manufacturers, but is willing to invest more money in domestic manufacturers so that they can increase research and development, improve standards, and purchase related equipment in accordance with Yike's requirements.

The problem in some links is that domestic manufacturers are reluctant to spend money. In this regard, Yike is willing to provide dedicated interest-free loans in order to create a strong and competitive supply chain.

Fang Zhuo has not forgotten one thing, the Android system is open source.

As long as Mars sells well, mobile phone manufacturers will definitely follow suit. Although they may not necessarily get the best subsidized price, they will definitely have an impact.

Yike must now rely on its first move and its relative honeymoon relationship to build a supply chain, optimize user experience, increase technology research and development, and establish brand advantages.

On June 27, from morning to night, Yike's stock price rose 9% throughout the day.

On June 28, Fang Zhuo met with the senior management team of Deutsche Telekom at the R\u0026D center, reproducing the operations he performed at the press conference one by one, and also spoke frankly about the optimization time of mobile phones.

Because of Laitu, it is impossible to hide this.

Deutsche Telekom's team did not take this issue seriously, they already had a report from T-Mobile USA.

With the pre-sale of 100,000 units, everyone's negotiations are progressing very quickly, whether it is Laitu or Deutsche Telekom.

As the person in charge of the U.S. market, Laitu has great praise for Yike and Mars, and he is very willing to pat his chest to guarantee its sales.

In just one day, after many communications between Deutsche Telekom and the headquarters, Yike and Deutsche Telekom first established a cooperation framework, confirming exclusive cooperation with Deutsche Telekom in the European market and priority cooperation with T-Mobile in the US market.

And, in terms of purchase price, the two parties initially negotiated different purchase prices based on sales volume levels based on US$310.

What was once a problem no longer is a problem.

Deutsche Telekom urgently needs to activate its own 3G backwater, and Yike also urgently needs an operator that can provide perfect conditions to make efforts in procurement and channels.

That night, Fang Zhuo hosted a banquet for the senior executives of Deutsche Telekom.

Everyone enjoyed themselves as guest and host.

At the last moment, Fang Zhuo thought about the pre-sale and asked: "The Nordic countries have pre-sold 100,000 machines. Has Nokia responded? After all, most of them are in Finland."

A group of people looked at each other and smiled.

Still very familiar with Laitu, he not only expressed expectations but also answered questions: "For a mobile phone manufacturer with a global mobile phone market share of more than 35%, 100,000 mobile phones may not arouse its interest."

Vice President Wagner who came from the headquarters smiled and said: "But I believe that Mars will surprise Nokia. Yike will still need time."

Fang Zhuo nodded, he also believed this.

However, the next day, June 29, just when everyone was more or less paying attention to the official release of the iPhone, a news headline from Europe came into Fang Zhuo's eyes, and everyone judged that they would not pay attention to the situation of Yike at all. Nokia's executives actually came out to give fresh comments.

——"Nokia Executive: There is not much time left for Yike!" 》

When Fang Zhuo saw the news forwarded by his secretary, he slowly raised a question mark in his heart.

This, how do you learn to grab words?