Reinventing the Millennium

July 24, Yike Silicon Valley R\u0026D Center.

Following the rhythm of a weekly high-level meeting after the press conference, Fang Zhuo once again held a coordinating meeting with managers from China, the United States, and Europe to determine the company's plan for the second half of the year.

The mobile phone Mars needs to be continuously optimized together with the Android system, and starting from August, it will start important work such as large-scale publicity, final approval of supply chain prices, and docking with operators.

The meeting was relatively lengthy, the time differences between the three places were different, and everyone was very busy recently. As a result, halfway through the meeting, another problem occurred with the online conference system.

From morning to night, Fang Zhuo finally ran out of patience the moment he announced the end of the meeting.

"I have said more than once that we need a stable, stable, stable conferencing software."

"I just don't understand, is this thing so difficult?"

Fang Zhuo stood up and signaled others to get off work. Yu Hong and Xu Keden followed him to the office.

When he entered the office, he drank two large glasses of water before pouring tea for Mr. Yu and Director Xu.

Yu Hong made a cup of coffee by herself, then glanced at the dazzling array of mobile phones and mobile phone parts on her desk, and said with a smile: "I was attacked by domestic mobile phone manufacturers a while ago, and I never saw you so annoyed."

She then said to Xu Keden: "Teacher Xu, look at Mr. Fang's table. Does it look more like a laboratory than your laboratory?"

Nokia, Motorola, Samsung.

Clamshell, straight, touch screen.

The colors are also colorful.

Xu Keden said sincerely: "Mr. Fang loves what he does. Without this spirit, where would our Mars be?"

"I just want to see how you all deceived me." Fang Zhuo swept his arm to clear an open space for placing files, and then answered Mr. Yu's words, "The iPhone has been on sale for less than a month, and the sales volume is now sufficient. It's over 500,000, and just these 500,000 mobile phones are enough for a major domestic manufacturer to work for a year."

He shook his head slightly: "I also want to be angry, but I just can't get angry. However, Mr. Cai from MediaTek also said something to help me. I heard it is very effective."

Calculated at US$199, these 500,000 units are worth US$99.5 million. However, some of Apple’s sales still have retail prices. Although the proportion is unclear, the revenue is more than US$100 million.

Based on what Fang Zhuo has been thinking about in the past two days, the revenue in less than one month is enough for Morningstar Semiconductor to work for more than half a year.

Morningstar Semiconductor's revenue last year was US$220 million, compared with US$170 million in 2005.

This is a good increase, and it is expected to have an even better increase of more than 40% this year.

But in Fang Zhuo's mind, it was still not strong enough.

Yu Hong nodded slowly, without paying attention to the small domestic manufacturers. She picked up an iPhone from the table and frowned: "The iPhone has a good reputation on the Internet, and its system is indeed Smooth.”

After saying this, she and Fang Zhuo both looked at Xu Keden.

Xu Keden spread his hands innocently, what do you want me to do?

The two people realized that this was not a problem with the phone's hardware, but with the Android system.

The three of them sighed in unison.

Since the release of the iPhone, the issue of system experience has troubled relevant personnel at Yike and Google.

Including Schmidt, after he really tried the iPhone, he spoke softly in front of Fang Zhuo, and even personally ordered a discount on top of the discount for YouTube advertising expenses in August.

Fang Zhuo had psychological expectations. Although he was dissatisfied, he was not as dissatisfied as everyone imagined.

However, looking at Schmidt's appearance, he felt that it was inappropriate not to get angry, so he actually found an opportunity for a meeting between the two parties to politely get angry, reprimanding Google for its system development problems.

Having said that, although Yike and Google have discovered the gaps, consumers have also spontaneously mentioned Mars in their good reputation for the iPhone.

Some media previously called the iPhone released by Apple the "God Phone", but after the Yike conference, such a title gradually disappeared.

When consumers got the iPhone, some teasing appeared.

“Why can’t this God’s phone take selfies?”

"I bought a God mobile phone from AT\u0026T. The problem is, this God mobile phone is a God 2G mobile phone. I decided to let my family try Yike's Mars mobile phone at the end of the year. I hope I can take a group photo on Christmas!"

Although Yiko Mars has not been released yet, and although the selfie of Mars only appeared at the press conference, the idea of ​​​​the front camera is not only applicable to Finns, but also to American consumers who can use it.

“One-hand selfie” is one of the Yike ads that YouTube will push in mid-August.

From the beginning to the end, Fang Zhuo's idea of ​​mobile phone competition is differentiated competition based on his own strengths.

"Apple has yet to announce its sales plan for the European market." Yu Hong mentioned an important recent development of Apple.

"European operators are not like AT\u0026T and Apple who have cooperated for a long time. We took over the declining Deutsche Telekom. Whether it is Vodafone in the UK or Orange in France, they will not be easy to accept Apple's cooperation model in a short period of time." Fang Zhuo personally tried the difficult operator.

If it weren't for the special circumstances of Deutsche Telekom's coaching change and plummeting profits, Yike might still be struggling with T-Mobile.

Similarly, Apple wants to replicate its cooperation with US operators in the European market, which requires time, energy, gaming and compromise.

Judging from the current situation, it will be difficult for Apple to get involved in the European market for quite some time, which is good for Yike.

There is another important reason that cannot be ignored. Europe is several years ahead of 3G in the United States. Although there is still a lot of room, the concept has been more penetrated, and the 2G version of the iPhone is not that popular.

Fang Zhuo talked about this, and then connected with Pan Ben in Europe to have an impromptu chat about the chaos and competition among operators in various European countries.

"There are still drastic changes in the supply chain. Mr. Fang, do you think the iPhone will respond to the drop in storage prices?" Yu Hong raised a question that was not discussed at today's meeting.

Fang Zhuo couldn't help but correct Yu Hong: "That's not a fall... that's an avalanche..."

At the beginning of this year, the price of 1GB of storage was $12.

By April, the price had dropped to $10 and then fluctuated back to $9.

Now at the end of July, the price has dropped all the way to $5.

Apple's 4G storage costs from US$48 to US$20 now, while Yike's 8G version has dropped by US$56.

What makes storage manufacturers most desperate is that they don’t know whether they can hold on to the $5 mark.

They no longer consider rebounding.

This is a complete collapse of the global storage industry price system. From the United States, Europe to South Korea, Japan to the mainland, Baodao, including Qimonda and SMIC, which Fangzhuo cooperates with, have been more or less affected.

On the contrary, the ice core in Lin'an was able to escape the disaster because it produced niche storage.

Fang Zhuo is still observing this matter and waiting for the financial crisis to further disrupt the storage industry.

He feels that from 12 to 5, this 5 is definitely not the bottom, and there is even hope of going straight to 2 US dollars.

At $5, manufacturers are complaining and bleeding. When it reaches $2, let’s see how many can breathe.

However, the reflection of all this on mobile terminals is a positive cost reduction.

"Jobs will definitely take action. From word of mouth to sales to competitive environment and the European market, he should take action." Fang Zhuo put himself in his shoes and felt that if he had been in his shoes, he might have taken action on the price.

Yu Hong's judgment on this point is ambiguous, but she trusts her boss's acumen in this regard.

However, Xu Keden murmured in his heart, the cost has dropped, Apple has made this money for nothing, it must be happy, what else should it do?

However, on the afternoon of the next day, Xu Corden refreshed the Internet to Apple’s official website’s price cuts and adjustment announcements, as well as Jobs’ open letter to users.

Apple announced that it will stop selling the 4G storage version of the iPhone.

Apple announced that the 8G storage version of the iPhone has been reduced from US$599 to US$399, a price reduction of up to 33.4%.

And, it will launch a 16G version of iPhone in the fourth quarter.

In an open letter, Jobs apologized for the sudden price cut and promised to compensate old users.

He said that he still believes that price reduction is a correct decision and will help expand the user base of iPhone, but he also admitted that while the company expands new users through price reduction, it should better take care of the feelings of early users.

Jobs promised that all users who purchased an iPhone before the price cut would receive a $100 voucher that could be used to purchase any item at an Apple retail store or online store.

However, one sentence in the open letter, "The technology field is always full of changes and improvements. If you always wait for price cuts or want to buy the latest model, you will never be able to buy high-tech products." It angered many users who have already purchased iPhones.

——Were the changes and improvements in your high-tech products made in such a short period of time? What have you been doing?

For this reason, on the second day after Apple’s announcement, an iPhone user announced a lawsuit against Apple, believing that such a drastic price cut harmed his rights.

A price reduction caused a lot of confusion.

It’s okay if you don’t have a choice, but there are less than 5 months until the release of Yiko Mars. Many users declared online that “even if it is the same price, I will not buy an iPhone, I will buy a Mars for Christmas.”

After such adjustments, the iPhone has completely matched Mars in terms of price and storage version, at US$399/8G and US$499/16G.

Yike and Google looked at the news on the Internet and watched the excitement.

However, just looking at this excitement made me feel angry.

Just three days after the iPhone announced a price cut, Apple staff claimed that many bad comments about its own products now come from its competitor Yike, which is an opportunity for the opponent to smear the company.

Yi Ke:?

In the conscience of heaven and earth, Fang Zhuo and Yike were just watching the fun this time.

Fang Zhuo even understood such price reductions and adjustments in his heart.

Unexpectedly, this world cannot tolerate good people.

Before Fang Zhuo could respond, Google's Schmidt was unwilling.

He directly posted a selfie and a profile photo of Mars on Facebook, writing: "Thank you Mars, it allows you to use a cheaper iPhone, but if you are willing to wait, you can do it on Christmas Take a selfie of your family, and yes, it also comes with a 3G function.”

The real iron triangle!

Google Schmidt!

Fang Zhuo found it strange that after half a year, Schmidt, who took the stage at the Apple conference, directly mocked his "old club."

He mentioned this matter when he called Schmidt and asked: "If I remember correctly, Google and Apple have cooperation on the search side. Lao Shi, are you being a little frivolous?"

"Can you tear up your jersey angrily on the court and be frivolous?" Schmidt asked.

"This is different, the occasion is different." Fang Zhuo reminded, "Besides, I am young and go well with sports. Unlike the public perception of you, you are old and cunning, controlling everything behind the scenes."

Schmidt felt that Mr. Fang was being humble.

But to be honest, Yi Ke and Mr. Fang are indeed very restrained in promoting Mars.

He even felt a little conservative.

If you do it yourself, you will definitely seize the iPhone’s price cut and attack it fiercely.

"Mobile phones are different from players. I still hope that Mars will establish a brand image from products to company and even management. 3G and smartphones will bring mobile phone manufacturers to a relatively fair starting line." Fang Zhuo told Schmidt He talked about some of his thoughts, "Mars has a unique front camera and a software ecological framework brought by the 3G network. The mobile phone technology these represent is already on the front line."

"Schmidt, if you want to become an external director of Yike, you must remember our purpose and keep making progress!"

In the words of Steve Jobs, this is a high-tech product, and the process of maintaining progress of high-tech products has its own subtle brand culture transmission.

Fang Zhuo is carefully considering the establishment of mobile phone brand culture and wants longer-term benefits.

Moreover, he also carefully chooses channels to convey his ideas to consumers.

However, no matter how cautious I was, I was still slightly deceived at a technology and business conference I attended in early August.

On August 2, after careful selection by the Yike Public Relations Department, Fang Zhuo agreed to the All Things Digital Conference co-hosted by two columnists from the Wall Street Journal, Walter and Carla.

The reason given by the company is that this program has a good reputation and has interviewed many well-known business leaders such as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs this year, which is in line with the brand positioning that Yike is currently pursuing.

However, when Fang Zhuo arrived at the scene, he soon discovered in the background that Jobs was already being interviewed in front.

"Kara, you didn't tell us in advance that Steve Jobs was also participating in this interview." Yike's staff were dissatisfied with this and negotiated with the host backstage to cancel the interview.

"Hey, hey, don't you think this is a good opportunity? Listen, listen, Steve Jobs talked about your product." Carla tried hard to save the plan, and he said to Mr. Fang who could make the decision, "Fang Anyway, Steve Jobs also didn’t know you were coming, so you guys are fair and square.”

The show played a little trick and brought together the heads of two competing companies for an interview.

They have done similar things before and achieved good results, and that time the target was Musk.

Fang Zhuo listened carefully and heard the cheers of the audience.

"Okay, just be fair and give me a good appearance." He waved to his staff and asked the host.

Kara got excited and planned to contact another host, Walter, through the headset so that Mr. Fang could appear properly in front of the audience.