Reinventing the Millennium

The three people in the office knew exactly what the two heads of MediaTek and Morningstar Semiconductor wanted when they came to New York.

However, because they were both present at the same time, the atmosphere was somewhat subtle.

But this was not a deliberate arrangement by Fang Zhuo. Instead, Cai Mingjie and Liang Gongwei were wary of each other and always paid attention to each other and Mr. Fang's movements, which led to the current situation.

Liang Gongwei knows that MediaTek is superior.

Cai Mingjie knows the deeper relationship between Morning Star and ice cores.

Moreover, with Mr. Fang’s “inadvertent” official announcement of the latest sales of 1.6 million units, MediaTek and Morningstar Semiconductor’s desire for cooperation has become even stronger. A star product that sells well in Europe and the United States and subsequent models can really drive upgrades and change their destiny. .

What's more, China's huge market is about to open up. Both companies are mainly based in the mainland, and the two leaders are very aware of the huge development potential here.

Mars looks good no matter how good he is, how fragrant the tea in the office is, how bright Mr. Fang looks, and how displeased the people next to him are.

Fang Zhuo talked about the pre-sales and sales of Mars in the past two months, about the difficulty of Yike in this process, and finally talked about the issues that the two of them were more concerned about after answering another phone call.

"This matter is difficult to handle now."

Fang Zhuo frowned and talked about the difficulty based on the actual situation: "The domestic 3G market opened later than we imagined, which makes our product positioning very embarrassing, because our new products next year are likely to be released in June. It will go on the market at the same pace.”

This time has not actually been determined yet, and we are considering leaving more sales time for Mars.

"If new products are launched in June next year, the current Mars and new products will definitely coexist in the domestic market, but the old models will have significant discounts."

The two leaders understood the problem when they heard what Mr. Fang said.

This is actually not Yike's fault, but the two of them's fault!

As long as Yike builds its brand power in foreign markets, the domestic market will naturally be able to compete strongly. Moreover, Yike may not pay attention to Lenovo and others at all, but wants to take the share of foreign brands such as Nokia and Samsung. .

New products will be released as soon as they are released, while old products can be directly discounted, targeting the lower-end market.

When it comes to making money, it must be new products that make money, but domestic consumption levels and the deployment of the Android system may be more beneficial in the long run by occupying the customer base.

In this way, what about the entry-level chips originally planned to cooperate with MediaTek or Morningstar?

What attitude does Yike need to adopt?

Still strongly supportive? Observe domestic sales? Why not just go directly to Qualcomm to customize entry-level chips?

It’s hard to handle. It’s hard to handle.

Add tea and water.

Fang Zhuoyin's expression became hazy and blurry after being filled with heat.

"I heard that the six major domestic operators are going to speed up reforms. I wonder if there is any hope that 3G licenses will be issued in the spring?" Cai Mingjie asked tentatively.

"China Mobile has purchased mobile phones from several brands this year to test TD-SCDMA, and Yike will also conduct signal tests with China Unicom in the first quarter of next year, but this matter in China..." Fang Zhuo said slowly, "There is not much hope in the first half of the year, and it is not It’s so easy to push, do you understand what’s going on here?”

He really went to the capital to get to know and make some efforts, but soon found out that he was not suitable and left immediately.

Liang Gongwei met Mr. Fang's gaze and felt that he had a close relationship with Mr. Fang and it was not appropriate to understand. He nodded slowly and said: "Yes, I understand."

Cai Mingjie had vaguely heard some opinions, but it was not clear, but since Liang Gongwei understands... you understand, then I understand too.

He nodded and gave a clear statement: "MediaTek is very sincere in its cooperation with Yike. The domestic market is very beneficial to the popularization of Android systems and can further promote mobile phone manufacturers to install the system."

Fang Zhuo agreed without waiting for Liang Gongwei to speak: "That's the truth, but having said that, we have talked so much, in the final analysis it still depends on the performance of the chip, but..."

He paused and gave the two of them time to reflect. Neither MediaTek nor Morningstar could come up with an actual chip, especially the latter. The two failed tapeouts were really a loss.

Fang Zhuo continued: "Yike wants to create entry-level models. Even if the domestic situation is a bit unexpected, this has not changed. Whether it is MediaTek or Morningstar, I think there must be a win-win cooperation on such a product line. of."

Reaffirming your attitude can only go so far.

What else can be done? If the two companies are on par, they can now come up with easy-to-use and cheap chips. Yike can directly finalize new products, but they can't get them and have to fly over to meet.

Both leaders still had a lot to say, but it was difficult to say it because of the other party's presence. They pondered Mr. Fang's attitude and briefly chatted about the chip design. Then, Mr. Fang continued to call. He stood up to say goodbye.

They clearly knew Mr. Fang's itinerary, and they would take a flight to Germany tomorrow.

Before leaving the office, Liang Gongwei looked at the other party's general manager and received neither a hint nor an attempt to persuade him to stay.

He thought about it and did not try to stay. Instead, he called Mr. Fang after returning to the hotel with Cai Mingjie. He only said one thing-Morning Star Semiconductor was considering another round of financing and wanted to hear from Mr. Fang. General advice.

Soon, Liang Gongwei was politely invited to hold a video conference to briefly talk about the development of Morningstar Semiconductor.

This meeting lasted for a long time. When Liang Gongwei saw someone coming in to report work, Mr. Fang postponed it.

It wasn't until 7:30, when the video ended, that American Wang Yuhong finally sent the document to Mr. Fang.

"Is Baodao's semiconductor competition so intense? Are they still using man-to-man tactics?" Yu Hong complained first.

"How should I put it? Morningstar can set up a 24-hour situation room, so they can't judge it with common sense, but MediaTek also knows that it can't be targeted, maybe it's just a statement." Fang Zhuo shook his head, "Liang Gongwei is willing to release it again I talked to him about the possibility of listing the company in the mainland, and he was considering it."

Morningstar Semiconductor is doing well in the TV field and is not short of money now.

Yu Hong knew this, thinking about the shares that Bingxin had previously held, and commented: "Today we will cut five cities, and tomorrow we will cut ten cities, and then we will have to sleep overnight."

"It's not that sinister. As long as Morningstar Semiconductor can seize the opportunity to transform smoothly, it's a win-win situation." Fang Zhuo said seriously, "Liang Gongwei is willing to seize such an opportunity, and I won't get in his way."

Yu Hong didn't know if Chenxing could seize such an opportunity, so she pondered for a moment and asked, "Are you in a hurry for your flight to Germany this time?"

"Yes." Fang Zhuo said without explaining too much, "Deutsche Telekom is our important partner."

The average sales volume of 100,000 units per day is basically 60% in Europe and 40% in the United States.

It’s not that American consumers are bad, it’s that the operator T-Mobile’s 3G service is not good enough.

Because of this obvious situation, T-Mobile CEO Legere called many times and promised that he would do his best to provide 3G services to more cities next year.

However, Yu Hong always knew the other party better, and always felt that there was something behind the scenes of flying to Germany this time.

She did not express her doubts. She was somewhat dissatisfied with the fact that the U.S. market was lagging behind the European market, and she focused more energy on further catching up with internal competition in sales.

At eight o'clock in the evening, after dinner, Cai Mingjie made another call.

This time, he didn't talk about chip design, but about MediaTek's orders.

According to Cai Mingjie, because Ice Core has firmly established 65nm, this makes MediaTek very confident in subsequent process upgrades. Therefore, some of its new orders are for Ice Core. Previously, MediaTek and UMC cooperated There are more.

Fang Zhuo warmly welcomed this choice.

What MediaTek wants is not 65nm first-line production capacity, but to fill Ice Core's 130nm production capacity with low-end chip orders expected to grow next year.

This is of course a good thing and lays a good foundation for better cooperation between the two parties.

Neither party talked about anything other than orders. Cai Mingjie just hoped that Ice Core would continue to develop, and Fang Zhuo also hoped that MediaTek could use advanced manufacturing processes as soon as possible.

However, no matter how Morningstar raises funds or even goes public in the mainland, no matter how MediaTek places orders for Ice Core, their cooperation will probably be pushed to the fourth quarter of next year or even the year after that.

This is Fang Zhuo's latest expectation.

This year's Mars will still be relevant in the domestic 3G market next year. It would be a pity not to take advantage of its hot sales and spread it to domestic users.

In the blink of an eye, the next day came, still hurriedly dealing with various affairs, before Fang Zhuo got on the plane to Berlin.

It takes 8 hours to fly from New York to Berlin.

The original plan was to stay in the United States until after Christmas, but Deutsche Telekom sent out a sincere invitation, so he changed his plan in a timely manner and planned to visit Germany to test some ideas.

In fact, some of Fang Zhuo's ideas about Germany did not come up because of Deutsche Telekom, but emerged naturally because his previous acquisition of a chip company was blocked by the DoD.

Ice core wafer fab equipment procurement is divided into three parts, with the United States, Europe and Japan accounting for more than 95%, and the rankings are proportional.

Next year, 2008, will be another year when it is necessary to continue to purchase equipment and introduce technology licenses. Fang Zhuoyou is considering further increasing the proportion of European equipment in the production line after obtaining the license next year.

And, he is also considering whether he can invest in building a wafer fab in Europe.

Domestic equipment will not be counted on for quite some time, and American equipment may be severely constrained. So, can European equipment and technology be incorporated to relatively resist risks?

If considered this way, Ice Core's wafer fab needs to be in an area with a stable administrative environment and a place where it can disagree with the United States.

Looking across Europe, Merkel, who was promoted to the head of Germany two years ago, still has a long time in power and is also one of the leaders in European affairs.

Fang Zhuo was invited to Feide for this trip with the intention of checking in. Even if there are no good opportunities in the near future, he will definitely be able to have good contacts after the financial crisis.

Of course, in addition to such planning, another extremely important purpose of this trip is to negotiate with Deutsche Telekom.

Yike's patent certification in Europe needs to be maintained and cannot be overturned casually. This requires additional strength, and Deutsche Telekom, Europe's number one operator, can obviously help.

Fang Zhuo predicts that with the hot sales of Yike Mars, especially the surge during Christmas, a patent battle will happen sooner or later.

There is an uncertainty factor about Apple in the United States, and Europe must consolidate first. As long as Europe is consolidated, even if there are changes in the United States, Apple will have conditions for mutual trade-offs if it wants to enter Europe.

As for other companies, they either have patents that can be exchanged, or they join the Android camp for free cross-licensing.

From December 19th to December 23rd, Fang Zhuo embarked on a four-day inspection trip to Germany.

…

The sales volume of Yike Mars has not been affected by the departure of its leader, and it still maintains strong daily growth.

On December 21st, the critically acclaimed "Fruit Killer" received an update, launching an important feature that allows for online mode with up to two people.

According to the update description, this is to make the mini-game more suitable for the happy family atmosphere of Christmas.

On the day when the game was updated, Yike obtained the operator's sales data, and sales exceeded 2 million units on the 11th day of official release.

If breaking one million units in two days still had the effect of pre-sales, then another million units were sold in the next nine days, which is enough to witness the recognition that Yike Mars has received.

This is the success of Yike, the success of the system ecology, and the success of pioneering the world.

Yike, Google, and T-Mobile have not announced the 2 million sales this time, but plan to announce the final data in Mr. Fang’s speech on Christmas Day.

On December 23, Foxconn factories rushed to replenish mobile phones slowly, bringing sufficient supply to operators and Amazon.

That night, Fang Zhuo arrived in New York exhausted after finishing his study trip to Germany, ready to take a day off and prepare for a festival speech in Silicon Valley the day after tomorrow.

Following the announcement of one million sales on the official website, this is the official voice of the leader for the brand.

However, on the morning of the 24th, just as Fang Zhuo was planning to fly to Silicon Valley with Yu Hong, he received a call from Zhang Rujing, the head of SMIC.

"Mr. Fang, congratulations, Yike's mobile phones are selling very well." Zhang Rujing's first sentence was to congratulate Yike's products, "I tried your touch screen, it is indeed quite innovative."

"Where is Mr. Zhang in the United States?" Fang Zhuo noticed the caller number and asked, "In order to support me, Mr. Zhang came to the US operator store to buy a Mars? Then I really want to thank Mr. Zhang."

"Mars bought it, and I really support it, but to thank you, I have to thank you. Dr. Jiang told me that you are willing to help." Zhang Rujing said, "This time I came to the United States to handle the lawsuit with the Taiwanese reporter. "

Fang Zhuo listened to Mr. Zhang's tone and said thoughtfully: "Those are all trivial matters. Since Mr. Zhang, you are in the United States, let's meet and chat. Where are you?"

"Washington." Zhang Rujing replied.

Washington is not far from New York, and a private plane is even faster.

"Okay, Mr. Zhang, let's go. I'll take you by plane to Silicon Valley for the holiday. You'll just happen to attend my chicken soup speech." Fang Zhuo decided on how to celebrate the holiday.

When SMIC encounters difficulties, Mr. Zhang will definitely be in a bad mood. Drinking a bowl of Fang's Chicken Soup will definitely warm his heart.