Reinventing the Millennium

Yike mobile phones are selling well overseas.

Android is an open source system.

Yike and Google have formed a powerful open mobile phone alliance.

These news have been relatively clear in China since the sale of Mars, but after the accusation or revelation by Yu Nanjun, the president of LG China, everyone knew that there is such a thing as the PRO Alliance.

Free patent? Free is great!

You, LG, regard this as a piece of food that has just arrived. Our domestic manufacturers are in the same boat and can take a bite of it!

Soon, Yike Company received many inquiries and requests for visits from manufacturers.

These things based on Android and the PRO Alliance were summarized and placed in front of Fang Zhuo, making him dumbfounded.

"Hanwang's application is not unexpected. Liu Yingjian has made up his mind to make a smart phone."

"LeTV...Does LeTV have a mobile phone business?"

"Yeah, Meizu."

"Bird Mobile Phone? I heard that the financial situation in the past two years has been very bad. Do you want to borrow some good news to stimulate the stock price?"

"Huawei? Oh, we are organizing a group to come to Shanghai to visit you."

"Hey, why is there still Luo Yonghao?"

Liu Qiangdong came to talk to Mr. Fang about the August sales by summarizing the news. Unexpectedly, Mr. Fang looked through the documents with great interest and gave a simple evaluation.

When he heard Mr. Fang's doubts, he immediately explained: "It's a start-up company that has received investment."

Fang Zhuo nodded slightly. It seems that the sales volume of Yike Mars and the positioning of mid-to-high-end mobile phones have had a lot of impact. This way... it is really a big battle between the real and the fake.

He shook his head and said: "Domestic friends responded enthusiastically, but they seemed to have made a mistake. We did not give them patents for free, but we did free cross-patent licensing. We did not provide technology, but let them They won't be sued like LG."

Liu Qiangdong expressed his opinion: "It's not as good as everyone thinks, and it's not that bad. Our current touch patents are difficult to get around. If they make capacitive touch screen machines, it will be very easy to infringe the patents."

Capacitive screens can be made, they can be equipped with Symbian, they can be equipped with Microsoft WM, and they can even be made into feature phones, but they have to go through the legal process of Yike, and they will be reviewed by patents when necessary.

The PRO Alliance is bundled with the Android system, which naturally solves possible risk issues and allows everyone to develop without worries.

So, which smart system is better, Shencheng Henglong will report.

Fang Zhuo turned to the end of the summary document and did not comment on the remaining domestic manufacturers he saw. Some of these contacts were sincere, some were to try, some were to get good news, and some were just to join in the fun...just let the company handle them all.

He pondered for a moment, and then named only one of Ice Core's current customers: "Chen Zhaohui, who is going to lead a team to visit Huawei, is the president of the terminal, right? Let's meet this week."

Liu Qiangdong immediately replied: "Yes, Mr. Fang, Chen Zhaohui is the new president of Huawei Terminal this year, replacing the original Guo Ping."

Fang Zhuo nodded and planned to meet Huawei's new terminal president.

Huawei is also selling mobile phones now, but more to enterprises rather than consumers.

Just like its cooperation with British operator Vodafone, Huawei does OEM and OEM, and only has the "Vodafone" brand on its mobile phones. The volume may be large, but the profit will not be much.

Ice Core had cooperated with Huawei when it had 130nm production capacity. Fang Zhuo also visited HiSilicon, which is a relatively large customer of Ice Core.

Seeing that Fang Zhuo had no intention of continuing to talk about domestic manufacturers, Liu Qiangdong immediately began to report on the work plan.

From being the master of his own business to being acquired and incorporated, from a start-up to a listed company, from e-commerce to chain stores to mobile phones, apart from being depressed at the beginning, he did not feel like he was being dismissed and ignored in his subsequent work, as some people said. .

On the contrary, Liu Qiangdong vaguely felt that Mr. Fang admired him very much.

He didn't know if this was an illusion, he only knew that he could do his best in all the business he was responsible for.

After this work report, Liu Qiangdong quickly contacted Huawei Terminal to convey Mr. Fang’s intentions. The response from the other party was faster, and he immediately decided to take the team to visit Yike in Shanghai the next day.

When Fang Zhuo learned about Huawei's speed, he was somewhat surprised and seemed a little anxious.

Sure enough, when Huawei's senior management team hurriedly arrived at Hang Lung 23 the next day, Fang Zhuo met Chen Zhaohui, President of Huawei Devices, and Zheng Baoyong, who was almost Huawei's No. 2 figure.

Huawei Terminal is not a department of Huawei, but a subsidiary.

Just looking at the procession of customer visits, it cannot be said that Chen Zhaohui led the team, but Zheng Baoyong led the team.

Fang Zhuo was surprised, but Zheng Baoyong didn't hide it, and quickly expressed his intention after exchanging pleasantries.

"Mr. Fang, Huawei Terminal wants to sell half of its shares. Is Yike interested?" Zheng Baoyong said with a rather earth-shattering tone, selling Huawei Terminal's shares as he spoke.

Fang Zhuo's thoughts flashed and he looked at Chen Zhaohui sitting in the president's office. His expression was a bit... complicated - even though Zheng Baoyong had a high status, this was the president of Huawei Terminal.

It doesn't look like they are really here to sell shares or even the company.

"Mr. Zheng, Mr. Chen, just say what you have to say." Fang Zhuo didn't want to guess, "I thought you were here to talk about Android, but now it seems that's not the case."

Zheng Baoyong is always very straightforward and does not talk in circles: "Huawei Terminal is really looking for a buyer. We have initially talked with Bain and Silver Fox."

Bain Capital and Silver Fox Capital are both well-known private equity companies in the United States.

Fang Zhuo said in surprise: "Do you really want to sell it? Aren't you working very well with Vodafone? When Yike Europe reported on the 3G market, it took the mobile phones manufactured by you as an important analysis object."

Chen Zhaohui, President of Huawei Terminal, felt that this was in the professional field and said happily: "Mr. Fang, you also know that it is an OEM, so we only earn an OEM fee, which is less than 5 points in total, and it often costs three months. materials."

After saying this, he couldn't help but add: "Yike's Mars is selling very well in Germany. The Vodafone mobile phone we OEM has suffered a large-scale sales decline in Germany, and can only be sold at a loss. This is stressful." A batch of materials.”

It stands to reason that mobile phones manufactured by Huawei and Mars should not be competing products. However, Mars and operators’ subsidy model has squeezed out mid- to low-end products in the market.

Fang Zhuo smiled and said: "Yike forced Huawei to sell the terminal company, right? Are you here to investigate?"

"No, no, that's not what you mean." Zheng Baoyong shook his head, "We are here to ask for help. The company is negotiating prices with Bain and Silver Fox. One group of people thinks that it should be sold and that it should gradually withdraw from the mobile phone market. Another group of people think that it should be sold and gradually withdraw from the mobile phone market. I firmly believe it should not be sold.”

Fang Zhuo looked at Zheng Baoyong and then at Chen Zhaohui, knowing the purpose of these two people. They obviously did not support the group of people selling terminals.

The main purpose of this visit to Shanghai is not because of the PRO Alliance, but to communicate about the prospects of the mobile phone business.

He said with a bit of laughter and tears: "Mr. Zheng, can I say more about your company's affairs? Do you want me to issue a letter of opinion on Huawei terminals?"

Fang Zhuo is not sure whether this has happened in the history of Huawei terminals, but judging from the current situation, if Bain and Silver Fox cannot quickly negotiate an acquisition, the sweeping financial crisis will inevitably change the spending decisions of many companies in the industry. .

Zheng Baoyong said seriously: "Mr. Fang, the sales volume of Mars is placed here, and the industry shock brought by Mars is placed here. Who can ignore your judgment?"

Fang Zhuo pondered.

Zheng Baoyong continued: "I heard that Ice Core has increased production in the first quarter. We plan to persuade Vodafone and Qualcomm to purchase high-level chips manufactured by Ice Core."

Vodafone started using the "Vodafone" mobile phone brand in 2006. So far, it is quite satisfied with Huawei's OEM, which has a great say in mobile phone design.

Now, Huawei's mobile phones also purchase Qualcomm chips, but they are mid- to low-end.

Fang Zhuo immediately became righteous and awe-inspiring: "Huawei terminals cannot be sold. Mr. Zheng, tell me who within Huawei wants to sell them. You name them, and I will criticize them by name!"

Zheng Baoyong and Mr. Fang looked at each other and smiled.

Chen Zhaohui just raised his glass and took a sip of tea, and almost choked.

Fang Zhuo also took a sip of tea and said with a smile: "Although this is my first time meeting Mr. Zheng, Mr. Zheng really saw my weaknesses."

The three words "Yike Group" are commonly used by some media when describing the richest man in the Mainland, and Bingxin's status in the Yike Group is not difficult for many people to judge.

However, judgment is one thing, whether you can use this judgment or "weakness" is another matter.

The current European mobile phone market is changing.

The wave of 3G smartphones brought about by Mars and iPhone has also been included in the sight of Huawei's blue team department where Zheng Baoyong is located. One of the important judgments is that Vodafone mobile phones manufactured by Huawei must be more competitive.

In other words, Vodafone's mobile phone upgrade is a natural market force.

This kind of forced upgrade has both advantages and disadvantages. At this moment, it can be linked to Qualcomm’s high-end chip and ice core foundry.

Zheng Baoyong and Chen Zhaohui talked about the development of Vodafone mobile phones and thought it would be a good try to join the Android camp in the future. The main purpose of this trip was to prevent internal sales of terminal shares. The secondary purpose was also to talk about the Android system and the PRO Alliance.

"I know Mr. Fang is a pragmatist." Zheng Baoyong expressed his general understanding of Mr. Fang.

Mainland China's richest man has many labels and many deeds.

Zheng Baoyong had never had contact with Mr. Fang before, but based on his observation, he believed that it was impossible to pull up such a pool of ice cores without being pragmatic.

Then, he really pointed out the representatives of the group of people within Huawei who insisted on selling terminal shares: "Mr. Ren wants to sell shares, and his attitude is very determined."

Mr. Fang and Mr. Ren please line up!

Fang Zhuo was startled and laughed: "This is interesting."

Huawei's 002 came out to seek advice from industry insiders to persuade 001.

After he finished laughing, he said: "Then you should bring Mr. Ren with you, so we can have a chat together."

Zheng Baoyong shook his head slightly: "Mr. Ren is receiving people from Bain Capital."

Huawei has cooperated with Bain Capital in the past and has a good relationship. It is logical to list it as a buyer this time.

Selling shares of Huawei Terminal is not the first time for Huawei. It has had successful experience in selling Huadian and H3C. This time, the internal opinion is to copy the success and get rid of unprofitable businesses.

This opinion has been supported by Ren Zhengfei.

This is also the reason why Zheng Baoyong personally took action. He originally wanted to use his own department’s analysis to persuade Mr. Ren to change his decision. Suddenly, when he saw the media reporting the evaluation of Yike by the president of LG Huaxia, he immediately wanted to quote the opinions of external heavyweights. .

Fortunately, Huawei and Bingxin also have business relationships.

"Okay, let me call Mr. Ren." Fang Zhuo decided to follow the trend and asked, "Huawei's overseas business is doing very well. Are you planning to focus on the consumer side this time?"

Yike has established a firm foothold with Mars and is not afraid of market competition from any opponent - its only concern is the patent threat from Nokia.

Chen Zhaohui answered this question: "We have signed an OEM contract with Vodafone for five years, and now we have no intention of entering the consumer market."

Huawei and Vodafone signed a five-year OEM cooperation from 2006 to 2011, which is for mobile phone terminals.

In addition, there are many cooperations between the two companies.

Regardless of the outcome of this share sale, this foundry cooperation will be fulfilled.

Fang Zhuo nodded, wondering whether Vodafone, a British operator, would try to enter the market after the domestic 3G licenses are issued. Huawei seems to be OEM for operators in China. This is its current business path.

He thought for a few seconds and said to Zheng Baoyong: "Since Mr. Zheng made a special trip to find me, it does not mean that because of the cooperation between Huawei and Bingxin, I have to speak out of conscience. I also really believe that Huawei terminals should not be sold."

"Is it enough for me to call Mr. Ren?"

"If that doesn't work, I can also talk to Bain Capital. I often deal with these institutions."

Zheng Baoyong was about to say that the communication with Mr. Ren was enough, but suddenly he remembered some of Mr. Fang's deeds and hesitated: "Let's talk to Bain Capital too?"

Fang Zhuo said: "Let's talk?"

Chen Zhaohui interrupted: "How do you want to talk, Mr. Fang?"

He had also heard about Mr. Fang's deeds, and was a little worried that Mr. Fang would indulge himself too much.

"You can talk any way you want. You can say that Huawei terminals are not worth the price, or you can say that cash is king in the current market." Fang Zhuo took a sip of tea, "It is easy to destroy but difficult to build. Let me convince Mr. Ren that it may be difficult. It might have been easier to persuade Bain Capital."

Chen Zhaohui and Zheng Baoyong looked at each other, Mr. Fang is really a pragmatist!

After some hesitation, Zheng Baoyong gave up Mr. Fang's suggestion. He was looking for friendly opinions, not setting up a trap to attack his own company... The final decision still had to be made by Mr. Ren.

"Mr. Fang, let's discuss how to call Mr. Ren." Zheng Baoyong said slightly.

Fang Zhuo felt a little regretful: "Mr. Zheng, those who achieve great things don't stick to trivial matters!"

Zheng Baoyong was more determined this time: "No, Mr. Fang, I'd better trouble you to talk about the development of the mobile phone industry and its prospects. I also have internal opinions here, so that should be enough."

Mr. Fang, we are here to dissuade you, not to seek help from the king, or to force you into the palace.

Fang Zhuo glanced at Zheng Baoyong, then at Chen Zhaohui, and nodded, okay, let's not limit it to this acceptable level.