Reinventing the Millennium

In the second week of July, with the official launch of Yike Mars2, competition in the global mobile phone industry has become increasingly fierce.

In other words, the battle among giants in the global mobile phone industry has become extremely fierce.

On July 11, the day after Mars2 was released, Motorola and Samsung announced the release time of their new phones.

Motorola is on July 20th and Samsung is on August 26th.

It is worth mentioning that the two giants soon had more specific news leaked out, and they said quite similar that the new opportunity would use capacitive screen touch.

At this point, the world's top five Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, and LG have all been eliminated. In addition, HTC, which has partnered with Microsoft and has strong OEM capabilities, and the two dark horses leading the emerging track, Yike and Apple, total 8 manufacturers, jointly develop the field of touch screen smartphones.

The intensive release of new products will surely drive more manufacturers from top to bottom to participate in the fierce competition.

On the same day, Apple responded to Nokia and would file a corresponding lawsuit in a U.S. court.

Consumers see the product, and manufacturers calculate patents.

It was only in the early hours of the morning in Silicon Valley that Schmidt, who flew to Europe and held a meeting with Nokia, received the latest contact news.

——Nokia requires Yike to pay up to US$500 million in patent fees, and it must be paid in one lump sum.

According to Schmidt's analysis and speculation on the phone, a lump sum payment of US$500 million can probably be negotiated in installments...

What does this number equal?

It is equivalent to biting off the fattest piece of meat from Yike, maximizing the smooth operation of Yike's liquidity.

In the past six months or so, Yike has sold more than 7 million Mars units. Not counting the subsequent shares to customers, because most of them are the purchase price of operators, the profit of the hardware alone is more than 700 million US dollars.

In addition, the costs of research and development, acquisitions, publicity, etc. are not included.

And, for Fang Zhuo, this is equivalent to half of the ice core production line.

Oh no, as the manufacturing process improves, the price of the production line has also increased, but it is still equivalent to half a production line.

Fang Zhuo's reply to Schmidt was simple: "Nokia is opening its mouth to the lion. It's impossible. Such patent fees are pure blackmail. There is no need to talk."

"Nokia's attitude is relatively firm. I have made an appointment to meet with Kallasvuo tomorrow." Schmidt said, "We can see his attitude tomorrow."

Fang Zhuo thanked Teacher Shi for his sincere efforts and felt a little guilty for treating him so perfunctorily.

Just a few hours later, Schmidt brought the original words of Kallasvuo.

——"This is the patent fee requested by Nokia. If Yike is unwilling, the court will turn this figure into 1 billion US dollars."

Schmidt was afraid that Fang Zhuo would anger him, so he promised not to change a word. However, he did not hear the expected anger.

Fang Zhuo just said calmly: "Nokia is shamelessly blackmailing. In this case, there is no need to talk about it. We will see you in court."

"Yike's Mars has good prospects. The one-time payment of US$500 million seems to be a lot. If it can be divided into two or three years, I think it is not unacceptable. The most important thing is to solve the worries about patents." Schmidt said made his own suggestions.

Schmidt even said with absolute certainty: "If the funds on Yike's account are tight, Google can lend money."

He does not doubt Mr. Fang's personal wealth, but an individual is an individual and a company is a company, and sometimes they are two different things.

Fang Zhuo never expected that Mr. Shi could talk to such an extent. He couldn't help but be deeply moved and refused: "Schmidt, it's not that we don't have chips. I'm waiting for Nokia to enter the capacitive screen. He wants 1 billion US dollars, then Let him get it!"

Schmidt gave some more advice on the phone. Listening to Mr. Fang's firm attitude, he had no choice but to consider working hard at Nokia.

When the call ended, Fang Zhuo put down his phone and said to Yu Hong with emotion: "Schmitt is actually willing to let Google lend us funds to pay the patent fees. It seems that I thought Schmidt too badly. "

"Well, I don't quite understand what's going on between you and the Iron Triangle." Yu Hong frowned, "I don't even know who the other corner is."

Fang Zhuo did not talk about things that he was not very clear about at times, but gave his opinion on Nokia's demand for sky-high patent fees: "We need to invest more in research and development, apply for more patents, and sell more products."

Also, attract more short sellers.

"The competition situation is so fierce now. Nokia wants to take away our working capital, complete the patent authorization of capacitive screen, and launch a touch screen mobile phone without patent problems." Yu Hong let out a breath, "If we go through the legal process, Nokia will Is it really worth the time sacrifice?”

Touch screen patents are not impossible to circumvent, but they will definitely require more time.

Nokia has already been a step behind on products, will it continue to slow down because of such entanglements?

"Who knows, if we do our best, even if we are fined with more patent fees in the end, tomorrow's Yike will be stronger than today's Yike." Fang Zhuo has evaluated Nokia many times on different occasions and does not want to repeat it. Think about your opponent.

Yu Hong nodded slightly. She believed that this year's Mars 2 will be better. Judging from the rival products that she has seen so far, they are not as good as her own.

"Oh yes, why is there no movement from HTC?" Fang Zhuo thought of another thing, "Didn't I ask him to come to us at the press conference? Let's ask for patent fees and see if HTC can get us Nokia. If the patent fee of 500 million yuan is not enough, 100 million yuan would be fine.”

Yu Hong: "..."

This is blackmail, right? Yike has sold more than 7 million products, and HTC hasn't seen any splash yet.

Fang Zhuo knew what Xiao Yu was thinking: "Perhaps we shouted, maybe they paid back, let's talk about it, there have been enough lawsuits recently, it's better to do less than to do more. We can just make products quietly."

Yu Hong took the order and left. She planned to urge LG Electronics by the way.

Now among the eight powerful companies entering the market, Yike, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, and Apple all have their own patent authorizations. Motorola, which is about to release products, is also in contact. Generally speaking, everyone wants to compete with each other with their products.

As for the other three companies, Nokia showed arrogance, LG tried to resist, and HTC seemed hesitant.

When the news from Yike was passed to HTC, as a treasure island company, the head Wang Xuehong was surprised by the development of Yike on the one hand, and hesitant on the way to handle the patent fees on the other hand.

After repeated internal discussions, Wang Xuehong planned to lead her team to Silicon Valley to have a chat with the person in charge.

However, just as she was preparing to set off, news came out in the industry.

Nokia and Yike have broken down on patent fees. Yike is unwilling to pay the fees demanded by Nokia and will continue to seek legal solutions.

When Wang Xuehong heard the news, her original decision was suddenly overturned.

——If you don’t pay it, then I won’t pay it either.

Soon, HTC gave Yiko a firm reply, saying it was willing to cross-authorize patents and did not approve of the method of paying patent fees.

Fang Zhuo was extremely surprised by this and was not willing to hand it over at all? Could it be that you also have a back-up plan?

This is really embarrassing.

On the golf course, Fang Zhuo met a new friend who worked at ITC in the United States. He originally just wanted to urge the ban on LG Electronics.

Sometimes, he really isn't as cruel as he wants to be.

Stay up all night and code another small chapter.

I've been quite busy lately, so I'll have to wait until the middle of the month to add monthly tickets, and it'll be almost unbusy by then.