20 years of restarting life

Chapter 3500 A Fish Leaps Out of the Water

"Moreover, even without considering technological advancements that force users to replace their phones with newer models, the inherently rough casing and rudimentary assembly of mobile phones mean that their lifespan generally doesn't exceed three years."

Zhao Chang'an spoke, Chu Daofeng and Chu Guangying listened, while Fan Fanghong was a little annoyed and impatient. Chu Guangwen, however, restrained himself in front of his parents and ate his food obediently.

"This wine is really intoxicating the more you drink it. To be honest, it's far inferior to those famous wines, but I've been drinking it for so many years when I was young, and I've even developed an attachment to it."

Chu Daofeng knew all the things Zhao Chang'an was talking about, and he even knew more about some of the data and inside information than Zhao Chang'an did. However, he did not interrupt or say that he already knew these things.

Instead, from Zhao Chang'an's narration, Chu Daofeng understood that he was trying to select some pearls of similar color from among the many pearl elements and connect them with his thoughts.

In hindsight, many things are just a matter of a thin veil, but the first person to pierce that veil is the pioneer and master of the times.

Zhao Chang'an smiled at Chu Daofeng and presented his conclusion: "There are already enough mobile phone licenses issued domestically. Some have even suggested completely deregulating the management of these licenses to curb the exorbitant profits in the mobile phone industry. I oppose this. I propose not only that the licenses shouldn't be deregulated, but also that all new batches of licenses being prepared for issuance should be suspended and frozen. Because the threshold is too low, it's easy for the bad to drive out the good. If we implement a strict incentive-based competition policy for the current 20 to 30 state-owned mobile phone license holders, I believe that within two years, at least in the finished mobile phone market, these excellent domestic brands will be able to surpass foreign brands like Nokia and Motorola in domestic sales."

Chu Daofeng stopped drinking and stared at Zhao Chang'an in astonishment.

"You're like someone who's got food on their hands and wants to shut the door on others so they can't eat inside. But is that fair to those who are locked out? Put yourself in their shoes. Your Pro factory doesn't even have a production line yet, and the prototypes aren't finalized. The only advantage you have is that you got a mobile phone network access license ahead of time."

With an insightful look that seemed to see right through Zhao Chang'an's profit-driven nature, Fan Fanghong smiled and said to him, "For those companies that have been manufacturing mobile phones and selling them under OEM agreements for the past two years, aren't they actually more capable of manufacturing mobile phones than you, Yi Nanmi, even though they haven't obtained a mobile phone license? If we're talking about closing down, shouldn't you be the ones to exit and they be the ones to enter? Besides, behind each of these licenses are many complex things, representing the local pursuit and ambition of revitalizing the economy and developing high technology. Are you really going to cut off their path just because of what you said?"

Chu Guangying and Chu Guangwen both lowered their heads and ate their food silently. Their fear of their mother was a psychological habit they had developed over many years. Even though they had their own thoughts, they dared not say them out loud.

At least in Chu Guangwen's view, Zhao Chang'an was right. They shouldn't let any more companies in to compete for the market. This would only benefit YiNan, and he could earn more fees from the labor intermediary.

Fan Fanghong continued, "Moreover, what we are advocating now is a market economy, using the invisible hand to weed out the weak and select the strong. But your proposal goes completely against this policy. You want to use power to create a monopoly. With such distorted market and economic behavior, you still dream of achieving sales in the domestic mobile phone market that surpass Nokia and Motorola within two years?"

"We're here on private business, just revisiting a familiar place. Let's not talk about these things now, and we can discuss them another time."

Chu Daofeng smiled at Zhao Chang'an and said, "You've gone too far in this roundabout way. I still haven't figured out the cause and effect relationship here. But it doesn't matter. You can make a special letter and fax it to my company. I'll take it out and discuss it with the leaders in the department."

"it is good."

Zhao Chang'an nodded with a smile, meaning that his "good" meant "bad." He was extremely busy these days, and he didn't have the time, energy, or interest to write a lengthy letter to Chu Daofeng and the others. Besides, Zhao Chang'an did agree with one of the points Fan Fanghong made.

"Besides, there are many complicated things behind each of these licenses." To put it bluntly, there are too many games, exchanges, and conflicts of interest involved. He has a sense of mission, but there is no need for him to get involved as well.

The reason I told Chu Daofeng this is because this is Chu Daofeng's profession, and it's his responsibility.

Zhao Chang'an meant well, hoping to reduce some unnecessary detours and internal friction. Besides, even if Chu Daofeng tried his best to correct the course, he might not be able to succeed.

With the continuous increase in the issuance of domestic mobile phone licenses, the total sales volume of domestic mobile phones has surpassed that of foreign brands in just two or three years. Among them, the first and second ranked brands are both domestic brands, Wave Guide and TCL.

Seeing this encouraging development, the issuance of mobile phone licenses was further accelerated and eventually completely liberalized.

By 05, Huaqiangbei had emerged as a dark horse, with super loud speakers, cool LED lights, MP3 and MP4 functions, the ability to use AA batteries, and the ability to watch TV. From five or six hundred yuan at the beginning of the year, a price war had driven the price down to two or three hundred yuan by the end of the year, and you could buy a super cool and awesome mobile phone.

In the past few years, these domestic mobile phone manufacturers have been desperately advertising, promoting, and sponsoring sports teams, but when it comes to research and development, they only invest a small amount of money and do some very superficial research.

Moreover, blind expansion and reckless spending have essentially led to financial ruin.

The situation is chaotic, forcing them to pre-install malware on phones to drain users' phone bills.

This further exacerbated users' aversion to these mobile phone brands, until they went bankrupt and disappeared one after another, or resorted to clandestine OEM manufacturing.

It wasn't until 09, when Meizu imitated the design philosophy of the iPhone and Xiaomi adopted the online sales strategy of scarcity marketing, that domestic mobile phone manufacturers began a long road of repair and resurgence.

At the time, Xiaomi's phones all came from TCL's Superphone Factory. This meant that it wasn't that they couldn't manufacture good phones, but that they were on the wrong track from the beginning, and the problems were too deep to be reversed. They also lost the trust of users, so no matter how good the products they manufactured, no one would buy them.

However, at this point, the two core components, hardware and software, were firmly controlled by foreign companies, leaving no hope or possibility of overtaking them.

Shouting slogans, bragging, and engaging in moral blackmail—saying they're far ahead is easy, since empty talk doesn't cost anything. They can fool as many people as they can. If they really can't cover it up, they can just laugh it off, drink three cups of wine as punishment, or go out and see the world. Or they can take someone else's underlying architecture, change the name, and claim it's their own development. They can take a dwarf, remove the logo, and call it a 180-nanometer process, a 32-bit processing core, 2 million operations per second, and a world-leading DSP33200.

In Zhao Chang'an's view, this is the helplessness of a fish that can leap out of the water. When one person's voice and power face the collective mindset, it is like thin ice in a pond in early spring, which will shatter at the slightest touch.