I asked you to save a bankrupt factory and you became the richest man in the world.

Chapter 414, 130-131: You're going to use your ultimate move, right? (4000 words)
Hillhouse's new product Mate 10 has attracted a lot of attention due to the public opinion paving the way for Pingguo in the early stage, and then the big storm of Sansang and Qualcomm's suspension of supply.

Despite all the unfavorable conditions in the early stages, the product became popular even before it was sold.

Hillhouse Mate 10 uses self-developed flagship chip, which is already a known fact. You have to use it now whether you like it or not.

The supply has been cut off for more than a month, and Hillhouse's channel dealers are now feeling the pressure.

Many channel locations that were originally profitable are now suffering losses.

You know, without a flagship phone, that means you’re losing a lot of money!

If Hillhouse Mate10 had been released half a year or a year later, Hillhouse's channel outlets, especially the basic outlets on the Hillhouse technology side, would have dropped by at least 20%-40%.

After all, many of the current channel locations were only established in the past two years, and they are located in third- and fourth-tier cities, or even in backward outlets in county towns.

The relationship between Hillhouse and them is very plastic!
Under such circumstances, if Hillhouse cannot turn the tide in Hillhouse Mate10, it will be really dangerous!
Therefore, whether it is consumers, friendly competitors, or chip suppliers such as Qualcomm and channel supporters, they are all quietly looking forward to the launch of Hillhouse Mate 10 so as to determine the next move.

Two months have passed since the turmoil reached its climax, and Hillhouse has not taken any action.

In mid-December, Hillhouse finally played its first card!

Hillhouse Technology invited the most popular influencers with the highest traffic at the moment, as well as well-known journalists from the technology sections of major media outlets, to conduct targeted use and testing of the Hillhouse Mate 801 mobile phone equipped with the Hillhouse Qinglong 10 chip.

The place for use and testing is the exhibition hall on the top floor of Hillhouse Technology’s headquarters!
Early in the morning, all the big Vs and well-known journalists who had obtained the testing quota arrived at the headquarters of Hillhouse Technology.

For these big Vs and well-known journalists, the exhibition hall on the top floor of Hillhouse Technology’s headquarters is very familiar.

Because apart from the product launch conference hosted by Gao Huaijun, other ordinary small-iteration products of Hillhouse Technology will basically be released and displayed here.

However, compared with previous product information release conferences, there were more people here today.

"Hey! Old Wu, you're here too!"

"Old Zhou, didn't you say you had things to do in the capital these few days?"

"I just came here to take a look!"

"Not honest! They can't say they're coming, but they all come quietly."

"Of course not. This is the first time that Hillhouse Technology has released a finished product that is paired with a self-developed mobile phone, so naturally we want to test this product."

This extremely popular product naturally received unprecedented attention.

When they came in the past, Hillhouse Technology gave them red envelopes and treated them to meals in a nice manner, but some famous reporters and big Vs showed little interest.

But this time, Hillhouse Technology was just mentioned, and all these big Vs and reporters came over at the same time!
They know what a self-developed chip flagship that is competitive in the market means.

Min Weiguo was in a particularly good mood at this time.

When the chip supply was cut off in November and December, he was mentally exhausted and under unprecedented pressure.

He knew that the market had only given Hillhouse a window of half a year, and after half a year, the stock price would probably collapse.

In fact, it took less than half a year for the stock price to collapse to less than HK$50.

Almost every few days, he is asked when the new mate 10 will be available for mass production, and he has become numb to these questions.

Only those who are in their position know this feeling of collapse and pressure!

But now the day has finally come to hold my head high.

"Long time no see, everyone. Sorry for the wait!"

"We are all acquaintances, so let's not waste any more time talking. Now let me introduce to you this new iteration of the product, Hillhouse Mate 10!"

Just as he said this.

The big names and reporters present were all gearing up for the event. They were full of anticipation and wanted to know what kind of work Hillhouse would produce.

Is it a flop that was made in a hurry, or a stunning masterpiece that is the result of years of hard work?

People in the circle in China have not felt this way for a long time.

As he spoke, Min Weiguo took out the latest model of Hillhouse Mate 10.

When this new mobile phone was taken out, the reporters present were so amazed that they wanted to scream.

The closed-loop camera design, coupled with the ancient seal-style character "高" in the middle, makes the entire phone look very classy and cool!

It’s no wonder that Hillhouse Capital can produce such a beautiful mobile phone under such heavy pressure.

The reporters and big names present all thought that as long as Hillhouse’s own self-developed chip was not too outrageous, then this product would definitely be a traffic product.

This perfect combination of classic and modern is really amazing when analyzed from the perspective of differentiation.

"The back cover of this phone is made of ceramic instead of leather, and the overall texture looks more perfect."

"At the same time, this product has been upgraded to 5x optical zoom and up to 50x digital zoom. The two cameras can perform zoom relay and achieve up to 100x digital zoom."

"It is a 'super-sensing lens' with the industry's largest bottom of 1/1.28 inches. It also uses RYYB technology, supports full-pixel octa-core focus, and XD Fusion algorithm. Its low-light performance is beyond the first-class flagship level of its competitors."

"In terms of camera technology, this phone is absolutely world-class!"

Min Weiguo said with emotion on the stage.

Compared with Gao Huaijun's humorous speech, and like Lao Yu in later generations, Min Weiguo is more of a rational science and engineering man.

Therefore, although he said hard numbers, it gave people a very convincing feeling.

When the word "world's top" was uttered, the reporters and self-media celebrities in the audience couldn't help but take a breath.

This time, Hillhouse Technology’s flagship product feels pretty cool!
They have put so much effort into the research and development of cameras!

You know, in the world, the experts in optical lenses are Western giants such as Zeiss and Fuji, and China's achievements in the field of optics are very poor.

Hillhouse is truly amazing. With its use of money and efficiency, it has directly caught up with other companies in this field.

Now, in their minds, the impression of this phone has changed from OK to very good!

“How can it be considered an iteration of a mobile phone if it only has a camera?”

"With this phone, we will have an unprecedented screen visual upgrade experience, which is the world's first standard 6.5-inch OLED screen with an 88° curved screen!"

"With a 90Hz high refresh rate, the left and right borders tend to be maximized, and the picture is more extensible!"

"In a sense, this is a full-screen phone."

As he spoke, Min Weiguo showed the screen details of this phone to the reporters and big Vs.

At the same time, he also asked the staff nearby to show several other identical Mate phones at close range.

"Wow! Full widescreen, Hillhouse is awesome, it's history-making."

"It's really impressive!" "How deep is Hillhouse's R&D strength and accumulation?"

The reporters and celebrities in the audience were all excitedly whispering to each other.

Although this is just an ordinary product communication meeting.

However, they felt that the products that Hillhouse had launched this time were enough to hold a formal and grand product launch conference.

Even though their own products were restricted by Qualcomm and Sansang, they still released new products.

The state is too relaxed!

The key point is that even in such a relaxed state, he still produced such an amazing work, which is simply awesome PLUS!

After seeing this 6.5-inch OLED screen with 88° curved screen that looks like a science fiction level, their impression of the Mate 10 phone changed from very good to extremely good!

In their view, as long as the self-developed chip can reach the level of the previous mate9 chip, it will be enough to produce a product that can gain a foothold in the market.

"This... this is one of the two highlights of this phone." At this point, Min Weiguo smiled slightly, and the curve of his mouth told the audience below that he was a little proud.

what?
Is this just one of the two highlights?

The reporters and big Vs below were all stunned.

This flagship phone has done a very good job of differentiation so far, and it also uses curved screen technology that is not available on the market.

That's it. . .

In their view, it is a disruptive design.

Is this just one of the two highlights?

To fight back against Qualcomm and Sansang’s supply suspension, there is no need to reveal all the tricks you have in your pocket at once!
Under everyone's expectant gaze, Min Weiguo continued, "For this phone, we will boldly remove the headphone jack design, and only wireless headphones can be used to listen to the internal audio."

"However, in order to avoid consumers' disgust, we made the wireless headphones into this exquisite and compact appearance."

As he spoke, Min Weiguo took out the wireless earphones in his pocket from the earphone box.

This pair of headphones looks very similar to the Pingguo wireless headphones of later generations. According to the reporters and influencers present, the shell is very small and has smooth rounded edges. It looks very much like the shape of the Pea Shooter in previous years. It seems that it is almost weightless to wear and looks very delicate overall.

Putting it in the wireless earphone box, it has a cool sci-fi feel.

but. . .

How dare you forcibly remove the wired headphone jack?
Aren’t you afraid that consumers will develop a rebellious mentality and simply refuse to buy?

So bold!

How courageous!

Thinking of this, all the big Vs and reporters looked at the people around them with horror on their faces.

In the world, this behavior is called guiding consumption inertia.

In the mobile phone industry, there are only two manufacturers that dare to guide consumer habits, one of which is Pingguo.

The other company is the one we are talking about today, Hillhouse Capital!

"Consumers don't have to follow blindly. Our competitor, Qiao Busi of Pingguo, once said, "Consumers don't know what they need until we bring out our own products, and then they realize that this is what they want!"

“This shows two things. One is that what users say is not important. Product managers should focus more on creation.”

"The second point is not to just look at the surface needs of users, but to explore their potential needs."

"In fact, wired headphones are very inconvenient. You have to hold the phone to hear the content."

"That means if we have a headset that allows customers to free up their space, and we force them to do this for a while, they'll feel more comfortable than ever before."

"It's just like how China has long been accustomed to using USB flash drives and emails to transfer information and documents, but the Japanese are still accustomed to specifying floppy disks as electronic recording media in administrative procedures."

"It's not that they find it very convenient to do so, but they are used to staying in their comfort zone."

Min Weiguo knew that this innovation was controversial.

This will inevitably cause a huge backlash among consumers.

For users who are not used to it, it is really disgusting!
So he gave journalists and big Vs a heads-up in advance, asking them to guide public opinion and prevent it from getting out of control.

This is also the purpose of Hillhouse Technology's frequent product briefings.

Otherwise, wouldn’t it be simpler and more direct to just release the information?
However, the reporters off the field initially thought that what Min Weiguo said made sense.

But... wait, Japanese people are still using floppy disks that have a storage capacity of only a few MB and can only store one song as electronic recording media?
This kind of shocked them!
The islanders are really conservative.

In fact, traditional old technologies and old products are difficult to update and iterate, in fact, it is because the country's economic development has been in a long-term downturn.

Whether it is an island country or Europe, this seemingly backward product occupies the mainstream market because its economy is not developing rapidly.

It's not that countries like island countries don't have financial investment, but when there's too much money involved and lower-level residents and businesses are not willing to update, there will be a lot of resistance in the island countries pushing for the elimination of old items like floppy disks and fax machines.

Even in 2024, floppy disks have not been eliminated!
From this we can see that this country only appears to be developed on the surface, but in fact its internal growth is gradually falling behind.

Min Weiguo saw the reporters and big Vs in the audience nodded thoughtfully, and thought that he had convinced them, and he couldn't help but feel happy.

Remove the wired headphone jack.

It seems that only a 3.5mm headphone jack was cancelled, but in fact, the 3.5mm standard interface has hindered Hillhouse from building its own ecological moat.

Gao Huaijun has seen many cases in later generations where pioneers who lack ecological moats were replaced by imitators.

Now Hillhouse has created a long video playback website Hillhouse Video and a music playback platform Hillhouse Music, which are unique to Hillhouse, in its own Hillhouse e-mall.

And the binding is done directly when the mobile phone is sold.

Although the number of users is not large, it is still not much less than Tudou, iQiyi, etc.

Moreover, influenced by Gao Huaijun's aesthetic taste, young people all like to use functions such as barrage.

Therefore, as Hillhouse is gradually building its ecological moat, there are a large number of competitors in areas such as headphones, which are already completely out of reach. As long as Hillhouse has a reason, it will definitely not hesitate to drive out all these competitors.

Now is the era for incremental growth!

Saving the cost of the 3.5mm headphone jack means saving the cost of a series of related supporting components behind the 3.5mm headphone jack, and it can also further reduce the thickness of the mobile phone. Why not do it?

While saving costs, it forces users to buy wireless headphones with a higher average price.

Win-win!

(End of this chapter)