Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 111 Flagship Phone Released Ahead of Time

Regarding these emerging markets, Zhiyun Technology's business intelligence department reported that Apple seems to be planning to sell refurbished and old mobile phones in these new markets.

Unfortunately, Xu Shenxue also planned to do the same...

He also prepared another set of measures, which is to dump Weiku Electronics' mid- and low-end mobile phones into these new markets in the future.

Apple does not have mid- and low-end mobile phones, so it is not easy for it to enter these emerging markets. However, Xu Shenxue is different. In addition to Zhiyun Technology, he also has Wecoo Electronics. Both Xiaolan and Wecoo are suitable for domestic and overseas markets, as well as for going overseas, especially for conquering new markets.

Zhiyun Technology is competing against Apple and the future four-star flagship and even the Huawei flagship in a few years.

Weiku Electronics has defeated a large number of so-called international mobile phone manufacturers in the early stage... With more than a thousand smart phones, it can defeat all these international mobile phone manufacturers... and then turn around to suppress those domestic mobile phone manufacturers.

With high-end products on one hand and mid-to-low-end products on the other, it is competing against and encircling other mobile phone manufacturers in all directions. Even if it cannot dominate everything, it should be able to occupy a considerable part of the market.

Of course... this is all in the future.

As for now, both Zhiyun Technology and Weiku Electronics are still in the early stages of development. The most important task now is not to deal with competitors, but their own technological research and development and production capacity.

Especially the mass production of the S9 flagship phone is a very troublesome thing... because the technical content of this water machine is too high, and many parts need to be specially customized.

In order to supply Zhiyun S9 mobile phone, each supply chain company needs to establish a dedicated production line.

For example, LG, which provides screens, has set up a production line specifically for Zhiyun Technology's 4-inch high-end screens. They do nothing else but supply Zhiyun Technology.

With the hot sales of Zhiyun mobile phones, Zhiyun Technology has become a very important customer of LG. Zhiyun Technology has almost monopolized the production capacity of most of their high-end screens... They also make mobile phones themselves but cannot afford the four-inch high-end screens they produce... It has to be said that this is also an interesting thing.

Then in terms of chips, Zhiyun Technology is currently the only customer of Texas Instruments' high-end SOC. Zhiyun Technology is not only the launch customer of the 36 series chips, but also their only customer...

At the same time, Zhiyun Technology is the second and largest customer of Qualcomm's 8250/8650 series of high-end chips... Although Toshiba and several other manufacturers have also tried to use this chip to make mobile phones, they have basically failed.

Look at Toshiba's GT01, what the hell is that... a resistive screen phone.

Therefore, for these two flagship mobile phone SOC chips on the market today, Zhiyun Technology is the most important customer!
After all, other mobile phone manufacturers are still working on 7200A-level and 34 series-level chips... Only Zhiyun Technology makes high-end phones, and uses such high-end chips in order to compete with Apple.

If other manufacturers want to follow suit, they will probably have to wait until next year.

The same goes for other parts, which are basically high-end parts, and there are very few customers... In contemporary times, only Fruit and Zhiyun will purchase such expensive parts in large quantities.

In addition, there are some non-standard parts, which are specially designed and produced for S9 mobile phones. The production lines of some supply chain companies are established with the assistance of Zhiyun Technology’s technicians... Some special equipment that needs to be used are also provided by Zhiyun Technology!
In fact, this is not Zhiyun Technology's attempt to control them... It's because many things are too technically demanding. Most of the components are designed by Zhiyun Technology itself, and some even have their own materials and processes developed by themselves. Without Zhiyun Technology's help in organizing production, these supply chain companies can't even set up production lines!
The most typical of these is the aluminum alloy body, which was developed by Anlong Precision, a subsidiary of Zhiyun Technology. From materials to processing technology, they are all exclusive patents. Some of the specialized equipment needed are even designed by themselves and commissioned to equipment manufacturers for production. The production line is also designed and established by themselves.

And it's not just Zhiyun Technology that does this. In fact, the fruit company across the street does the same... and the reasons are similar. The requirements for the spare parts they use are too demanding, and many things are self-developed. Without the assistance of the manufacturer's engineers, these supply chain companies simply cannot handle it on their own.

All these actually affected the mass production plan and scale of Zhiyun S9 mobile phone!
Unlike the C1 mobile phone, all the parts were purchased and they were all mature products, so it was easier to expand production capacity... but even so, it took several months to increase the production capacity to two million units per month.

The S9 is even more difficult... But it is only the beginning of July now, so there is still time for Zhiyun Technology to complete all preparations.

Gu Zhiming gave Xu Shenxue a guarantee at the meeting: "Don't worry, President Xu. We will be able to start small-scale trial production at the end of this month, and enter full-scale mass production after August. The production capacity in August will reach at least one million units!"

"For core components, Texas Instruments' 3640 chip has already started small-scale mass production, and will gradually expand production based on our needs to meet the needs of the mobile version."

"Qualcomm's 8250/8650 chips have been produced on a small scale to supply other manufacturers, and they have recently started to prepare for our orders. As long as they receive our mass production orders, they will ask the chip foundry to increase the scale of mass production, which will be enough for us to complete the production and preparation of the China Unicom and China Telecom versions in the early stage."

"The same is true for screens. LG has already started to transform its production line two months ago to prepare for our order. They will be able to provide at least one million 4-inch screens before September!"

"Other parts suppliers are also carrying out preliminary preparations and production work according to the standard of supplying us at least one million units before September 1st!"

"Our supply chain's preliminary preparations are to prepare a stock of parts for one million flagship phones before September 1st!"

"We can achieve this!" "As for foundries, we have signed a new cooperation agreement with BYD. They will undertake most of the flagship phone orders, Luxshare will undertake a small part of the orders, and our Vicoo Industrial will also undertake a small part of the orders. The entire foundry business will be carried out by three foundries."

"Weiku Industrial also undertook the early production line research and development, assembly and early trial production tasks."

Then, An Dayu, general manager of Weiku Industry, also spoke up: "We at Weiku Industry have already started preparing for the preliminary trial production of the flagship machine since March. We have carried out the corresponding production equipment design work. We have independently designed and developed more than 50 kinds of special equipment and delivered them to the corresponding equipment suppliers for commissioned production!"

"At present, the corresponding production line and various special equipment have completed the corresponding research and development, and the equipment suppliers are working overtime to produce and supply the store. The first batch of small products has arrived at our factory and installed in our new production line. Although the quantity is small and the overall production capacity is small, it is still enough for us to complete the early trial production and testing tasks!"

"In the past three months, we have also designed production processes and procedures based on the research and development of the R&D department. The overall progress is basically consistent with the research and development progress of the mobile phone."

"As long as the R&D department confirms that there are no problems and transfers the relevant technical information, our factory will be able to carry out preliminary test production. In a short period of time, we will organize technical backbones and new production lines to produce a batch of mobile phones for various testing work."

Listening to everyone's reports, Xu Shenxue showed a satisfied expression!
A large and mature R&D company cannot succeed by fighting alone; it must rely on the strength of the entire team.

This is also the reason why Xu Shenxue has spared no effort in searching and discovering talents over the past period of time.

Not only talents in R&D, but also talents in suppliers, production and marketing.

Even Zhiyun Technology includes personnel from many other departments, such as logistics, administrative management, public relations, and legal teams.

Now the mass production and subsequent sales of S9 mobile phones require the strength of the entire group... There are at least thousands of people involved in Zhiyun Technology.

There are even more people involved in the sister companies and cooperative manufacturers... A smartphone has more than a thousand parts and hundreds of supply chain companies.

This does not even include the software partners, media partners, operators, and channel partners who need to adapt in advance.

The large-scale mass production and market launch of a smart phone requires comprehensive cooperation from many aspects. It is impossible for Zhiyun Technology alone to maintain the operation of such a huge project!

At this time, Xu Shenxue said: "The preparations for mass production are quite good, and I don't think there will be any major problems with the publicity plan. As for the press conference, it seems that we can now move it forward a bit."

"Now that Apple's 3GS has been released, a group of consumers and cooperative manufacturers are waiting for us. It would be bad if we delay it for too long."

"So, we have changed our plan to hold a press conference in September and moved it forward to mid-July. That is, this month, we will hold a press conference once Weiku Industry has produced the first batch of trial-produced mobile phones!"

"Holding a press conference as soon as possible can stir up market enthusiasm, and can also better combine sales with fruit, and seize a wave of domestic market share before the fruit officially enters the domestic market."

"Holding a press conference in advance can also give our software partners some reaction time, so that they have more time to upgrade their software. After all, our new phone uses a 4-inch screen, and also adds many new sensors, and has made major updates in terms of system push!"

"Give them some time to react so that they don't have to rush. Software vendors can launch adaptive software in a timely manner so that users can better experience the new features of our phones!"

Ji Chenghe said: "Release early is indeed a big advantage in publicity. What about our C2 mobile phone? The research and development of this phone has also come to an end!"

Xu Shenxue said: "Let's postpone the release of the C2 phone to September. Releasing multiple new products at once or in a short interval will easily distract the market's attention."

"The sales of our C1 mobile phone are pretty good now, because the pricing issue has not caused much conflict with Apple mobile phones and our S9 mobile phone for the time being."

"We will maintain the sales of the C1 phone for a while, use this time to further improve the C2, reduce costs, and then start small-scale production and stocking. When the time comes, we will supply large quantities as soon as possible. This time, the release of the C2 phone must not cause the same rush to buy as the C1 phone!"

“The marketing department should remember to launch promotional activities some time in advance before the release of C2 to lower the price of C1 phones, so as to avoid users who have just purchased C1 phones and then see C2 phones and feel unbalanced!”

After dealing with these, Xu Shenxue looked at Ji Chenghe:

"And what did your marketing department think about the pricing of this S9 flagship phone?"

(End of this chapter)