Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 143 S10 Project
After the Spring Festival in 10, Zhiyun Technology has gradually returned to its super busy state at the end of last year.

Even the big boss Xu Shenxue started to get busy.

Last year, Xu Shenxue hired an executive vice president, which finally freed him from the various daily corporate affairs, but he could only get rid of some daily trivial matters. For a company as large as Zhiyun Technology, there are actually many major and important things to do.

These major matters were basically handled by Xu Shenxue.

At the same time, Xu Shenxue owns not only Zhiyun Technology, but also several other important companies.

There are too many companies and even more employees. Just the red envelopes for the start of work after the Chinese New Year are so many that they are exhausted...

In the following days, Xu Shenxue dealt with the affairs of Zhiyun Technology's spring press conference while frequently inspecting the post-New Year work progress of its subsidiaries.

First, I visited companies that were not under the Zhiyun Technology system, such as Weiku Electronics, Yihai Network, Weiku Industrial, and Weiku Trading.

Then I visited the various subsidiaries of Zhiyun Technology.

What Xu Shenxue is paying more attention to recently is Wanjin Technology!

This subsidiary is responsible for the development of fingerprint recognition modules within the Zhiyun Technology system. Since it acquired the overseas AuthenTec last year and incorporated the patented technology and assets of this overseas company into Wanjin Technology.

Wanjin Technology has been vigorously promoting the research and development of fingerprint recognition modules...mainly focusing on miniaturization, optimization of recognition speed and accuracy.

When Xu Shenxue went to the market after the New Year, he had already seen initial results.

"Mr. Xu, this is our miniaturized sample. In order to miniaturize it, we and Zhiyun Semiconductor specially designed and developed an identification chip... Look, it's this little thing, it's very small!"

The person in charge of Wanjin Technology picked up the sample and pointed to a small chip that was only a few millimeters long and wide and said, "For this small chip, hundreds of us and Zhiyun Semiconductor have been working hard for several months, and it was successfully taped out last month."

Xu Shenxue looked at the small chip that he could see clearly even with his eyes wide open, and nodded, "To engage in technology research and development, we must have the spirit of continuous research and innovation!"

Xu Shenxue actually didn't know much about chips. To be honest, he couldn't understand why such a small chip could hold so many things and achieve accurate and fast fingerprint recognition!

But there are so many technologies in this world that he cannot understand...so Xu Shenxue usually doesn't ask too many questions. As long as the things can be used and are easy to use, it doesn't matter how they were made.

Then the person in charge pointed to a flat round button and said, "This small flat round button is the capacitive sensing module. Fingerprint data can be collected through this small thing, and then transmitted to this small chip for processing. Finally, the processing results are fed back to the fingerprint recognition module in the system."

"We have discussed the R&D goals with the S series mobile phone team before, and the mobile phone team required this oblate structure, not a perfect circle!"

"Of course, we also made a circular acquisition module. No matter what shape it is, the technology is the same, so we made some of various styles and provided them to the mobile phone team for various tests!"

As the person in charge spoke, he pointed to the fingerprint recognition modules on the tray, which had different styles and many types of buttons!
"This can be installed on the back for back fingerprint recognition. This can be combined with the power button for side fingerprint recognition. There are also three types of front lower positions: round, oval, and oblate."

Xu Shenxue looked at the various messy fingerprint recognition modules on the tray and nodded slightly!
Now that's more like it.

First come up with all kinds of them and lock down the patents. Then as for how to use them specifically and which one to use... that's the business of the mobile phone design team.

At this time, Xie Jianyong, the R&D director of the S series who came with Xu Shenxue to inspect, said: "We are initially preparing to adopt a flat round design at the bottom of the front of the S series!"

"It's mainly because our S series uses an aluminum alloy back cover, which is originally very thin and light. If a fingerprint module is built in, the strength will be reduced. At the same time, the internal structure design of the S series is that the battery is right after the back cover is opened. It is not suitable to put the fingerprint recognition module on the north side."

"Then the side is not suitable... because the S series mobile phone is too thin, the total thickness is only 8.7 mm, and the fingerprint recognition module needs a certain area to collect data. If the contact area with the finger is too small, it will make data collection very troublesome... If the requirements are lowered, then security cannot be guaranteed. If the requirements are not lowered, then data collection will be very troublesome."

"At this stage, if we want to put the fingerprint recognition module on the side button, we need to make a thicker phone, even 11 or 12 millimeters, to continue to do press recognition. Our S series is not very good, and even the new C series is difficult to do. But Weiku Electronics can make do!"

"Or they could use the backward sliding recognition. However, many mobile phone manufacturers have tried the side case sliding recognition solution before, but it didn't work... Fujitsu has been trying for many years but has not been able to make it work."

Xu Shenxue agreed with Xie Jianyong's words: "We won't do anything backward!"

Zhiyun Technology is now engaged in serious capacitive press-type fingerprint recognition, rather than traditional sliding fingerprint recognition... The gap between the two in terms of security, cost and even response speed is very large.

The capacitive fingerprint recognition module requires a certain contact area to collect fingerprint data.

Therefore, the side solution was also abandoned by the S series mobile phone team.

The back is hard to do, and the sides are hard to do either, so the only thing left is the lower front position... At the same time, in order to avoid the circular button solution of Apple, this circular button must also be abandoned...

It’s not because of infringement... In fact, Zhiyun Technology has already registered a patent for the fingerprint recognition module with the circular button at the bottom of the front... Even if Apple wants to use it in the future, it will be blocked by Zhiyun’s patent.

Rather, the circular main button below the screen has such a strong fruit attribute that when consumers see it, they subconsciously think it is a fruit phone.

However, if other manufacturers use it, people will immediately think you are plagiarizing!
This is very difficult!

So even though Zhiyun has all the patents, it did not use the circular design at the bottom of the front. In the end, it chose the oblate design between the oval and oblate designs.

Compared with the round design, this oblate design can reduce the fuselage length by several millimeters.

At the same time, in order to avoid the embarrassment of double chin, the solution adopted is to combine the fingerprint recognition button with the original home page return button.

In fact, it just replaces the original virtual buttons of the main interface with capacitive fingerprint buttons, which also serve as the main page buttons of the original virtual case.

There are also the return key and menu key on both sides... The positions of these two keys can be adjusted according to user habits. By default, the return key is on the left, but you can also change the return key to the right through settings. After all, different people like to hold their phones in different hands... Some people like to hold their phones in their right hand, while others like to hold their phones in their left hand.

Therefore, many button settings in Zhiyun Technology's YUN OS system can actually be swapped left and right...

Not only can the buttons be adjusted, but many other functions can also be adjusted to meet the needs of different groups of people, such as reading mode, page magnification mode, free font size setting, and even a virtual button center function. Basically, there are all kinds of auxiliary functions... and most ordinary users don't actually use these auxiliary functions... but Zhiyun Technology has added them.

Zhiyun Technology's mobile phones are aimed at the global market and target all people, young and old, regardless of gender...so they will take the usage needs of different groups into consideration.

Regardless of whether ordinary users use many auxiliary functions, Zhiyun Technology has already developed them and integrated them into the system...

However, when an individual user really has this need, he can find the required auxiliary functions and solve some usage problems.

To some extent, all kinds of messy functions that ordinary people will never use in their lifetime are also a kind of "piling up" of Zhiyun phones.

As for ordinary mobile phone manufacturers... they would like to, but they don’t have the ability!

They even have a hard time reforming the webpage and changing the font, so there is no way they can do it as easily as Zhiyun Technology... The only one who can compete with Zhiyun in this regard is fruit.

The reason why both parties are so busy with these seemingly unimportant details is actually because their purpose is similar... to increase the overall adaptability of the phone... and to ensure that all groups can use this phone smoothly and without obstacles.

After all, mobile phones are a mass product. Even the so-called high-end ones are actually mass products, with tens of millions of units sold a year. Such large-scale products must be considered more comprehensively and provide more adaptability.

After a tour around Wanjin Technology, Xu Shenxue also tried out a test machine that was modified from an S9 mobile phone and equipped with a fingerprint module.

Although the overall design looks weird due to violent modification and lacks industrial beauty, it is quite reliable to use.

The recognition is relatively accurate and the sensitivity is also good.

"It looks like our fingerprint recognition is almost done. At this fall's press conference, we will put it on the next generation of S flagship phones and launch it to the market!"

"But how much does this thing cost? Can it be used on the C series?"

The person in charge of Wanjin Technology said: "The cost is still relatively high. The cost of the fingerprint collection module and the integrated chip module alone is not low, and there is also the research and development cost. If it is used on the C series, I am afraid that the cost will increase a lot. The Pro models of the series can barely be used!"

After hearing this, Xu Shenxue gave up the idea of ​​equipping the entire C series with a fingerprint recognition module.

Fingerprint recognition technology has just emerged, and the costs are very high. It is fine if it is installed on a flagship phone, but it is somewhat inappropriate to install it on the ordinary version of the mid-range C series.

So he said: "Then try to use it on the Pro version of the C series. By the way, don't put it on the chin of the C series, put it on the back, so as to give users more choices!"

The flagship series has a flat and round chin on the front.

The C series Pro and even the future C series regular version will have a circular fingerprint recognition system on the upper back.

This has initially determined two technical routes, which are sufficient for the time being.

We will see the market in the future. If the market capacity increases further, we may be able to develop a new single-letter series, and then we can add side fingerprint unlocking and the like.

Anyway, different technical solutions are used according to different product positioning!
After returning from Wanjin Technology, Xu Shenxue went to the S series R&D project team.

Today, the S series project team, led by Xie Jianyong, is developing the second generation of the S series, the S10, as well as the S10 Pro.

S10 is a comprehensive upgrade of S9. Although it still uses the same four-inch screen, the chip will use Qualcomm Snapdragon's second-generation 8255/8655 chip. This chip uses a 45-nanometer process and has a maximum main frequency of 1.4GHZ, making it the king of contemporary mobile phone SOC performance.

It is then expected to adopt a fingerprint recognition module and be equipped with the YUN OS3.0 system.

The prototype has been made, but there are still many details that need to be polished.

The prototype that Xu Shenxue has seen now is actually very similar to the S9 in appearance. For example, the back cover is still a typical three-section structure, and the detailed design on the front also continues some of the concepts of the S9.

This is actually also for cost control. If the design of S9 is roughly continued, most of the components can be produced without major changes, which can effectively reduce costs.

The biggest change is that the capacitive touch home button is replaced by a flat round fingerprint recognition module at the chin position.

This thing is actually a combination of the later Fruit 5S and some Android flagship phones... Most of the front and the back are very similar to the 5/5S series, while the chin position is similar to the three-button plus home button mode of some Android flagship phones.

How should I put it? Originally, Xu Shenxue finalized the appearance of the 5/5S series first, and then stuffed the Android system into it.

This was originally the product of Xu Shenxue, which integrated the original time and space fruits and Android phones.

However, the S10 Pro version is a large-screen version of the S10... This phone is expected to use a larger 4.3-inch screen, and there are some changes in the appearance design. Of course, the overall design style of Zhiyun S9 is still maintained.

After all, this S10 Pro is just a large-screen version of the S10, not a large-scale revision...

The real large-screen version with large-scale improvements is not the S10 Pro, but the next-generation S11 flagship phone.

(End of this chapter)