Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 238: Million Sales

While trying out the S12 Pro prototype in his hand, Xu Shenxue told Xie Jianyong and several other R&D staff, "The screen size of smartphones continues to increase. This is a major trend. At least when the screen size increases to more than six inches, this trend will not stop."

"The size of a mobile phone is closely related to the size of people's palms. If you look at the size of our palms, the length of a mobile phone is about 160 millimeters, which is a relatively extreme length. If it is longer, it will be more difficult to operate it with one hand!"

"As for the width, considering one-handed operation, 70 to 80 millimeters is about right. If it's larger, it won't be very convenient to operate!"

"This size is also the size of the current S12 Pro."

"When there is an upper limit on the size of mobile phones, how can we solve the screen problem? It's very simple, just further increase the screen-to-body ratio!"

"Although this phone has a 5.5-inch screen, the screen-to-body ratio is only 66 percent, so there is still a lot of room for improvement."

"For example, we can remove the fingerprint button on the front, redesign the earpiece, front camera, and ambient light sensor, and increase the screen-to-body ratio as much as possible, so that we can put in a larger screen, perhaps 6.5, 6.8, or even 7 inches."

"And maybe we can give this kind of mobile phone a special name, that is, full screen!"

"Of course, this concept still has very high technical requirements. At least at this stage, we cannot abandon fingerprint unlocking. At the same time, the front camera and various sensors are also more troublesome to make."

"But at least it is a technical direction that can be continuously advanced. If there is a breakthrough in technology, we can definitely make the screen more than six inches and increase the screen-to-body ratio to more than 90 percent."

"In the future, we still need to work hard in this regard."

Xu Shenxue's concept of screen size is based on the concepts of later generations, so in recent years he has been pushing for an increase in screen size and has laid out many full-screen technologies in advance.

Especially the two technologies of face recognition and under-screen fingerprint.

These two technologies are key technologies to solve the full-screen solution. Otherwise, when the full-screen era arrives, Xu Shenxue will have to consider using rear fingerprint.

However, this will greatly change the user's usage habits, and it will not be done unless it is absolutely necessary.

Nowadays, users of Zhiyun's S series mobile phones have long been accustomed to the operation of front fingerprint recognition. They are used to putting their mobile phones on the table and unlocking them to view various information with just a light press.

You go back and tell them that this cannot be done anymore, and that the new S series phones must be unlocked by picking up the phone, and users will curse.

Therefore, in order to smoothly enter the full-screen era in the future, facial recognition will be combined with under-screen fingerprint, and one of them must be developed.

The best thing is to have both, and then launch them together, and users can use whichever they prefer.

----

After trying out the new phone and experiencing some of its new features, Xu Shenxue put down his phone and said, "We need to do a good job in subsequent mass production and prepare more stocks. Every year when a new phone is released, people line up to buy it. Now people say I am just playing tricks every year!"

As he said this, Xu Shenxue started laughing himself.

Every year, Zhiyun Technology learns from past lessons and increases its inventory, but it is still not enough every year.

Last year, the S11 series of mobile phones had a stock of million units, which is more than enough. Nowadays, apart from Zhiyun Technology itself, even the fruit company next door doesn’t have the courage to do this.

With billions of dollars in inventory, if something unexpected happens, it will result in huge losses.

But with so many countries in the world, eight million mobile phones may seem like a lot, but when you spread it out, there aren’t that many. After they were officially launched, the S11 series phones were out of stock worldwide within a few days.

Scalpers are making a lot of money!
Every year when Zhiyun Technology's S series mobile phones are launched on the market, especially in the first one or two months, it is an annual carnival for scalpers. In the scalper market, it is normal to increase the price of new S series mobile phones by hundreds or even thousands of yuan.

It also gave rise to the smuggling industry of Zhiyun mobile phones, which were not smuggled from outside to China, but smuggled from China to some foreign countries.

Because there are no tariffs on Zhiyun phones sold domestically, they are relatively cheap, and the supply is more sufficient, so scalpers can obtain more supplies.

At the same time, Zhiyun Technology adopts a pure import model in all other places around the world except the domestic market. It does not engage in local production and local sales. As for the tariffs of various countries, it is up to you to do whatever you want. Anyway, I will increase the price by the same amount as the tariffs you charge.

Due to different tariffs and tax costs, the prices of Zhiyun phones are different in many countries.

This has also led to smuggling. Some scalpers and smugglers buy goods from China, and then secretly transport them to countries with high tariffs and shortages for sale. A single phone can fetch one or two thousand yuan, or even more.

Today's Zhiyun mobile phones, especially the new models, are very popular when they are launched.

This has forced Zhiyun Technology to increase its inventory again this year and increase its production capacity in the first few months.

Gu Zhiming also said at this time: "Our stocking target this year is 11 million units. At the same time, our work in the past year is not just to increase stocking, but to increase monthly production capacity as much as possible." "Based on last year's lessons and the subsequent amazing sales of the S mobile phone, we estimate the production capacity for the first half of the year to be units per month, and then gradually reduce the production capacity according to the situation!"

Xu Shenxue asked: "It seems that you estimate the sales of this phone to reach 150 million?"

Ji Chenghe said, "Yes, we did estimate the initial production capacity based on the sales volume of 150 million units!"

"This is mainly because our previous generation S11 phone was a huge success. Although it has not been a year yet, we have sold more than 11 million S phones. After a year, it is almost certain that sales will exceed million!"

"This fully demonstrates the market appeal of the all-aluminum alloy body, fingerprint recognition technology, voice assistant technology and our brand!"

"Among them, the S11 Pro has a very high recognition among consumers. The -inch screen hits the hearts of most consumers, but the previous Pro version was relatively expensive, so the sales share was not large!"

"This time, we have also made the standard version have a 4.7-inch screen, and other hardware has also been greatly improved. Our marketing department believes that the annual sales volume is expected to reach 120 million units, and the entire sales cycle should be able to reach 1.5 units!"

"At the same time, considering the market heat, there was a shortage of large-screen mobile phones in the early stage, and the competition was relatively small. Our marketing department tends to increase production capacity as much as possible in the first six months, and then take over the market. The production capacity in the first six months should be able to account for 70% or even more of the sales volume in the entire sales cycle!"

"So, we have set a huge production capacity of 15 million mobile phones per month. After the subsequent sales boom has passed, this part of the production capacity will be released to the A series and C series mobile phones!"

Gu Zhiming also said: "In order to meet the explosive production capacity in the early stage, we will continue to use the model of four foundries producing together this year. The four foundries have a total of more than ten large-scale production bases across the country to produce this series of mobile phones to ensure sufficient supply in the early stage!"

"In addition, we have also contacted airlines and other transportation and logistics companies in advance to ensure that there will be no problems with the supply chain operation in the next few months!"

Xu Shenxue said: "We also need to make arrangements for the supply chain companies. I don't want supply chain companies to stop production for various reasons this year, especially ridiculous reasons like power outages!"

Gu Zhiming said: "I have planned to arrange a supply chain inspection team to conduct a comprehensive inspection of the companies in the entire supply chain, discover and solve problems in advance, and urge supply chain companies to make rectifications."

Even though almost a year has passed, Xu Shenxue still remembers the situation last year when a supply chain company had a power outage due to extreme weather and the emergency generator set was unavailable, which eventually led to production suspension.

It almost led to the discontinuation of the S11 series of mobile phones, which were selling well at the time!

Therefore, this year, similar situations are absolutely not allowed to occur!

Xu Shenxue said: "You are an expert in supply chain, so I won't say more. You can decide for yourself!"

Then he turned to Ji Chenghe and said, "You are also familiar with marketing. You should pay attention to it this time. The goal of 150 million units is set by you. Now that you have set it, you must do it well and try your best to reach the goal, or even exceed it!"

"The S series mobile phones are the core products of our company. No matter in research and development, production or sales, no accidents are allowed!"

After Xu Shenxue finished his inspection, he left, and the various departments of Zhiyun Technology also began to take action.

A large number of orders began to flow into various supply chain companies, and these were huge orders of tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of sets.

But what is different from previous years is that this year is a little special, that is, along with the order came an inspection team from Zhiyun Technology's supply chain department.

After these inspection teams go to the supply chain companies, they conduct various inspections with dark faces throughout the whole process. They are not only responsible for the supply issues of the supply chain companies, but also for the management issues of the supply chain companies, such as workers' salaries, living conditions, working hours and other treatments, as well as corporate environmental protection and other aspects.

By the way, Zhiyun Technology actually has a lot of requirements for supply chain companies. In addition to requiring you to have good technology, good product quality, and good cost control, you are also often required to abide by the law and discipline, strictly implement salary and benefits standards in accordance with the Labor Law, implement environmental protection standards, etc.

Don’t think that Zhiyun Technology’s boss, shareholders, and executives are kind-hearted. Zhiyun Technology’s products are for the global market and need to be sold in markets of different countries. In addition, a big tree attracts the wind, and its size is too large, so many people are eyeing Zhiyun.

They like to use any issue to criticize Zhiyun, even carbon emissions...

In order to avoid various troubles, Zhiyun Technology eliminates these problems in the supply chain.

For example, the working hours, working environment, food level, and salary of ordinary workers are all things that other mobile phone manufacturers don’t bother to care about. As long as suppliers can deliver components on time and in quantity, it doesn’t matter how they are made.

Zhiyun is different, they really care how you make it.

why?
If we don't leave it alone, and a media reporter reports that in a factory under Zhiyun Mobile, the workers eat worse than pigs, work fourteen or even sixteen hours a day, and the pay is below the minimum legal standard, which is worse than the life of slaves, this will have a huge impact on Zhiyun Mobile's global corporate reputation.

Therefore, Zhiyun Technology does not allow supply chain companies to mess around. If you want an order, you can only follow my standards and it must be legal and compliant.

However, this also leads to an indirect effect, that is, the ordinary assembly line workers under Zhiyun Supply Chain are treated relatively better!
Although it is hard and tiring, at least there is overtime pay. It is not a problem to earn a few thousand yuan a month, and the treatment will not be too harsh.

Sometimes, the way big multinational corporations do things may not seem that great, but to be honest, they can still make you live like a human being!
If you change to a private small or medium-sized enterprise, you won’t even be allowed to work as a human being!

(End of this chapter)