Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 24 Flexible Bottom Line

The future is bright, Xu Shenxue is confident of this!
But the future is the future, and the present is the present...so when Xu Shenxue makes feature phones now, he sticks to the low-end feature phone route.

Because at this stage, there is no unique technology, no brand, and no channels, so the price cannot be raised!

Let alone three or four thousand, even the price of one thousand is not high enough for the current Xiaolan mobile phone… The F2 flip phone launched at the end of last year was an attempt. It was priced at 799 and was equipped with a 2.8-inch screen. It was the king of cost-effectiveness among brand phones, but consumers still didn’t buy it… Because many consumers still don’t think you are a big brand and it’s not worth the price.

So the sales of this F2 phone are not very good.
目前小蓝手机里，卖的最好的依旧是449元的S1，其次是649元的S2，再过来就是499元的翻盖F1。

So it’s not easy to create a high-end brand.

Even if smartphones are launched this year, it is not easy to enter the high-end brand market with high premiums all at once.

And what is easier to do?

Value-added services!
This is much easier than the other methods. You just need to modify the system, set up your own software mall and various underlying built-in software, and make an optimized customized system. Then you can find a group of software manufacturers to cooperate with... Software manufacturers don't mind having an extra promotion and distribution channel. As long as they don't behave too badly in the early stages, it is relatively easy to negotiate cooperation.

Once this is done, you can then take the relatively simple cost-effective route, lower the hardware cost and sell it at a low price, and then make money using value-added services.

Therefore, no matter what the future holds, Xu Shenxue attaches great importance to value-added services at this stage.

If it weren't for the fact that the entire Android system is open, does not support mobile phone manufacturers to develop a closed ecosystem, and users are generally disgusted with it.

Xu Shenxue even thought about directly prohibiting users from downloading third-party software and only allowing them to download from their own system APP store. That would be simply making money without doing anything... Unfortunately, although there is technically no problem in doing so, users will simply abandon you, at least this is the case for Android phone manufacturers.

Of course, Xu Shenxue also instructed the project team that even if users are allowed to download software from third-party channels, they must put up a big warning about things like mobile phone viruses, leakage of personal privacy information, and the phone becoming a brick after being infected, etc., so that people would be scared when they see it.

Try to prevent users from downloading software from third-party channels, and then switch to downloading it from your own system software store.

Because of the importance attached to it, more support is given. Software development engineers in the smartphone project who are responsible for system optimization and various underlying service development account for about half of the entire smartphone project.

This is relatively fast. According to the progress report from the smartphone project team, this customized system will be initially formed in two to three months. It will also require various hardware adaptations, complicated tests and adjustments. If we are lucky, it will probably be completed in May or June.

You don’t have to worry too much about software development, but the hardware side is more troublesome. There are too many things to do, and many technologies are difficult to master.

There is no better solution at the moment. We can only continue to spend money to recruit people. If ordinary technical personnel are not enough, then we will recruit more technical backbones. If the technical backbones are still not enough, then we will recruit expert-level bigwigs.

Then use the scientific research system to give them an all-round upgrade and accelerate R&D efficiency!
After entering January, Xu Shenxue obtained another 100 guaranteed achievement points, in addition to more than 600 business achievement points. He used these achievement points to exchange for more than 70 scientific research places. In addition to the R&D personnel of the smartphone project team, a small number of places were given to the R&D personnel of the feature phone project.

Nowadays, almost everyone in the R&D team of the smart phone project team has a research quota. Even so, it is extremely difficult to do it... But this is normal. If it were easy, a bunch of cheap mobile phone factories in Huaqiangnan would have done it long ago.

Anyone who can make smart phones these days is capable enough. For example, Huawei is a well-established communications company with awesome technology and a large number of talented people... He worked as a R&D engineer for a project at Weiku Electronics, but was just an ordinary technical backbone at that company.

Other mobile phone manufacturers have more or less accumulated technology, so although it is difficult, they don’t have to start from scratch like Weiku Electronics and even have to redevelop the camera algorithm!
Fortunately, Xu Shenxue has a scientific research system that can improve the capabilities of R&D personnel, otherwise it would be impossible to get it done at this stage.

However, the slow progress of the smart phone project is also related to Xu Shenxue's high requirements... In order to pursue extreme appearance and performance, the research and development indicators in all aspects are set very high.

If he lowers the requirements appropriately, the difficulty of research and development can actually be greatly reduced... As I said, it is not that difficult to make a smart phone, but it is extremely difficult to make it well.

And if the product is not good, it will be difficult to make a name for yourself!
This smartphone shoulders the strategic role of helping Wecoo Electronics transform and enhance its brand value, so naturally we will try to do it as well as possible within the limited time available.

Of course, if there is really no other way in the end, Xu Shenxue will not hold on, but will directly launch semi-finished products to the market at an appropriate time... For example, if the metal body cannot be made, then he will start with the plastic body.

If power control and battery life can't be solved, then just increase the battery capacity. If heat dissipation is not easy, then increase the body space. At most, increase the body thickness by one or two millimeters and make the width a little wider.

Even in extreme cases, Xu Shenxue will abandon the non-removable battery solution and go directly to the removable battery route.

Xu Shenxue actually has a flexible bottom line...but he will not tell the smartphone project team about this bottom line.

Otherwise, he would have just said it today, and the R&D engineers would have just given up right away... The requirements are not too high, just do it casually, so why are they staying up late every day and pulling their hair out?
I get off work on time, isn't it nice to slack off during work hours?
You still have to put some pressure on research and development, and you can't just muddle through, otherwise people will really mess it up in front of you.

Compared with the smartphone project, which is quite difficult and involves numerous messy troubles, Weiku Electronics' feature phone business is much smoother, especially as it ushered in a wave of phone purchases near the end of the year.

The sales volume of mobile phones has increased significantly both offline and online, which has directly led to the production capacity of Weiku Electronics' mobile phone factory reaching its limit, and finalizing the OEM factory is imminent.

In the general manager's office on the second floor of Weiku Electronics Co., Ltd., Xu Shenxue and Bai Qiwen were discussing the OEM factory matters while drinking tea.

Bai Qiwen put down his teacup and said, "After research by our colleagues in the marketing department and the cooperation of colleagues in the purchasing department, we have investigated more than 20 different mobile phone factories in the early stage. After eliminating some factories with greater operating risks, insufficient technical capabilities, insufficient production capacity, and higher prices, we finally drew up three candidate factories!"

At this time, Xu Shenxue was holding the detailed information reports of the three mobile phone OEM factories in his hand and reading them. As Xu Shenxue was reading, Bai Qiwen also said: "These three factories are similar, and their strengths are not bad. The smallest production capacity is more than 30,000 mobile phones per month, and the largest production capacity is even 100,000 units. The price range is not very different!"

"Please let Mr. Xu decide which one to choose!"

(End of this chapter)