Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 337 No choice
Xu Shenxue had long anticipated the changes in the internal environment of the United States that began this year and the resulting changes in the external environment, but when the situation really faced him, he was still a little worried.

The preparations over the past few years were too thin due to time limitations and were not sufficient to support advanced processes, especially the independent control of the 7-nanometer process.

The independent control of this seven-nanometer process is crucial for Zhiyun Group in the next few years.

Xu Shenxue had to be cautious!

Many people in the industry know that Zhiyun Group’s core business is smart terminals, followed by semiconductor business.

Both of the above are inseparable from chips.

Chips are inseparable from semiconductor manufacturing equipment and consumables with lithography machines as the core.

This is also the core reason why Zhiyun Group has established two semiconductor design companies, Zhiyun Semiconductor and Zhiyun Storage, as well as Zhiyun Microelectronics.

If Zhiyun Microelectronics fails, it will affect the manufacturing of a series of chips under Zhiyun, and then affect the smart terminal and semiconductor industry businesses.

Forget about foundry. Even if there is no explicit ban now, don't expect TSMC and Sixin to take over Zhiyun Group's chip foundry... If there is no ban now, it is purely unnecessary, and Zhiyun will not look for a foundry.

However, if Zhiyun Group really needs to find a foundry one day, the US consortium will impose comprehensive sanctions without hesitation.

I still want to find a OEM, but it’s not even as good as this in my dreams!
The above also has a basic logic, which is that if you want to restrict Zhiyun Group, it would be best to directly block Zhiyun Microelectronics' advanced process manufacturing capabilities.

The best way to strangle Zhiyun Microelectronics is to directly attack the equipment and consumables, especially the lithography machines.

But Xu Shenxue was not stupid. He started Xiannvshan Holdings very early, and then became self-reliant and developed the entire semiconductor industry chain. He developed his own core semiconductor equipment such as lithography machines, etching machines, ion implantation machines, etc., and also various consumables such as photoresists and special gases.

Although the result is not quite right, it is usable at least.

This is also the reason why the American consortium did not completely break off relations with Xu Shenxue and did not directly target semiconductor equipment and consumables centered on DUV immersion lithography machines.

Because even if we take action, it won’t last too long. At most, we can block it for one or two years, and it won’t change anything.

After a year or two, it's still the same.

In addition, this complete break will also lead to a crazy counterattack from Xu Shenxue... Now ASML's EUV lithography machine has not yet been mass-produced and shipped, and the project has been delayed by at least three years than expected. Even if Xu Shenxue does not let go, the EUV project will have to be postponed.

Crazy Xu is not someone who can be manipulated by others...

They were cautious and completely fell out, which resulted in losses for both sides, and finally a temporary compromise was reached.

This has created a very fragile balance in the past two years or so.

However, this fragile balance is based on the concerns of both Xu Shenxue and some American financial groups!

However, some American consortiums cannot represent the interests of all American consortiums, let alone the interests of all ordinary Americans. Even the agreement they reached with Xu Shenxue will, to a certain extent, damage the interests of some American consortiums and some ordinary Americans.

Some people want to maintain a fragile balance with Xu Shenxue and continue to make money.

But some people want to break this balance, and their purpose is also to make money.

Again, don’t personify the country…

A country is an organization brought together by multiple interest groups and countless ordinary people. There are different interest divisions and different ideas within it. There are all kinds of strange people and all kinds of ideas.

The conflicts and contradictions of interests within the American conglomerates extended to the conflicts of interests among ordinary Americans, and finally affected Zhiyun Group.

Xu Shenxue also observed that the environment in the United States has changed recently, and a man with a blond lion head is rising rapidly.

The interests represented by this person are rather special. They are pursuing the "America First" approach, which is different from the "globalization" promoted by many conglomerates before.

The American consortium that reached an agreement with Xu Shenxue and had concerns about each other was actually also playing the game of globalization... They were printing paper money, then plundering global wealth, and then radiating their influence to gain a transcendent position.

However, this model may not be so friendly to some ordinary Americans... The consortium makes money and it is none of their business.

The consortium’s money will not be spent on ordinary people. Even the multinational corporations under the consortium will not transfer the profits earned overseas back to the United States: the taxes are too high!

This is a very interesting thing that deserves special mention.

The cash flows of a large number of American companies are extremely exaggerated, often reaching hundreds of billions of dollars or even more. For example, the cash flow of fruit companies is over 200 billion US dollars.

Why so much cash flow?
This is because their overseas operating profits will remain in the accounts of overseas offshore companies and are rarely transferred back to their home countries for investment or job creation.

This is to avoid double taxation... because most countries will also tax a company's overseas operating income. At most, the taxes already paid for overseas operations can be partially deducted.

Therefore, many multinational companies generally do not transfer overseas profits back to their home countries unless it is absolutely necessary.

As a result, the overseas cash flow of multinational companies is often very exaggerated. There is a lot of money in overseas accounts, but if the business in the home country is not doing well, even funny things can happen: the domestic business still needs loans to maintain... It's not that they have no money, they just have no money in the domestic accounts.

The cost of domestic loans is even lower than transferring the funds back home.

Their model is actually very different from that of Zhiyun Group, which is also one of the world's top multinational groups.

Although Zhiyun has a very high cash flow and a large amount of funds in overseas accounts, a considerable portion of it will still be transferred back to China for various investments and research and development.

After all, Zhiyun's roots are in China, where it has a huge semiconductor industry and R&D system. The funds required to maintain such a huge R&D system and semiconductor industry are enormous, and it will not be possible if the money is not transferred back.

However, the process of transferring funds back to China is more complicated. Most of the time, funds are transferred in the form of overseas subsidiaries investing in China, and reasonable tax avoidance is also carried out.

In addition, Zhiyun Group’s treatment in China is actually very good, and various preferential measures are basically the best. All that can be given is given, and even those that cannot be given are given in some way. Therefore, the tax cost for Zhiyun Group to transfer overseas profits back to China is not high.

But even so, the taxes paid by Zhiyun Group every year are an astronomical figure, making it the highest taxpayer among domestic private enterprises.

In the past 15 years, Zhiyun Group has paid more than billion yuan in taxes in China... What does this mean? Roughly speaking, the two oil companies paid more than billion yuan in taxes, and the tobacco giant paid trillion yuan.

Among conventional enterprises, the communication base station giant and Huawei, which also makes mobile phones, pay 40 to 50 billion yuan in taxes in the country each year.

If we expand the scope a little bit, the total tax paid by state-owned enterprises is about 4 trillion yuan, and the same number is true for private enterprises. The two together are around 800 to 900 billion yuan.

Zhiyun Group alone paid 150 billion yuan in taxes, accounting for a little over 1% of the total tax paid by companies nationwide.

But it is worth noting that this is only the tax paid by Zhiyun Group, a listed company, in China, and does not include the tax paid by a large number of companies controlled and strategically invested by Zhiyun Group, as well as a large number of affiliated companies.

Weiku Electronics, Weiku Industrial, Weiku Trading, Huaxing Technology, etc. are actually major taxpayers.

Zhiyun Group is just an operating entity of the listed company "Zhiyun Holdings", not the entire industrial chain controlled by Xu Shenxue.

In fact, Xu Shenxue controls the entire consumer electronics and semiconductor industry chain with Zhiyun Group as the core. The total value is very exaggerated... Zhiyun Group is the locomotive of these two huge industry chains!
In fact, its biggest function is not to pay taxes or directly provide jobs... Just looking at the listed company Zhiyun Group, it has only more than 500,000 employees worldwide and cannot provide many jobs. Paying taxes directly may seem like a lot, but in fact it is just that.

In order to make the locomotive more powerful, pull more train carriages and run faster, Zhiyun Group has received a lot of support in recent years, and tax cost reduction is one of them.

Therefore, Zhiyun’s tax ratio is actually not that high… Even if a large amount of operating profits are transferred back to the country, its tax costs are relatively low.

The reason why they can still pay more than 150 billion in taxes despite various preferential measures is that there is no other way. Zhiyun Group's revenue is too exaggerated. It would be unreasonable to pay less...

In this way, many countries including the European Union have been talking about Zhiyun’s taxation every now and then, and some people are clamoring to launch an anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigation on Zhiyun!

Many people are speechless... Everyone knows that Zhiyun's products are extremely expensive, and have nothing to do with low prices. It is recognized that the gross profit margin is extremely high. Even so, you still accuse it of low-price dumping? Do you want to conduct an anti-subsidy investigation?

If Zhiyun really sells at low prices after subsidies, a large number of major smart terminal manufacturers in the world will die...

With a starting price of over 5,000 yuan and a high-end price of tens of thousands, the S series has sold more than 200 million units a year.

If the Zhiyun S series starts at 3,000 yuan and the high-end version costs 5,000 yuan, Cook and the Li father and son will have to jump into the sea together. Not to mention foreign manufacturers, domestic mobile phone manufacturers, including Weiku Electronics, will roll their eyes and then go bankrupt collectively... Of course, this kind of thing is just thought about, it will never happen in reality.

Because if the S series really sells for 3,000 yuan, Zhiyun will go bankrupt first...

----

Taking all these factors into consideration, Zhiyun Group tends to transfer its overseas profits back to China, partly because of its own needs and partly because the transfer cost is relatively low.

But this is not the case for the companies under the American consortium... They don't have this demand, and the transfer cost is very high.

What difference does this make?
Zhiyun Group is also a multinational company. As a result, it sends large amounts of money home, develops industries, and creates jobs. This wealth will also enter economic activities through various channels and then become ordinary people's wages to support their families.

As for Apple, Qualcomm and other American companies, based on the American system, they will not do such things... Not only will they not take the money back, but they will also transfer the industrial chain to other countries... This means that taxes and jobs will also be transferred away.

Then, many ordinary Americans were not happy...People in the Rust Belt were very dissatisfied.

This kind of opinions have accumulated more and more, and now when they are finally detonated by someone, they burst out with strong energy.

So... there are slogans like "bring manufacturing back to China" and "America first".

Logically speaking, this is the US's own business and has nothing to do with Zhiyun Group...but the problem is that if they want to bring manufacturing back to China, they will find ways to stimulate the return of manufacturing.

This series of methods and measures will inevitably affect other economic systems, especially multinational companies such as Zhiyun Group, which will be the first to be hit.

Once you understand this, you will find that many things are inevitable and there is almost no way to avoid them.

It's not like Xu Shenxue reached some agreement with a certain consortium to avoid this kind of thing...

----

Xu Shenxue carefully analyzed the recent wind direction and then made his own judgment that the external environment may further deteriorate.

The other party is just beginning to test us now, but this test is only a prelude, and the follow-up will inevitably become more and more intense.

When the external environment continues to deteriorate, how should Zhiyun Group deal with it?
Threats alone can get you to compromise temporarily, but it is not a long-term solution. Apart from other things, if they don't completely break off relations with you, just like now, they will delay the delivery of the lithography machine for one or two months, and then one day some equipment or consumables will be delayed for another one or two months.
They won't break off relations with you completely, but will just disgust you from time to time and hold you back... What will Zhiyun Group do then?
Completely fall out? That won’t be that serious… You can’t fall out over losing a dollar even if you risk losing a hundred dollars.

But if you give in this time, it won’t be long before the other party comes back to do it again, causing you to lose a few dollars… It’s endless, like cutting your flesh with a blunt knife.

What?

In a fit of rage, he flipped the table?

This is just an emotional and incompetent choice!

Doing business requires rationality and not being emotional. Any choice needs to be based on consideration of interests.

When the cost of turning the table over is greater than the cost of surrendering, then the table cannot be turned over. This is a very realistic issue of weighing interests.

For example, now, Zhiyun Group is doing well. It is the world's largest high-tech company and the company with the highest market value. There is no need for it to suffer losses together with the enemy because of a few small losses.

But once you have concerns, you will be in a very awkward game state... It's not surrender, nor is it a fall out. At most, you can just play a game of equal counterattack.

This is actually the mentality of the American consortium towards Xu Shenxue after his rise... It's not right to kill him, and it's not right not to kill him, it's just disgusting!

Xu Shenxue is facing the same problem now.

Regarding this issue, Xu Shenxue's choice is "autonomy and controllability"!
When Zhiyun Group no longer relies on external semiconductor equipment and consumables, it has much more options, more room for bargaining, and a better basis for negotiations.

Therefore, after Xu Shenxue noticed new changes on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, he not only maintained his previous tough attitude and forced the other side to withdraw its probing claws.

It also made a more important choice... Once again, it injected capital into Xiannvshan Holdings through more than a dozen overseas offshore funds, Liuhe Holdings and other companies, with a total amount of funds reaching more than 5 billion US dollars.

At the same time, Zhiyun Group, through its subsidiary Zhiyun Microelectronics, placed a large order for semiconductor equipment and Haocia with Xiannvshan Holdings and paid a large deposit for the order in advance. The amount of the first batch of orders exceeded US$5 billion.

Zhiyun's smart terminal division and Weiku Electronics have also placed a number of high-priced orders with a large number of electronic consumer industry chains under the Xiannvshan Holdings system, mainly with various spare parts suppliers, and the amount is not small.

Many semiconductor equipment and consumables companies under the Xiannvshan Holdings system, in addition to producing semiconductor equipment and consumables, are often also engaged in the consumer electronics industry chain and are now also involved in the automotive supply chain.

Nanjiang Technology, which makes lenses for lithography machines, mainly makes various civilian consumer-grade cameras for smart terminals, including mobile phone cameras and still cameras. It also provides some high-precision lenses... It also makes automotive-grade cameras and is the supplier of in-vehicle cameras for Hailan Automobile.

Southern Optics, which produces light sources for lithography machines, actually makes charging heads and cables as its main business... Most of the charging heads and data cables for Zhiyun and Wecoo Electronics are provided by this company. In addition, its fast charging head technology is very good and it has received many orders from other smart terminal manufacturers.

Longke Precision, which makes workbenches, mainly produces various motors, especially vibration motors in the field of smart terminals. It also develops motors for electric vehicles together with Gulf Motors. It is the main supplier of vibration motors for Zhiyun/Weiku's smart terminals, and is also the motor supplier for Hailan Automobile.

Every year, Zhiyun Group transfers a large amount of funds to the Xiannvshan Holding System through various orders, including orders for semiconductor equipment and consumables from Zhiyun Microelectronics, orders for spare parts for smart terminals, and orders for some spare parts for Hailan Automobile. These funds are ultimately spent on research and development in the field of semiconductor equipment and consumables.

Therefore, even though Zhiyun Group does not appear to have invested in Xiannvshan Holdings, it provides at least tens of billions of dollars in financial support every year.

Order support from Zhiyun Group, order support from Hailan Automobile, plus direct capital injection from various investment funds at hand of Xu Shenxue.

This will enable the Fairy Mountain Holdings system to once again receive at least US$15 billion in financial support this year.

In addition to financial support, Xu Shenxue once again increased the investment in scientific research quotas, and even did not hesitate to transfer scientific research quotas from other companies for this purpose.

Including Nanmen Aerospace, HaiLan Automobile, Galaxy Life, Yihai Technology, Weico Electronics and even Zhiyun Group, all of which have been assigned a number of mid- and senior-level scientific research positions by Xu Shenxue.

These selected mid- and senior-level scientific research positions will all be invested in the research and development institutions of various companies under the Xiannvshan Holding system.

After completing internal preparations, Xu Shenxue went to Beijing again and gave a work report on the semiconductor industry, focusing on the threat of comprehensive sanctions against the semiconductor industry and the possible crisis it might face.

They kept making threats and crying poor, and they didn't get much money, but they got some orders and some tax breaks, which amounted to about 20 to 30 billion US dollars.

At first glance, it doesn't seem like much... but Xu Shenxue goes to the capital frequently. Even if he takes a little this time, it would not be a small amount if he does it many times.

Although you have a lot of money from a wealthy family, there are also many areas where money is needed. How can you give it all to Xu Shenxue? It would be great if you have two or three billion US dollars this time.

And Xu Shenxue's purpose is not for money. If it really requires two or three billion US dollars, he can come up with extra money from himself. There is no need to cry poor!

The most important thing is that this time, Xu Shenxue brought back more than a thousand senior talents at one go. A small number of them joined the company directly, and most of them were part-time workers.

The reason why most of them are part-time is that among these more than 1,000 people, all are top talents in various research institutes or universities, covering various fields, including automatic control, optics, materials and so on.

These talents are very scarce, and they are basically the backbone of various research institutes, and can be called the title of "scientist".

They themselves are also responsible for the research and development of many important projects. It is okay to lend such valuable talents to you, Xu Shenxue, for a period of time, but it is impossible to pack them all up and take them away...

You have been asked to work on semiconductors, so why not work on other projects? Important scientific research projects are not limited to semiconductors. Many other fields are also important. There are sixteen major special projects in the field of science and technology alone.

Therefore, most of these top talents become Xu Shenxue's employees on a part-time basis, and basically have a time limit, which can be regarded as temporary secondment.

The reason why Xu Shenxue insisted on giving these scientists part-time titles was not to become their boss, but because Xu Shenxue's scientific research system could only be used for the enterprises he actually controlled, and scientific research quotas could only be used for his employees.

Xu Shenxue brought this group of people over purely to give them a scientific research quota... otherwise they would not be able to get the quota even if they had it.

He had used part-time positions to obtain research quotas before, but the scale was never as large as this time.

This time, in order to further promote the independent controllability of semiconductors, Xu Shenxue has made up his mind!
After all, semiconductor technology is related to the life and death of the entire group and even a long chain of industrial chains behind it, and cannot tolerate any carelessness.

Any compromise, agreement, or the like is not a long-term solution... Why do you expect others to give you something that you don't have?
Do you think others are fools?
Xu Shenxue not only wants to achieve independent control over the equivalent of 14-nanometer process, but also wants to achieve independent control over the equivalent of 7-nanometer process.

Once we have independent and controllable production of the equivalent of seven-nanometer process, many subsequent matters will be easier to handle.

------

In mid-February, just after the Spring Festival and when major companies had just resumed work, Xu Shenxue convened a meeting at the headquarters of Xiannvshan Holding Company.

The main participants of the meeting were the heads of various semiconductor equipment and consumables companies and the heads of R&D departments under the Xiannvshan Holding system.

At the meeting, Xu Shenxue proposed that they should strive to achieve independent control of core equipment and consumables equivalent to 14-nanometer process within one year, and independent control of core equipment and consumables equivalent to 7-nanometer process within two years.

Its initial goal of autonomy and control is to achieve de-Americanization in order to avoid the other party prohibiting Zhiyun Group from using American technology.

Then, further de-Westernization is to avoid the US putting pressure on its allies and forcing their allies to ban Zhiyun Group from using their technology.

The ultimate goal is to achieve comprehensive independent control of core technologies: even if the entire West imposes technical sanctions on Zhiyun, it will not affect Zhiyun Group's production and use of advanced chips.

Of course, things have to be done step by step. The most important thing now is the independence of some core equipment and consumables.

The photolithography machine is the most typical example.

"The research and development of the HDUV-600 lithography machine must be advanced, and we will strive to supply mass-produced models in the third quarter of this year so that Zhiyun Microelectronics can conduct preliminary tests."

"In the third quarter of next year, Zhiyun Microelectronics must be able to obtain enough lithography machines of this type and supporting core equipment to assist Zhiyun Microelectronics in completing the construction of the second production line of the 25th plant, including equipment installation and commissioning, and then enter the technical verification stage."

"We must ensure that in the second quarter of the year after next, even if the first production line using imported equipment cannot be put into production smoothly, the second production line using domestic equipment must be put into production to produce chips equivalent to the 7-nanometer process to maintain the market competitiveness of the group's smart terminals!"

“I know the task is difficult, but we have no choice!”

"If you want money, I'll give you money. If you want people, I'll give you all the support!"

“But the project progress must be guaranteed!”

While Xu Shenxue was speaking, he was also observing the expressions of the heads of the companies and R&D managers under his command.

At the same time, I am also prepared to replace some of the responsible persons who are slow in their work and lack the spirit of enterprising.

When an enterprise develops to a certain level, there will always be people who lack enterprising spirit or are afraid of difficulties, but Xu Shenxue does not allow such people to hold important positions in his core enterprises.

After the strategic meeting of Xiannvshan Holdings ended, Xu Shenxue quickly adjusted the personnel of some companies and replaced the positions of several responsible persons.

It's not about firing him directly, but transferring him to other companies... After all, he just lacks some enterprising spirit and has not made any mistakes. Xu Shenxue has so many companies under his control, and there will always be companies that need mature and stable managers.

Whether a person is a talent depends on where you put him!

If placed in the right position, he will be an excellent talent.

If placed in the wrong position, the best talents will become mediocre, and even have a negative effect.

Xu Shenxue is relatively tolerant in his use of these corporate executives. As long as the executives do not make any mistakes, even if they fail to achieve any results for a while, Xu Shenxue will make adjustments based on the executives' situation and transfer them to another subsidiary or position.

After all, those who can climb to the positions of heads of these important subsidiaries or heads of R&D departments are basically talented, not to mention others...mediocrities cannot climb up.

It would be a pity to fire him directly, so it is necessary to let him try again in another position.

After all, cattle and horses are easy to find, and you can grab a lot of them, but it is not so easy to find useful corporate executives.

After adjusting the matters at Fairy Mountain Holdings, Xu Shenxue personally monitored the R&D status of each company under the Fairy Mountain Holdings system, while also beginning to pay attention to Zhiyun Group's spring press conference.

In just over ten days, Zhiyun Group will hold a spring press conference to release the C series and SX series mobile phones.

In addition to smartphones, Zhiyun Group's two main smart terminals, tablet computers and smart watches, have always been released at spring conferences.

Therefore, this year's Zhiyun Spring Conference will release four major series of products, in addition to some fragmented ecological chain products.

Some of Zhiyun Group's ecological chain products, including some software products and even semiconductor products, are either released in the spring, autumn and winter press conferences, or are products of its subsidiaries and then released at separate press conferences.

For example, Zhiyun Semiconductor has a separate product launch conference to release some chip products, such as graphics cards, CPUs, and mobile phone SOCs.

Therefore, there are actually quite a lot of press conferences held in Zhiyun Group throughout the year, but most of them have little influence and attract little attention from the outside world.

What really attracts more attention is the flagship phone launch in the fall, followed by the spring launch.

Especially the flagship phone launch conference, which is not only a major event for Zhiyun Group, but also a carnival in the technology industry. Every year, Zhiyun Group likes to introduce some black technology at the flagship phone launch conference.

The spring press conference was relatively dull, as there were no new technologies in the mobile phone products. After all, the C series mobile phones are mid-range models. Although they are new phones, they use mature technologies to control costs.

Not to mention the SX series of mobile phones, which were positioned as inventory clearance products in the beginning, but now also serve as small-screen flagships, clearing inventory while also meeting the needs of some small-screen users.

There isn't much to say about tablets and smartwatches either.

However, although the spring launch conference seems to have no explosive points and no black technology, it is still an important product launch conference for Zhiyun Group.

The attention is still very high.

Some people who cannot afford the S series or A series phones but want to use Zhiyun phones will pay attention to the C series or SX series phones and spend more than 3,000 yuan to buy them.

This year's S15X has attracted considerable attention, because it continues to use an integrated aluminum alloy body.

This is also the first mobile phone series in Zhiyun Group that still uses an integrated aluminum alloy body.

Zhiyun Group's A series of mobile phones were designed with a metal middle frame and a glass back cover from the beginning.

The S series mobile phones have also fully adopted a metal middle frame and back cover glass design starting from the S14 series.

As for the C series, the plastic body remains unchanged for thousands of years.

The SX series, on the other hand, has maintained an aluminum alloy body every year since its launch, from the initial three-section body to an integrated aluminum alloy body.

This year's S15X also continues to maintain the integrated aluminum alloy body design.

It continues to use mature designs such as a 11-inch screen, front fingerprint, and a single rear camera. From the appearance, it is similar to the S standard version from a few years ago.

However, the core configuration is still very good. The chip used is the S503 chip, which is the chip on the S14 mobile phone. It is a product from two years ago. The 3-nanometer process, coupled with GB of running memory, makes the performance of this small-screen mobile phone quite good, not much worse than many so-called high-end mobile phones nowadays.

After all, except for Apple's 15-nanometer chips and Zhiyun S15 and A which use -nanometer chips, others are still using -nanometer, -nanometer, or even -nanometer chips.

As for chips using 8nm or nm process, Samsung only started using them in flagship phones like Galaxy in March this year, while Vicoo Electronics only started using them in the Bluemi MAX .

The S503 chip, which is made with -nanometer technology, is still very powerful today.

因为在工艺上，胜过这一款芯片的，只有十四纳米工艺的智云S603/602、智云W906、高通骁龙820以及十六纳米工艺的水果A9。

The S503X is equipped with an S15 chip and 3GB of RAM, and its performance is still considered to be at the level of a small hot hatch.

Otherwise, how can it be called a small-screen flagship?

Its starting price is more than 503 yuan, which is not expensive. It is cheaper than the S14 mobile phone which is still on sale and also uses the S chip.

This mobile phone has attracted the attention of many users. Of course, even so, we cannot expect too high sales volume. It would be considered a success if it can sell 10 or 20 million units.

The new generation C9 of the C series uses the S507 chip, which is a performance-reduced version of the S503 chip. Its appearance is still a plastic body, with a front fingerprint design and a screen size of the old 16 inches, but it is equipped with dual cameras. The starting price of the 3099GB entry-level version is yuan.

Among Zhiyun Group’s new mobile phones, the cheapest one is the C9-16GB version, which costs 3099 yuan, and is less than yuan.

Zhiyun Group has not made mobile phones priced below 3,000 yuan for several years!
We once tried to lower the price of the C series mobile phones, returning it to the price of around 2,000 yuan in the early years. Later we found that sales did not increase much, but profits dropped a lot. So after two years of using the low-price strategy, we raised the price again.

3099 yuan, this is the cheapest new mobile phone under the Zhiyun brand, and the price won’t be lower than this.

Any lower and it will damage the brand.

These two new mobile phones did not stir up any public opinion after their official release. Most people had no interest in discussing them and at most just took a few more glances at the S15X.

Although it is a small-screen version to clear inventory, it is still an S series phone after all!
As for the C series, this type of mobile phone has not received much attention in recent years, and its sales volume has been declining year by year. It is not very eye-catching in Zhiyun Group.

But...it depends on who you compare with!
This year, the Zhiyun Group's internal estimate for the C series is that it will be a success if it can sell 40 million units worldwide... The main reason is that the Zhiyun C series is neither high nor low-end, with no cost-effectiveness advantage, and it is too suppressed by its own Zhiyun S series, so sales have been declining year by year.

Forty million units, this sales volume is enough to beat a lot of other brands' so-called high-end models...

The C series is considered a mid-range phone in Zhiyun, but its price of more than 3,000 yuan is considered a high-end phone in the eyes of other mobile phone manufacturers.

Many times, the main competitor of high-end models of major mobile phone manufacturers is not the S series or A series, but Zhiyun's C series.

A group of mobile phone manufacturers said they wanted to catch up with Zhiyun, but in the end they couldn’t even beat Zhiyun’s lowest-end C series mobile phones!

This is quite embarrassing!

However, with the changes of the times, Zhiyun has gradually weakened the C series to make way for the S series, and other mobile phone manufacturers' mobile phones priced above 3,000 yuan have also gradually matured.

Then this market of 3,000 to 4,000 yuan may change in the future!
(End of this chapter)