Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 405: The highest level of confidentiality
At Shenzhen Zhiyun headquarters, in a small conference room next to Xu Shenxue’s office, a small-scale but highly influential meeting was underway.

Xu Shenxue is currently finalizing the final S17 mobile phone launch and subsequent market sales with Ji Chenghe, Gu Zhiming, Xie Jianyong and other group executives.

Gu Zhiming, who is in charge of supply chain affairs, said: "For the 26 countries that have been confirmed to be the first to be listed, the final preparations have begun. The first cargo plane will officially take off this afternoon and head to the UK to prepare stocks for the local market in advance!"

"Zhiyun Airlines and several other cooperating airlines have prepared enough cargo planes in advance. Starting today, they will carry S17 mobile phones from the two major domestic airports of Ancheng and Shenzhen to various overseas regions around the world!"

"Within a week, we will be able to deploy all 17 million S phones to various overseas markets."

"The 20 million units of stock for the domestic market will also be delivered to stock warehouses in major cities within a week by air and truck transportation, and then distributed to domestic first- and second-tier channel dealers!"

"A week later, on the day of the press conference, all of our 17 million S phones of various models were directly deployed to stores of various channels or delivery warehouses of online shopping platforms to meet the rush to buy them after the press conference!"

At this time, Ji Chenghe said: "Let's distribute the various stock models!"

"This year, we have prepared 17 million S17 phones in advance. Based on the survey and report, our marketing department has made a preliminary stocking ratio. Among these million phones, % are high-end models, of which the S MAX stocking volume is million. The overall stocking quantity is still quite large!"

"After all, the S15 MAX from the year before last and the S16 MAX from last year have been popular in the market, with very impressive overall sales. We believe that the MAX model meets the preferences of our core user groups in terms of size, performance, high-end attributes, and appearance, so we will continue to focus on this model this year."

"Relatively speaking, the stock of the more expensive S17 MAX Pro is relatively small, only million units. This model is still relatively expensive and the market acceptance is relatively poor. million units is a relatively sufficient number."

"We have 17 million units of the standard version of S3 in stock, which is the model with the largest stock. The relatively low price, coupled with excellent performance and D face recognition technology, makes our standard version still the preferred model for many of our major customers."

"The S17 Pro version has already been occupied by the MAX model, and its overall sales share has shown a downward trend, but it can still maintain a certain sales volume!"

"We made the stocking ratio of each model based on the sales ratio of the S16 series last year. We also took into account the selling price, economic conditions of various countries, and people's purchasing power to make a comprehensive decision!"

"Last year, the sales of high-end models in our S16 series were quite encouraging, especially the sales of the S16 Max version were very good!"

"Through our research, we found that consumers have a very high acceptance of this model. In addition to the performance improvement and 3D face recognition advantages, our survey report also shows that consumers have a very high acceptance of the six-inch LOED screen equipped with this model. Coupled with the narrow frame advantage brought by the OLED screen, the size of the entire phone is smaller and thinner than the S16 standard version which also uses a six-inch LCD screen, and the overall appearance is more beautiful!"

"At the same time, the unique dual-camera solution makes the appearance more recognizable, which further improves consumers' acceptance!"

"This is one of the reasons why we have further improved the triple-camera solution in the MAX and MAX Pro models this year, not only for better photo-taking capabilities, but also for clearer appearance recognition!"

"After all, many of our consumers buy our phones not only for traditional factors such as performance, ecology, and brand advantages, but also for a certain degree of vanity!"

“No one wants the MAX model they bought for 8,000 yuan and the MAX Pro model they bought for 10,000 yuan to end up looking the same as the standard version that cost more than 5,000 yuan!”

“Although they are similar in use and look similar from the front, we must at least give consumers some differentiation on the rear camera!”

"After all, when people hold their phones, they tend to show others the back of the phone, which is why we put so much effort into the camera on the back of the phone!"

At this time, Xu Shenxue said: "Your marketing department's considerations are quite accurate. The mobile phone has reached our level. There is no competitor in terms of performance, and the ecosystem is also top-notch. So you should start to consider giving users more reasons to choose, especially giving users reasons to buy the more expensive MAX and MAX Pro models!"

"In this regard, we use storage capacity as the main distinction as before, and use the running memory capacity to distinguish!"

“Also use screen size and screen type to differentiate!”

“We should differentiate the entire series as much as possible and give high-end users obvious reasons to buy it!”

“This three-camera solution is very good, and the overall idea is commendable!”

At this time, Ji Chenghe said: "This is also where we learn from President Xu. I still remember when we first developed the S series Pro model, that is, S10 Pro, President Xu, you proposed the concept of series differentiation and shocked me!"

“This also confirmed my idea, which is to make an ultra-high-end mobile phone among high-end mobile phones!”

"The S series mobile phones are our Zhiyun's high-end mobile phones, and they are also the most high-end mobile phones in the world!"

"Then the MAX and MAX Pro models of the S series are ultra-high-end phones, which are better than the traditional S series phones!"

"This is also the main strategy we have implemented in recent years. Judging from the current results, we have achieved good results!"

"While the sales volume of the S series of mobile phones did not continue to grow significantly, we were able to continue to increase our revenue and profits, further increasing our revenue and profits."

At this time, Xie Jianyong on the side also said: "However, we are a little worried now. This year's S17 mobile phone, we can also take out a smart island and three cameras!"

“But what about next year?”

"Apart from continuing to reduce the size of Lingdong Island, it is difficult to make any major changes to its appearance in other aspects."

"This is the main problem that plagues our new model design and development. We have already reached the limit of the evolution of the phone's appearance under current technical conditions!"

"And consumers can't see or feel the advancement of some of the internal technologies!"
At this time, Xu Shenxue said: "Well, in the future, we should try to further launch under-screen cameras and under-screen 3D face sensor technology to make the front screen as complete as possible. This is an important innovation direction!"

"In addition, we will continue to increase the research and development of under-screen ultrasonic fingerprint technology. Later, we will integrate this under-screen ultrasonic fingerprint technology into it, and finally make it a 3D face recognition plus under-screen ultrasonic fingerprint dual verification to further facilitate user use!"

"As for other aspects, you can also try the direction of foldable screen mobile phones!"

"We also need to actively explore the cutting-edge technologies of the next generation of personal portable smart terminal technology, such as smart terminals in glasses mode, air gesture operation, and so on!"

"Technology is constantly improving, and we will eventually be able to find a further future direction for personal portable communication smart terminals!"

To be honest, let alone these people, Xu Shenxue himself is actually a little confused about the future development direction of mobile phones or personal portable communication smart terminals... The path of the previous life has been copied, what should he do next?
In other words, he is also a little confused about how mobile phones will develop in the future.

Because in the original time and space, after the development of mobile phones to this level, they have fallen into a situation of lack of innovation, and major mobile phone manufacturers have hardly made any major changes, especially in appearance... After the launch of full-screen mobile phones, there have been almost no major changes in the next ten years... It's nothing more than the notch screen becoming a water drop screen, a hole screen, and a smart screen.

But there are almost no actual major innovations!

They were all patched up in the 17 and 18 mobile phones, and have remained almost unchanged for seven or eight years.

Manufacturers can only make some small functional changes and then stack the same performance... But the problem is that for mobile phones like the Zhiyun S series, the performance is already very powerful, and it can even be said that there is excess performance.

Stacking performance cannot bring any additional advantages to the Zhiyun S series mobile phones, and it cannot even stimulate old users to replace their mobile phones.

For example, the S15 MAX and S16 series phones that users currently have...even though they are selling well now, it is still unknown how difficult it will be to get these phone users to replace their phones in the future.

Even now Xu Shenxue himself can't find any reason to get these users to replace their mobile phones on a large scale after two or three years.

The performance of the phone is still good, and the appearance is not much different from a new phone... If the battery is degraded or the screen is broken, you can go to a mobile phone store to replace a generic battery or screen for only a few hundred yuan... Why spend so much money to replace a new phone?

Please note that this is not just a replacement of a small number of users, but a large-scale replacement of hundreds of millions of users!
This is actually very difficult.

Many users of Zhiyun phones are die-hard users... In the early years, many people used an S10 phone until the end of time.

In order to stimulate early users of aluminum alloy phones to replace their phones, Xu Shenxue developed 3D facial recognition... The effect is very good. Now a large number of users of old phones from the fingerprint era have begun to switch to new phones with 3D facial recognition on a large scale.

But what about three or four years later?
It’s time for users of the S16 series phones to change their phones. What major innovations should we come up with to stimulate these users to change their phones?

Whenever he thought of this, Xu Shenxue felt a headache.

Faced with this situation, the experience from his previous life could no longer provide him with much help. He could only start casting a wide net to catch fish... while supporting the development of a large number of various technologies.

For example, the smart terminal for glasses is not the previous VR glasses, but something similar to a mobile phone that is made like glasses, using the lenses as display screens.

But this operation is troublesome.

Then we will continue to improve the under-screen camera and under-screen 3D face recognition technology around the existing mobile phone system... This is to make a truly full-screen mobile phone... There is no need to punch holes in the mobile phone screen, but to allow the screen to display the entire screen.

But this is also difficult, as it involves the research and development of screen technology.

Folding phones are also a new attempt, but in Xu Shenxue's opinion, folding phones are too niche. They can be used as a supplement, but it is difficult to take on the responsibility of upgrading the S series of mobile phones...

Others are things like AI phones... This actually has little to do with mobile phones. It’s nothing more than downloading an artificial intelligence APP on the phone, or simply integrating artificial intelligence into the system... To be honest, these things are just like that.

The phone's operating system is smarter and easier to use... but fundamentally, the difference is still not that big.

Xu Shenxue has no idea about the major changes that will happen to mobile phones in the future, so he has no choice but to cast a wide net to catch fish... At the same time, he supports a large number of research and development projects, trying to find a new technology route that no manufacturer has found in the previous life.

It's hard, but it must be done!
However, Xu Shenxue did not put all his hopes on smartphones...if he really couldn't find a major innovative breakthrough.

Then Xu Shenxue needs to create new products in other fields, open up new markets and new businesses, and continue to lead the company's development. This is also one of the reasons why Zhiyun Group has invested more and more in the fields of artificial intelligence and robotics in recent years.

Especially the artificial intelligence robot business, which is an important application of artificial intelligence technology in Zhiyun Group, and can even be said to be a core application, carrying hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue in the future.

As long as the robot business can be developed, there is no need to worry that the company will suddenly fail one day even if the subsequent mobile phone business stagnates and cannot continue to achieve further growth.

It is not impossible that the smartphone business suddenly collapses... Just like ten years ago, who could have imagined that the feature phone market would collapse completely in just a few years, with Nokia, the leader in the feature phone era, going bankrupt, and Motorola, the second-ranked company, being sold!
What defeated them was not the traditional feature phone, but the cross-industry smartphone...

Yes, smartphones have also defeated a whole host of other products, such as digital cameras... Nowadays, except for professional photographers, no ordinary people will buy digital cameras, but ten years ago, digital cameras were very popular.

There are also MP3, MP4, PDA, handheld game consoles and other electronic products, whether they are portable audio-visual products or casual gaming products, all of which have been squeezed out by smartphones.

Even the watch market has been dominated by smartphones... People like to use their phones to check time, and except for certain groups, no one wears traditional watches anymore.

On the contrary, in the past two years, wristband devices such as smart watches and smart bracelets have achieved substantial growth, and the global market size has reached hundreds of billions of dollars. However, people do not use them to tell time, but more as smart devices, sports equipment and children's social devices.

The emergence of smartphones can be said to have disrupted a large number of industries across the board!
It is obviously just a mobile phone, but it ended up destroying the digital camera market... Ten years ago, digital camera manufacturers never dreamed that their destruction would not be caused by their competitors, but by the smartphones next door that had nothing to do with them.

Changes in the industry, or even disruptions, often come from changes outside the industry.

Therefore, Xu Shenxue does not rule out the possibility that a disruptive product will appear inexplicably in the future and make his own smartphone autistic.

In order to avoid this situation, Xu Shenxue's approach is to subvert myself before others subvert me... If that doesn't work, he will acquire any threatening technological innovation and use it for his own benefit.

So you can see that in recent years, Zhiyun Group has continued to make various purchases around the world, spending a lot of money every year to acquire various startups... Most of the acquired startups actually have no follow-up, due to various reasons such as immature technology or lack of commercial applications. This is equivalent to a low level of investment, but Zhiyun Group still continues to make various acquisitions with pleasure.

This is a self-defense strategy for large corporations!
No matter whether it is useful or not, just buy it!
This is the case with Zhiyun, Apple, Google, Microsoft and other companies. Even domestic Internet technology companies basically do the same.

It’s just that other companies are not as rich as Zhiyun, so the scale of acquisitions is not as large...but the path is the same.

In addition to external acquisitions, Zhiyun Group is more focused on conducting large-scale research and development internally... Because there is no clear direction for the development of future technological routes, there is no clear direction for technological research and development either.

Anyway, you can try anything. As long as the R&D personnel of the project team come up with a feasible plan, even if it sounds a little outrageous, Zhiyun Group's technical committee will approve it and give you funding to try it out.

Anyway, several million or tens of thousands of dollars in funding is not much money for a behemoth like Zhiyun Group... What if it succeeds?
In short, the higher-ups don’t have a clear direction for future technology, it’s very vague… If you ask them what mobile phones will look like in the future, they will first ask you what new technologies you have now… You have to have new technologies before I can tell you what mobile phones will look like in the future.

Therefore, the overall technical research and development of Zhiyun Group is led by the headquarters' technical committee, but in reality, it is the heads of each project team who can do whatever they want...

Even if you are researching pure theory, something that will most likely not be applied for hundreds of years, the technical committee will still give you funding.

The purpose is to gain a chance of success: what if something you create is useful?
This model, to some extent, seems a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack... Of course, you can catch a lot of fish in the process of looking for a needle. In fact, there is no need to worry too much that Zhiyun Group's R&D model will lead to huge losses.

With so many R&D projects, there will always be some that produce things that can be used in the commercial field.

This is how the previous robotics business was developed.

Before making the robot, who would have thought that the engineers on this project team would be able to make such a powerful robot, so powerful that it could even create a market worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

Yu Taihe's research on artificial intelligence materials is the product of this great wave... For a company engaged in smart terminals, artificial intelligence, and semiconductors, it seems that it is not doing its job when you say it is developing artificial intelligence materials.

However, the carbon-based material developed by Yu Taihe before is also a new type of material that has been successfully applied to the field of semiconductor manufacturing. The current ten-nanometer process production line uses this material developed by Yu Taihe before.

Now, Yu Taihe, this lucky guy, has inexplicably created a new superconductor.

Different from traditional superconducting materials...Yu Taihe didn't originally research superconducting materials, so naturally he didn't develop them in the direction of traditional superconducting materials.

His major is carbon-based materials, and this time, in the process of working on carbon-based materials, he had some new ideas, added some new materials, and then came up with a new composite superconducting material MMK34.

After Yu Taihe completed repeated tests on the MMK34 material in the laboratory, an internal confidential call was made to the technical committee at Zhiyun headquarters via the Zhiyun satellite network.

After receiving the confidential call, the scientist on duty of the headquarters technical committee only listened for a dozen seconds and suddenly stood up: "I know, pay attention to the preservation and confidentiality of the on-site data!"

Then, he personally called the head of the security department at the group headquarters: "Old Chen, there is an emergency now. Something happened at the Artificial Intelligence Materials Research Institute in Guangcheng. Now we need to implement the highest level of confidentiality measures!"

"That's right, it's the highest level of 3S confidentiality measures!"

"Without a paper document signed by all members of our headquarters' technical committee, or an order from President Xu himself, all personnel and technical information in this building cannot leave the Guangcheng Artificial Intelligence Materials Research Institute!"

"Of course, we also need to do a good job of comforting the staff and give them all the compensation they deserve!"

"More importantly, we need to be tight inside and loose outside, and don't let people outside notice anything. Please note that this is not just about protection, but more importantly, confidentiality!"

"This matter is extremely serious, I have to trouble you to catch it yourself!"

"You should go there now. That's a good idea. Go there in person to take charge and better handle the actual situation!"

"Okay, I'll leave the situation under control to you. Now I'm going to report to Director Xu!"

From beginning to end, the head of the security department did not ask any questions about what happened or what was to be kept secret...

Because of the internal confidentiality regulations of Zhiyun Group, the confidentiality level is 3S, even the project name is secret.

The only thing the other party knew was the location of the 'Artificial Intelligence Materials Research Institute', and from that they could deduce that it might be some new material...but it was impossible to know what material it was.

It was impossible for this member of the headquarters' technical committee to reveal too much information to him, and he would not even tell him how important the information was... Even though the MMK34 material was related to the rise and fall of the country and the survival of the nation, he still would not say it.

Having said that...in fact, it has revealed some information, which may lead to possible leaks.

The best secret is: just keep it for me, don’t ask anything else and I won’t tell you!
After making some brief arrangements, the committee member immediately stood up and quickly went to the building where Xu Shenxue was located through the sky corridor between the two buildings.

It didn't take long before he arrived outside Xu Shenxue's office.

The assistant of Manager Dong's office outside the office came over with a smile and said, "Professor He, you are here. Are you here to see Manager Xu?"

Professor He nodded slightly: "I have something urgent to discuss with Director Xu!"

The assistant said with difficulty: "Director Xu, General Manager Gu, General Manager Ji, General Manager Xie and others are having a meeting in the small conference room... Look at this..."

Generally speaking, the visitor would say at this time: It's okay, I'll wait, or come back later.

After all, the middle and senior management in the group basically know that what really decides the strategic priorities of the entire Zhiyun Group is not the enlarged meeting held in the large conference room, the board meeting or other seemingly high-end meetings, but the inconspicuous high-level group meeting held in the small conference room next to Xu Shenxue's office, with only a few people, no more than a dozen people attending.

These small meetings of the group's senior management usually discuss important matters concerning the group's strategy, so you can't easily interrupt them.

However, today, Professor He said, "Excuse me, I have an emergency!"

After hearing this, the assistant looked at Professor He and said tentatively, "How about waiting for about an hour? According to the usual rules, they will temporarily adjourn after an hour. I will inform you then, okay?"

Professor He said, "It's not extremely urgent, it's extremely urgent. I can't wait even ten minutes, let alone an hour!"

After hearing this, the assistant's expression immediately became serious, and he said immediately: "In that case, all right, Professor He, please wait a moment, I will go and inform you!"

If the person who came was just an ordinary middle or senior manager of the group, the assistant would not do this... No matter how urgent it is, it is not as important as the high-level meeting on company strategy that Director Xu and others are discussing inside.

What are being discussed here are matters related to the S17 series of mobile phones, which will be officially released in a week.

Now in the entire group, nothing is more important than the S17 mobile phone!
In other words, nothing is more important than more than 200 billion US dollars!
But the old man in front of him was no ordinary person. He was one of the members of the headquarters’ technical committee and a senior scientist personally recruited by the group’s top management.

Whenever Xu Shenxue comes, people will respectfully call him Academician He!

What Academician He said was so serious, so after repeated consideration, he chose to go to the conference room and interrupt the meeting to make a report!

So it didn't take long for the assistant to enter the meeting room, then came behind Xu Shenxue, leaned over and said a few words in Xu Shenxue's ear.

Xu Shenxue immediately said, "Everyone, take a break for fifteen minutes. I have something to do outside!"

Then Xu Shenxue got up and left... However, on this day, Ji Chenghe and the others did not wait for Xu Shenxue to return to the meeting room.

Because just five minutes after Xu Shenxue left the meeting room, he left the headquarters and headed straight for Guangcheng!
(End of this chapter)