Rebirth 08: Equipment God

Chapter 439 One day, the White House will sing my name.

Lee Jae-yong was approached by the other party, or rather, everyone only had a few days' journey, and this person was arranged by Zhai Dalai.

More than three months have passed, and apart from the "silicon carbide mass production project" which is still in the process of accumulating and preparing and has not yet made a groundbreaking impact, the project that has made the most rapid progress, advancing from Beixinjing all the way to Nantianmen, is "Hongtu OS".

With Samsung firing the first shot in overseas markets and shocking the global mobile phone market with sales of tens of millions in a single quarter, it seems poised to go toe-to-toe with Nokia this year.

The second shot, to Zhai Da's surprise, struck Southeast Asia squarely, and the force behind it was Chinese-made.

The white-label mobile phone industry cluster, centered in Guangdong Province and Shenzhen, which could not compete with mainstream manufacturers in China and with international giants in Europe and America, suddenly turned its focus and made a breakthrough in Southeast Asia, Central Asia and even Africa with its extreme cost performance.

Although Zhai Da believes that many of those white-label phones cannot even be called "smartphones," but are just skinned with "Hongtu OS," and the powerful sword has been castrated into a tiny bean, so hot that playing "Skiing Adventure" can burn your hands, the overall improvement is still obvious, and it has a huge impact on the low-end and mid-range market.

They are all models priced under 1,000 RMB, focusing on low profit margins and high sales volume to ensure customers have plenty of stock.

Even in the competition in the low-end market, three or four "low-end brand names" emerged, and white-label phones were transformed into branded phones.

Looking at the global mobile phone market, "Hongtu OS" only has an 11% market share, because feature phones still dominate the total sales volume, while the smartphone category has only just begun to take off in the last year or two.

If we look at the smartphone market alone, this figure has reached 27%, ranking second. Ahead of it is Nokia Symbian, which "claims to be a smartphone", and behind it is a whole bunch of other "self-proclaimed smartphones".

If we narrow it down further and only look at the market for new models, this number would be an astonishing 53%.

That means that for every 100 new smartphones sold globally, 53 are equipped with "Hongtu OS", and this is only a year old.

Firstly, China is already the world's largest mobile phone market and is fully in the midst of a booming era. Secondly, Samsung, the second largest mobile phone manufacturer overseas, is also fully embracing the market, and is dominating less developed regions such as Southeast Asia, Central Asia, and Africa.

As the sole heir and the driving force behind the "Embrace the Grand Strategy" strategy, Lee Jae-yong has enjoyed great success this year, with his popularity within the group soaring.

However, last month, Apple, which was originally a leader in the mobile phone market, released its new flagship "iPhone 4". With its unique closed-source and integrated hardware and software model, it garnered 500 million units in sales in its first month, making Samsung feel that something unusual was going on.

Samsung, which was aggressively tearing Nokia's market share apart, has now been followed by another player trying to grab a piece of the pie.

After in-depth research, Samsung discovered that Apple's own iOS 4 system borrowed heavily from the ideas and concepts of "Hongtu OS". Although it avoided this at the code level, there was a lot of "learning" in the front-end presentation.

In fact, it is normal for systems that are publicly disclosed or even open source to learn from each other. Even Symbian, which has been showing signs of decline this year, has said that it will upgrade its intelligence. In fact, it is also copying homework. Zhai Da did not care and could not stop it.

But Lee Jae-yong wanted more.

He wanted to encourage Zhai Da to sue Apple.

To be precise, it's about using legal means to slow down Apple's progress, initiating lawsuits around the world, and delaying their market entry.

Whether we win or not is another matter; you can only sell with peace of mind once the results are in.

With patents in hand from the core mechanical research institute, Samsung has a legitimate reason to act, and its strong legal resources and local support worldwide are the simplest points.

He could use this opportunity to temporarily halt Apple's sales in South Korea.

Although it sounds very bold for a South Korean company to target its American parent company.
But it seems like Samsung's parent company isn't American; it's backed by American conglomerates, and compared to Apple now, Samsung is actually more valued.

This is normal, but rather underhanded, business competition.

I don't know what Samsung's considerations were, or what Apple's appeal was, but they started with a ruthless move.

Or perhaps, they simply didn't want other competitors to share in Nokia's massive territory. The market now seems clear: Nokia is dying faster than ever before, and Samsung is the biggest winner.
Zhai Da's interest was only so-so.
Because he knew very well that going through all the legal battles wouldn't yield any results, and that it was normal for things to drag on for three to five years, resulting in Apple suffering losses while Samsung benefited.

What does this have to do with me, Empress Dowager Qin Xuan?
In this whole affair, his interests were the smallest, yet he was forced to be at the forefront and used as a pawn.

Hongtu is pursuing user coverage, not the sales volume of a particular manufacturer. Trying to compete with Apple is like trying to lift a chicken feather with a crane—a lot of effort for little gain.

In a sense, Apple's unique business model naturally creates market space, and the company's rise can force other mobile phone manufacturers to choose a different path.

Zhai Da rejected Lee Jae-yong twice, leaving the Samsung heir feeling powerless. He had thought that equipment support (not a gift) and patent sharing would be a good deal, since Samsung had zero presence in silicon carbide, but he didn't expect Zhai Da to be completely uninterested.

It's unclear how this company plans to address the equipment shortage. Many semiconductor devices require pre-ordering and production capacity allocation; they can't be bought simply by having money, and some may even take one or two years.

Zhai Da stated directly, "If you insist on suing, just use Samsung's name. Many functions in your system are custom-developed. Pick one or two vague ones and implement them yourself. You don't need to involve the research institute. We don't have the energy to do that."

Arriving at a five-star hotel not far from People's Square, Zhai Da and Li Zairong planned to part ways at the entrance, as the other's hotel was in Pudong.

Even if he didn't achieve his goal, Lee Jae-yong wouldn't offend Zhai Da over such a small matter; the two were still in their honeymoon period.

There are many things that can't be agreed upon; how can every business deal be reached?

Before parting, Lee Jae-yong invited Zhai Da to accompany him when he visited the exhibition the next day, saying he would be happy to show Zhai Da the Korean pavilion.

Before getting on board, Li Zairong said, "President Zhai is unwilling to use legal means, but we should still be careful about policy risks and changes in the business environment. Hongtu is growing too fast, and I'm afraid similar incidents are unavoidable." Zhai Da smiled and asked, "Is this a 'reminder' or a 'hint'?"

Lee Jae-yong: "No, I hope it was just me being too talkative."

After Li Zairong left, Zhai Da stood at the hotel entrance, momentarily stunned.

It wasn't that he was pondering the other party's last words; in fact, he knew better than anyone that one day, the White House would sing his name.

He was just thinking about where he should go now.

Since my trip to Shanghai was a last resort, I've had a pretty relaxed two days apart from the originally planned opening ceremony and exhibition.

It's a rare moment of leisure for him; he's been working non-stop for months.
His mother, Xiao Mutou, and most of the people from the research institute who came with him were probably shopping and sightseeing. He decided not to challenge himself with projects that were considered less desirable for men.

As I turned and entered the hotel, I was stopped by a young lady with very slender legs when I passed the front desk.

"Mr. Zhai, are you going back to your room? We have some packages at the concierge; would you like them delivered to your room?"

Zhai Da thought for a moment, then remembered what it was and nodded.

Less than five minutes after returning to the suite on the 64th floor, the concierge arrived at the door with a luggage cart.

Two heavy cardboard boxes were left behind.

Zhai Da didn't have scissors on hand, nor did he need them. Without making any visible movements, he glanced at the first cardboard box and the tape on it was torn off.

Inside the box were countless transparent folders.

Each box contained manuscripts of varying lengths, with hundreds of copies in total.

After the start of the school year in February, Zhai Da followed the same procedure he had used many times before and launched a new round of manuscript collection activities, but expanded the scope several times over.

Apart from the exception in the three northeastern provinces, similar activities have been carried out in cooperation with universities in several areas with a high concentration of prestigious universities, such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Nanjing, under the name of "Mechanical Core Research Institute".

Geniuses don't just exist on campus, but campuses are the most convenient place to carry out activities. It's extremely difficult for a working adult to mobilize them to obtain their manuscripts.

For example, the official website of Mechanical Core Research has similar content, but there are not many respondents, and the submissions are not very good, or rather, they are more like resumes and self-recommendation letters.

These are some of the manuscripts from Shanghai, sourced from Fudan University. The quantity is quite impressive. With the institute's growing reputation, everyone is very active in participating, considering it part of the "campus recruitment" process.

In fact, this is indeed the case.

His trip to Shanghai wasn't too rushed this time, and since he had some free time anyway, he asked the co-organizers of various schools to send some over.

The manuscripts from universities such as Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Tongji University should be available soon as well.

I was lucky; I found something interesting when I opened the box. Before I could even look closely, there was a crease in the crease.

Zhai Da beckoned with his finger, and the manuscript flew up.

Yang Tiantian's Chemistry Notes

"That's a field I need. How about Fudan University's senior year? It's a good fit in every way."

Zhai Da leaned back against the non-existent air recliner and began to examine the things in his hands.

After a moment, he nodded.

He is quite skilled, although he is still a bit behind Sun Ting. However, this may not be due to a difference in talent, but rather a difference in "accumulation." After all, Sun Ting has been growing rapidly under his guidance for a long time, and she will graduate next month, fulfilling their six-month agreement.
Similarly, most of the π members are about to graduate. The timing coincides perfectly with the initial launch of Dongyang.

With a snap of his fingers, Zhai Da produced a thick, hard-bound book in his hand after a slight whooshing sound.

Blue Equipment: [On Systems Engineering].

I placed Yang Tiantian's manuscript inside, closed the book, and the system notification arrived as expected.
"Do you wish to absorb the spirit of this manuscript-type equipment? Please note that this process is irreversible, and the original equipment will become completely ineffective."

Zhai Da silently recited, "Absorb."

"The level of detection of existing manuscripts in similar fields has increased."

　Sorry guys, I was supposed to update earlier after taking leave.

　　I actually finished writing it in the afternoon, but I wasn't satisfied with it no matter how I looked at it, so I completely scrapped it and rewrote it.

　　You may have only seen 5,000 words, but I've already written over 10000 words today.
　　It's all too late again.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)