Restart life

Chapter 400, Page 0390: Meizu Phones Ignite the Market

Valentine's Day has just passed, and long queues have appeared at Meizu's stores across the country.

These stores used to specialize in selling Meizu products such as MP3 players, headphones, and speakers.

An older woman from Beijing went out to buy groceries early in the morning. Seeing a line of people, she went over and eagerly inquired, "What kind of promotion are they having? Are they giving away eggs?"

The guy at the end of the line was both amused and exasperated: "We're not giving away eggs; we're here to buy phones."

The older woman quickly asked again, "What discount are you getting on phones today?"

The young man, who was also quite bored while waiting in line, patiently explained, "It's not discounted; it's a newly launched Meizu smartphone."

"No discounts and yet people line up? What a waste of their time," the older woman muttered as she left.

The store manager arrived at work more than half an hour early and was shocked by the long queue as soon as he got there.

Meizu didn't advertise or even hold a phone launch event; they only promoted the phone on their official forum. They not only released information early on but also directly communicated with users, collecting feedback for phone development.

All the people queuing up today are die-hard fans.

"Don't push, don't push, you can buy everything, we have plenty of stock!" The manager was almost knocked over when the door opened.

Because these die-hard fans were so enthusiastic and eager, the manager had to have everyone line up and start selling before the employees even arrived at the store.

"Holy crap, it's exactly the same as the pictures on the official website. That's amazing, it's all touchscreen, no physical buttons at all!"

"Hey buddy who bought the phone up ahead, come over here and show me how to use it."

"Mr. Huang is awesome, Meizu is awesome! I will always be a die-hard Meizu fan, and I will only buy Meizu phones in my life."

"..."

The lucky person who just bought the phone ran to the side of the line to demonstrate it, and everyone in line craned their necks to watch.

The more I look at it, the more I like it; I instantly feel that Meizu phones are the best in the world.

Although smartphone sales in China surged last year, almost all of them used resistive touchscreens, supporting only single-point touch. This required a stylus or fingernail to operate. Furthermore, they weren't full-screen; the bottom half of the phone still had physical buttons.

Apple products are not yet sold in China, and even in the US, they are mainly sold through carrier agreements. Occasionally, someone brings an iPhone to China, but using it is still very difficult; even if it is successfully unlocked, it can only use a China Unicom SIM card.

For Chinese users, the Meizu M8 is a legendary product, a groundbreaking innovation. This is because most of them have never even seen an Apple product.

Who knew mobile phones could be made like this!
On the same day, users took photos of their newly purchased Meizu M8 and uploaded them to websites such as HaiNei.com, Renren.com, Tieba, and forums. Some even filmed videos showing how they operated the Meizu M8.

Shocking news that has gone viral online!

The next day, Lei Jun personally drove to the Meizu store early in the morning.

"What? It sold out in just one day?"

Lei Jun had just entered the store when he heard someone inside exclaim in surprise.

The manager explained, feeling wronged, "Our stores in Beijing already have plenty of stock. We didn't expect everyone to be so enthusiastic. I've already applied for an emergency transfer of stock, and the factory is working overtime to produce more."

It's not a joke, it's just insufficient production capacity.

The Meizu M8 uses chips from Samsung and Syntec, whose chips are prioritized for major manufacturers like Apple. Meizu, on the other hand, can only pick up what others have left over.

Neither Samsung nor NewTec anticipated the massive sales of Meizu phones, so they did not expand their chip production capacity. Meizu had been stockpiling chips since last year, quickly getting them into production by contract manufacturers as soon as they had accumulated a small amount.

But even now, only a few thousand phones have been produced.

Huang Zhang also wanted to produce more, but the problem was that he didn't have any chips.

Lei Jun curiously stepped forward and asked, "Why not produce more phones to keep on hand?"

"Mr. Lei?"

The store manager recognized Lei Jun and explained with delight, "Headquarters held a meeting last night and explained the reason on the official website. It's a chip supply issue. Before the Chinese New Year, CEO Huang personally flew to South Korea to negotiate with Samsung. Samsung is willing to increase production capacity, but this will definitely take time."

Lei Jun asked, "Do you have a prototype here?"

The manager grinned and pulled out a phone: "This is mine."

He wouldn't even hand the phone to Lei Jun, but held it himself and demonstrated how to use it.

Lei Jun liked it more and more as he looked at it, and instantly became a die-hard fan of Meizu.

When Lei Jun later created Xiaomi phones, where did he get his experience? He personally flew to Meizu's headquarters and consulted Huang Zhang in person!
He even stayed at a nearby hotel and would go to Huang Zhang's office every few days. Huang Zhang would also prepare Coke for him (which Lei Jun liked to drink).

Huang Zhang taught Lei Jun how to make mobile phones, and Lei Jun taught Huang Zhang how to make software and the internet.

The two were close friends at the time, and Lei Jun even introduced Lin Bin, the vice president of Google China Research Institute, to Huang Zhang, offering Lin Bin a 5% stake in Meizu in exchange for joining the company. However, Huang Zhang declined.

Lei Jun simply brought Lin Bin in to make his own mobile phones!
Lin Bin then called Zhou Guangping back from the United States to serve as the head of Xiaomi's mobile phone R&D.

If Huang Zhang were willing to offer 5% of the shares to recruit Lin Bin, Lei Jun probably wouldn't even have considered making mobile phones.

"Has your General Manager Huang returned to China yet?" Lei Jun asked.

The manager shook his head: "I don't know. We're also short of touch chips; we're using American ones. Mr. Huang might have gone to the United States."

Lei Jun had no choice but to abandon his plan to fly there immediately.

He then thought that Chen Guiliang was also developing mobile phones with great fanfare, and wondered how it was going.

……

Chen Guiliang is replying to netizens.

From yesterday until now, a large number of netizens have been tagging him on websites like HaiNei and XiaoNei. They've also posted on the official HarmonyOS forum, asking Chen Guiliang whether his HarmonyOS smartphone is similar to Meizu or Nokia. After posting on his social media accounts, Chen Guiliang also posted on the official HarmonyOS phone forum.

This official forum, which had always been rather quiet, has suddenly become quite popular.

"Hello everyone, this is Chen Guiliang. Thank you very much for your attention to HarmonyOS phones. We are currently working intensively on its development. Congratulations also to Mr. Huang from Meizu; the Meizu M8 is a fantastic phone..."

"Like the Meizu M8, the HarmonyOS phone uses a full touchscreen, eliminating the need for a stylus and physical buttons. However, there is one difference: the HarmonyOS phone does not use a Home button design, but instead employs a completely new design..."

"Here, I'd like to remind Mr. Huang to be careful, Apple might sue you for copyright infringement of the Home button! That would be very troublesome."

There weren't many replies on the official HarmonyOS forum, but some netizens quickly forwarded Chen Guiliang's words to other websites and communities.

Lei Jun went home and searched for news related to Meizu, and happened to see this quote forwarded by a netizen.

He doesn't have a regular job now; he works full-time in venture capital and has plenty of time to surf the internet.

"Can a Home button be sued for infringement? Is Chen Guiliang just bluffing?"

"That's quite possible. The Home button is not only a matter of appearance design, but also involves the layout of the hardware modules below the button. If the layout of the hardware modules is different, then it only infringes on the appearance patent. If the layout of the hardware modules is very similar, then Meizu has really messed up this time."

"What do they do upstairs? They seem very professional."

"Hey, I'm a junior programmer from Nokia's China R&D Center."

"Brilliant!"

"So-so, I'm just a junior employee at Nokia. By the way, I'm very curious about the design of HarmonyOS phones. What will they use after abandoning the Home button?"

"I don't care what they use, I'll only buy Meizu. Meizu is awesome, no explanation needed."

"You bunch of idiots, you're so ignorant! The Meizu M8 is just a knock-off. They copy everything from Apple, what's there to be proud of? Apple and Steve Jobs are the real geniuses. All the Chinese phone manufacturers combined aren't as good as Apple!"

"Are you crazy, upstairs?"

"..."

Even before Apple phones entered China, they had already amassed a large following of Apple fans.

Just like when Warcraft was not yet available in China, but a large number of Chinese fans were eagerly anticipating it.

After someone started the discussion, a large number of public intellectuals and online celebrities began to mock the Meizu M8 as a counterfeit phone. Most of these people have probably never even seen what an Apple product looks like.

Whether you've seen them or not doesn't matter; American products are awesome, and Chinese products are garbage.

Moreover, the Meizu M8 has been generating a lot of buzz these past few days. If they just blindly praise it, they won't get much traffic. Instead, they'll have to criticize Meizu as trash to attract attention.

Just like that, inexplicably, Meizu phones went from having two extremes in terms of reputation from the very beginning.

Someone absolutely adores it.

Some people were dismissive and wished they could trample him to the ground and spit on him.

"Boss, Lei Jun is here to visit."

"What's he doing here? Let him in."

Lei Jun lives quite close to Chen Guiliang's company.

The two only met when attending the ChinaJoy expo and the game industry annual meeting, where they exchanged some polite words and had almost no private communication.

"Welcome, Mr. Lei, please have a seat." Chen Guiliang greeted him warmly.

Lei Jun said, "I'm really sorry to have come all this way."

Chen Guiliang asked, "Tea or coffee?"

Lei Jun asked, "Do you have any Coke?"

Chen Guiliang pressed a button on the landline and said to his assistant, "Go downstairs and buy a bottle of Coke."

After a few more pleasantries, Lei Jun said, "I've read Mr. Chen's post, and I'm particularly interested in the HarmonyOS phone. When will you be able to launch it for sale?"

Chen Guiliang gave an ambiguous answer: "It's uncertain. It could be this year, or it could be next year. Anything can happen during the research and development process. Even when it reaches the mass production stage, it may be delayed due to key components such as chips."

Lei Jun knew nothing about making mobile phones and asked out of pure interest: "Didn't global manufacturers have a chip backlog last year? I heard that smartphone chips are also in stock."

Chen Guiliang said, "Meizu uses a different chip. It's a higher-end chip, and not many manufacturers use that chip, so Samsung is more cautious in its production. The production volume of touch chips in the United States is even smaller, so Meizu can only pick up the scraps left over by Apple."

"It seems that the supply chain is the most important factor in manufacturing mobile phones." Lei Jun immediately grasped this concept.

Chen Guiliang asked with a smile, "Mr. Lei also wants to make mobile phones?"

"I have no such idea. I know nothing about making mobile phones," Lei Jun said frankly.

At that time, he genuinely had no intention of manufacturing mobile phones himself. Whether he came to chat with Chen Guiliang or went to find Huang Zhang later, it was purely out of the mindset of a smartphone enthusiast.

Just like Chen Guiliang making a cameo appearance in a movie.

Actually, Chen Guiliang really wanted to see Lei Jun make mobile phones, mainly because he wanted to see Lei Jun and Zhou Hongwei challenge each other to a fight.

If the two of them hadn't made mobile phones, the fight wouldn't have happened.

What's really outrageous is that the CEOs of two large companies actually challenged each other to a fight online, and both of them actually went.

Lei Jun even led Xiaomi executives to the park where the fight was to be arranged to scout out the location and carefully study the positions and retreat routes.

This operation is called pre-battle reconnaissance; Lei Jun (CEO of Xiaomi) understands military strategy!
(End of this chapter)