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Chapter 431 0421 [Mobile Alliance]

Full openness is not just about slogans; there are many problems that need to be solved.

A week later, the CEOs of mobile phone manufacturers willing to join the united front all came to the meeting with their technical staff.

This time, it wasn't just a dozen companies, but more than twenty.

Chen Guiliang had never even heard of many of these brands.

Even Wu Ying from Starcom came. Can you imagine that with the advent of the smartphone era, PHS (Personal Handyphone System) still has over 6800 million users?
In recent years, Wu Ying has been selling PHS phones while also manufacturing other mobile phones. He even wanted to enter the smartphone market, but he never succeeded. Now, he's jumped on the bandwagon.

None of the four major telecom operators (ZTE, Huawei, Coolpad, and Lenovo) participated, because they are all deeply tied to telecom operators.

China Mobile has made it clear that if users want to sell customized phones through its channels, they must use China Mobile's self-developed OPHONE system.

China Mobile does not recognize HarmonyOS!
Chen Mingyong and Wu Wei arranged to meet at the airport and started chatting before even boarding the plane—VIVO and OPPO were planning to come and investigate.

“I asked the engineers, and they said that a fully open system has many problems. It sounds wonderful, but it will actually turn into a mess,” Wu Wei said.

Chen Mingyong said, "I've also consulted with others, and this matter is very difficult to resolve. So I plan to attend the meeting to see how Chen Guiliang will solve the related problems."

Wu Wei asked, "What if there's a way to resolve this?"

Chen Mingyong laughed and said, "Then let's give it a try. Even if we fail, it will still be good training for the team. At worst, we can develop our own system in the future or switch to other open source systems."

Wu Wei sighed, "That General Manager Chen really has guts. I wouldn't even dare to think about something like this. It's not that I'm unwilling to spend the money, but it's really difficult to get started, you know?"

“I know,” Chen Mingyong nodded.

VIVO and OPPO have been selling very well in the past two years, mainly relying on differentiation and clever marketing. They were preparing to enter the smartphone market when they suddenly received the news that Chen Guiliang was going to fully open up HarmonyOS.

The two flew to the capital and arrived at the venue the next day.

Before even entering the door, I saw Li Dongsheng from TCL.

"Hello, Mr. Li!"

"You guys are here too?"

"come and see."

"I've come over to take a look too."

"..."

That day, the brand representatives shouted to join the united front, but it was really just a verbal statement. Whether they will cooperate, for how long, and to what extent, all depend on their own interests.

Like TCL, they acquired Alcatel, and their feature phones sold well in Europe and Latin America.

If TCL launches a smartphone and adopts the HarmonyOS system, it will face a choice: when Europe and the United States form a strong Android alliance, should TCL switch sides?
Li Dongsheng was chatting when he suddenly pointed to the building entrance and asked, "Was that Meng Pu who just went in?"

"Which Meng Pu?" Wu Wei asked.

Li Dongsheng said, "The president of Qualcomm's China operations!"

Meng Pu went upstairs to the lounge next to the conference room, shook hands with Chen Guiliang and Zhou Guangping, and said with a smile, "You guys have made quite a fuss!"

Chen Guiliang said, "We still need President Meng's support."

Meng Pu laughed, "A win-win situation, haha, a win-win situation. Why does Old Zhou look so unhappy?"

Zhou Guangping is very emotional and is still looking grumpy, but he doesn't want to tell outsiders, "It's nothing, I just didn't sleep well last night."

"Do I know you? You're feeling down, aren't you?" Meng Pu's smile remained unchanged as he began to chat with his old friend.

Before becoming president of Qualcomm China, Meng Pu was vice president and president of Greater China at Motorola. Zhou Guangping, on the other hand, was the founder and head of Motorola's Beijing Labs.

They were old friends.

Therefore, there are no major issues with the supply of Qualcomm chips used in HarmonyOS phones.

Zhou Guangping and Meng Pu had already communicated and agreed that they wouldn't end up like Meizu, forced into a state of constipation-like phone manufacturing due to a lack of chips.

Meng Pu, on the contrary, helped Chen Guiliang persuade Zhou Guangping: "President Chen is right to establish the HarmonyOS Alliance. The current smartphone market is too chaotic. There is no industry standard at all, which makes third-party developers feel lost."

Zhou Guangping said sarcastically, "Of course you think we should do it this way. HarmonyOS is based on Qualcomm's QSD8250. Once the HarmonyOS alliance is established, so many Chinese mobile phone manufacturers will choose Qualcomm chips as their first choice. How could your performance not be good?"

"Haha, don't spell it out." Meng Pu laughed heartily.

Both Meng Pu personally and the entire Qualcomm Group are very pleased to see the establishment of the HarmonyOS Alliance.

Qualcomm doesn't want to see any single company dominate the market, as that would affect Qualcomm's bargaining power—currently Symbian is the dominant player, but in the future it will be Android and Apple.

Qualcomm is very willing to support the HarmonyOS alliance, and is also supporting the OPHONE alliance for mobile devices.

After chatting for a while, the three headed to the venue.

Today's meeting is closed to the public; reporters are not invited to attend.

Immediately, someone handed over a business card: "Hello, Mr. Chen, my name is Liu Lirong from Gionee."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Liu. I've long admired your name." Chen Guiliang also took out his business card and handed it over.

"Hello Mr. Chen, I am Xu Lihua from Bird."

"I've heard so much about Mr. Xu; he's a true champion among mobile phones!"

"Haha, that's all in the past."

"Hello, Mr. Chen, I am Li Xiaozhong from Xiaxin."

"The first mobile phone I ever saw was from Amoi. I had a high school classmate who used one of your phones."

"That's quite a coincidence."

"..."

A middle-aged woman shook hands with Chen Guiliang: "Hello, Mr. Chen, I am Xie Yun, the representative of Panda Mobile."

"Hello, Sister Xie!" As Chen Guiliang spoke to her, a series of question marks appeared on his forehead.

Panda Mobile once won the CCTV advertising bid and even hired celebrities to run advertisements, enjoying immense popularity. However, its actual controller, Ma Zhiping, was arrested in 2005, and Panda Mobile quickly declined from then on.

Has this brand still been discontinued?
Or perhaps production had already ceased. But upon hearing that Chen Guiliang had fully opened up HarmonyOS, the shareholders held a meeting overnight to consider giving it another shot?
There were quite a few similar cases today.

Nearly ten mobile phone companies that had ceased or partially ceased production came to attend Chen Guiliang's alliance meeting, hoping to try their luck.

This is similar to a losers' alliance, with only a few mobile phone manufacturers doing relatively well in sales, while the rest are all brands that are losing money or even have ceased production. Of course, there are also cross-industry players.

Lei Jun arrived today.

For the past few months, he's been staying in a hotel near Meizu's headquarters, going to Huang Zhang's office every day. Regardless of their individual thoughts, they're engaged in in-depth exchanges about business experience.

Lei Jun even visited the mobile phone production line, feeling that he already knew a lot about making mobile phones.

The meeting officially begins.

Chen Guiliang first thanked the friends who came to the meeting, and then got to the main topic: "I promised to fully open up the HarmonyOS system, and there are two thorny issues that need to be resolved."

"First, the fragmentation problem. Since I have made the code completely open, you can modify it at will, and even make your own subsequent updates. This will inevitably lead to uncontrollable fragmentation and cause a compatibility disaster in the future. As a result, although they are all the underlying HarmonyOS system, they are incompatible with each other."

"Secondly, to avoid fragmentation, there must be an authoritative and unified maintenance and update organization. I'm in charge of this organization, and I'll cover all the costs, so you can enjoy it for free—I'm actually willing to do that. But are you willing? If I stop updating one day, or deliberately delay the release of a new version, you'll be in a very awkward position!"

This is the core issue, and it's what all the CEOs are most worried about.

Even if Chen Guiliang doesn't bring it up, they will bring it up on their own initiative.

Xiaxin CEO Li Xiaozhong said, "We tried to develop our own mobile phone system based on Linux, but we've already declared it a failure. No third-party company is willing to cooperate. This means that Xiaxin's smartphones simply can't be considered smart..."

"Most of my colleagues here haven't worked on smartphones. You may not realize that smartphones are different from feature phones. Smartphones are not just for making calls and sending text messages; they require a lot of applications, and without these applications, they are not attractive."

"Xiamen is willing to join the HarmonyOS Alliance because it is optimistic about the application ecosystem. If this alliance exists, the application ecosystem problem will be solved."

"Therefore, I firmly oppose the idea that major mobile phone manufacturers will update their own systems after HarmonyOS is fully open. Once everyone updates their own systems, this alliance will lose its meaning, and the incompatibility will make it impossible to continue."

Xie Yun from Panda Mobile knew absolutely nothing about this and hadn't brought any technical staff. She asked, somewhat confused, "So it means we can't touch the system? We can't change a single line of code?"

Zhou Guangping explained in simple terms: "It's not that not a single line of code can be changed. It's the core code that can't be changed to maintain compatibility with different phone brands. But you all can modify the operating system interface and add some unique features. Especially those unique features, which are the highlights of your phones."

“Oh, I see,” Xie Yun said. “It’s like the HarmonyOS system provides the engine and chassis, which we can’t touch. But the other parts of the car can be modified at will?”

Zhou Guangping nodded: "That's a fair understanding. As for subsequent maintenance and updates, they'll be used to optimize the engine and chassis, making the car more advanced and with higher performance."

Wu Ying from Starcom asked directly, "How does President Chen plan to solve this problem? Especially the issue of subsequent updates! If HarmonyOS is responsible for subsequent updates, to be honest, I wouldn't dare use this system. I wouldn't dare use it even if it were free."

Chen Guiliang said, "My idea is to establish a 'HarmonyOS Open System Foundation'. It will be composed of mobile phone manufacturers, chip suppliers, and large application developers. In the future, we can also invite China Mobile and China Unicom to join."

Meng Pu stated, "Qualcomm is willing to join. For mobile phone manufacturers in the HarmonyOS alliance who use Qualcomm chips, we guarantee priority supply."

The CEOs of OPPO and VIVO felt a chill. If they don't join the HarmonyOS alliance, and if they adopt Qualcomm chips in the future, will they only be able to pick up the scraps left over by their competitors?
Wu Ying then asked, "Is this foundation maintained through mandatory annual fees, or through donations?"

Chen Guiliang said, “Annual fees are paid according to member level. Companies that are continuously losing money only need to pay a basic guaranteed annual fee. This fee is not much. For profitable companies, the foundation will calculate the annual fees payable. The calculation process will be fair, open and impartial, and no private operations are allowed.”

"If you have any questions, please raise them, and everyone can vote on them. You can withdraw at any time. Those who are in arrears on their annual fees for three consecutive years will be kicked out!"

"The HarmonyOS R&D team will be divided into two groups. One group will be transferred to an institution under the foundation to be responsible for the basic updates and maintenance of the system. The other group will remain at HarmonyOS Technology Company to be responsible for personalized updates of HarmonyOS phones."

"Technical personnel from various companies can also join the foundation's development team. Specific criteria will be discussed in a foundation meeting."

"Those who join the HarmonyOS team under the Foundation will be paid by the Foundation. The same applies to your team; once you join a research and development institution under the Foundation, you will no longer be considered one of their members..."

No one spoke anymore; everyone started thinking about the feasibility.

The HarmonyOS system was created by Chen Guiliang's team. Even if the foundation pays their salaries in the future, they will still be Chen Guiliang's people in private.

This means that subsequent updates to HarmonyOS will still be indirectly controlled by Chen Guiliang.

However, the foundation can ensure that Chen Guiliang cannot delay, meaning that Chen Guiliang cannot use the latest system himself while allowing other companies' phones to use the old version.

Many details still need to be finalized, but once the overall framework is determined, those details can be discussed.

Everyone thought it was worth doing, and they even shared the same idea: it wouldn't hurt to give it a try; even if it failed, the losses wouldn't be significant, and they could always choose another system later.

Even Chen Guiliang thought so.

If it fails, then stick to Android.

Lei Jun suddenly blurted out, "With so many members in the foundation, and so many eyes and ears, does the HarmonyOS system face security issues?"

Although Zhou Guangping opposes HarmonyOS being completely open, he is now speaking up for Chen Guiliang: "Security issues are certain, and the enemy can easily find vulnerabilities. But Lei Jun is also a programmer by training, and you should know that when a program is completely open source, what remains is not a technical challenge, but a psychological war, a war of public opinion, and a war of trust."

"Technologists are infinitely tolerant of open-source systems, allowing them to have all sorts of vulnerabilities and problems. To put it bluntly, if I release porn for free, would you complain that the actress is too ugly?"

"Hahahaha!" The whole audience burst into laughter.

Zhou Guangping continued, "If there are vulnerabilities in the HarmonyOS system, the first reaction of the discoverers is to proactively warn us and even help propose modification solutions. Every open-source system has tens of thousands of free security guards who are very proud of themselves even though they don't make money from them."

"There are definitely attackers who exploit vulnerabilities, possibly individuals looking to make money or vendors of other systems. But the entire HarmonyOS community can respond quickly and fix vulnerabilities far faster than any closed-source system."

"Consumers don't care if there are vulnerabilities, they only care how quickly the vulnerabilities can be fixed. After experiencing a few more security incidents, coupled with the inherent righteousness of open source systems in public opinion, HarmonyOS will actually gain more and more trust from consumers."

Lei Jun said, "I have no objection."

Chen Guiliang said, "Now let's discuss the details. Also, I propose that Mr. Wu from Starcom serve as the first chairman of the foundation."

This suggestion completely put the participants at ease.

"I agree that Mr. Wu should serve as chairman."

"I agree."

"President Chen is indeed a man of noble character!"

"..."

Wu Ying, who had inexplicably become the chairman of the foundation, laughed and said, "Am I now the leader of the martial arts world again?"

The leader of the martial arts alliance must bear the responsibilities of a leader.

In addition to resolving internal conflicts, he also had to smooth things over with external connections.

For example, the president of China Mobile Research Institute and the head of R&D for China Mobile's mobile phone system was a long-time subordinate of Wu Ying.

This includes the former president of Google China (the one who was forced out by Li Kaifu), who was also a long-time subordinate of Wu Ying.

Wu Ying's former subordinates are spread across major state-owned and private enterprises in China, and he also has extremely strong connections in government departments.

Even smartphone licenses for HarmonyOS Alliance member manufacturers can be applied for with Wu Ying's help.

Chen Guiliang's idea to invite Wu Ying to be the chairman of the foundation was not something he came up with on a whim!
Whether it's internal conflicts or external pressure, Wu Ying can resolve them with ease.

(End of this chapter)