Restart life

Chapter 432 0422 [Chen Sheng]

Zhou Guangping disagrees with the complete open-sourcing of the HarmonyOS system because he has a vested interest in it and believes that full openness would affect future revenue.

But every single programmer under Zhou Guangping who had participated in the development of the HarmonyOS system was extremely excited.

Anything that is completely open source, as long as it's not particularly bad, can become a highlight on a programmer's resume and bring great prestige to their career.

Chen Guiliang, a programmer working on the HarmonyOS system, planned to send a group of them to a foundation, thus ending their employment with ByteDance and HarmonyOS. He thought few people would be willing to go, but after the announcement, the programmers enthusiastically signed up.

The HarmonyOS Basic Research Center under the foundation has become a "holy land" in the eyes of these programmers. They'd rather take a lower salary than not go there!
At the same time, programmers from all over the country, including undergraduates and graduate students, flocked to the HarmonyOS community.

……

Meizu headquarters.

Huang Zhang frowned as he looked at the news. He couldn't believe that Chen Guiliang would go to such lengths.

He could understand if they only open-sourced the underlying code, since that's how Android and Symbian (which weren't closed yet) did it.

But what the heck is "fully open"?

This doesn't make business sense!

However, this counterintuitive move has now generated tremendous momentum, putting all companies developing their own mobile operating systems on high alert.

In the past few days, countless companies have been holding meetings to discuss this issue.

Take Tencent for example, there's already a huge internal dispute.

Tencent's mobile phone project had been in preparation for over a year, with formal development taking about six months. The project team members were naturally unwilling to give up their hard work and were determined to develop their own mobile operating system.

However, other departments within Tencent were clamoring to develop applications for the HarmonyOS system. Some Tencent executives even went to Pony Ma (Ma Huateng, CEO of Tencent) to suggest abandoning their self-developed system and directly joining the HarmonyOS alliance.

Because if Tencent joins, it will not only accelerate mobile phone development, but also, thanks to its massive size, become one of the top members of the alliance. Tencent's mobile applications can then seize the opportunity to expand their reach within the HarmonyOS alliance!

Little Ma is currently undecided and is about to be persuaded by his subordinates.

Frustrated, Huang Zhang opened the Meizu community and found that even here, the argument had escalated to a fever pitch.

"Goodbye everyone, I'm off to the HarmonyOS community."

"Damn, even you're leaving? All these months of work for nothing?"

"HarmonyOS is completely open source, and its development prospects are incredibly promising. What's the point of keeping it in the Meizu community? Just to write applications for Meizu phones? If you write applications for HarmonyOS, you can sell them on twenty or thirty different phone models."

"Chen Guiliang is really ruthless. Damn it, in just over a week, he has wiped out more than half of the popularity of our Meizu community."

"Haha, you guys haven't checked out the Hongmeng Community. They've already canonized Chen Guiliang there. From now on, we'll have to call him 'Saint Chen'!"

"Is the conferment of a saint title really that outrageous?"

"It's not that outrageous. You spend a lot of money to create a mobile operating system, and then completely open-source it. You can be canonized. There are even programmers over there who openly call Chen Guiliang 'Dad'."

"Damn it, they haven't even released a single phone yet, what's the point of having dozens of manufacturers join? I was born a Meizu person, and I'll die a Meizu ghost, I will never leave here!"

"Old Z said the same thing two months ago, and he went to the HarmonyOS community yesterday. That son of a bitch is still using a Meizu phone."

"Big news! Starcom held a press conference to announce an investment of 1 million yuan to officially enter the smartphone market. The phone brand is called Xingyao, and they will develop the Xingyao system based on the HarmonyOS system."

"..."

Huang Zhang put down the mouse, his head throbbing even more.

He had already heard the news that Starcom was going to make mobile phones. Moreover, Huang Zhang understood very well that Starcom was just the beginning, and more manufacturers would announce that they were going to make mobile phones.

The government required Xiaolingtong (a type of mobile phone service) to be phased out this year. Although Wu Ying was given some time, it is impossible to continue producing Xiaolingtong.

Starcom has reached a point where it has no choice but to transform.

Just then, Chen Guiliang announced the open-source release of HarmonyOS and even appointed Wu Ying as the leader of the HarmonyOS Alliance.

If you were Wu Ying, what would you choose?

Of course, they were full of ambition and immediately rolled up their sleeves to get to work.

Starcom's English name is actually the same as "star," hence the name of its mobile phone brand, "Star Glory."

Let Starcom shine again!

Moreover, Starcom owns numerous hardware patents (mainly for feature phones and PHS phones), some of which can be directly applied to smartphones. Starcom also has sales channels and self-operated stores. It employs countless programmers and hardware engineers. Supply chain issues are not a problem for Wu Ying either.

As long as the Xingyao phone isn't made too badly, even poor sales will still be acceptable.

Wu Ying's repeated failed transformations in the past were due to his lack of strategic vision; every single new project he launched failed. Although he invested in many successful companies, that was the result of casting a wide net; he had far more failed investments.

Now that Chen Guiliang has set up the platform and pointed out the path, Wu Ying only needs to follow that path.

It is highly likely that Xingyao mobile phones will consistently rank among the top five in sales in China in the future.

Are China Mobile and China Unicom trying to suppress HarmonyOS?

Wu Ying was the first to object!
He truly has the ability to forcefully counter China Mobile and China Unicom.

The phone rang; it was Lei Jun calling.

Lei Jun excitedly said, "Mr. Huang, I'm going to make mobile phones too! I'm recruiting and planning to go all out!"

"Good luck. I'm hanging up now, I have other things to do." Huang Zhang wasn't in the mood to say anything more. He stopped looking at the posts on the Meizu community and went to wash his face with cold water to clear his head.

Meizu sold over 4 phones in six months, with countless fans waiting to buy them, but production was hampered by insufficient chip supply.

Samsung is such a rip-off!
The main problem is that there are too many manufacturers using Samsung chips, and even the big companies are still waiting in line. Meizu is already doing well to have managed to get some.

Huang Zhang was filled with remorse at this moment, thinking to himself: Damn it, I should have used Texas Instruments or Qualcomm chips.

……

Lenovo has had a terrible two years.

Two years ago, competition in the computer industry reached a fever pitch, with a severe overcapacity of computers worldwide. From system manufacturers to component suppliers, everyone had to drastically lower prices to clear inventory—which directly led to an explosive increase in the number of Chinese internet users.

Last year, due to the economic crisis, Lenovo suffered huge losses.

This year, Liu Chuanzhi returned to the helm as Lenovo's chairman, while Yang Yuanqing stepped down as chairman and became CEO.

Smartphones were the core business they decided to develop after discussions.

Unfortunately, Lenovo has already sold its mobile phone business.

At this point, Lenovo Mobile only retained the name Lenovo; all its shares had been sold to private equity funds.

Liu Chuanzhi's most pressing task right now is to buy back Lenovo's mobile phone business.

It was sold early last year for $1 million.

We tried to buy it back this year, offering $1.5 million, but they absolutely refused to sell. We need to pay more!

"Haven't reached an agreement yet?" Liu Chuanzhi asked.

Yang Yuanqing said, "I have already raised the price to $1.8 million, but they still refuse to sell."

Liu Chuanzhi couldn't help but sarcastically remark, "You've got a good business to run."

Yang Yuanqing was extremely embarrassed.

At the beginning of last year, Lenovo was suffering heavy losses, and its mobile phone business was barely surviving. His first reaction was to cut redundant departments, and after much thought, he simply decided to cut the mobile phone business altogether.

At the time, Yang Yuanqing thought it was a great deal; Lenovo's poorly made mobile phones could actually sell for a high price of 1 million US dollars.

Who would have thought that Mr. Liu would return to the helm this year, choosing the mobile phone business as the focus of his future development?

I estimate it would cost double to buy them back!

Liu Chuanzhi asked, "After we acquire the mobile phone business, do you think we should stick to developing our own operating system or join the HarmonyOS alliance?"

Yang Yuanqing said, "Of course, we develop our own system while using China Mobile's system. Developing our own system is for long-term development. Using China Mobile's system can both satisfy China Mobile and allow us to sell customized phones through China Mobile's channels."

"Chen Guiliang's open-source project is nothing more than imitating Nokia. He himself is not Nokia, and his HarmonyOS is inferior to Symbian. It's a poor imitation, destined to fail sooner or later!"

Don't assume that Nokia closed Symbian after acquiring it; at that time, Symbian was in its "open source phase."

Moreover, Nokia, like Chen Guiliang, created a "Symbian Foundation" to manage the continued maintenance and updates of Symbian.

But this is just a smokescreen!
First, like Android, Symbian only open-sourced the underlying code, while the core remained in Nokia's hands.

Second, Nokia firmly controls the Symbian Foundation and is unwilling to relinquish power.

Nokia did this for two reasons: first, to counter Android and prevent the formation of an Android alliance;

Secondly, it was to seize control of Symbian. Because Symbian previously had multiple shareholders including Sony Ericsson, Samsung, and Panasonic, Nokia promised to open-source the technology and establish a foundation when it acquired Symbian, which is why those shareholders were willing to sell.

Third, it was a delaying tactic. Even after acquiring Symbian, many of its management and technical personnel still had close ties with the original shareholders. Nokia needed time to digest and transform Symbian!
Once Nokia has fully digested Symbian and created its own version, it will betray the Symbian Foundation.

Other members of the foundation, such as Samsung phones, can only use the basic version of the Symbian system and are unable to receive subsequent updates.

Thus, the Android Alliance was born.

Now Chen Guiliang is both open source and establishing a foundation, which many people see as him completely copying Nokia.

Some media outlets even reported: "Europe and America have the Symbian Alliance, and China has the HarmonyOS Alliance, both adopting a foundation management model. This is a breakthrough battle for Chinese mobile phone brands, and it draws on successful foreign experiences. We believe the future of domestic mobile phones is bright!"

Yang Yuanqing continued, "If our self-developed operating system succeeds, we'll become the Apple of China. If our mobile operating system succeeds, we'll align ourselves with China Mobile, just like Samsung aligns itself with the Symbian Foundation. Regardless of which system succeeds, Lenovo's mobile phone business will remain invincible!"

Liu Chuanzhi smiled and nodded.

Yang Yuanqing casually remarked, "What is the HarmonyOS Alliance anyway? Chen Guiliang has never even made phones before. Most of its members are like stray dogs, with a large portion of their brands ceasing production. It's practically a losers' alliance. How can they compete with the mobile companies' systems?"

The idea that the HarmonyOS Foundation is a "loser's alliance" is not Yang Yuanqing's original idea; some media outlets have already used this description.

Liu Chuanzhi was persuaded by Yang Yuanqing and completely abandoned the idea of ​​joining the HarmonyOS Foundation.

……

China Mobile has stated that any mobile phone manufacturer that joins the HarmonyOS Foundation will no longer be allowed to cooperate with China Mobile to produce customized phones, nor will they be able to enjoy the preferential policies of China Mobile's 3G promotion plan.

Furthermore, China Mobile once again promoted its Ophone system.

China Unicom also jumped in to stir things up, announcing that it will soon develop its own exclusive "Wophone" system and welcomes all major mobile phone manufacturers in the country to cooperate with it.

China Unicom also praised Chen Guiliang for his strategic vision and expressed its hope that the "HarmonyOS" system could be renamed "Wophone" and that the HarmonyOS Foundation could be directly handed over to China Unicom for management.

(End of this chapter)