Restart life

Chapter 438 0428 [Design with Technical Limitations]

In the early stages of HarmonyOS phone sales, Chen Guiliang did not expect offline stores to sell much stock.

Even when it came to Gome and Suning counters, Chen Guiliang only selected a few high-end stores.

The entry fees, shelf fees, and sales staff management fees for these high-end venues are extremely expensive, just like the four HarmonyOS experience stores—they're mainly for showing off. They'll sell as much as they can.

The real sales channels are online, where you can have complete control over prices, brand image, and user data, and you can also eliminate the profits taken by middlemen.

Therefore, you need to manage your brand, and you need to have a good reputation and a high-end image.

The performance of the HarmonyOS phone is not much different from that of the Meizu M8. In particular, the screen and camera have higher pixel counts than the iPhone 3G.

The changes to the exterior are actually not significant.

Chen Guiliang really wanted to get rid of the "chin" and create a one-piece screen, but that's hard to achieve these days—the chin is home to a bunch of internal components.

In particular, the driver circuit boards required for the screen are all rigid and cannot be hidden behind the screen; they must be placed somewhere. The placement location is the "chin".

One important aspect of the future research and development of HarmonyOS phones is eliminating the "chin" (bottom bezel). However, this is difficult and requires capacitive screen manufacturers to improve their technology first.

The three physical buttons are designed to be very discreet and inconspicuous, and are placed on the "chin" of the phone.

While virtual keys could be used, leaving the chin area empty would make it appear too spacious and top-heavy.

Chen Guiliang also tried to straighten the phone's outer frame as much as possible, keeping the lines as simple as possible and avoiding any obvious curves, which instantly elevated the phone's quality!
Moreover, for the next HarmonyOS phone, Chen Guiliang is planning some unorthodox methods—when screen technology cannot be improved and the chin cannot be eliminated, he will put a black glass cover over the touch screen and the chin to disguise it as a chinless phone with an integrated screen.

If this thing were to be shown, it would be absolutely futuristic and provide a fantastic visual experience.

"The chinless phone you wanted." Zhou Guangping tossed over an engineering prototype.

Chen Guiliang asked, "It's done already?"

“Dream on,” Zhou Guangping said. “Adding a glass cover to the top of the screen and the chin will make the touch response unresponsive. We would have to work closely with touch chip manufacturers to customize the chip. We would have to increase the power of the touch chip and optimize the algorithm to compensate for the loss of touch signal.”

"Also, we're using a thin-film screen, which already has insufficient light transmittance. If you add another cover plate, the light transmittance will be even worse, and the screen will appear hazy and grayish. There are solutions, though: use a high-transmittance cover plate and a low-reflectivity optical adhesive."

"But doing it this way will increase the cost of the phone screen by at least three times! And the yield rate will be low, as the full lamination technology is not yet mature."

Chen Guiliang sighed, "Sigh, let's just stick to basic research. This kind of crooked path is ultimately unreliable."

Chen Guiliang believed he was a time traveler who had seen many mobile phones from later generations, so he could easily "design" amazing works.

Were people in the past idiots? Why didn't they design it that way?

Technical limitations!

Chen Guiliang wanted the phone's frame to have a metallic feel. However, currently only a plastic frame is possible because a metal frame severely interferes with signal strength.

Another important aspect of the future development of HarmonyOS phones is mastering the metal frame technology.

Apple will release a metal-framed iPhone 4 next year, and despite being well-prepared, they still ran into "Antennagate" because the technology wasn't mature enough.

At that time, the user was holding the phone in a relatively remote place and could not even receive a normal signal.

When a user wrote a complaint letter to Steve Jobs, he replied by suggesting: "You'd better find a different way to get your phone..."

Doesn't this resemble Zhang Xiaoquan's advice to users not to use a kitchen knife to smash garlic?

Nokia's reaction at the time was similar to that of Shibazi.

Nokia showcased four common ways to hold a Nokia phone on its official account, stating that Nokia phones can make calls no matter how you hold them.

Apple's subsequent solution was even better; they quickly updated the system to fix the "signal display error".

Regardless of whether your phone has a signal or not, if your Apple ID shows a signal, then you definitely have a signal. If you still can't make calls, it means the signal in your area is inherently weak.

As public opinion grew increasingly heated, Apple was finally forced to announce that customers who purchased the device within 30 days could receive a full refund.

"How long do you think it will take for HarmonyOS phones to sell over 10 units?" Zhou Guangping asked, somewhat anxious.

He used to work for someone else, but now he owns shares in the company.

Chen Guiliang said, "If the Meizu M8 hadn't been out of stock, Meizu phones would have already sold over 10 units. Our phones are just as good as Meizu's in terms of performance, and they even have a better design and more apps. I estimate that we can sell over 10 units in two or three months."

"Two or three months...that's impressive. Is it really that easy to sell online?" Zhou Guangping was still skeptical of Chen Guiliang's sales strategy.

The main problem is that nobody does it this way. Even the Meizu M8 was mainly sold through offline stores.

Chen Guiliang said, "Online shopping is very mature now. Just watch, on the first day of online sales, users will rush to place orders and snap them up. I even suspect it won't take two or three months. So we need to prepare inventory in advance and place more orders with component suppliers."

Meizu phones finally got back on track. During the economic crisis, Samsung expanded its chip production capacity in a counter-cyclical manner, which finally gave Meizu enough supply.

It is estimated that the sales volume of Meizu M8 will soon exceed 100,000 units.

The Lenovo O1 was rather absurd. Yang Yuanqing found that the phone wasn't selling well, but he was too embarrassed to directly lower the price. So he negotiated with China Mobile to change his wording and get them to "increase" the subsidies, so consumers could buy it for 1999 yuan.

This Lenovo phone will continue to drop in price, and by the end of the year it will be available for 1599 yuan.

Some consumers even thought they got a good deal, after all, the original price was 5999 yuan.

……

Over the next few days, Chen Guiliang flew to Huadu and Shenzhen. He was still worried and felt he had to personally visit all four official experience stores.

In the coming year, the number of official experience stores will increase to 10 nationwide.

After-sales service involves simply sending it back, with a one-year free warranty and a free replacement within three months. Exceptions are made for damage caused by the user, such as dropping it in water or on the ground.

He visited the official experience store and repeatedly emphasized to the staff that the commission for selling mobile phones was extremely low, so there was no need to work hard to promote them; as long as there were no complaints throughout the year, they would receive a bonus. If a complaint occurred, their bonus would be deducted depending on the circumstances.

After leaving Guangzhou and Shenzhen, Chen Guiliang flew to Shanghai.

The Shanghai experience store is located on Huaihai Road, not far from the Sony flagship store.

The renovation is complete, and the words "HarmonyOS Phone" are particularly eye-catching.

Stepping into the store, one is struck by its simplicity, openness, coolness, and futuristic feel. The abundance of cool white light strips and metallic silver decorations makes it feel as if one has entered a high-tech exhibition hall.

There is also an LCD TV on the wall, which is used to display various information about HarmonyOS Technology Company, as well as the R&D team of HarmonyOS phones, the various configurations and applications of HarmonyOS phones.

Mr. Chen had just gone in and given a few instructions when a young man ran into the store: "HarmonyOS phones are already on sale?"

"We're very sorry, we haven't officially opened yet. Please check the HarmonyOS mobile phone official website for the specific opening date." The store manager, who had recently been laid off by Starcom and then recruited by Chen Guiliang, replied with a smile.

"I knew it, it hasn't disappeared online..." The young man's eyes widened suddenly, "Holy crap, Chen Guiliang?"

Chen Guiliang smiled and stepped forward to shake hands: "Hello."

The young man was incredibly excited: "It really is you! I've finally seen you in person today! Holy crap... I'm your fan, your die-hard fan. I follow you on Renren, Haiwainet, and Weibo!"

Chen Guiliang was very approachable, putting his arm around his shoulder and saying, "Then what are we waiting for? Take a picture and post it on Weibo!"

"Yes, yes, yes!" The young man was very excited and quickly took out his phone.

Chen Guiliang started chatting with him: "Just strolling around here?"

"Meeting online friends."

"A woman, right?"

"Yeah, we arranged to go shopping around here. I haven't even seen my online friend yet, but I've already spotted your shop. Mr. Chen, give me a smile, cheese..."

After seeing the fan off, Chen Guiliang spoke to the shop assistants for a while, then quickly made his escape. If he didn't leave soon, that guy's Weibo account would probably attract attention again.

He took out his phone and made a call: "Hello, Director Wei? This is Chen Guiliang."

With a tearful voice, Wei Zheng, the director of "iPartment", said, "President Chen, you finally called. I'm almost done filming."

"Have you received the script?" Chen Guiliang asked.

Wei Zheng said, "Received it."

Chen Guiliang knew all too well the influence of "iPartment," and that using it for promotion would be incredibly profitable. A simple sponsorship of 5000 yuan could achieve the same effect as 50 million yuan worth of advertising.

Plagiarism of American TV series?

What's it to me?

Chen Guiliang was not satisfied with the script written by Wei Zheng. After requesting several episodes of the script, Chen Guiliang simply "wrote" an episode himself.

It's the episode where they hold a memorial service for Hu Yifei.

The TV series will showcase the products of Youke, ByteDance, and HarmonyOS in a comprehensive way, including HaiNei.com, Weibo, mobile phones, and so on.

Chen Guiliang will also have to make a brief appearance, just for a minute or two.

We'll leave right after taking the photos, so as not to waste any time.

At this time, iPads didn't exist, so Hu Yifei's electronic portrait was replaced with an ultra-thin laptop. The laptop was placed vertically, with fresh flowers placed next to it to cover the frame, and the computer screen was rotated 90 degrees.

Don't ask if the video can be displayed vertically; the answer is that the guy downstairs took action.

The next day.

Chen Guiliang arrived at the film set early in the morning, but the actors had not yet all arrived.

Chen Chichi is a master of maneuvering. Hearing that Chen Guiliang was coming today, he got up early and rushed to the film set to wait for him. He quickly stood up to greet him: "Hello, Mr. Chen, my name is Chen Chichi!"

"Hello," Chen Guiliang said with a smile.

Wang Chuanjun, who was sitting in the corner, stood up and nodded to Chen Guiliang: "Hello, President Chen."

"Hello," Chen Guiliang said.

This guy was later smeared online, a prime example of taking things out of context.

He said he panicked because he only had 100 million left in his account. Later, he found out that his friend only earned 15 a year, but still managed to support his family. He realized that his friend was living a normal life, while he and others in the entertainment industry had problems.

When it reached the media, it became: Wang Chuanjun tearfully recounted that at his worst, he only had 100 million yuan left.

When netizens see it, it becomes: "If actors have 100 million in their accounts and still complain about being poor, how much money do they have when they're not poor?"
Chen Guiliang handed the HarmonyOS phone to Wei Zheng: "Director Wei, this is a prop."

(End of this chapter)