Restart life

Chapter 449 0439 [Telecom Also Wants to Join the HarmonyOS Camp]

Chen Guiliang went back to his hometown for the Spring Festival, but flew to Shenzhen to see Wang Chuanfu on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year.

He wants to discuss the battery issue personally.

To create a unibody metal phone with a non-removable battery, battery life must be guaranteed. Fortunately, there aren't many mobile phone applications these days, so various methods can be used to manage this.

First, the HarmonyOS system underwent fundamental and in-depth modifications, resulting in HarmonyOS 2.0. The HarmonyOS Foundation established strict background wake-up standards that all third-party applications must adhere to, avoiding the background chaos seen in Android and Apple systems.

Second, we will develop our own optimized power management chips. These chips are not difficult to manufacture; we don't even need to rely on TSMC, as SMIC in mainland China can produce them. The key lies in the design.

Third, use batteries with higher energy density.

Fourth, he urged Qualcomm to improve the chip. However, Chen Guiliang's influence is limited, and Qualcomm may not listen. Even if they do, mass production is not possible in the short term.

When Chen Guiliang met Wang Chuanfu, the boss was beaming and beaming with pride.

At this time, BYD was booming and enjoying great success. Wang Chuanfu and his cousin (a BYD shareholder) ranked first and fourth respectively on the list of China's richest people last year.

BYD became blindly optimistic from top to bottom. Before the Spring Festival, Vice President Xia Zhibing even set a sales target of 80 vehicles per year.

It was this decision that triggered an unprecedented crisis for BYD.

In order to achieve the ambitious goals set by the vice president, the sales department shifted all the pressure onto the distributors. This resulted in distributors having severely excessive inventory and extremely tight cash flow.

In addition, with multiple dealer outlets set up in the same area, dealers of the same brand engage in fierce price wars to clear inventory, and there are even cases where dealers lose money after selling a car.

Within a year, hundreds of distributors collectively turned against them!
At this time, two months before the crisis erupted, BYD's top management was completely unaware of it. Or perhaps they were aware of some of the situation but didn't take it seriously, and even intensified their pressure on dealers.

"Congratulations, Mr. Chen, HarmonyOS A1 sales have exceeded 40 units. I believe it will reach 50 in just a few days," Wang Chuanfu said with a smile.

Chen Guiliang also smiled and said, "I came here specifically to wish President Wang a Happy New Year, and also to wish BYD a successful achievement of its ambitious goal of 80 annual car sales."

"Thank you for your kind words, Mr. Chen." Wang Chuanfu was in high spirits; he was always happy when the topic of car sales came up.

Chen Guiliang said, "I want to make a phone with a non-replaceable battery, and I want to use a battery with higher energy density. Does BYD have such a battery?"

"A phone with an unreplaceable battery? Why don't you let users replace the battery?" Wang Chuanfu was taken aback.

To Wang Chuanfu, these words sounded like BYD was about to release a car that couldn't be refueled.

It's hard to understand.

It's unimaginable.

Chen Guiliang said, "I can't explain why we make this kind of phone for now. It's a trade secret. Ideally, it should have a flexible shape while maintaining high energy density."

Wang Chuanfu is very knowledgeable about his company's batteries: "We can already mass-produce 4.35V (cutoff voltage) batteries. The current mainstream mobile phone batteries are 4.2V. If we use 4.35V batteries, the energy density can be increased by 15% to 30%. However, there are not many manufacturers using this type of battery, so we have not started large-scale production."

"The cost is higher?" Chen Guiliang asked.

Wang Chuanfu nodded: "New technology is bound to be more expensive. Current mobile phone batteries are replaceable, and manufacturers don't have high requirements for battery energy density, so they naturally prefer to use lower-cost batteries."

Chen Guiliang then asked, "What about batteries with flexible designs?"

Wang Chuanfu said, "This isn't the latest technology; soft-pack batteries have been around for three years. However, our 4.35V battery uses a hard-shell packaging. To meet Mr. Chen's requirements, we need to combine the two technologies. I need to redesign it."

The upcoming iPhone 4 from Apple will use a 4.2V (cutoff voltage) battery.

"How long will it take to reach mass production? Is six months enough?" Chen Guiliang continued to ask.

Wang Chuanfu didn't give up: "I'll give it a try."

Chen Guiliang said, "Battery life must also be guaranteed. After all, users can't replace their phones after only one year. It's troublesome to find a repair shop or send the phone back after replacing the battery."

Wang Chuanfu thought about it for a longer time this time: "What if the battery capacity drops to 80% after 350-400 cycles? In other words, if the user charges it once a day, it will take about a year and a half before the battery feels less durable."

The iPhone 4 is similar; the official promise is that the battery capacity will only drop to 80% of its initial value after 400 complete charge-discharge cycles. However, in actual use, it's clearly not that good.

"Yes, BYD is indeed a world-class battery manufacturer." Chen Guiliang was quite satisfied.

If Wang Chuanfu's predictions come true, the HarmonyOS M1's battery will have an energy density 15%-30% higher than the iPhone 4's. This means it will last longer on a single charge. Meanwhile, the expected number of charge cycles (battery lifespan) will be roughly the same as the iPhone 4.

With the optimization of the operating system and power management chip, the HarmonyOS M1 can last longer than the iPhone 4's battery.

……

Workers are gradually returning to the city to go back to work, and students are gradually returning to school to attend classes.

The sales volume of HarmonyOS A1 has finally exceeded 50 units.

This sales figure is nothing compared to Nokia's, whose N73 has accumulated sales of nearly 500 million units in mainland China.

But for a new brand, it is a huge success.

This surpasses the current sales volume of a single Samsung smartphone model in mainland China!
To put it simply, in terms of individual smartphone sales in mainland China, Nokia ranks first, second, third, and fourth, HarmonyOS A1 fifth, and Meizu M8 sixth. Android models haven't yet entered mainland China on a large scale, and Samsung Galaxy is nowhere to be seen.

Chen Guiliang had just returned to Beijing when a vice president from China Telecom Terminal Co., Ltd. came to inspect HarmonyOS Technology.

“That’s the HarmonyOS R&D Center and administration building,” Chen Guiliang said, pointing to the office building that was about to be completed not far away. “The HarmonyOS Building is under construction over there, and some departments of ByteDance will move here in the future.”

Li, the vice president of China Telecom, nodded and said, "You guys have done a great job. In just one or two years, you've gone from nothing to a rising big brand."

Chen Guiliang said, "I'm in charge of sales. The research and development of the phones is up to the company's scientists."

"Mr. Chen is too modest," Vice President Li said with a smile. "The customized phones from China Telecom were originally planned to use the Android system. However, after discussion among the leaders, it was decided that we should support domestic products. The customized phones we developed in cooperation with Huawei and Meizu now all use the HarmonyOS system."

Chen Guiliang was somewhat surprised: "Meizu even has a China Telecom customized phone?"

Vice President Li nodded and said, "I came here today to discuss collaborating with HarmonyOS on customized devices."

Many smartphones, including the Meizu M8, only support China Mobile and China Unicom SIM cards. This has caused some panic among China Telecom, prompting them to proactively collaborate with phone manufacturers to develop customized models.

There are five mobile phone manufacturers developing customized phones for China Telecom: Starcom, Huawei, Meizu, Tianyu, and Tencent.

Tencent's first mobile phone has been confirmed as a China Telecom customized phone.

Now, China Telecom is approaching HarmonyOS again, and they've even sent a vice president from China Telecom to handle it.

China Telecom has huge ambitions and wants to compete with China Mobile and China Unicom for 3G operator market share through the emerging smartphone market.

After walking around, I returned to the office.

Vice President Li went straight to the point: "There are two ways to cooperate: one is procurement subsidies; the other is revenue sharing based on phone bills."

"The first option is for us to purchase the device at 60% of the official price of the HarmonyOS A1. HarmonyOS will only need to supply the devices. Users can enjoy 3G promotion subsidies when they purchase the device."

"The second option is that we don't pay HarmonyOS directly for the devices. Users buy the devices at extremely low prices, but they have to commit to using a certain amount of phone credit. HarmonyOS takes a cut of that phone credit."

Without hesitation, Chen Guiliang said, "I choose the first option."

The second option would severely damage the brand image, as users might be able to buy the HarmonyOS A1 for just a few hundred yuan. Although the final cost to the user would far exceed the normal purchase price, it would still give people the illusion of a low-end and cheap product.

While the first option also offers a purchase subsidy, it's at most a few hundred yuan. And that subsidy comes from the telecom company; it has nothing to do with HarmonyOS.

“Sure,” Vice President Li said indifferently.

Chen Guiliang added, "But the supply price still needs to be negotiated. 60% of the official price is too low. HarmonyOS A1 is not worried about sales right now, and we mainly focus on online sales, so the sales cost is not very high."

Vice President Li asked, "What does President Chen think is an appropriate amount?"

“80% of the official price!” Chen Guiliang said.

Vice President Li smiled and said, "It seems that President Chen understands the customized phone market very well. Your price is already at the industry limit. Even Apple couldn't negotiate this price with China Unicom last year. Only Nokia's blockbuster phones can fetch this price. No matter how well HarmonyOS A1 sells, it's still not as good as Nokia's blockbuster phones."

Chen Guiliang said, "60% is also acceptable, but it depends on when and how much is supplied."

In a few months, the new HarmonyOS phone will be released, and the HarmonyOS A1 will definitely be sold at a reduced price.

Vice President Li said, "We won't discuss this personally; we can finalize the cooperation agreement today."

"Alright, I've prepared lunch for Mr. Li. Let's drink and chat." Chen Guiliang was too lazy to haggle himself.

What they discussed next at the dinner table was naturally the long-term cooperation between HarmonyOS and China Telecom.

Now, mobile companies insist on developing their own operating systems, resisting not only HarmonyOS but also Apple and Android.

China Unicom, on the other hand, is developing its own technology while cooperating with Android and Apple, especially with the introduction of Apple, which is a significant investment.

China Telecom has not yet announced any plans to develop its own operating system; its strategic decision is to cooperate with the HarmonyOS camp. All talk of supporting domestically developed systems is nonsense; the real intention is to differentiate itself from China Mobile and China Unicom.

China Telecom even wants to join the HarmonyOS Foundation and gradually control the HarmonyOS camp!

"The HarmonyOS Foundation—of course, China Telecom can join, but we need to discuss the specifics in a meeting," Chen Guiliang said. "The foundation has strict bylaws, and no single company can control it unilaterally. Especially the research and development centers under the foundation, where scientists have the most say..."

Chen Guiliang rambled on for a while, just to give China Telecom a heads-up and remind them not to cause trouble at the HarmonyOS Foundation.

Scientists do have a lot of say, but only in specific research and development.

The real strategic R&D direction is still decided by Chen Guiliang. For example, in the development of HarmonyOS 2.0, strict background wake-up standards were established to save power.

As long as Chen Guiliang continues to achieve business success, the foundation will continue to listen to him.

Because success means being right!
Just like current mobile phone batteries, the pouch design is not mainstream. However, the iPhone 4 used a pouch battery and achieved huge commercial success, so battery manufacturers rushed to develop pouch designs, turning it directly from a niche to the mainstream.

Commercial success can even guide the development of upstream and downstream industries, making it too easy for Chen Guiliang to guide the Hongmeng Foundation.

(End of this chapter)