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Chapter 471 0461 [China's Steve Jobs? ?]

"What were the first-week sales figures for Tian Shu?" Chen Guiliang asked.

Ye Peng said, "We sold more than 85,000 units online, which greatly exceeded my expectations. The total sales of our flagship stores and specialty stores nationwide were only more than 97,000 units, which is not much more than the online sales. I am investigating and analyzing why this happened."

Zhou Guangping remarked, "If this continues, Tian Shu might run out of stock again. It's selling too well!"

Don't complain about the production capacity of HarmonyOS phones, because the iPhone 4 is also frequently sold out.

While the daily output of the iPhone 4 at its Chinese manufacturing plants has exceeded 15 units, please note that this capacity is intended for the global market, with priority given to supplying Europe and the United States.

In the second month after its release in China, the iPhone 4 was out of stock, and it has been out of stock sporadically several times since then.

Even the "Antennagate" scandal could not dampen the enthusiasm of Apple fans, and the grey market for Apple products became increasingly prosperous.

Since the signal issue has been resolved, all you need to do is add a phone case to your iPhone 4.

Chen Guiliang said, "Let's urge BYD on."

BYD Electronics built a new factory in Yuzhang this year. If the first phase of the factory is fully operational, the theoretical annual output can reach 4000 million mobile phones.

But it's not just an assembly plant; it also produces LCD modules, camera modules, and even phone casings.

Workers also need to be recruited and trained in batches, and production capacity cannot be given to HarmonyOS alone.

目前，鸿蒙三款机型的日产量分别为：A1（31000部）、A2（18000部）、天枢（15000部）。

Sales growth of HarmonyOS A1 has actually slowed down, but it still needs to supply hundreds of thousands of customized handsets to telecom companies.

The HarmonyOS A2 is currently HarmonyOS Technology's best-selling phone. It is more impressive in appearance and configuration than the A1, and its price is much more affordable than HarmonyOS TianShu.

The best-selling phone isn't necessarily the most amazing one.

For example, Nokia's best-selling model this year is the Nokia 5230, priced at just over 1,000 yuan. Although it has a resistive touchscreen, it is still a full touchscreen smartphone, and its average monthly sales have reached over 300,000 units! In some promotional months, the monthly sales of this phone have even exceeded 500,000 units.

The Nokia 5230's phenomenal sales figures were achieved despite being overwhelmed by numerous low-end smartphones from the HarmonyOS and Android camps.

In another timeline, without the competition from so many low-end new phones from the HarmonyOS camp, the Nokia 5230's sales were actually even more phenomenal.

Zhou Guangping said, "BYD's new Yuzhang plant has been continuously expanding its production capacity. They have promised to add ten production lines for HarmonyOS next month. Once the A1 telecom customized handsets are delivered, the A1 production lines can also be switched to produce the A2 and Tian Shu."

"Just don't run out of stock," Chen Guiliang said.

When Chen Guiliang first started his business, Wang Kai from the Peking University Science Park Incubation Center provided him with a lot of help.

This fellow was transferred to the branch in Jiangxi Province, where he has been stagnating for two or three years due to slow business development. Chen Guiliang wanted to help him out but didn't know what to invest in in Jiangxi Province.

It just so happens that BYD Electronics chose Yuzhang as the location for its new factory, and the total investment is a whopping 80 billion yuan!

Taking advantage of the situation, Chen Guiliang established the HarmonyOS Technology R&D Center (Yuzhang Branch) and also formed the Yuzhang Joint Laboratory with BYD. These are all located in the Yuzhang Branch of Peking University Science Park.

Wang Kai was so happy that his face was wrinkled from smiling.

Through Chen Guiliang's introduction, Wang Kai also got in touch with Wang Chuanfu and is trying to persuade BYD to set up another branch with him.

The nearly dead Peking University Science Park Yuzhang Branch has finally been rejuvenated this year!

……

In the second week after the release of HarmonyOS TianShu, online sales declined.

After all, the online sales figures for the first week were the result of a long period of preparation. Ever since the new product launch event, consumers have been placing pre-orders on the online store.

However, contrary to the decline in online sales, Tian Shu's offline sales are surging.

Consumers who don't use the internet much are influenced by advertisements or friends and family, and when they learn that HarmonyOS TianShu is particularly amazing, they go to offline stores to buy it.

After four consecutive weeks, the sales figures for Tian Shu's first month have been released.

Over 18 units were sold online, and approximately 46 units were sold offline. Total sales for the first month reached 65 units!

The news caused a sensation in the industry.

"No, where do so many rich people come from? Even the basic model of the Tian Shu costs 4999 yuan."

"I think if the iPhone 4 had been sold freely, it could have sold just as many units in the first month. But the iPhone 4 was out of stock every now and then, forcing many people to buy grey market iPhones, and the sales of grey market iPhones are impossible to track. Now, Tian Shu has taken advantage of this loophole."

"Don't try to cause trouble for Apple fans, and don't talk about exploiting loopholes. Do you dare use your iPhone 4 without a case?"

"What's wrong with wearing a case? Even if there's no signal problem, you should still wear a case to protect your phone."

“I have a classmate who sold his game account to get the HarmonyOS Tian Shu. It’s outrageous, it was an account he played on for three years in college.”

“We just had a news story here. A guy was arrested for burglary. He told the police that he wanted to save up money to buy a Tian Shu.”

"..."

There are quite a few similar messy news stories, but thankfully no one is mentally ill enough to sell their kidney to buy Tian Shu (a traditional Chinese medicine acupoint).

The appearance of this bizarre news in the newspapers gradually made many people who were slow to obtain information aware of the name "Hongmeng Tianshu".

The eye-catching nature of HarmonyOS TianShu has caused the public to subconsciously overlook HarmonyOS A2.

Although HarmonyOS A2 is positioned as an upgrade to A1, it is technically a completely new model. Even the display is different; A1 used a thin-film screen, while A2 has been changed to a glass screen.

Moreover, the processor chip used in HarmonyOS A2 is the same Qualcomm S1 as that used in HarmonyOS TianShu. However, it is 2000 yuan cheaper, making it extremely cost-effective.

As a phone that didn't have a dedicated launch event, the HarmonyOS A2 sold out immediately! Just one week after the sales figures for the first month of the new HarmonyOS phone were announced, leaders from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology came to inspect it, accompanied by local leaders.

The issuance of smartphone licenses demonstrates the importance the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology attaches to domestically produced smartphones.

As long as you can produce smartphones, you won't be punished even if you operate without a license; instead, you'll be asked to quickly complete all the necessary procedures.

With HarmonyOS phones selling like hotcakes, how could the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology not take notice?

In recent years, domestic mobile phone manufacturers have also managed to outperform foreign brands in the low-to-mid-range market. But this time is different. HarmonyOS has directly entered the high-end market, completely crushing the iPhone 4 and Samsung i9000.

Such a situation is absolutely unique!
The leader surnamed Miao, accompanied by numerous officials and including Chen Guiliang and Zhou Guangping, gave a detailed tour of the HarmonyOS mobile phone R&D center.

In front of a CCTV reporter, he highly praised HarmonyOS mobile phones: "Our industry started late, especially in the semiconductor-related industries, and we have been catching up with developed countries in recent years. China is already the world's factory, and 'Made in China' is famous all over the world. But we cannot be satisfied with just 'Made in China,' we should pursue 'Created in China'..."

"HarmonyOS phones do a great job in this regard... I used to not use high-end phones, thinking that as long as they could make calls and send text messages, that was enough. This time I specifically bought a Tian Shu. It's excellent! The phone has a beautiful design and its performance is world-class..."

"There's also the joint laboratory established by HarmonyOS with professors from Tsinghua University, Peking University, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. I just heard you mention that the joint laboratory made a significant contribution to realizing the design concept of Tianzhu. This is the right development model and a model of industry-academia-research integration in high-tech industries..."

Finally, Chen Guiliang accompanied the leaders to the canteen and led everyone to eat the staff meal there—as requested by the leaders.

In a casual conversation, Leader Miao asked, "I really like the name Tian Shu. How did you come up with the idea of ​​naming the flagship model entirely in Chinese?"

Chen Guiliang explained, “Nowadays, mobile phones, regardless of whether they are high-end or low-end, are all a combination of English letters and Arabic numerals. Even if they have Chinese names, they are just secondary. We initially planned to name it according to convention, but we changed our minds in the end. Why can't we use a full Chinese name? This is a mobile phone brand of our own, and we have full confidence in Tian Shu. We want to name this epoch-making domestic mobile phone with full Chinese!”

Leader Miao was very pleased to hear this, and the accompanying reporters took notes in their notebooks.

Chen Guiliang continued, "Although TianShu is a domestic brand, it is highly dependent on foreign components. We have already started developing chips. Directly developing processor chips is still too difficult. So we started with power supply chips, and we expect to be able to tap out early next year... We will gradually increase the degree of localization in the future."

Leader Miao praised, "This strategy is excellent. It neither rests on its laurels nor sets unrealistic goals, but rather takes a steady, step-by-step approach, focusing on research and development from the easy to the difficult. This is the only way to achieve 'Made in China' innovation!"

Chen Guiliang said, "I don't understand technology. How to implement it specifically depends on our engineering team. Chief Engineer Zhou (Zhou Guangping) and the three professors are the backbone of HarmonyOS technology. Many of the random ideas I put forward were just fantasies, but they turned illusions into reality."

So, Leader Miao then spoke with Zhou Guangping and the others.

Zhou Guangping felt even more proud and said with a smile, "President Chen is too modest. Although President Chen doesn't understand technology, he has all sorts of genius-like ideas. Sometimes what he says leaves us all dumbfounded because it's completely counterintuitive. Take the all-metal unibody design, for example. Back when the iPhone 4 hadn't even been released yet, President Chen said he wanted to make an all-metal unibody design with a non-removable battery. That went against the market!"

Professor Zhang Chao, who was standing next to him, chimed in: "Nobody expected that Apple and Samsung would also be working on all-metal unibody designs. Mr. Chen's ideas completely coincided with the latest design concepts of these two international giants."

Zhou Guangping continued, "It wasn't just a collision. From the beginning, General Manager Chen told us to pay attention to signal issues, especially the impact of how we hold the phone on the signal. The iPhone 4 almost failed because of this!"

Leader Miao smiled and said, "It seems that groundbreaking products really do require extraordinary thinking to lead the way."

After seeing the group of leaders off, Chen Guiliang asked the reporters to stay and continue filming and interviewing employees in various departments and corners of the HarmonyOS Technology Company's campus.

They even hosted a special dinner to warmly welcome the reporters.

If you give reporters a lot more for their travel expenses, the news that comes out will naturally be full of praise.

However, some media outlets have been exaggerating the situation quite awkwardly.

They hailed Chen Guiliang as "China's Steve Jobs".

This displeased both Chen Guiliang and Steve Jobs' fans.

"Why does it have to be China's Steve Jobs? Tian Shu (a mythical creature) completely outclasses the iPhone 4, okay?"

"Those journalists don't even know how to praise people properly."

"You've got some nerve, coming here to try and piggyback on Steve Jobs' legacy. When Jobs was making smartphones, Chen Guiliang was still in school. He's the pioneer of smartphones. Chen Guiliang was just copying him!"

"Yeah, they copied it even better than Apple."

"A little bit of cleverness is considered awesome? I asked my classmate, and the fact that Tian Shu doesn't have a chin isn't due to technological superiority; it's purely a design trick."

"Yes, yes, Apple's unique design is awesome, while domestic mobile phones with unique designs are just opportunistic."

"..."

Now, those fervent smartphone supporters have split into two major factions online, clearly supporting either Chen Guiliang or Steve Jobs.

Nokia fans suddenly disappeared.

Nokia's smartphones this year are truly disappointing compared to the iPhone 4 and the Tian Shu. Not to mention the Samsung i9000, Nokia is even getting utterly crushed by HTC!

In China's smartphone market, Nokia's market share once approached 75% at its peak last year.

Now, under the continuous impact of HarmonyOS, Android, and the Microsoft camp, Nokia's smartphone market share in China has rapidly fallen below 50%.

Although Nokia still holds a dominant position, it relies more on sales channels and consumer habits.

It is estimated that by the end of the year, Nokia's market share of smartphones will most likely drop below 45%.

Within a year, its market share plummeted from 75% to 45%. Although it was still the leader, it was now a fallen giant that everyone was pushing down.

Once the BOSS's health bar is revealed, it will die very quickly!

Due to plummeting sales, Nokia's inventory backlog became increasingly severe, triggering a variety of chain reactions.

By the end of November, Nokia had cancelled a large number of its contract manufacturing production lines with BYD.

Because Nokia has its own factories in China, it must prioritize ensuring the operation of its own factories. Orders from its contract manufacturers are expected to be completely cancelled over the next year.

Just as mobile phone manufacturers in the HarmonyOS and Android camps were ramping up their efforts, they quickly seized the opportunity to take over the vacated production lines, finally completely resolving the mobile phone production capacity issues for each company.

(End of this chapter)