Restart life

Chapter 508 0496 [Stomp on to Death]

"Lenovo changed the release date at the last minute, deliberately launching the ThinkPad Tablet ahead of us!" Ye Peng said during the meeting.

Chen Guiliang asked, "What's the price?"

Ye Peng said, "I don't know."

Chen Guiliang said, "It seems that Lenovo chose to launch this business tablet in the United States first. Once the price is released in China, you can convert it using the exchange rate and maybe make some money out of it. Be careful not to expose yourself."

"Are we really going to do this?" Ye Peng hesitated.

Chen Guiliang said, "They changed the release date of their new product at the last minute, deliberately launching it before us. Why can't we reciprocate?"

In fact, the Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet is a business tablet computer, precisely targeting business elites who are naive, rich, and concerned about appearances.

The iPad and Chen Guiliang's tablet are mainly used for daily entertainment. They compete with the ThinkPad Tablet, but the competition is not significant.

However, HarmonyOS only revealed that it would release a tablet computer, and Lenovo, fearing a clash with its own platform, simply changed the date.

Zhou Guangping basically doesn't care about such things. He complained, "I thought designing power chips wouldn't be that difficult, but it looks like we're going to miss the deadline again this year. The main problem is that we set our goals too high and focused on the most cutting-edge digital power supplies. The people at the joint lab said that there are three major technical bottlenecks, and we can't bypass any of them; we have to overcome them all."

"Take your time," Chen Guiliang said with a smile.

This power chip is designed to extend the battery life of mobile phones and represents HarmonyOS's first step towards chip design.

Last year it was delayed, and this year it's delayed again.

Who knows when it will be made?

Zhou Guangping said, "We've been working on this for so long, it's impossible to give up halfway. The joint laboratory still wants to recruit people. And they want to recruit outstanding talents with relevant experience from top institutions."

Chen Guiliang said, "Continue recruiting."

Zhou Guangping hesitated for a moment, but finally couldn't help asking, "With such a huge investment in R&D, and with more and more R&D projects, what do you think about taking the company public to raise funds?"

Both Zhou Guangping and Ye Peng have stock options in HarmonyOS, especially Zhou Guangping, who has a lot of stock options and even holds some founding shares.

Of course they want to go public.

Chen Guiliang said, "I'm also considering it. How about listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange?"

"Why not list in the US?" Ye Peng asked.

Chen Guiliang said, "The United States is too troublesome; Hong Kong is much more convenient."

Neither Zhou Guangping nor Ye Peng objected; for them, as long as the listing went smoothly, that was all that mattered.

……

Two days later, Lenovo held a new product launch event, and the price of the ThinkPad Tablet was announced. The base model is priced at 4999 yuan.

Upon seeing the news, Ye Peng clicked his tongue and said, "The price in the US is $499, which is more than 3500 RMB, more than 1400 RMB cheaper than the price in China."

Chen Guiliang exclaimed, "What a conscientious company! Working for the benefit of the American people!"

That same evening, someone posted on Tianya, comparing the prices of ThinkPad Tablets in China and the United States.

This post quickly went viral on Tianya, and was soon forwarded to Tieba, and then to mobile social media platforms such as Weibo.

Some resourceful netizens even created a table comparing the prices of Lenovo's past products in China and the US.

For example, Lenovo's first smartphone, the LePhone, was priced at 4999 yuan in China and $499 in the United States. It was over 1000 yuan more expensive in China than in the US. Because it wasn't selling well, they drastically reduced the price in the Chinese market.

Countless netizens were outraged, especially Lenovo fans.

At that time, Lenovo had many fans who regarded it as a source of pride for Chinese brands. Now, however, they discovered that Lenovo had betrayed them, and they instantly turned from fans to haters, launching a vicious attack.

Lenovo's response was incredibly slow, allowing public opinion to fester online until it was too late to stop it.

Then Lenovo just played dead, as if nothing had ever happened.

At this very moment, the HarmonyOS new product launch event was officially held.

Chen Guiliang was still wearing a T-shirt and jeans, but this time he was much more formal and no longer interacted frequently with the audience.

He was criticized by Ye Peng, who said that too much interaction on stage made him seem unprofessional.

"Mr. Chen, congratulations on launching another new machine!" Wu Ying took the initiative to participate, completely disregarding Chen Guiliang as a competitor.

His Starshine phone has already launched two models, one mid-range and one low-end. Although they didn't sell like hotcakes, sales were decent, successfully turning Starcom around and fulfilling the performance-based agreement with the board of directors.

Similar to Xingyao, VIVO and OPPO are in a similar situation, with sales that are neither the best nor the worst.

As for Huawei and ZTE, these two are still locked in a fierce battle in the contract phone market, making a fortune while wishing they could beat the other out of their wits.

Of the twenty or thirty mobile phone manufacturers in the HarmonyOS camp, less than ten are actually making money. The rest have either died out or are in a state of near collapse.

Especially for brands like Changhong and Panda, which try to make low-end contract phones, they can't compete with Huawei and ZTE.

However, since Tianyu switched to the HarmonyOS camp, it has been doing quite well thanks to its powerful marketing channels.

Well, Lei Jun was also doing very well, but at this time he hadn't yet learned to use small characters.

Wu Ying said in a low voice, "Nokia is in a bad situation now; its Romanian factory has been shut down."

"Let's beat a dog when it's down!" Chen Guiliang laughed.

Nokia's decline isn't limited to China; it's happening globally. In the first quarter of this year, Nokia still maintained approximately 30% market share in the Chinese smartphone market.

It plummeted to 22.6% in the second quarter.

The statistics for the third quarter are not yet available, but it will definitely drop below 20%.

Two years ago it was 75%!
HarmonyOS phones, with just three products, saw their sales surge to 11.7% in the second quarter.

Samsung followed closely behind, increasing its market share to 8.2%.

Apple actually lagged behind Samsung, with a market share of only 7.6%. This could be due to its high price and limited model range. It could also be because the iPhone 4 faced competition from HarmonyOS.

When a whale falls, all things are born.

With Nokia's rapid decline, the Chinese smartphone market entered an era of fierce competition.

While Chen Guiliang was enthusiastically exchanging ideas with several guests, the newly appointed director of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, who had been in office a month earlier, arrived. Chen Guiliang had specially invited him, just to give it a try, and surprisingly, he had succeeded in getting the invitation.

"Director Ding, welcome to our work." Chen Guiliang smiled and shook hands.

Director Ding praised, "HarmonyOS is one of the fastest-growing mobile phone companies in China. Moreover, you have developed the HarmonyOS system, which is going to be on par with foreign manufacturers. It's very impressive, and I've come here today to learn from you."

"I don't deserve such praise; it's all thanks to the country's good policies," Chen Guiliang said.

At this time, apart from HarmonyOS, the only mobile operating systems "self-developed" by Chinese companies were those of China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom.

China Unicom and China Telecom have completely given up on their mobile phone systems, but they haven't completely stopped using them either, because they still need to save face.

Mobile phone operating systems are constantly being updated, but they always lag behind Android versions. They are compatible with Android phones, but not fully compatible.

Even Samsung phones still have a contract version with a different mobile operating system. I wonder which unlucky souls are buying them.

For the leaders of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, HarmonyOS is the only surviving domestically produced mobile operating system. And it's thriving; it's a unique and precious seedling that must be carefully nurtured!

Director Ding chatted with Chen Guiliang for a long time and even said he would visit HarmonyOS Technology Company again in a few days.

The new product launch is about to begin. Guests and reporters have taken their seats, and Chen Guiliang has returned backstage to prepare.

The opening segment featured a video showcasing the development of HarmonyOS Technology over the past few years.

Then Chen Guiliang stepped to the front of the stage: "I'm not good at bragging, I always tell the truth. This year, we will be releasing an upgraded version of HarmonyOS TianShu, as well as HarmonyOS Technology's first tablet computer."

"Let's start by introducing the tablet computer. The HarmonyOS tablet computer is named the Kirin series, and this one is called Kirin 1.0..."

"Currently, there are two tablet computers selling in China that are receiving the most attention. I won't mention their specific names to avoid legal risks, but they are both products from our competitors..."

A soft chuckle rippled through the audience; everyone understood that Chen Guiliang was referring to Apple and Lenovo.

Chen Guiliang continued, "These two competitors' latest tablet computers, one sells its base model for 4999 yuan, and the other sells its base model for 3688 yuan..."

Lenovo sells for 4999 yuan, while Apple sells for 3688 yuan.

Lenovo's newly released business tablet has much higher specifications than Apple's iPad 2, which was released a few months ago.

Therefore, it is much more expensive.

Chen Guiliang said, "Our first tablet computer from HarmonyOS will be priced at 2999 yuan for the basic model..."

"With such a low price, what about the specifications?"

"Let's start with the CPU. We use the Qualcomm APQ8060 dual-core Scorpion, 1.5GHz. That's no worse than our competitors. And with 1GB of RAM, it's even better than some competitors' 512MB..."

Some people in the audience laughed again.

Chen Guiliang keeps talking about competitors and bringing up 512MB of memory, clearly trying to put down Apple's iPad 2.

HarmonyOS products have double the memory capacity, but the price is several hundred yuan lower!

"The GPU we're using is the Adreno 220..."

"Our tablets are just as smooth as mobile phones. Please watch the demonstration..."

“A competitor’s product uses a proprietary data interface, requiring an adapter for expansion… while ours comes standard with a Mini HDMI interface. A single ordinary cable can connect your tablet to your home TV or the office projector…”

Chen Guiliang continues to criticize Apple's iPad 2.

The iPad 2 has a dedicated data interface and cannot be directly connected to TVs or projectors; a dedicated Apple adapter is required.

This adapter costs $69.

Due to the tight supply, the price in China has already been driven up to 1000 yuan!
In other words, if you want to connect your iPad 2 to the company projector, you'll have to spend an additional 1000 yuan to buy an adapter.

As for HarmonyOS tablets, you can simply buy a cable at any computer market to connect them.

Chen Guiliang held up a data cable: "This is what I bought at Hailong yesterday. Please point the camera at the invoice in my hand. Yes, let's get a close-up..."

"Hahaha!"

The moment Chen Guiliang showed the invoice, the whole room burst into laughter.

This is outrageous! They're ruthlessly trampling on the Apple iPad 2.

(End of this chapter)