Restart life

Chapter 509, Section 0497: [A New Landscape in the Smartphone Market]

HarmonyOS's new product launch event was also broadcast live on AcFun.

When the camera focused on the data cable in Chen Guiliang's hand and gave a clear close-up shot, the number of comments in the live stream suddenly surged.

"Old Master Chen has been tricked."

"Why would a data cable cost 35 yuan?"

"Haha, it's 10 yuan a stick in Huaqiangbei."

"Don't be so harsh on it, this kind of nylon braided yarn sells for at least 20."

"Huaqiangbei has a maximum of 15."

"..."

Amidst these lighthearted banter, viewers of the live stream were struck by the fact that HarmonyOS's Kirin 1.0 tablet could be used simply by buying a data cable at an electronics market. In contrast, Apple's iPad 2 required a dedicated Apple adapter to connect to a TV or projector.

Furthermore, the Apple adapter is not included with the package and needs to be purchased separately.

Actually, the official price isn't expensive, only a little over 200 yuan. It's just that it's always out of stock, so if you want to get your hands on one quickly, you have to buy it from other channels at a premium.

Surprisingly, there were Apple fans in the live stream who said their iPad 2 could connect to their computers without an adapter. They were then ridiculed by the other viewers because no one was referring to connecting to a computer, but rather to a TV or projector.

Moreover, HarmonyOS's tablets have higher specifications (especially memory) than the iPad 2.

The comments continued—

"ASUS's EeePad is also awesome, and its configuration is better than the iPad 2."

"ASUS costs 3499 yuan, while HarmonyOS costs 2999 yuan."

"Old Chen is too kind; an Acer with similar specs costs 3299."

"ASUS has quality control issues; my classmate's ASUS has uneven seams."

"Acer is indeed cheap, but the workmanship feels plasticky."

"Android 3.0 devices are all garbage!"

"The HarmonyOS tablet should be the lowest priced one with the same configuration."

"..."

Since the iPad 2 is ridiculously expensive and has low specs, why does it still manage to outperform its competitors?

Because Android tablets were even worse at that time!

Android has a 3.0 system specifically designed for tablets.

To showcase its technological prowess and differentiate itself from the mobile version of Android, Android 3.0 incorporated numerous flashy visual effects and complex features. However, it also suffered from massive code corruption, a bloated system, and poor memory management.

The user experience is that it's very prone to lag, frame drops, and crashes...

In contrast, when developing a tablet operating system, HarmonyOS completely abandoned those fancy features and focused entirely on improving smoothness.

Sure enough, after criticizing Apple, Chen Guiliang started criticizing Android: "Let's play Fruit Ninja, and play it with a browser, WeChat, and QQ all open at the same time, and see how smooth it is..."

The barrage was already laughing like crazy.

"Hahahahaha!!!"

"Comparing specs and price to Apple, and smoothness to Android, right?"

"I played Go with Yao Ming, and then basketball with Ma Xiaochun. Conclusion: I'm better than professional players."

"When it comes to abstract concepts, Chen Laozu is the best."

"Big boldness! The term 'abstract' was made a trending topic by Chen Laozu's Weibo!"

"Don't you know that Old Ancestor Chen is also known as Abstract Ancestor?"

"..."

While claiming to be relentlessly attacking competitors, Chen Guiliang did not mention the name of any of his rivals.

When introducing his own tablet computer, he would compare it with those of competitors, but when it came to his mobile phone, he would boast about it endlessly.

Because the iPhone 4S hadn't been released yet!

The upgraded version of HarmonyOS TianShu can't compete with the iPhone 4S in terms of CPU performance and graphics processing.

Because the A5 chip used in the Apple 4S not only has a more advanced architecture, but is also specifically optimized for the Apple system, resulting in a very tight integration of software and hardware.

However, the MSM8260 chip used in the upgraded TianShu is not specifically designed for any particular operating system. The phone's operating system needs to be adapted to the chip, and system optimizations need to be performed based on this chip.

The iPhone 4S was a legendary device; if you can't beat it, you can't beat it, and Chen Guiliang has to admit defeat.

However, the Apple 4S will be released in the US next month, and it won't be available in mainland China until early next year at the earliest. There's a two- or three-month window, which is enough time for Chen Guiliang to seize the market.

So, let's blow it as loud as we can now!
Chen Guiliang pulled out the "HarmonyOS TianShu Pro" and began to boast about its specifications: "Compared to last year's TianShu, our TianShu Pro uses the latest Qualcomm MSM8260 chip, achieving a qualitative leap from single-core to dual-core. The maximum frequency and processing speed have both been significantly improved..."

"The phone became smoother than ever before when multitasking..."

During the demonstration, Chen Guiliang started one task after another.

HarmonyOS isn't the only company using this chip in its phones; Chen Guiliang is actually one of the later adopters. For example, the HTC Sensation was released several months ago. Lei Jun also unveiled the Xiaomi 1S last month.

However, both HTC and Xiaomi devices experience overheating when running multiple tasks simultaneously due to the use of this high-performance chip.

Xiaomi phones tend to overheat significantly!

Therefore, what Chen Guiliang wanted to promote was not how powerful the performance was, but how powerful the heat dissipation capability of his own company was.

The TianShu Pro was developed earlier than the Xiaomi S1, but was released later, mainly because it was constantly optimizing its heat dissipation capabilities.

Graphite patch, metal backplate, thermal grease, thermal gel, heat pipe cooling... a whole host of terms came out of Chen Guiliang's mouth.

Some heat dissipation solutions are not too difficult and Xiaomi can easily adopt them.

However, Xiaomi only used graphite heat dissipation film technology because Lei Jun (CEO of Xiaomi) needed to keep costs down. Many high-quality heat dissipation materials had to be imported from Japan, South Korea, and the United States, which were too expensive and were therefore abandoned by Lei Jun.

However, while trying to reduce costs, Lei Jun also pursued high performance, aiming to make low-end phones comparable to high-end phones. This resulted in Xiaomi phones overheating even more!

You can't have your cake and eat it too.

Lei Jun adopted a low-price, high-performance, high-heat-generating solution, while Chen Guiliang adopted a high-price, high-performance, low-heat-generating solution.

The target users are completely different.

These things definitely won't be explained clearly at the press conference; Chen Guiliang just kept emphasizing how awesome his phone's heat dissipation was.

He started interacting with the audience again.

While running multiple tasks and playing games simultaneously, Chen Guiliang even charged his phone. Xiaomi phones must get incredibly hot doing that. Even more expensive sausages would definitely get extremely hot.

Chen Guiliang, however, took out a thermometer and said to the cameraman, "Could you please give the cameraman a close-up of the thermometer screen?"

39.1 degrees.

The live stream chat is getting more active again:
"Old Master Chen really knows how to pull things off; he even brought out a temperature gun."

"I have to say, that's amazing!" "39.1 degrees Celsius is still pretty hot, right? That's about the temperature for a high fever."

"Why is it hot? All phones using the same chip tend to get hot, but HarmonyOS's heat dissipation is amazing."

"You can play games and charge your phone at the same time while multitasking. If you had a Xiaomi 1S, you could fry an egg in that time."

"Xiaomi is only 1999 yuan!"

"Ham's flagship phone this year is expensive, but its heat dissipation is still far inferior to HarmonyOS."

"..."

Because of domestic (mainland brand) smartphones, the HarmonyOS operating system accounts for more than 85% of the market share. Currently, about 15% of mainland brands use Android and its variants (such as the mobile operating system).

The reason why Android phones can still maintain their ecosystem in mainland China is mainly due to HTC, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, and Motorola.

Samsung and HTC are the best sellers. Despite not having a price-performance advantage over HarmonyOS, and even being inferior in appearance, they still have a large number of Chinese users.

Foreign monks are better at chanting scriptures; foreign brands have an inexplicable advantage.

Fortunately, HarmonyOS phones are excellent enough, especially the Tian Shu's design, which is ahead of its time, allowing them to quickly gain fans and break through the competition. They even achieved sales leadership over Samsung and HTC.

However, HTC has been on a downward spiral this year due to a copyright lawsuit that Apple has dealt it a heavy blow. Some of its models were even temporarily removed from shelves.

The Samsung Galaxy S II has been released, but it has not yet entered the Chinese mainland market.

If the TianShu Pro can take advantage of the window of opportunity to steal away the target users of the Samsung Galaxy S II, the market share of the Android camp will continue to decline!
Once Android's market share drops to a critical point, small and medium-sized third-party companies will no longer develop Android apps. Even if they do, they won't do it immediately, but rather postpone it until after HarmonyOS and Apple's operating system.

Chen Guiliang continued to boast, mentioning an 800-megapixel back-illuminated sensor that supports 1080P high-definition video recording, and so on.

As more and more content was presented, both the guests at the scene and the viewers in the live broadcast room listened with great emotion.

Before the Apple 4S was even released and before the Samsung Galaxy S II entered the mainland China market, HarmonyOS TianShu Pro found itself without any rivals, dominating the Chinese mainland market.

There's not a single one who can fight; everyone here is trash!
One reporter sitting at the scene muttered, "Another amazing phone, it would be considered a flagship phone today."

One of the reasons for Jobs' serious illness is this.

If it weren't for Steve Jobs' serious illness causing the delay, the Apple 4S would have been launched much earlier, and Chen Guiliang wouldn't have been left with such a long market gap.

By the time the Apple 4S arrives in China early next year, the TianShu Pro will have already taken over the market at the same price point.

In the following days, before the Tian Shu Pro and Kirin 1.0 (tablet) were officially released, Chen Guiliang's new product launch video quickly circulated online.

Pre-orders surged on official HarmonyOS online flagship stores on major e-commerce platforms such as JD.com and Taobao.

Especially the Kirin 1.0 tablet, which boasts the highest configuration and lowest price among branded computers. Countless consumers who had been saving up to buy an iPad 2 voted with their feet by choosing the Kirin 1.0.

Ten days later, all HarmonyOS offline stores were fully stocked.

In some major cities, long lines formed at stores the night before the release. Some people even brought tents.

There were no shills, only real customers.

And scalpers!

The Kirin 1.0's incredible cost-effectiveness and the Tian Shu Pro's outstanding performance have attracted a large number of HarmonyOS fans and potential customers.

Buy an iPhone?
The iPhone 4S hasn't been released yet; there's only the iPhone 4 available now, but its specifications are already a generation behind, and the price hasn't dropped much.

If I had the money to buy a high-end phone, I would of course choose the TianShu Pro, which is about the same price but has a more advanced configuration.

In no time, photos of customers queuing overnight to buy mobile phones spread to every corner of the internet.

Many netizens who don't follow the mobile phone industry find this phenomenon unbelievable: "Are these people crazy? They're even setting up tents to guard the place after buying a phone."

Someone replied, "Many of them are scalpers. Mobile phone production lines need to be debugged and gradually increased in number, so there can't be too many phones available in the first batch. Scalpers can take advantage of this and sell them at high prices."

Some people gloated: "Haha, HarmonyOS's online and offline stores have now issued temporary regulations. You must use your ID card to buy a phone, and each ID card can only buy two phones."

This situation quickly made it into the newspapers.

The hot sales of the new HarmonyOS phone have attracted scalpers, prompting a limit of two units per customer with proof of purchase to appease customers.

Domestic mobile phone brands are highly sought after, and the new HarmonyOS phone is even subject to purchase restrictions based on ID card.

Many middle-aged and elderly people who do not use the internet were shocked when they saw the newspaper.

In their minds, Nokia should be the best, so why is HarmonyOS phone suddenly so popular?
Samsung's Chinese distributors are frantically urging Samsung Galaxy S II to complete the necessary paperwork as soon as possible.

Because the Samsung Galaxy S II is a competitor to the Tian Shu Pro in the same price range, it will be too late if we don't hurry up and sell it!

However, foreign brands have to go through procedures to sell their new phones in China. The network access license alone takes two months to process, and there are also 3C certification, radio transmission equipment type approval certificates, and so on…

Samsung has actually been applying for certification for a while, but in order to pass the technical testing of the relevant departments, it needs to undergo at least three months of network access testing in China.

Chen Guiliang had a decent relationship with the leaders. He wouldn't violate regulations to strangle others, but he could delay things within a reasonable timeframe.

With the release of the TianShu Pro, priced at 4999 yuan, the prices of HarmonyOS's TianShu, A1, and A2 models have subsequently decreased.

The Tian Shu, which sold for 4999 yuan last year, has already seen several price reductions, this time dropping directly to 2999 yuan. This is because, with the iteration of hardware, the hardware cost of Tian Shu is also decreasing.

Consumers who previously couldn't afford the Tian Shu but had been eyeing it eagerly rushed to buy it this time for 2999 yuan, fulfilling their wishes instantly.

As a result, sales of HarmonyOS's Tian Shu, A1, and A2 models surged due to significant price reductions.

When the third quarter report is released, HarmonyOS will account for 15.8% of the Chinese smartphone market share in the third quarter, thanks to its four smartphone models!

Samsung, Apple, and HTC all saw slight declines in market share during the quarter.

Nokia's market share plummeted from 22.6% last quarter to 17.4% now. It almost got overtaken by HarmonyOS.

Meanwhile, other domestic mobile phone manufacturers are also making efforts.

Xiaomi, Meizu, Xingyao, Tianyu, VIVO, OPPO, Huawei, ZTE, Xiaxin, Bird... all are fiercely competing with Apple, Android, and Symbian by leveraging the increasingly mature HarmonyOS ecosystem.

BlackBerry and Microsoft operating systems were the first to be phased out, and are now almost nowhere to be seen in mainland China.

The next system to be eliminated will definitely be Symbian.

根据第三季度的报告来看，几大系统市场份额构成为：鸿蒙（45.5%）、安卓及变种（29.8%）、塞班（17.4%）、苹果（7.2%）、其他（0.1%）。

The release of this report has been met with jubilation from the media, who are hailing it as a victory for domestic brands.

In addition, the recent price difference between Lenovo products in China and the US has led many netizens to call for Lenovo to abandon Android and switch to HarmonyOS for its mobile phones.

Lenovo's top management certainly couldn't ignore this. They had bet on Android's success, so they developed their own Microsoft system while using a mobile operating system, and then developed their own Android system.

Lenovo has now abandoned Microsoft's operating system and mainly uses mobile and Android systems. They are discussing whether to develop a HarmonyOS-based phone.

The conclusion of the discussion was: Don't use HarmonyOS!
Because Lenovo also needs to focus on overseas markets, and other companies' products are launched first in the US, the Android system is something they absolutely cannot give up.

As long as Android phones continue to sell in China, Lenovo can continue manufacturing them, thus catering to both domestic and international markets.

The mobile operating system can't be abandoned either; it's a matter of prestige for China Mobile. Anyway, it's guaranteed to sell, since they're all contract phones with China Mobile, and Lenovo needs to maintain a good relationship with them.

As for phones running HarmonyOS, Lenovo's strategy is very clear: wait until Android becomes obsolete.

Huawei and ZTE also produce Android phones because they are also targeting overseas markets. Their strategy is to develop both Android and HarmonyOS simultaneously, since these are all low-end contract phones, and the R&D costs are negligible.

(End of this chapter)