Tech startup: I really do make mobile phones!

Chapter 82 Even the dog doesn't want the orange.
The strong stall in North China.

As the event was about to close, a gentle breeze blew, finally dissipating some of the afternoon's heat that had been building up on the streets.

Seventeen-year-old Xiaoyu clutched her three months' worth of saved pocket money, panting as she clung to the orange vendor's stall counter.

"Boss! Bring me an Orange 1, the white one!"

The shop owner blinked, put on a smile, and pulled a square box from under the counter. The orange logo on the box, "Orange 1," had been cut off by the letter Z. The box was also slightly larger than the original, and the edges of the orange lettering were rough.

Xiaoyu didn't look closely, happily stuffed it into her canvas bag, and ran to school for evening self-study.

During a break between evening self-study sessions, when she was holding up her phone to take a picture of her friend, she suddenly noticed that the screen kept lagging when she swiped. When the phone was almost out of battery, she had to plug it into the charging port three times before it finally went in.

five minutes later
"Xiaoyu! Something's wrong with your phone!" Xiaowei, her roommate, held up her Orange 1 and shoved it directly into the socket. The screen flashed blue light, and 30 seconds later the battery was fully charged: "Why is yours still black after charging for five minutes?"

Xiaoyu was puzzled. Clutching her newly bought white Orange 1, she finally noticed something was wrong.

"Oranges? Oranges! Oh no, Xiaowei, I bought fakes!"

The next afternoon.

When Xiaoyu rushed to the stall after school in the afternoon, the owner was sitting behind the counter, legs crossed, eating sunflower seeds.

"Refund! This is counterfeit!" She slammed her phone on the counter, startling a few buzzing flies. "What kind of oranges are these? Even a dog wouldn't want them!"

The boss glanced at the packaging box without even raising his eyelids: "Young lady, don't talk nonsense. What fake product? I have a legitimate market license and all that. Besides, they all look the same, don't they?"

"It's different!" Xiaoyu's eyes reddened with anxiety: "Yours won't swipe, and it charges slowly! If you don't give me a refund, I'll call 8331 and ask Sister Liu for help!"

She raised her flip phone, which had a Hello Kitty charm hanging from it, and the words "8331 is dialing" on the screen made Old Zhang's eyelids twitch.

This little brat actually knows how to expose something on a local news program?

He hurriedly got up to grab the phone, but his stomach hit the edge of the counter first, making him wince in pain.

"Young lady! Let's talk this out."

"Hello? This is Shenzhen Live Hotline." A slightly "young" sweet female voice came from the hands-free speaker.

The owner of the Orange 1 manufacturer didn't have time to think. His face turned pale instantly. He could use his connections to smooth things over with 12314, but what if it went on TV?
Even spending 10 yuan might not be enough to quell public opinion!
At that time, all of Qiang's peers in North China will laugh at him for ripping off female students and ruining his own reputation.

"Alright, alright! Little miss, I admit defeat!"

Helpless, the shop owner pulled out a "repackaged" Genuine Orange 1 from the bottom of the shelf. The packaging box was missing its protective film, and it was still the old orange model: "Take it! I'll throw in a pair of headphones for you too!"

"No! I want a refund! I can't trust you anymore!"

At that moment, a sweet female voice came through the speakerphone again, this time much more naturally: "Hello! This is Shenzhen Live Hotline."

Xiaoyu brought her phone closer, as if to respond to the sweet female voice on the other end.

"Alright, alright!" The boss was scared of this little brat and raised his hand, begging her to be lenient: "Little miss! A refund is fine, please!"

Xiaoyu carefully examined her three months' worth of pocket money before turning to leave. A machine dismantling worker peeked out from the back of the stall.

"Boss! It takes four or five hours to charge this 'Orange 1' phone, and the system keeps crashing."

"Stop talking nonsense!" The boss grabbed a feather duster and threw it at her: "It's all because your skills aren't up to par!"

The disassembly worker muttered under his breath, feeling wronged: "I told you long ago that gaseous lithium batteries are impossible to make. Besides, if I knew how to write system code, I would have gone to university long ago!"

The boss waved his hand impatiently, staring at the hundreds of "Orange 1" phones that had been gathering dust for three days on the shelf and sighing.

What should we do? Just now, a wholesaler from a stall called to return the goods.

Initially, the boss thought that Orange 1 was a hit product from a small workshop, and even if it had battery technology, it could be bypassed, so it shouldn't be difficult to copy it.

Therefore, the final configuration of their Orange 1 is as follows: the capacitive screen is a second-hand salvaged part, the Android system is a "public version RAM + ROM" from Huabei Qiang, and the fast charging battery is replaced with a regular lithium battery.

Never thought.
The first is cost control.

Can you believe it? Second-hand screen suppliers are raising prices arbitrarily, charging the same price as genuine, brand-new screens that Orange (a major electronics retailer) gets. And then there's the issue of gaseous lithium batteries.

This phone boasts cutting-edge technology that fully charges in 30 seconds, leaving even the most experienced disassembly technicians stumped.

I'm paid 2500 a month, not 2500 million. Boss, do whatever you want with me!
This is Orange 1's unique trick, there's really no way to counter it!

Finally, there's the system.

The so-called "public RAM + ROM" solution for the North China Strong An Desktop comes bundled with ten rogue apps from the start, which are impossible to remove and make the phone lag like a slideshow, with touch lag as bad as an old lady crossing the street.

This knock-off of Orange 1, "Juzi 1," can't even get a text message in 30 seconds, let alone 30-second fast charging.

The "Orange 1" workshop is actually right across from the Orange Workshop.

The owner lamented: Why is it that everyone else is just a small workshop, but my Orange 1 doesn't have the luck to become such a hit!
It's not just "Orange 1"; many wholesalers at Dacongming Market who were preparing to make high-quality imitations of Orange 1 encountered all sorts of problems.

Of course, gaseous lithium batteries are out of the question.

In other aspects, it's not that these counterfeit manufacturers can't make phones with similar performance to the Orange 1, but rather that the cost exceeds the original retail price of 499.

People are willing to do the business of beheading, but nobody wants to do a business that loses money.

The Orange 1 has achieved this: if its performance is the same as mine, its price will definitely be higher; if its price is the same as mine, its performance will definitely be worse.

Please type "Orange 1 is synonymous with cost-effectiveness" in the chat, thank you!
Wheat! And what about me?

Weren't you born to get fevers?

The initial positioning of the Wheat series was actually "coincidentally" the same as that of the Meizu series, both aiming to be pursuers of ultimate performance. One was born for enthusiasts, and the other was based on the spirit of geeks.

Orange 1 is now positioned in the 400-600 GHz niche in North China, achieving the ultimate cost-effectiveness.

One consensus reached by the counterfeit manufacturers in North China is: counterfeiting Orange 1 is a dead end.

There are two reasons:
On the cost side, Orange 1 has sold 30 units in the past week using the strong distribution channels in North China, and is now qualified to negotiate prices with various links in the supply chain with the orders.

Secondly, in terms of technology, "fully charged in 30 seconds" has become the most eye-catching label of Orange 1, gaining recognition from many young people. Even the smoothness of Orange 1.0 OS system has become an added highlight.

These two factors have led to many counterfeit Orange 1 manufacturers losing their shirts before they even had a chance to ship their products.

The counterfeit Orange 1 phones that have already been produced are either distributed to second- and third-tier cities and towns, or dismantled and recycled.

On the contrary, the manufacturers that honestly copied the Apple 4 have actually formed a real differentiated competition with the Orange 1.

Their hardware configurations don't compete with the Apple 1 in terms of "cost-effectiveness"; they are mainly high-quality imitations of the Apple 4.

Either it's barely usable, or the terminal price doesn't exceed 380 yuan.

Alternatively, they could directly upgrade the configuration, using superior hardware to compensate for the shortcomings of their software system, thus increasing the price to over 699 yuan.

Believe it or not, a large number of consumers actually bought these high-quality replicas of the Apple 4.

Those working-class people and students who are short of money but want to experience the "high-end feel" of smartphones repeatedly compare their crumpled banknotes at the stalls.

The high-quality replica of the iPhone 4, priced at 380 yuan, has a four-hour charging time, occasional touch malfunctions, and even produces blurry photos of faces.
But its advantage lies in its appearance, which is almost indistinguishable from the real thing. You can put it in your pocket and it will make you look like you're walking on air.

Three days ago, parallel imports of the Hong Kong version of the Apple 4 arrived in Shenzhen one after another, and the price of genuine Apple 4 in North China broke through the 10,000 yuan mark, quietly becoming a new favorite among high-end consumers in Shenzhen.

When the Orange 1 amazed everyone with its "fully charged in 30 seconds" feature, creating its own product brand, these "smart alternatives" to the Apple 4 are carving out a niche in the strong low-end market in North China by targeting different consumer groups with their price points.

This forms a strange yet stable coexistence with the Orange 1, which focuses on "fast charging".

There are no counterfeit phones from North China that can compete with Orange 1 for market share in the low-to-mid-range price range of 400-600 yuan.

Not everyone needs fast charging. For many people, spending a little money to buy "prestige" is far more practical than performance.

Why should these knock-off manufacturers, who only want to make a little money, fight tooth and nail with Orange?

(End of this chapter)