Those Years When I Was Forced to Top the Forbes List

Chapter 292 For This Button
When Chen Xuebing walked out of BOE's B2 plant, Wang had already submitted.

The hand gripping President Chen trembled violently.

"President Chen, I know why you wanted us to build the 4.5 generation line first. Thank you, thank you!"

Currently, Shenzhen Tianma is the only company in China that specializes in producing small and medium-sized screens. They own the first CSTN (Color Super Twisted Nematic Liquid Crystal) production line and occupy a prime location in Shenzhen, the center of electronics manufacturing.

Although their technology still lags behind BOE by a generation, Tianma announced this year that it will simultaneously build three 4.5-generation TFT-LCD production lines in Shanghai, Chengdu, and Wuhan.

Moreover, TPO Displays, a Taiwanese company and one of the world's largest manufacturers of small and medium-sized TFTs, established a 3.5-generation line at its Nanjing base in 03. Although progress has been slow, it has already started production and its technology is among the most advanced in the world. This year, it also announced that it will focus on the research and development of low-temperature polycrystalline silicon and AMOLED technologies.

BOE almost fell behind!
Initially, BOE's fifth-generation line was limited by the 17-inch computer screen, so it set two directions: one was to break through to larger screens, and the other was to break through to smaller screens.

Small-screen production is limited by the small size of mobile phone screens. Nowadays, the mainstream screen size is only 1.5 inches to 2 inches, and it would take more than 600 mobile phones to cut one glass substrate.

But now, it seems the era of large-screen phones is on the horizon.

A 3-inch screen isn't just twice the size of a 1.5-inch screen, it's four times the size!
The edge loss is also lower, and a single substrate can theoretically be cut into a maximum of 220 units!
And the 4.2-inch screen that Chen Xuebing brought out is twice the size of a 3-inch screen! It consumes power even faster!
If everyone makes their screens bigger, the order volume in the future will not be comparable to that of the past. The cost of each component will be several times higher than before, and the profit will naturally increase several times as well.

The mobile phone panel market, wouldn't that make it viable?
Next, it's time to seize the market.

BOE signed a contract for its 4.5-generation line at the end of March. This step may seem to have been only six months ahead of schedule, but with Chen Xuebing's strong push, it actually saved at least six months of negotiation time!

One step ahead leads to continuous progress!
Chen Xuebing was unaware of Wang Dongsheng's calculations, but seeing his excitement, he felt somewhat gratified.

This shows that Wang Dongsheng can still understand the next market changes.

"Mr. Wang, since your a-Si TFT driving technology has an upper limit on pixel density, you should plan ahead and move towards AMOLED technology. Even if there are difficulties, you can't wait to be eliminated. I said half a year ago that I would come back in October with my phone to persuade you to develop AMOLED. Now I have done it ahead of schedule. Tell me, do you have confidence?"

"Don't worry!" Wang Dongsheng said firmly, "We are developing LTPS (Low Temperature Polycrystalline Silicon) backplane technology. This technology is standard for sixth-generation lines and is also the core driving technology for AMOLED! The 300 PPI limit of a-Si will absolutely not stop us!"

“Samsung started down this path several years ago.” Chen Xuebing was not as optimistic as Wang Dongsheng. “It’s not just a technical issue, but also a patent wall blocking our way. So we need to get the AMOLED development onto the production line as soon as possible.”

After saying that, he took out the Kirin phone again and shook it.

"This phone is positioned as a high-end device. When we were discussing the screen, we visited manufacturers all over Asia and finally ordered production capacity from LG. If LG doesn't produce the next generation of phone screens for me, I don't know if Samsung will hold me back. I'm waiting to use your advanced screens, so whenever you are confident in building an AMOLED production line, I'm ready to invest in you."

Wang Dongsheng suddenly understood why Chen Xuebing had been urging him.

He suddenly realized that having an investor who was even more anxious than him to jointly control the situation might not necessarily be a bad thing for BOE. At the very least, it would allow them to reach a high degree of agreement on their attitudes regarding research and development.

"It may take many years for AMOLED research and development to be commercialized, but since none of us have it yet, we are catching up and we will definitely catch up! Besides, it's not only AMOLED that's considered high-end! If you want advanced screens, we have many other ways! Within three to five years, I will definitely develop a usable high-end screen for you!"

Wang Dongsheng made radical remarks.

Mr. Wang's confidence in pursuing the high-end market is the strongest Chen Xuebing has ever seen, and he is very satisfied.

But he still pointed to the round button at the bottom of the phone and the black bezel area and said, "I know that LCD can also make high PPI screens, but LCD screens have too many modules, and a large space needs to be left at the bottom. If you don't get AMOLED sorted out, I will never be able to remove this button, nor can I make an ultra-thin phone."

This circular button could actually be removed entirely, given Kunlun OS's current operating logic that differs from Apple's iOS.

However, Chen Xuebing had previously discussed with Wang Dongsheng that LCD screens rely on an independent backlight layer, making it difficult to compress the overall thickness of the screen. Moreover, the bezel width also increases due to the edge encapsulation requirements of the backlight module; otherwise, edge shadows or light leakage problems will occur.

Without AMOLED, there would be no full-screen display, nor would there be a truly ultra-thin design.

Instead of leaving an ugly blank border, Kirin might as well leave a round button to "cover up the ugliness" and add some unique button functions.

Now that Wang Dongsheng has seen the actual object, he fully understands Chen Xuebing's thoughts and nods silently.

"Moreover," Chen Xuebing glanced at Rong Xiuli waiting not far away, repeatedly stroking the left and right bezels with both hands, and whispered, "I heard that AMOLED also has flexible versions? Theoretically, is it possible to make the bezel screen slightly curved to cover the hard bezel?"

Wang Dongsheng's eyes widened.

With the addition of thick glasses, it appears exceptionally large.

"Mr. Chen, flexible AMOLED is just a theory. There are too many material issues involved, which are beyond the capabilities of our country's technology. We need to find Japan, but they are unlikely to sell us the material technology. If we want to develop this, we will probably have to rely on Japan's attitude."

Chen Xuebing pondered for a moment and said, "No rush. I've been in Beijing for a while. Let's do things and discuss things at the same time. You find some information and figure out what kind of technical statistics you need. I'll come to the factory in a couple of days to talk about it."

Wang Dongsheng breathed a sigh of relief: "President Chen, I suggest you don't rush this issue. It would be good if we could get the rigidity right first. Flexibility is just a matter of materials and packaging. Rigidity is the foundation of functionality. You can't learn to run before you learn to walk. LTPS backplane technology and vapor deposition packaging technology will always be the core."

"Ok."

Chen Xuebing stopped insisting: "Then let's discuss the AMOLED research issue first. I want to see your actual actions before I leave Beijing."

Wang Dongsheng suddenly curled his lips into a sly smile. "Actually, we started researching this a long time ago. After we announced the construction of our 4.5-generation line to enter the mobile phone screen market, an American technical team came to us with some OLED display technology. They originally wanted to sell it to the US military, but the US military wasn't interested. While they were approaching us, they also planned to approach Samsung, but I've already intercepted their team. Next time you come, I'll take you to see our secret laboratory."

Chen Xuebing was stunned.

Holy crap? I can't believe I've run into this kind of good fortune?
Then, he laughed heartily: "Good job, Mr. Wang! That's right! If you can run, then run! I have faith in you!"

While happy, Chen Xuebing also revealed a condition: "Don't worry! Start the 4.5 generation line with confidence! You can even expand the factory's production lines. Don't worry about capacity issues. With me here, the sales situation will definitely be more optimistic than you imagine!"

Wang Dongsheng was already planning to see them off when he heard this. He grabbed Chen Xuebing's wrist and said with slight excitement, "Mr. Chen, you mean you still have some?"

He glanced in Rong Xiuli's direction.

"Hehe." Chen Xuebing waved his hand dismissively and walked towards Rong Xiuli's car. "Let's talk about the board seat first!"

Wang Dongsheng's expression kept changing, and he started to get anxious, chasing after Chen Xuebing and saying:
"Mr. Chen, how long will you be staying in Beijing?"

"Hey? Mr. Chen! When are you coming?"

Chen Xuebing simply waved his hand without answering, and got into Rong Xiuli's car with her.

"Mr. Rong, could you please take me to Zhongguancun?"

Rong Xiuli nodded, her expression unreadable as she looked at Wang Dongsheng, who was stammering and chasing after her from outside the car.

"President Chen, I didn't expect that by integrating the supply chain, you would actually win over the board seats of the panel manufacturers."

Chen Xuebing asked in surprise, "Doesn't General Rong want this? Having a stable rear would be very beneficial for you."

"That would be great," Rong Xiuli immediately replied with a smile. She simply felt that with Chen Xuebing controlling the mobile phone chips, operating system, and panel, it would be extremely difficult for domestic smartphone manufacturers to make a comeback.

There was a hint of helplessness.

But then, a hint of submission crept into that smile.

"From now on, we will follow General Manager Chen diligently."

Chen Xuebing coughed and regained his composure.

"Actually, there's something else I wanted to talk to you about today. You've seen the phone case, right? It can't be opened. It uses a pouch lithium battery inside. I found a domestic manufacturer of pouch lithium batteries for you. The price is quite cheap. Do you want to continue using BYD's nickel-cadmium batteries, or do you want to switch to something else?"

Although he's in Beijing, he hasn't forgotten about things in Shenzhen.

Ren Ying was specially left in Shenzhen to arrange for Xu Yanming to meet with manufacturers in Huaqiangbei. After learning about the situation, Xu Yanming discovered that the production capacity of the manufacturers controlled by Chen Xuebing was far more than one million per month. He immediately rushed to Zhuhai to discuss the establishment of a three-way factory with his upstream company, Guangyu Group.

Guangyu also quickly sent people to Huaqiangbei to find out the situation, and then negotiated with Ren Ying.

After initial discussions, they decided to build a larger factory. The new company will be called Zhuhai Guanyu, with an investment of 1.5 million yuan. Chen Xuebing will personally invest 2000 million yuan, holding 34% of the shares.

This factory doesn't have many large pieces of equipment, so construction will be quick.

When Chen Xuebing mentioned it, Rong Xiuli already guessed what it meant.

"Mr. Chen, you also invested in a battery factory?"

Chen Xuebing smiled but did not answer.

"It's not a forced sale. If you think nickel-cadmium batteries are better, you can continue using them. Lithium batteries are all connected and don't have a spare battery, but they are thinner and lighter. Integrated phones are also our goal. They have better sealing, are waterproof and dustproof, and the phone will age more slowly."

"Furthermore... our next step will be to develop our own charging standard for pouch lithium batteries."

"Oh," Rong Xiuli thought for a moment and immediately made a decision: "Okay, we'll use soft-pack lithium batteries. Mr. Chen, can you give us a discount?"

"I heard you have a deep partnership with BYD, why don't you consider it?" Chen Xuebing chuckled.

Rong Xiuli said without hesitation, "President Chen's thinking is advanced. I told President Zhou of Zhanxun a long time ago that we should always follow the strong."

Chen Xuebing was somewhat satisfied.

"However, don't be complacent. We will only cooperate with the strong. We still need to invest more in our own research and development."

"Mr. Chen is overthinking it. Our research and development will never stop."

(End of this chapter)