Reborn in America, I'm serious about making money.

"Boss, this is an engineering prototype that we could barely manage to make according to your requirements."

This phone, shipped from North America, is different from the mainstream feature phones of today. It's just as thick, but heavier.

"This phone uses a lithium battery, the energy-saving chip you mentioned, the latest 32-bit ARM11 chip, and Q-connect's CDMA network communication technology. It also features a large three-inch screen..."

The engineer who came with the phone started excitedly explaining it to everyone. Judging from the flushed face, he was also very excited about the device.

Zhang San picked up a brick and started looking at it. This brick was really big. How to describe it? It was about the size of an iPhone 11 Pro Max with a keyboard, but Baidu was four times the thickness of an iPhone 11 Pro Max. Picking it up was like picking up a Xinhua Dictionary.

"It's alright. I'll give it a try. If there's anything that needs to be changed, I'll talk to headquarters."

The engineering prototype will definitely be much larger. When it goes into production, the component manufacturers will naturally develop more suitable components.

Zhang San started playing with the brick. As for the rotating brides, Zhang San sent them off to train. Haven't you heard of the saying, "Three minutes on stage requires ten years of practice off stage"? It's this kind of strict requirement that allows these trainees to experience the vicissitudes of life.

As for why they were asked to leave, it was for secrecy, of course. Such an important thing as an engineering machine cannot be seen by outsiders.

The first prototype, codenamed NT-0, was equipped with the ANOS 1.0 operating system. This system was the earliest version after many reductions and cuts, and it lacked the fancy features. Under this system, a browser and a search engine were integrated, making it an open system.

Because it has few functions, it consumes very little power; of course, this power saving is compared with future systems, but compared with feature phones, it consumes a lot of power.

"It runs smoothly overall, but the lack of a touchscreen is a problem."

Zhang San played with it for an hour, then found it uninteresting and stopped. He then put the world's first smartphone into the safe. He called the engineer from earlier that day and told him to take the safe back with him; he had already tested it and it basically met his requirements.

"...There's another thing. This screen is full of pixels. We've recently acquired a company whose screen technology is very reliable. It's a small company we acquired here, but their screens are excellent. We'll use theirs then..."

"Boss, we might need more storage space. It would be awkward for a phone like this to not have enough storage."

Zhang San suddenly remembered something: the Walkman from the fruit company. He looked up and leaned back on the sofa. The delivery engineer, however, didn't dare make a sound. He sat upright on the sofa, not daring to disturb the company's product manager and senior consultant, the father of WINOS and NTOS.

"Steve went back to Fruit Company?"

Zhang San looked up and asked a question that seemed unrelated to the present, which surprised the engineer. However, being someone from the North American tech circle, he immediately replied, "They've already gone back."

"Go find a company in an island nation that manufactures computer hard drives. We'll fund them to develop a miniaturized version of the hard drive. It needs to be very small, like this size. It needs to be shock-resistant, stable in operation, and have a fast transfer port."

In a tech company, it's common for the founder to be ousted. There are two possibilities: either they fail to meet the needs of the shareholders, or they are unable to lead the company in developing new products.

Although Zhang San is not in the company and does not manage it—a very laid-back company, even though he doesn't work there—his influence on the company is enormous.

The projects he led all achieved great breakthroughs, basically bringing huge profits to the company. This is why the shareholders of NT-MS tolerated his existence, not for any other reason than that this guy is Chinese.

The current situation is that he has started a new company and is developing all sorts of baffling things.

One Wall Street commentator remarked, "That guy wants to develop a smartphone? That's just wishful thinking."

"It might take another ten or twenty years to develop a way to fit a computer into a small mobile phone."

"Who knows, he might become the next Stephen."

Stephen and Steve are actually the same person, just with different Chinese translations; therefore, when they first heard that Zhang San's English name was Stephen, they were also taken aback. Moreover, like Steve, he was engaged in the field of technology and had achieved the same brilliance in his respective field.

Privately, they referred to each other as the second Steve.

Now, this guy has actually started making mobile phones, which has drawn many people's dismissive smiles.

"I'm also looking forward to that day, haha..."

Zhang San certainly didn't know that a group of people were mocking his new company behind his back, but it didn't matter; he couldn't hear or see it, so he was unaware.

The holding company of Jincheng Communications is Jincheng Group. The two major subsidiaries of Jincheng Group are Jincheng Communications and Jincheng Electronics. Jincheng Electronics is currently manufacturing feature phones and is now developing what is said to be a groundbreaking product: smartphones.

After Zhang San pointed them in the right direction, Jin Cheng Electronics indeed found Dongzhi, a long-established company in Japan whose hard drive technology is very famous worldwide.

After the negotiations, Zhang San received the details of the negotiations and was puzzled as to why Joe spent 20 million US dollars, but he needed to pay 30 million US dollars.

Damn it, do you think you're easy to bully? Zhang San was furious, and that night, he found a trainee and asked her to help put out the fire.

The other party was also confused as to why the boss was being so aggressive today, giving her an unprecedented feeling. It was like the boss was giving her a perk today.

Zhang San had no idea about the trainee's psychological changes last night. When he entered his sage mode, he finally understood what was going on.

At that time, Dongzhi's technology was not advanced enough, and Steve was only a year or two away from that point. Technology was iterating very quickly back then, okay?

"Agree to their terms, but all related patents must be ours."

Zhang San sighed. Some skills still require learning from others; technical accumulation cannot be achieved in a short period of time.