Chapter 414:1 Must Win This Round!_l
In 2011, on February 22, Jiang Xu received a piece of news from the media that left him incredibly surprised.
The Lovefone S was officially released today!
Yet, according to the original timeline, this smartphone was supposed to launch in Mei Country on October 5, 2011.
It wasn’t until January 13, 2012, that it made its way to the domestic market.
This was a seven-month advancement.
It completely caught Jiang Xu off guard.
This one hundred percent change was due to something Jiang Xu did after his reincarnation.
It’s just that Jiang Xu couldn’t figure out why.
What he didn’t know was that it was related to him securing the domestic rights to League of Legends.
The founder, after receiving the authorization fee from Jiang Xu, went on to invest in the stock market and made a fortune.
It was around this time that he met Qiao Busi and learned a few things, which led him to pour the money he made from the stock market into it.
He also introduced a few tech talents to Qiao Busi.
This led to the epoch-making Lovefone S being launched ahead of schedule.
When Jiang Xu found out about this, he felt incredibly weighed down.
Now, Mei Zhu’s M9 was no match for the Lovefone S.
At this rate, in another month or two, the Lovefone S would enter the domestic market.
Jiang Xu was acutely aware of how terrifying the impact of this smartphone was.
It was so powerful that some people would choose to sell their kidneys just to get one.
Some girls were even willing to sell their bodily fluids just to afford a Lovefone S.
The reasons behind this phenomenon were numerous.
A small portion of our countrymen blindly worshipped foreign products.
Some were drawn in because of the superior marketing.
Another reason was that the product was indeed very competitive.
And another part of it was that domestic phone manufacturers at the time had not yet developed, and were simply no match for it.
All these factors combined led to the dominance of the fruit-brand phone in the domestic market for over a decade.
Later on, the fruit brand discovered that even if they didn’t change the hardware when updating models, just by adding a few new colors and increasing the price, throngs of people would rush to buy.
And so, they became even more outrageous.
A simple cloth used for wiping phones could sell for 399.
A SIM card ejector pin, which cost next to nothing to produce, could sell for 299.
And yet, with these absurd prices, many people still made mindless purchases.
What’s even more absurd is how these people, faced with rational criticism, would assert with full confidence that their SIM pin was different from others and resulted in added protection for the phone.
When Jiang Xu saw these outlandish statements, he was speechless with astonishment.
During his previous life, Jiang Xu had seen a news report stating that over a decade, the fruit company had made several trillion yuan from China.
If this money had been retained within the country, it could have created countless high-paying jobs and spurred much consumer spending — it was unimaginable.
Thus, Jiang Xu was resolute in his decision that he would not let the fruit phone tread the same path again this time.
He had to counter it!
All sorts of thoughts were racing through Jiang Xu’s mind.
He called Wang Zhang and said, “Mei Zhu’s M9 needs to come out with a Pro version.”
“Ah? What do you mean?” Wang Zhang didn’t understand.
Jiang Xu was startled.
Indeed, in this era, there was nothing like Pro or Plus yet.
Jiang Xu said, “Mei Country’s Lovefone S has been released, you’re aware of that, right?”
Wang Zhang: “Hmm, I just saw the news.”
Jiang Xu: “If this smartphone enters our country, it will deal a fatal blow to our high-end market.
With the current product strength of the Mei Zhu M9, it’s not enough.”
“So, we must release an enhanced version to counter it.”
Wang Zhang humbly asked for advice, “Then how do you suggest we strengthen it?”
“It’s quite simple, we add technologies that are currently not included in any global smartphone,” Jiang Xu said clearly:
“First, dramatically upgrade the camera, upping the pixels to two million.
Second, incorporate a fingerprint unlocking feature in the smartphone’s home button.”
Both these features are incredibly powerful, and currently, no phone manufacturer in the world has them.
In the future, phones will have camera pixels in the hundreds of millions, and the quality of the photos will surpass many professional cameras.
And fingerprint unlocking will become very common in phones.
But when it was first introduced, it was absolute cutting-edge technology, something that made countless users jump for joy and exclaim in awe.
Many people think the first phone with fingerprint unlocking was the “Fruit” company’s Love Crazy 5S released in September 2013.
But that’s not the case.
The first fingerprint unlocking phone was the Motorola Atrix 4G, released in April 2011.
That’s just in two months.
However, because of the vast difference in product strength and competitiveness between the two, not many people are aware of this.
There’s still time now.
If we move fast, Mei Zhu can snag the title of being the first in the world to launch this.
“Hiss!” Wang Zhang sucked in a breath of air, shocked by Jiang Xu’s bold idea.
But he quickly became excited.
If it could truly be accomplished, it would definitely take Mei Zhu’s phones to the next level.
“But,” Wang Zhang soon calmed down, “the camera upgrade is doable, but where do we get the fingerprint unlocking technology?”
“Buy it!” Jiang Xu said succinctly: “There are companies in our country that work on related technologies.
Whether it’s buying their license, acquiring the entire technology, or even taking over the company altogether.
In any case, we can solve it with money.
The ‘Love Crazy Silky S’ will enter the domestic market in two months at the earliest.
So, in reality, we only have a month and a half to develop the new product.
We’ll need the remaining half a month to test for various bugs, hold a press conference, and so on.
We must move quickly, start now.
No matter how many technicians are needed, recruit them immediately, sparing no cost, no expense!”
Toward the end, Jiang Xu’s tone carried an unquestionable certainty.
No one understood more clearly than him just how urgent the situation was.
If they didn’t act quickly, a disaster would truly be imminent.
Wang Zhang felt a chill in his heart.
It was the first time he had seen this side of Jiang Xu.
In his memory, Jiang Xu had always been a sunny, cheerful young man with a gentle personality.
“I have no problem on my end,” Wang Zhang said, coming back to reality, “but there’s an issue—we’re running out of money.
If we proceed as you suggest, we’ll need at least a base of five hundred million.”
Jiang Xu: “Don’t worry about the money, I’ll take care of it.
Within five days, I’ll get you one billion, consider this money as my further investment in Mei Zhu’s shareholding.”
“Alright, let’s do that then.”
After ending the call, Wang Zhang immediately sprang into action.
An opportunity to make Mei Zhu phones go down in history, even to become world-famous, was right in front of him.
If missed, there may never be a second chance in this lifetime.
Meanwhile, Jiang Xu made a phone call to Ally: “Put down whatever you’re working on now, there’s something very important that you need to deal with immediately!!”