151: Sansang initiates new battery research.

"The Fruit 5s Long Battery Life version?"

"Apple cell?"

Park Yitien received a report from his subordinate early in the morning. He had originally intended to watch Fruit's press conference last night, but he couldn't resist the allure of Secretary Li and spent half the night in a fierce battle.

"Yes, Minister. After its release on April 30th, USA time, it was listed on the Fruit Store and official website. Pre-orders opened today."

"From the information I've gathered, the number of pre-orders from last night until now has exceeded 1 million, and this number is still rising."

Park Yitien tapped his fingers lightly. This wasn't good news. Last year, Samsung's global mobile phone sales were number one in the world, but they were still being suppressed by Fruit in the high-end market.

Their global sales of 150 million units were all models like the Fruit 5 and 5s with starting prices of over 900,000, while Samsung's sales in the high-end market weren't even a third of Fruit's.

Not to mention profit margins. Everyone knew about Apple phone's high profits; it could even be said that Fruit alone took over 70% of the global smartphone profits, while even Samsung could only pick up Fruit's leftovers.

The product strength of the Galaxy Note series released by Samsung last year was very strong. Park Yitien was also holding his breath, planning to set 'three fires' upon taking office and use this year's Galaxy S series to snatch a bit more of the high-end market from Fruit.

After all, Fruit wasn't without its weaknesses, such as charging and battery life.

"aishiba! Damn that Kim Jae-se!"

Park Yitien slapped the table angrily. Partnering with Kim Jae-se to seek Red Star's Yangtze River Battery was his plan to stab Fruit in the back regarding battery life. In the end, after plotting for so long, Red Star still managed to escape.

He had even sent his own woman and used up favors, yet in the end, he gained nothing. In his eyes, Kim Jae-se was an out-and-out pig.

What a great opportunity!

And yet, he actually messed it up!

As long as they got the Yangtze River Battery technology, he could use longer battery life and a better screen to tear a piece of meat from Fruit's mouth in the high-end market share.

Now, it's all gone down the drain.

Instead, Fruit was the first to achieve a breakthrough in battery technology.

"How much is the long battery life version of the Fruit 5s?"

"Minister, the 16GB version is priced at 1.15 million."

"aishiba!" Park Yitien was a bit frantic upon hearing the price. 1.15 million—Fruit's profits were already high enough, and now this long battery life version had pushed the price up even further. Just how many us dollars was that guy Cook planning to earn?

"No, we can't just sit here and wait for death. Manager Cui, I'm giving you two tasks now."

Fruit's biggest weakness was originally battery life. Now that this long battery life version was out, the phone had almost no flaws. In the future high-end market share, Fruit would surely pull far ahead of Samsung.

As for whether Fruit's high price was a flaw, in Park Yitien's view, it wasn't a flaw of Fruit, but a flaw of the users.

"Please speak, Minister. I will do my absolute best."

"First, contact Samsung China immediately and try to get in touch with Red Star to see if we can get a supply of Yangtze River Batteries from them."

"You can lower your posture a bit. From the last negotiation, the person in charge of this Chinese company is the type who responds to soft tactics rather than hard ones. If it wasn't for that pig Kim Jae-se last time, I might have already gotten the Yangtze River Battery."

"Of course, I'm not telling you to grovel. I'll also contact our Memory Department. Red Star is currently purchasing Samsung's memory and flash memory."

"If our production capacity is insufficient or if there's a factory fire..."

"Then Red Star's memory supply will also be affected."

"This is also one of our bargaining chips."

"You must make good use of it."

"Minister, I understand." Choi Jae-seok was well-versed in this kind of soft-knife threat. This wasn't the first or second time Samsung had played this way. Whenever global memory (flash memory) prices showed signs of falling, an accident would happen at a Samsung factory.

Then they would tell global manufacturers and consumers: 'Our factory is on fire and is currently undergoing urgent repairs. We guarantee that customer orders will not be affected.'

Of course, Samsung's guarantee could be treated like a fart. Following that would be a new round of global memory (flash memory) price hikes, allowing Samsung to make a fortune.

"Second, go to the Battery Performance Lab and urge the research and development progress of our new generation of batteries."

"A small Chinese company can come up with high-density battery technology, and now LG and Fruit have also come up with corresponding technologies. Instead, it's our Samsung that is lagging behind these manufacturers."

"I'm not willing to have LG shitting on our necks one day."

At the end of last year, LG announced their new generation of high-density batteries using a high-voltage solution with a full-charge voltage of 4.4V. Compared to the usual 4.2V lithium-ion batteries, the energy density increased by 12%, and the volume was also slightly smaller.

"Minister Park, I've already asked our battery department. The Engineers said that the in-depth development of the new Polymer battery has just started. To get results, I'm afraid..."

Choi Jae-seok didn't finish his sentence. He had asked the person in charge, and to achieve an energy density increase like that of the Yangtze River Battery, it would likely be difficult without four to five years of research. He even held a pessimistic attitude toward reaching LG's level in the short term.

"Allocate funds!"

"Poach people!"

"Poach people globally!"

"We have so many research and development bases globally; is it possible we can't handle a tiny battery?"

"Since LG is going with a high-voltage solution, we can imitate them. Although the energy density isn't as good as Red Star's, as long as we can produce results, the marketing department will have a way!"

"It's okay to be a bit aggressive; I want to see results in the short term!"

Looking at the anxious minister, Choi Jae-seok could only give a bitter smile. If battery technology were that easy to break through, electric cars would be all over the streets by now, and the structure and design of mobile phones could be as exquisite as those of Red Star and Fruit.

There would be no need for current designs where a new phone must account for the battery as a major factor. No consumer is willing to accept a phone with poor battery life.

"Okay, Minister, I'll get on it immediately."

USA.

California.

"Boss, the global pre-order data for our 5s Long Battery Life version is out." Fruit's COO Cooker came to Cook's office excitedly.

"Oh? So fast?"

"Yes, Boss. We've closed the pre-order channel now. The new phones are currently being urgently shipped to all parts of the world."

"Our 36-hour pre-order data is 5.6 million people. This has already exceeded our inventory, so we temporarily closed the pre-order channel."

"5.6 million?" Cook didn't feel any excitement upon hearing this number. In his view, for a new Fruit product launch, less than 6 million in two days in the global market was not a satisfying figure.

"Boss," Cooker saw that Cook's expression wasn't particularly good and quickly said, "Many users have already purchased the 5s. Plus, we were worried about a gap in the battery cell supply, so we closed the pre-order channel early. Most people probably haven't gotten the news yet."

"However, this data is still quite good. It shows that the market acceptance for the long battery life version is very strong, and users haven't reacted much to our price increase."

"There are also some users calling to ask if they can upgrade their 5s to the long-life battery."

After Cooker finished, Cook's brow relaxed slightly. "Is there any problem with the supply from Red Star?"

"It's precisely because I'm worried about Red Star's supply that I closed the pre-order channel."

"We also had an emergency communication with Red Star this morning. They stated they would increase their supply efforts. The new factory is expected to go into production in early June, which should basically solve the capacity issue."

In the agreement between Cooker and Red Star, Red Star was to deliver no less than 3 million battery cells in March. By the end of March, Red Star had delivered a total of 5 million units.

They also stated that before the new factory goes into production, they would continue to deliver 1 million units to Fruit every month. This number made Cooker very dissatisfied, but the agreement said 'more than 3 million units,' and Red Star delivering 5 million units had already exceeded the supplementary agreement.

Cooker had no way to demand that Red Star deliver more.

He asked the person in charge at Red Star how they could increase the delivery volume before the new factory went into production. The person in charge there just threw up his hands and said there was no way; the capacity before the new factory opened was only so much. They had to supply their own company while also over-delivering to Fruit.

If they wanted more, they'd have to pay more.

To have the workers work three shifts to produce.

"Boss, I asked the person in charge at Red Star. They said there's only one way to increase the delivery volume before the new factory goes into production," Cooker said cautiously to Cook.

"What way?"

"Unless... unless we pay more..."

"Pay more?"

"Yes. Red Star stated that if they have workers on three shifts for production, they can further squeeze the capacity of the existing production lines. But Red Star says they aren't that kind of sweatshop and can't bring themselves to exploit their workers like that, and their profits don't allow them to do so either."

Cook also understood Cooker's words. It meant that if Fruit wanted more capacity, they had to have workers on three shifts, but Red Star wasn't willing to exploit workers and would definitely need to give them enough compensation. So, you get it.

"Shit!"

"Red Star isn't satisfied with a purchase price of nearly 20 us dollars? How much more do they want?"

"Red Star said that adding 5 us dollars per cell would allow them to provide over 2 million units per month, and adding 10 us dollars would provide over 3 million units per month." When saying these numbers, Cooker almost didn't dare to look Cook in the eye. This behavior of Red Star was like snatching meat right out of Cook's mouth.

How could Cook, who valued profit above all else, stand this?

"What if I gave them an extra 50 us dollars per unit?"

"Could they give me 20 million units?" Cook asked Cooker, laughing out of sheer anger.

"Uh, that's probably not realistic. Red Star stated that supplying us with an extra 3 million units per month already squeezes their factory production lines to the limit. They couldn't do any more than that."

Calming down, Cook calculated the gains and losses. Red Star was clearly taking advantage of the situation. If he agreed to pay them more, then more of the Fruit 5s Long Battery Life version could be sold, and he could collect more profit.

If he didn't agree, he would have to limit the long battery life version. This clearly didn't fit Cook's personality; he wasn't about to pass up a chance to make money.

But this act of highway robbery indeed made Cook very angry. It was like treating Fruit like a sucker to be fleeced.

Cook was a pure businessman. In his eyes, there were never feelings or losses, only interests.

Before long, Cook made a decision in his heart. "Agree to it."

"On the basis of 1 million units per month, we will add an extra 5 us dollars for each additional unit."