162: Zhao Zhijie's obsession

"Did you run into any issues in the USA? Or was the communication not smooth?" Chen Chen asked, seeing that Zhao Zhijie didn't seem particularly excited.

"Mr. Chen, I..."

"If you have something to say, say it. Did the people at Google make things difficult for you?"

"No, Mr. Chen. The Google Engineers were very easy to communicate with; they are indeed a group of excellent Engineers."

"I just feel... it's a bit stifling that we have to get Google's permission just to build a phone that pushes the evolution of mobile phone form factors."

"Even though android is an open-source system, many underlying elements still require Google's approval. It makes me feel..."

Hearing Zhao Zhijie say this, Chen Chen stepped forward and patted him on the shoulder.

Ever since he arrived at Red Star, Chen Chen could see Zhao Zhijie's obsession with a domestic operating system. Three years ago, when Red Star was on the verge of bankruptcy, he was still working hard to develop an operating system that belonged to China.

This was an obsession buried deep in his bones, and Chen Chen understood it well.

Who wouldn't want to use an operating system that truly belonged to China?

To make any modification or breakthrough without needing the USA's permission—to do whatever one wants, to change the screen aspect ratio however one pleases.

It's my own stuff; what business is it of you Damn Americans?

"Mr. Chen, our own HXOS will be finished with development this year. When can it truly be loaded onto our phones?" Zhao Zhijie looked up at Chen Chen, his eyes firm and full of expectation.

His entire department had been working so much overtime just for this operating system. After Mr. Chen said they couldn't work overtime like that anymore, many of them spontaneously went home to continue coding. Now, after two and a half years of work, it was finally nearing completion. Zhao Zhijie was looking forward to the day it actually went live.

"Xiao Zhao..." Chen Chen suddenly found it a bit hard to continue.

He always said the timing wasn't right, the timing wasn't right... but when would the timing be right?

Only when the day of sanctions actually arrived?

Yes, if they were sanctioned, they could leverage certain user sentiments to launch their own operating system and gain user support. Even if there were some bugs or compatibility issues, the users would understand—they were being sanctioned, after all! We understand you, Red Star.

But was that really what he wanted?

If things followed the normal trajectory, Huawei might be sanctioned before him when the trade war started, or Red Star might be ahead of Huawei. There was still nearly a four-year window. Why not use this time to flip the table directly?

Launch it early, maintain temporary compatibility with android, and once a certain ecosystem was established, they could abandon android entirely.

"Xiao Zhao, you know that building an operating system ecosystem is very difficult. With Red Star's current size, I'm afraid it's truly hard to achieve." Chen Chen sighed. Ecosystem, ecosystem, always the ecosystem!

Developing an operating system wasn't particularly difficult, but building an ecosystem was indeed a monumental challenge.

There was Meego before and WP after; both kicked the bucket because they didn't have enough software support.

Even HarmonyOS, after so many years, wasn't it still compatible with android?

He probably didn't have the influence yet to convince those software vendors to adapt to his system.

"Mr. Chen, I know the ecosystem is difficult, but we can completely be compatible with android in the early stages and take it bit by bit. Our system was designed with this in mind from the start; there's no problem at all with android software compatibility!"

"And we'll be faster with less fragmentation. In my view, the current android is just a mountain of 'crap code' piled on top of another. One day, this massive pile of crap will eat up all our hardware performance."

Zhao Zhijie was right. You could tell from the future where RAM went to 12GB or 24GB at every turn, while Fruit's RAM during the same period was only 6GB!

While part of this was due to software vendors, the real problem still lay with android itself!

"I'll consider it. Your tasks will be very heavy in the coming period."

"Even though Google agreed to the aspect ratio change, you still need to re-adapt our own system, and then there are the software vendors."

"Especially those mainstream apps. If they aren't adapted, when a full-screen phone opens them, won't there still be huge black bars at the top and bottom, making it just like a normal ratio phone?"

Zhao Zhijie's eyes dimmed slightly, but he immediately became high-spirited again!

As long as Red Star stayed ahead of the world and had shipments of hundreds of millions per year, they could be like Fruit, using a completely proprietary, closed system.

By then, it wouldn't be him begging these software vendors for adaptation; instead, those developers would be clamoring to join his ecosystem!

If Fruit could do it, Red Star could do it too!

Furthermore, Fruit's shipments last year were only 150 million units. Red Star had already reached a third of that last year, and this year's shipments were expected to reach half of Fruit's. Surpassing Fruit in three years wouldn't be a problem!

Having thought this through, Zhao Zhijie looked at Chen Chen and said, "Mr. Chen, I understand."

Chen Chen didn't know that Zhao Zhijie already had the idea of surpassing Fruit in three years. If he did, he would definitely give him a big thumbs up!

The kid has ambition!

But you can't just talk about surpassing Fruit in sales volume.

Surpass Samsung in sales, and surpass Fruit in profit!

That's the real solution. Otherwise, like Xiaomi, shipping over a hundred million units a year but only making a little bit of money?

Relying solely on low-priced, low-end machines to prop up sales volume is useless.

"It's good that you understand. You worked hard on this business trip; go get some rest first. Many things can't be rushed. Right time, right place, right people—not one can be missing."

Chen Chen specifically walked Zhao Zhijie to the door and patted his shoulder again before he left.

Now that the screens had arrived and the aspect ratio was settled, the next step was to talk to the software vendors—talk to as many as possible.

They had to get a certain amount of adaptation done; otherwise, using the phone wouldn't feel any different from a normal one.

Oh, and the packaging. Cui Yichen said the first batch of engineering samples would come off the line in a few days. He wondered how they would turn out.

As for the Kunpeng mobile phone 3, the design didn't need to be as aggressive as the full-screen series. Instead, based on Chen Chen's sketches, it used a classic 18:9 full-screen design with a forehead and chin.

Since the screens this time couldn't achieve the stunning effect of the Galaxy S8, Chen Chen settled for the next best thing: a flat-screen design.