165: Restarting negotiations

After returning to the country the next day, Lei Jun rushed to the Xiaomi laboratory without pause, where the first batch of xiaomi note engineering samples was undergoing various tests.

"President Lei, you're back."

Seeing Lei Jun enter, Zhou Guangping hurriedly stood up to greet him.

He was also a co-founder of Xiaomi, but in terms of status and such, it was definitely Lei Jun who stood at the top.

His own team was only responsible for mobile phone development and supply chain management; Lei Jun was the brain of the Dami Group.

Taking the xiaomi note engineering sample from Zhou Guangping, Lei Jun couldn't put it down. With its large screen, 2.5D glass covering the front, and a heat-curved 3D glass back cover, the overall feel of the phone was extremely comfortable.

Since Red Star's ROC Phone (henceforth, ROC Phone will be used to replace Kunpeng mobile phone) first used this heat-curved 3D process last year, it had been widely acclaimed in the market.

This year, the price of this process had dropped slightly. Since Lei Jun wanted to break into the high-end market, he naturally wouldn't pass it up.

On the back at the camera position, the xiaomi note was equipped with a dual-tone flash, and the area around the camera was plated with an 18K gold ring.

A small 18K gold ring tightly surrounded the camera lens.

Even the MI logo on the lower half of the body used 18K gold craftsmanship.

Last year, Red Star released some kind of Italian imported top-grain calfskin ultimate collectors edition ROC Phone. Scalpers actually drove the price of this phone, originally over 5,000 yuan, up to over 10,000 yuan, and even then, demand exceeded supply.

From then on, Lei Jun thought that since Red Star used Italian top-grain calfskin to highlight its high-end status, he would use the simplest and most straightforward gold for decoration!

Thus, the xiaomi note featured a gold logo, a gold camera ring, and a gold frame.

It was all genuine 18K gold plating.

"Is it really impossible to source the cooling modules and fingerprint modules?"

This xiaomi note already looked perfect, but in Lei Jun's view, the phone was still missing something.

First was the fingerprint recognition module; this was standard for current high-end phones. For a phone claiming to be high-end to lack fingerprint recognition, how could it be called high-end?

Even Red Star had obediently added the fingerprint recognition module to its domestic version this year, hadn't they?

Another issue was heat dissipation. The power consumption ratio of the snapdragon 810 was truly worrying. He had partially addressed it by increasing the battery capacity, but as for the cooling, Lei Jun, who had been burned once before, was unwilling to let it happen again.

So for cooling this time, Xiaomi wanted to use the same dual-copper pipe cooling module found in the ROC Phone.

Then there were the dual cameras. Red Star had been using dual cameras for nearly two years, yet Qualcomm still couldn't provide a solution even now.

One must understand that using dual cameras on a phone isn't as simple as just installing two cameras. If you do that, it's useless because the two cameras can't work simultaneously; it's a far cry from Red Star's depth-of-field lens setup.

To make dual cameras work together to synthesize photos, the phone's processor must also support it. Currently, the ISP bandwidth in Qualcomm's processors cannot support dual cameras working at the same time, so for Xiaomi to install two cameras would be a waste of effort.

"Sigh." Zhou Guangping sighed. He had found these two suppliers at the beginning of the year and had talked until his lips were worn out, using every tactic available, but they just wouldn't budge. What could he do?

"President Lei, it's not that I couldn't negotiate a deal; it's that they simply don't want to supply us at all."

"I invited a manager from their factory to dinner. At the table, this production line manager drank a bit too much and finally revealed the truth to me."

"What did he say?" Lei Jun asked.

"He had a bit too much to drink and couldn't keep his mouth shut. He told me that there's no way their factory's technology could have designed that cooling module."

"It was developed by Red Star and merely handed over to them for production."

"He also said that last year, their factory received an investment from Red Star, and now Red Star is the majority shareholder."

"Without Red Star's permission, they simply cannot supply this copper pipe cooling module to the outside world."

"However, there is some good news."

"Since I couldn't reach a deal with the factory, I contacted the person in charge at Red Star to ask if they could supply us with that cooling module."

"What did Red Star say?" Lei Jun asked hurriedly.

"Red Star said that in the second half of this year, they will open up the supply to domestic manufacturers. After they developed this module, their agreement with the factory was for a one-year exclusivity period. Starting in the second half of this year, it will have been exactly one year."

"There are still a few months until the second half of the year; we can't wait that long." It was only June now. There were still several months until Red Star's exclusivity period ended, and the development of the xiaomi note was already complete. They would have to release a xiaomi note 1s in the second half of the year instead.

"Have other suppliers not come up with such a solution yet?" Lei Jun asked again.

"Yes, HTC has a single-copper pipe cooling solution, but their solution is just a simple copper pipe without any internal evaporation liquid, and they're asking 128 yuan per set."

Lei Jun curled his lip. HTC really had some nerve. Their mobile business was on the verge of collapse, yet they still refused to change their ways. At such a high price, only a total sucker would choose their solution.

"What about the fingerprint module?"

"It's the same as the cooling module; it's exclusive to Red Star. Using Samsung's solution, a single module would cost over 400 RMB, which is too expensive."

"Sigh."

Lei Jun also sighed.

Red Star and Xiaomi are both companies based in the Beijing.

The government hasn't played favorites; both have participated in the 863 Program.

However, looking at the current situation, it's likely that Red Star will find it easier to gain favor from the higher-ups.

His own Xiaomi Hongmi series basically uses domestic supply chains; if a domestic option is available, he resolutely avoids foreign investment.

Through the sales of the Hongmi series, domestic supply chain manufacturers gain enough volume. With sales volume comes more capital to develop higher-end technical solutions.

But Red Star also has the shining series, with sales even higher than his Hongmi series, and they also use domestic supply chains. This leaves Xiaomi with no advantage at all.

Not only that, but Red Star has also gone further in the high-end supply chain than he has. The first company in the country to solve the fingerprint recognition solution was Red Star, and the first cooling solution was also Red Star's.

These suppliers developed their solutions with Red Star's procurement or technical support, so naturally, Red Star would have exclusivity for a period of time.

What Lei Jun envied even more was Red Star's chip design capability.

If Xiaomi had the same capabilities as Red Star, how could they have failed with the mi 3 mobile version?

How could they still be unable to use a dual-camera solution even now?

After leaving Zhou Guangping's laboratory, Lei Jun called Lin Bing on the way back.

"Lin Bing, prepare to restart negotiations with Nvidia."