211: Rice with a troubled fate 4

The Imperial Capital of China.

Hongxing Science and Technology Park.

After Lu Weiqi went abroad, the company's affairs fell back onto Chen Chen's shoulders; he had been very busy processing various documents for the past few days.

There was also the product launch event for the Red Star Digital Series in October, so there were many things to do.

After the shining k series took over the price point of the Red Star Digital Series as the high-volume model, the digital series' current positioning was as the main model in the 2500-3000 price range; in Chen Chen's words, it was a well-designed all-rounder.

[At this point, I hope readers will remember our domain name, Taiwan Novel Website, to accompany your leisure and wait for your search.]

This time, the digital series once again moved away from plastic back covers, switching instead to a 3D glass body material similar to the roc mobile phone, while continuing to use the stainless steel mid-frame.

Even though processing stainless steel is more difficult and expensive than aluminum alloy, Chen Chen decided to keep it to maintain the continuity of the device's design language.

After using the new process, a layer of anodic coating was added to the surface of the stainless steel mid-frame, making the frame brighter and more lustrous.

Red Star isn't like Fruit or Xiaomi; the former sells so many units that the difficulty of processing stainless steel would affect production capacity, which is why they abandoned it.

The latter is reluctant to spend money yet wants production capacity, so naturally, the mi 4 generation is currently out of stock at any given time.

Regarding other configurations, the Red Star Digital Series also featured dual cameras, dual-tone flash, and fingerprint recognition for the first time; as it is more expensive than the shining k series, there naturally had to be certain differences.

This depends on the product segmentation skills.

During its entire lifecycle, domestic sales of the red star 3rd generation reached 18 million units, with over 2 million units sold in the India market, bringing cumulative sales to over 20 million; this is Red Star's first single Mobile phone model to surpass 20 million in sales.

As for why it was so high, heh, one would have to ask why the sales of Lei Jun's mi 3 were so low.

First there was the Unicom chip-swap gate, then the Mobile version overheated and crashed; it was released in October and hurriedly replaced in August the following year. Chen Chen estimated that Lei Jun's mi 3 generation didn't even sell five million units during its nine-month lifecycle.

At this time, Lei Jun was also worried; he had just escaped the quagmire of the mi 3, only to find that the mi 4 generation also had various problems.

It wasn't that there was a problem with the product—the product was actually quite good. Since its release in August, with September now almost over, it had sold over 900,000 units in a single month.

It wasn't that the mi 4 generation could only sell that many, but rather a limitation of production capacity. Lei Jun posted on the Social Media Platform to apologize to mi fans, stating that it really was a production issue; the processing difficulty of the stainless steel mid-frame was so high that the low yield exceeded his imagination.

This wasn't even the main reason; the primary reason was that the manufacturer of Xiaomi's touch screen glass panels had gone bankrupt.

This manufacturer, named Wintek, was previously one of the Fruit Company's suppliers. When Lei Jun was creating the da mi 1st generation, he insisted on using suppliers that were used by Fruit or Samsung, so Wintek also became a supplier for Xiaomi.

This supplier used a technology called One Glass Solution. In the early days of smartphone development, this technology was very advanced, and even Fruit Company chose them as a supplier.

However, as times changed, the upgrading of Mobile phone components was very rapid. After Fruit Company changed its technical route, other Mobile phone manufacturers also gradually stopped choosing this company.

As for why Xiaomi still chose them, it was just two words—cheap price.

The mi 4 had already been released and was in its first month of peak popularity when Wintek's crisis suddenly erupted. Other materials for the mi 4 were piled up in the OEM factories, but they were missing a touch screen, causing the entire factory production line to stop.

Lei Jun was extremely anxious because of this and tried various ways to save this supplier—at least hold on until Xiaomi switched to other suppliers before you go under!

To this end, Lei Jun even paid the accounts payable before they were due, hoping to let the factory hold on for a bit longer.

"President Lei, there's no way."

"Wintek's Suzhou factory rushed out the last batch of 70,000 touch screens for us, and they no longer have the capacity to produce any more."

Not only was Lei Jun anxious, but Lin Bing was also worried sick. But looking at it now, Xiaomi alone could not save Wintek.

"What did O-Film say?"

"When can they schedule production for our products?" Lei Jun asked.

Normally, key components of a Mobile phone should be supplied by two or more companies to prevent a product issue from one supplier affecting the whole. Lei Jun, who had only been in the Mobile phone industry for four years, had clearly not suffered a loss in this area before.

Now it was time for him to pay his tuition fees.

Lin Bing gave a bitter laugh. "President Lei, O-Film only recently put their OGS production line into operation. Right now, they can't even finish Red Star's orders. If we want to schedule production, it probably won't be until late October."

"Even if O-Film scheduled production for us right now, we haven't finished the technical certification for O-Film yet; it all takes time."

"Bang!" Lei Jun slapped the table in frustration. After several days of running around and being stressed, a cluster of blisters had broken out on the corner of his mouth.

He couldn't help but be anxious; Red Star was going to release their digital series in October. As soon as the Red Star Digital Series was released, it would definitely be a huge blow to the sales of the mi 4.

If they couldn't accelerate shipments during the gap before the red star 4 was released, then once the red star 4 was truly out, under the pincer attack of the shining k10 and the red star 4, even if the mi 4 generation's production capacity caught up, the only path left would be to go overseas to India.

Xiaomi is currently the Mobile phone manufacturer with the largest shipment volume in India, surpassing Samsung in market share this August to become number one. Moreover, the mi 3 generation was not, as Chen Chen guessed, under 5 million units, but had sold exactly 8.7 million units, with the majority being shipped in India.

"Hurry up with the technical certification."

"Tomorrow, I will personally go and talk to the person in charge at O-Film."

"Even if they only schedule 100,000 units for us, that would be good."

All sorts of components were piling up in the OEM factory, yet they couldn't be assembled into the mi 4 because of a single touch screen. The production line was still stopped, and every minute and second was costing money.

"By the way, can't Qualcomm supply the snapdragon 810?" Lei Jun asked again.

"Don't even mention it. Some higher-up made a snap decision and is conducting an anti-monopoly investigation against Qualcomm; they have a mountain of their own troubles."

"Supply probably won't be available until next year."

"Anti-monopoly investigation?"

"When did it start? How come I didn't know?" Lei Jun asked.

How could such a big thing start just like that, without even a hint of a rumor?

If he had known even a little bit about the situation, he could have spoken to Qualcomm in advance.

"At the beginning of the month, right after that Red Star X was released."

"I heard the order came down suddenly. Now the head of Qualcomm China is being summoned for talks."

Then Lin Bing looked around, walked over to close the door of Lei Jun's office tightly, and leaned into Lei Jun's ear to say, "President Lei, I heard that the city government has approved a piece of land for Red Star, several hundred acres, right over in Yizhuang."

Lei Jun asked in confusion, "It's just a piece of land being approved, is it really necessary to tell me like you're some kind of thief?"

Lin Bing pointed upward and said, "It was approved directly from above."

"How do you know?"

"Secretary Zhang told me secretly. Anyway, it wasn't approved by the city."

"As for how far 'above' it came from, no one knows."

Lei Jun thought about it. The main reason he could participate in the 863 program was because of his business model and Dami Company's determination to change the industry. Otherwise, why wouldn't the government look for Lenovo, Huawei, or OV?"

Combining that with when he went to Red Star to buy a license from Chen Chen, and Chen Chen asked him, "President Lei, your Xiaomi was selected for the 863 program, right?" Now Lei Jun had every reason to suspect that Chen Chen was... perhaps even someone who could directly see the program's list.