28: If my phone could fold, I'd eat 5 tons of shit.

Ever since Xiaomi appeared and Red Star saw a resurgence, offline brands like OPPO and vivo have been expanding continuously, and now Gionee's market share is retreating step by step.

This isn't even the main point.

The main issue is that the boss of Gionee likes to gamble, which is the most fatal part.

It was also the final straw that made Lu Weiqi make up his mind.

"Lei Jun, Lu Weiqi has already joined Red Star. We were a step too slow."

Listening to Lin Bing, Lei Jun felt no ripples in his heart; he had always been skeptical of Lu Weiqi's abilities, and even if he had contacted him, it was just a trial effort.

If he could be poached, he would observe him for a while before deciding whether to entrust him with important responsibilities.

If not, Xiaomi wouldn't lose anything.

"It doesn't matter. I've already contacted a headhunter, and they helped me find a professional mobile phone manager named Wang Huateng."

"Wang Huateng?"

Lin Bing was very unfamiliar with this name; he had never heard of such a figure in the country.

"Yes, he is a product manager from Lenovo. I saw his resume was quite good and he is very capable, so I had the headhunter poach him for me."

"He should be able to join in a few days."

Seeing that Lei Jun already had a suitable candidate for the product manager position, Lin Bing said no more.

Meanwhile, on the Red Star side, Chen Chen was overjoyed by Lu Weiqi's joining. After taking Lu Weiqi to get a deeper understanding of the company, Chen Chen looked at him with a serious face and said:

"Old Lu, you just joined the company, and I originally intended to let you adapt first. But time is tight, so I have to hand over the new phone model to you right now."

"Boss Chen, tell me the task. I, Lu Weiqi, will definitely complete it."

"Our Shine series, the first-generation product, has been out for over a year now. It's time to prepare for the next generation. I am currently mainly responsible for the new flagship and the Red Star 2, so this replacement matter is left to you."

"Are there any requirements for the replacement? Should we stick to the low-price strategy?"

"Exactly. On the premise of ensuring a certain level of performance, make it as cheap as possible. Currently, in the hundred-yuan phone track, Red Star has taken the first step. We want to continue to expand this lead and continue to seize the market with low prices."

"Alright, Boss Chen, I understand."

Watching Lu Weiqi go to investigate the data, Chen Chen nodded with satisfaction.

Handing the Shine series to him, he felt reassured!

He just hoped he wouldn't come up with some K20 or K50 to backstab the Red Star series.

In the hundred-yuan phone track, in his previous life, Xiaomi only officially initiated the project in the second half of this year, and it wouldn't be released until the second half of next year. He had already started planning this hundred-yuan series last year.

It could be said that he started more than a year earlier than Xiaomi.

As for other manufacturers, if they want to enter the hundred-yuan phone track, it will probably take until the year after next. Even for the relatively quick-reacting Huawei, they would surely have to wait until the second half of next year to have a new machine on the market; they are currently busy trying to break into the high-end market.

As for Meizu's Blue Charm series or whatever, that was only after seeing Xiaomi's success that they started entering this track.

Since Red Star laid out plans ahead of them, he had to expand this lead even further.

Chen Chen really wanted to see the expressions on Lei Jun and Yu Chengbei's faces when they entered the hundred-yuan phone market and found that Red Star was already dominating the field.

It would definitely be fun.

With the second wave of Red Star's new phone preheating, netizens seemed to realize: Is this Red Star really going to make a flagship?

"Boss Chen, I don't oppose you making a flagship, but please don't give me a side-sliding cover again, I'm scared..."

"Internal news: Red Star's new flagship will have maxed-out configurations, and the processor will be the upgraded version of their own soaring cloud s2. The performance of this processor is significantly stronger than Qualcomm's S4."

"Are you lying? Apart from Fruit's processors, which domestic processor can be stronger than Qualcomm's S4? S4 is currently the strongest benchmark king."

"We just said we wanted a domestic flagship, and you immediately said you were going to make a flagship phone. Well, if I say we want a foldable phone, will you, Red Star, make it?"

"Don't dream, person above. A foldable phone? What a joke. If a phone can fold, I'll livestream eating 5 tons of shit!"

"Already screenshotted!"

"5 tons? You have a big appetite. But seriously, the two models chaired by Young Boss Chen are indeed quite good. I personally am looking forward to your new flagship."

"Two models? Didn't Young Boss Chen only release the Red Star 1? What is the other one?"

"You can tell you haven't played 'Slash a Knife' (Pinduoduo). Currently, the top of the mobile phone category on Pinduoduo is the Shine 1st generation released by Young Boss Chen last year! A 799 phone comes with 1GB of RAM. It's even earlier than last year's Xiaomi!"

"Ah! 799 gets you 1GB of RAM? If I had known, I wouldn't have bought a Lenovo for my dad; it cost over nine hundred, and the memory is only 512."

Chen Chen looked at the netizens' comments and specifically gave a like to the brother who said he would eat 5 tons of shit if a phone could fold.

However, the internal news was indeed internal news, because it was news leaked by Red Star employees according to instructions, with the purpose of muddying the waters and increasing discussion.

As for the reason, it was simple: Dr. Lu's second tape-out was successful. After bringing it back to Red Star for testing and adaptation, the chip's performance was unexpectedly strong.

After queuing for mass production at TSMC, Chen Chen naturally couldn't wait to spread the news about the soaring cloud s2 online.

Now, online platforms are buzzing with discussions about Red Star's new flagship, and most people are not particularly optimistic.

On the contrary, a number of domestic manufacturers are a bit nervous. Everyone has tried high-end flagships before, but they all failed.

Take Coolpad as an example; they once aimed to make a domestic high-end flagship and even launched several models with starting prices over 4,000, but the result was that they lost their pants. Now they are honestly making mid-range and low-end phones.

As the saying goes, one should worry not about scarcity but about inequality. Why should we manufacturers have failed, and yet you, Red Star, can succeed?

It's impossible.

The most nervous among them was Huawei's Yu Chengbei. He looked at Red Star's preheating poster—the promotion of "Bigger than Big"—and directly concluded that Chen Chen had also seen the market for large-screen phones and wanted to enter this track.

His own new large-screen phone was still in development. Even though the Engineers were working overtime, there was no way to finish it in just two months. And Red Star's press conference was normally scheduled for September. Now that it was already July, it meant it was impossible for Huawei to release it first, unless they released a "PPT phone".

Yu Chengbei disdained doing such things. Besides, after you release it, if you don't capitalize on the hype to sell it but instead wait a few months to have stock, the hype would probably be gone by then.

For the new large-screen mate series, Yu Chengbei could be said to have poured all his efforts into it. Whether it was the design or the adaptation of components, he had to ask about everything. If this phone failed again, I'm afraid even the founder, the old man, wouldn't be able to protect him.

There was no other path to take besides resigning.

Xiaomi, watching Red Star's preheating promotion, was also very conflicted. Red Star's press conference last year was held after the mi 1. After the mi 1 announced a price of 1999, they pulled out the Red Star 1 for 1998, with configurations higher than their own, but the price was one yuan lower. It was clearly aimed directly at them.

Isn't this targeting me specifically!

This year, Lei Juns nickname was also afraid that after the mi 2 was released, Red Star would pull out another 1998.

However, the release date for the mi 2 was already set, still on August 16th, and the price was also set, still 1999.

It was just like rock-paper-scissors; Lei Juns nickname went first, and Chen Chen went after.

How the hell is this supposed to be played?