39: Arrogant HTC

Let's start with charging. At a room temperature of 18 degrees Celsius, I drained the Kunpeng mobile phone until it automatically shut down and then started charging. At the 15-minute mark, it had already charged to 54%, and at 27 minutes, it reached 81%. The final full charge time was 38 minutes. Although there is a few minutes' difference from the under-half-an-hour claim advertised at the launch event, this result of under 40 minutes is already globally unmatched.

Let's talk about the system. I originally thought that President Chen didn't mention the system at this launch event because there was nothing to talk about, but after using it, I realized there really is nothing to talk about. This isn't sarcasm; it actually highlights the stability of Starlight OS 2.0. There are no flashy, gimmicky features—it's just solid, well-executed optimization. In these past two weeks, I haven't encountered any bugs.

"Smoothness is the first impression this Starlight OS 2.0 gave me. Whether it's the software response speed or the application opening speed, everything is extremely fluid. It seems the system team at Red Star put a lot of effort into underlying optimization."

"Finally, let's talk about photography. I don't know if the multi-lens approach to improving photography is the right path, but currently, dual lenses do indeed achieve better results when shooting people compared to single lenses. Compared to the new Fruit phone, it's basically a tie in terms of shooting speed and image quality. I have to say, this is truly a big step forward for domestic phones."

"As for the drawbacks, first, it's heavy. The large battery and metal body bring the total weight to 179g, which is significantly heavier than other phones on the market. Then there's the overheating issue. During normal use, there's no feeling of it getting hot, but if you play games while plugged into the charger, the overheating becomes very obvious. I hope Red Star can optimize this in the future so that when playing while charging, the charging isn't so aggressive."

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"Alright, Old Fish is done." Image caption: Who approves, who opposes?

An Old Fish's post received tens of thousands of likes in just a few days. Even Chen Chen couldn't help but comment: "Received!"

Indeed, playing while charging will cause the phone to heat up. Coupled with the metal body of the Kunpeng mobile phone—while this metal body is very helpful for heat dissipation—it also allows users to clearly feel the rise in the phone's temperature.

Conservation of energy; there's no way around that.

Chen Chen opened the sales data. Released in early September, there have been three sales over three weeks, with 100,000 units each time. Now, the total sales volume of the Kunpeng mobile phone is approaching 350,000 units. For a phone with a starting price of over 3,000 yuan, Chen Chen is already very satisfied with this result.

As for the hongxing 2nd generation, there's no need to worry about that at all. In three weeks, the total sales volume across all platforms has already reached 1 million units, which is not much different from the mi 2 released earlier.

China's Taiwan.

HTC Headquarters.

"President Yang, the data shows that our overall sales in the mainland in September fell by 17% year-on-year, with models priced above 3,000 yuan falling by 9%."

The Chief Operating Officer placed a stack of reports on Yang Quan's desk, signaling him to take a look.

"A decline?"

Yang Quan curiously opened the report. Since HTC entered the mainland market this year, overall sales have been on an upward trend. Never has there been a month or quarter where it declined this much.

Chief Operating Officer Sun Jie saw Yang Quan start flipping through the report and continued:

"Yes, President Yang. According to investigations, two manufacturers focusing on price-performance ratios have appeared in the mainland: Red Star and Xiaomi. The phones from these two companies, priced at 1999 and 1998, have had crazy sales recently. Red Star also launched a model with a starting price of 3499 last month. Some of our models have been affected, resulting in a decline in sales."

After reading the report, Yang Quan threw the file aside and said with a look of disdain:

"Is that the Red Star that said a few days ago they wanted to form some kind of type-c interface and charging protocol alliance?"

"Yes, President Yang. Their company has already sent an invitation for us to join this alliance."

"Overestimating themselves. A small mainland company actually wants to form some alliance; it's just wishful thinking. Relying on their lead in charging power, they actually want to unify charging protocols. I really don't know what this President Chen of Red Star is thinking."

"Even when Chen Yunlong was still at Red Star, he wouldn't have dared to notify us with such an attitude."

Looking at the somewhat angry Yang Quan, Sun Jie asked cautiously:

"Then should we still send someone?"

"No. Move up the launch of our HTC Butterfly in the mainland to this month. I want to let Red Star see what a true flagship phone is."

"We were supposed to have the global launch of the 1080p screen, but I didn't expect this Red Star to beat us to it!"

Speaking of this, Yang Quan looked impatient. Originally, this HTC Butterfly was to be released in Japan in October, equipped with a 5-inch 1080p full HD display, with a pixel density as high as 440ppi. This screen from Samsung was the main selling point, but it was beaten to the punch by the Kunpeng mobile phone released in September.

Last year, HTC's market value surpassed Nokia's for the first time, reaching $33.8 billion, becoming the second-largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world by market value, second only to Apple. Yang Quan thought this was just the beginning, but he didn't expect it to be the peak.

In June, HTC announced its withdrawal from the Brazilian market and closed a research center in North Carolina, USA. In July of the same year, it announced its withdrawal from the South Korean market.

This year, HTC can be said to be in a troubled period. First, it initiated a patent lawsuit against Fruit last year. After failing this year, many models were banned from sale in the USA, and the new flagship model, HTC One X, was screwed over by Nvidia.

Because the Nvidia Tegra 3 processor equipped in the HTC One X phone generated huge heat and caused lag, it can be said that HTC suffered greatly.

Therefore, this year's HTC Butterfly decisively chose a Qualcomm processor.

"President Yang, regarding the price in the mainland, is it still 4799?"

Sun Jie asked cautiously. Since the second half of this year, this President Yang has been on the verge of rage at any time, but he still gathered the courage to say it. It can be said that whether HTC can turn things around in the second half of this year depends on the Butterfly model.

In Sun Jie's view, the mainland market is completely different from the international market. The competition among manufacturers here is very fierce, especially at the price point of around 2,000 yuan. Currently, the flames of war have not yet reached the price point where HTC is, but it is foreseeable that this is a matter of time.

"Sun, is this a problem you should be worrying about?"

"What else can those mainlanders do besides focusing on price? Has the world's second-largest, HTC, fallen to the point of competing with mainland manufacturers on price?"

Sun Jie sighed. As expected, President Yang was still immersed in the dream of being second in the world, unable to extricate himself.

A price of 4799 is still too high for the mainland, and it could be said to be the region with the highest price for the same model.

Walking out, Sun Jie looked at the office door slowly closing.

Perhaps, arrogance will cause the Chinese market to close its doors to HTC.