40: Kunpeng phone sales

After the Huawei M-series was released abroad, it was quickly launched domestically as well, causing a sensation.

As Huawei's first large-screen flagship phone, it featured a 6.1-inch IPS 720p resolution screen, a large 4100mAh battery, and their latest in-house processor, the K2V3.

This time, the domestic pricing also caught Chen Chen by surprise; it was set directly at the 3,299 yuan price point, as if learning from or targeting a specific manufacturer.

Chen Chen paid attention to this unusual change, but he didn't have many opinions on it, even if the other party was benchmarking against his own Kunpeng mobile phone.

Currently, in the 3,000 to 4,000 price range, Red Star's Kunpeng mobile phone was essentially in a league of its own. Based on feedback from distributors across the country, this all-metal dual-camera phone also possessed strong product competitiveness in the offline market.

Especially among female users, after experiencing the unique photographic effects of the dual cameras, they decisively placed orders.

As of December, the Kunpeng had shipped a total of 1.8 million units across all online platforms, while the offline market contributed nearly 800,000 in sales.

These sales figures officially declared that Red Star had established a firm foothold in the 3,000 to 4,000 price range.

As for the price range above 4,000, it was still dominated by HTC, Samsung, and Fruit. The HTC Butterfly, launched in mainland China and known as the Butterfly Phone, faced a clear lack of competitiveness in the over 4,000 range. In terms of product quality alone, this model's competitiveness was inferior even to the Kunpeng mobile phone.

As for being able to sell at such a high price, it was entirely due to brand premium.

Chen Chen had also thought about creating a model to directly face Samsung and Fruit in the over 4,000 price range, but the current brand power of domestic manufacturers was not yet sufficient. Facing these old hands would put too much pressure on Red Star, especially regarding capital.

Over the entire life cycle of the Kunpeng mobile phone, the company predicted sales of about 5 to 8 million units, while the sales expectation for the hongxing 2nd generation was around 15 million units.

Because they had cut many low-end channel models, they couldn't boost shipment volumes, so Red Star's sales ranking wasn't very high. However, in just over a year, moving from chaos to the current prosperity, Chen Chen was already very satisfied.

Now, the entire focus of Red Star was on the upcoming hundred-yuan phone.

This model would be the key to Red Star's shipment volume.

Under Lu Weiqi's management, a piece of insider news suddenly broke on the internet—Red Star was going to redefine the hundred-yuan phone.

Subsequently, all sorts of rumors began to fly across the internet.

"What? Red Star is going to redefine the hundred-yuan phone? Didn't they just break into the high-end market? Now they're going back to hundred-yuan phones?"

"The person above is clearly ill-informed. Red Star's shining 1 has firmly held the top spot in phone sales on Pinduoduo for several months, with cumulative sales already exceeding 3 million units."

"Hurry up and release a new generation. Although your shining 1 gives plenty of memory, that 6725 processor is really a bit outdated."

"President Chen, you really should have made a hundred-yuan phone sooner. Currently, in the low-end market, besides your shining 1, everything else is basically knock-offs. And the configuration of your shining 1 is indeed similar to those knock-offs."

Speaking of knock-offs, Chinese consumers would grit their teeth in anger.

The quality of various knock-off phones was uneven. Especially after purchase, there was no after-sales service, no quality guarantee, and opening an app could cause the phone to freeze up.

China's economy was just beginning to take off, and people's lives were just starting to improve, but the majority of consumers were still using cheap hundred-yuan phones.

It was precisely this opportunity that a knock-off manufacturer called Nietzsche used to expand frantically. Relying on overwhelming advertisements and promotion in over 6,000 stores nationwide, its annual shipments were actually higher than those of the entire Red Star Company.

With a low price, an appearance resembling Fruit, and a UI interface resembling Fruit, it was actually an out-and-out knock-off. Many users who bought Nietzsche phones found after a while that they were nothing like what the advertisements claimed; freezes and lag were constant.

Chen Chen knew that now was not yet Nietzsche's most frantic period. Between 2013 and 2014, Nietzsche actually opened stores all over the country, and business in those stores was surprisingly good.

But its downfall came from over-expansion and the impact of Redmi. With no guaranteed after-sales service and inferior performance, this brand that once flourished in China quickly became another victim of Redmi's blade.

The online rumors also alerted some knock-off manufacturers. Red Star's current strength was obvious to everyone. Currently, the phones most frequently cloned by knock-off manufacturers were the hongxing 2nd generation and the da mi 2nd generation.

Domestic knock-off phone manufacturers had already experienced several blows. The first was the cooperation between carriers and phone manufacturers. To promote 3G, carriers provided subsidies to these manufacturers. Many 'get a free phone by topping up credit' or 'get free credit by buying a phone' activities had already caused these knock-off manufacturers to lose part of the market.

Coupled with the sudden emergence of the da mi 1st generation, knock-off manufacturers suffered another round of blows. They didn't even think about the high-end, they couldn't beat Red Star or Xiaomi in the mid-range, so they could only scrape by in the hundred-yuan phone market.

If Red Star truly entered the hundred-yuan phone market seriously, then their good days would likely come to an end.

Some knock-off manufacturers were even considering whether to pivot or directly follow the example of used colloquially to upgrade and transform their brands.

There were also some well-off knock-off manufacturers who didn't believe it at all, thinking it was just online rumors and not an official announcement from Red Star. Besides, was Red Star that great? Could they really capture the entire low-end phone market in China?

The news on the internet was a mix of truth and lies, with all sorts of claims, but Lei Jun truly believed it when he saw the news.

Because he himself was preparing to enter this market.

For the new product line code-named H, one version of the plan had already been scrapped, and nearly 50 million yuan in mold costs had gone down the drain.

But Lei Jun didn't feel the least bit of heartache. A product had to at least be usable. What was the point of using a MediaTek chip from last year? It would freeze up immediately after opening a few apps; the smoothness was simply unusable.

This new phone was related to Xiaomi's strategic development for the next few years. In the end, having no choice, Lei Jun had to personally take charge of this new model.

Looking at the news about Red Star, Lei Jun sighed silently. "Why is my Xiaomi always one step behind?"

"My H-series hundred-yuan phone has only been in development for a short while, and you're already about to launch yours."

Fortunately, Goodbye Mr. Loser hadn't been released yet, otherwise Lei Jun would definitely have said that classic line.