84: The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber

On the day before the press conference, Red Star conducted its final round of product pre-heating. Many netizens were baffled by the 9,527 sound holes mentioned in Red Star's promotional post.

If it were just the number 9527, they could understand it as a tribute to Stephen Chow.

But 9,527 sound holes was simply incomprehensible.

Many people were speculating about what kind of thing Red Star was going to release this time.

"No need to guess, it's ten thousand percent a speaker."

"If a phone had 9,527 sound holes, wouldn't it scare people with trypophobia to death?"

"A speaker? This is probably a large speaker. I quite liked using that portable speaker they released before; it definitely lived up to its name, the 'Little Steel Cannon'."

"Red Star is really interesting. This is the first time I've seen someone use the number of sound holes for promotion. After it's released, I'll definitely have to buy one and count them. If the count is wrong, I'll sue Red Star for false advertising."

Chen Chen: Go ahead and sue. The mold was made with exactly that many holes; how could it be wrong?

"Have you guys noticed? Red Star's conference is called 'Heavenly Sword and Dragon Slaying Saber,' but after comparing everything, I found that all of Red Star's current product teasers are only about the Heavenly Sword."

"Hey, you clever little devil, you're quite observant. I just went to take a look too, and there really is only promotion for the Heavenly Sword. @Chen Chen, where did the Dragon Slaying Saber go?"

As more and more netizens noticed this detail, they flocked to the official Red Star account and Chen Chen's Social Media Platform page to leave comments and ask questions.

They promised 'Heavenly Sword and Dragon Slaying Saber,' so what does it mean to only have one Heavenly Sword?

Are they trying to hide the Dragon Slaying Saber?

Out of necessity, Lu Weiqi had to post a clarification on Red Star's official page: [Due to the large number of products at this 'Heavenly Sword and Dragon Slaying Saber' conference, and considering the time constraints, we have divided the conference into a first half and a second half. We ask for everyone's understanding.]

This explanation didn't help; instead, it immediately caused an uproar among netizens.

This was the first time they had ever seen a press conference split into a first and second half.

Red Star, you really know how to market. Are you worried your products won't get enough hype?

Don't be silly; Red Star has the most traffic right now. Even a marketing grandmaster like Xiaomi can't compare to you.

And yet you still think you don't have enough hype.

Lei Jun was also a bit dazed when he saw that Red Star was splitting the conference into two parts. He had originally planned to give Red Star's red star 3rd generation a good dissing. He hoped it wouldn't end up with his mi 3 being released first after all.

Lei Jun was even more curious about exactly how many products Red Star had to release this time that a conference lasting several hours wouldn't be enough to cover them. Wouldn't it be better to release these products slowly and separately?

Insisting on cramming them all together... it seemed that kid Chen Chen's grasp of hype still wasn't as good as his own.

If it were Lei Jun, he would definitely hold a conference as soon as a product was ready for launch; that was the secret to maintaining hype.

For this conference, Red Star once again chose the venue at the Imperial Capital University of Technology. After removing the side and back sections, the venue, which could accommodate several thousand people, still had over 1,300 seats.

The seating capacity was sufficient. Some seats were reserved for internal staff, and a portion was set aside for media reporters and some content creators.

As for the remaining tickets, they were given away for free to Red Star's fans through various means such as comment lucky draws, forums, and the official website.

Chen Chen wasn't like certain manufacturers who actually made fans buy tickets to attend a press conference.

That was simply an inversion of the natural order.

Did they have no clue who their bread and butter was?

For the previous conferences, Red Star had also sent invitations to Samsung China and Apple China, but they had never attended. The ones who actually showed up were the domestic manufacturers.

But this time, the Vice President of Apple China actually replied to Red Star, saying he would definitely be there.

Who knew what he was planning?

According to Chen Chen's theory, his statement at the August Internet Conference about Red Star becoming the world's number one phone manufacturer within three to five years had provoked this Vice President of Apple China, so he was coming specifically to see Red Star's product launch.

Actually, Chen Chen's guess was wrong. Everyone was a professional; how could they be upset over a few words at a conference?

It was the Kunpeng mobile phone that had caught Apple's attention. In the past, Apple had looked down on homegrown Chinese phone manufacturers like Red Star. None of them had R&D or technology; they only knew how to assemble parts and survived on low-end feature phones.

They were simply not worth Apple's energy.

Apple hadn't cared about the Kunpeng mobile phone's debut at first either. In the past, it wasn't as if no Chinese phone manufacturers had tried to challenge Samsung and Apple, and everyone knew the results.

Every company that tried to benchmark against Apple and Samsung had failed.

Was Red Star really so special?

But when the shipment data for the first three quarters of this year came out, Apple was a bit surprised. In the 3,000 to 4,000 yuan price range, the Kunpeng mobile phone had actually sold over ten million units. One had to realize that even Apple's shipments in China for the first three quarters were only 20 million units.

Did this Red Star seem to have the ambition to move into the high-end market?

This forced Apple to take notice, even though Red Star's prices hadn't yet reached the price range of the Apple phone.

September 24th, 1:00 PM.

The driver drove the maybach, carrying Chen Chen and Shen Rou to the backstage of the conference venue ahead of time.

Previously, Chen Chen had always driven himself. As Red Star's revenue grew, at Lu Weibing's strong insistence, Chen Chen was assigned a driver who also served as a bodyguard.

Since it was Lu Weibing's good intention, Chen Chen didn't want to brush him off, so he had to take this driver named Zhao Yunlei wherever he went.

At 2:00 PM, as the countdown on the stage ended, Shen Rou tidied his shirt. Chen Chen walked through the backstage corridor and strode onto the stage.

That was his home turf.

"Hello everyone, I am Chen Chen."

As soon as Chen Chen spoke, he drew massive cheers and applause from the audience.

Listen to that—that's what you call popularity, that's what you call status!

Among the many heads of phone manufacturers present, perhaps except for Lei Jun, no one's popularity could compare to Chen Chen's.

After a moment, once the venue quieted down again, Chen Chen continued:

"Thank you very much to all the fans and guests for coming to our 'Heavenly Sword and Dragon Slaying Saber' conference. Thank you all."

"In July of this year, we released a Power Strip with excellent aesthetics and quality, which was welcomed by many. From July to September, in just over two months, we have sold over 2.7 million units. This would not be possible without the support of our fans for Red Star."

"Speaking of this Power Strip, I don't know if you've noticed, but now the Power Strips on the market are all trying to keep up with Red Star. They've all made the aesthetic side very outstanding. It seems that as soon as our Red Star Power Strip came out, other manufacturers suddenly had an epiphany and started knowing how to make Power Strips."

Actually, this was my goal when I first started making Power Strips: to drive progress in this industry."

"Alright, without further ado, let's release the first product of our Red Star 'Heavenly Sword' conference—the kunpeng phone 2. I believe many people are already impatient."