305: Chapter 305 The New Brand to Replace Motorola

"Mr. Lei, you can't say it like that. The contract was reviewed by your legal team and yourself, and you signed it. It's in black and white, so what's the problem?"

Lei Jun hung up the phone and threw it onto the floor.

Lin Bin stood nearby, his expression just as grim; after all, they had been played for fools.

"Mr. Lei, we've been scammed."

"Reliance Jio is using our production lines, and their design is similar to ours, so theoretically, the costs should be about the same. However, they redesigned the exterior, which theoretically makes their costs slightly higher than ours. But they are selling it for $169, while we..."

But Lei Jun didn't take it too seriously; given the production capacity of the factory in India, how many units could Anil possibly sell?

If they wanted mass production, the existing power supply wouldn't be enough; they would have to add new fuel generators or build the promised power station...

But based on his observations, that power station wouldn't be built in under two years. In that case, $169 would definitely be a loss.

Xiaomi could rely on domestic production capacity for exports, keeping the advantage on his side.

Meanwhile, at Transsion headquarters in Guangzhou, Shen Fei sat in his office as Li Qing informed him of the news about the Reliance Jio launch.

"Boss, Anil has made his move. The Reliance Jio specs are the same as the xiaomi note, but the price is $30 cheaper. Xiaomi's reputation is starting to crumble."

Shen Fei picked up his phone to check the news, only to conclude that both sides were extremely foolish.

"Mr. Lei has truly learned his lesson this time, but this isn't even the biggest issue."

Li Qing nodded silently. After all, although Xiaomi was in a bad spot, they were at least still profitable. This didn't meet India's expectations at all.

After all, when Transsion entered the Indian market, Shen Fei had explained to everyone that so-called 'Made in India' was a joke. The supporting infrastructure couldn't keep up, the worker quality was low... these were just minor jokes.

"Boss, should we take this opportunity to increase our investment in India?"

Shen Fei looked at his tablet and shook his head slightly. Transsion's current reputation in India wasn't much better.

As for why that was the case, they had a certain 'friendly competitor' to thank. After all, with the help of that competitor, the sister models of the Transsion Spake series had been exposed.

The appearance and configurations were identical, but they were $249 in the Indian market, while they were $229 and $199 in Southeast Asia and Africa, respectively. Furthermore, their batteries weren't 2000mAh, but 3000mAh. The Indian market was actually the most expensive with the lowest price-to-performance ratio.

Consequently, the internet was flooded with hit pieces bashing Transsion, but the silky-smooth system still convinced many people to pay for it.

"Don't be in a rush. Let them fight like dogs for a while. Xiaomi and Reliance are fighting a price war, consuming their own resources. However, Reliance is still too weak. We can introduce them to some cheap channels to lower their costs. Then we can just sit back and reap the rewards."

Li Qing nodded quickly. Recently, they had dismantled some outdated, scrap mobile phones. The flash memory, storage, screens, and CPUs—it was definitely time to clear out the inventory.

"Mr. Shen, I understand. I'll arrange for someone to go tomorrow. By the way, what about our Spake2?"

"The old plan: launch in May. No rush. What's most important right now is the pre-launch promotion for our new product."

Li Qing nodded; after all, the new imaging flagship had already been designed. Just then, Shen Fei suddenly threw an assessment question at him.

"Li Qing, do you know why Lei Jun is in such a miserable state?" "Because he is too impatient!"

On this question, the entire Transsion company had a common answer. That was that Lei Jun wanted to win too badly.

As the first stop for Xiaomi's overseas expansion, he wanted to replicate his success in China in India, so he could then take advantage of the momentum to enter other countries. But he forgot one thing: India is not China.

Although China and India share one commonality—that their rules are not very perfect—China is trending towards becoming more transparent, while the rules in India are becoming increasingly ambiguous.

In China, you can win by relying on products and marketing. But in India, you must first learn how to deal with the crocodiles.

Lei Jun considered both himself and Transsion to be pawns, but he overlooked the fact that Transsion has its own channels and its own supply chain.

It doesn't rely on anyone. Any crocodile that wants to bite it should first check if its teeth are hard enough. Lu Mingyuan is a cautionary tale.

Just then, Li Qing suddenly thought of something. "Mr. Shen, do you remember Lu Mingyuan?"

Shen Fei found the name somewhat familiar, but couldn't quite recall it; after all, he was likely trash. "He's the one whose dad is..." "Oh, it's him. What about it?"

"Recently, his mobile phone company received a round of financing, with an investment of $500 million, taking away 40% of the shares. According to our investigation, it's related to Mr. Mukesh."

"It's fine, it's just one more customer. Level 3 observation will suffice."

Level 3 observation meant dispatching a team to keep an eye on their actions at all times; it didn't require special attention, but it couldn't be ignored either. A monthly report would be enough.

After Li Qing left, Shen Fei began to ponder. After all, in his previous life, the Mi Home business and Dami Auto that Lei Jun built were actually quite good. He wondered what he would choose for his next venture.

However, he did have a suggestion: why not go sell rice! In that case, the name 'Grain Factory' would truly be well-deserved.

At 10:00 AM on February 27th, the official Transsion Weibo account updated again, and all fans received a notification. Just as they thought the system had updated its gameplay again, their eyes widened instantly.

It was a poster. The poster had a gradient background, from deep blue to light gold, with a beam of light passing through a lens aperture pattern in the center.

The copy only had one line: "Faster, stronger, stylish and elegant. March 13th, Transsion guangyun, arriving as promised."

There were no product images, no specifications, nothing at all, but this single image instantly hit the trending searches.

"guangyun? A new Transsion series?" "Are they not following the Apple path anymore? Are they going to have dual flagships like Samsung?" "It looks like it's focused on photography; that aperture pattern is too obvious."

"Although the S series is an all-around flagship and photography is also very good, it's a 'bucket' phone in all aspects, which means it doesn't have any one standout feature. This guangyun series should be focused on imaging."

Half an hour after the poster was released, the Digital Chat Station account posted a Weibo:

"guangyun series, Transsion's brand-new imaging flagship. It adopts the enhanced version of the 14nm Taishan 910 chip, with a benchmark score reaching 50,000. The focus is on the rear dual cameras, with two brand-new self-developed sensors, making the imaging capabilities stronger than the S series.

And this time, it's focusing on gradient colors. The actual device is amazing. The security level is very high; they don't dare to leak it at all. However, the photography algorithm this time is truly awesome—in a league of its own, number one in the world."