316: Chapter 316 Smart Home Boom? Sanctions Escalate!

Lin Bin sat to the side, not daring to speak.

He held the final configuration list for the Xiaomi 4 in his hand; every number on it seemed pale and powerless in the face of the honor 6.

"Mr. Lei, should we postpone the Xiaomi 4 launch event?"

Lin Bin hesitated for a long time before finally giving his suggestion.

Lei Jun sighed helplessly, then looked at Lin Bin with a wry smile.

"Postpone until when?"

"Until we find a better chip..."

"Better? Qualcomm? Fire Dragon 800 series?"

"The Fire Dragon 800 is significantly more expensive than the 600, and as for Samsung, their chips are no different from MediaTek's."

Lin Bin looked at Lei Jun, thinking that there was actually another answer: the Taishan 6 series, this series from Transsion's external sales.

Currently, the most advanced Taishan 610 also uses a 14nm process design and is said to be starting mass production soon, but Lei Jun would not choose it.

After all, the grudge between the two companies was too great!

"No postponement!" Lei Jun stood up, his eyes filled with a trace of tragic determination. "Proceed with the launch as planned."

"Even if we lose money on every unit sold at 999, we must clear the inventory first."

"Then what will be our selling point?"

"MIUI, our loyal Mi Fans—I'll shamelessly play the victim at the launch event; sales will still pick up then."

"But Qualcomm..."

Speaking of this, Lei Jun shook his head again.

Lin Bin became anxious instantly, ran to Lei Jun, and said very decisively:

"Old Lei, this risk is too high."

"A high risk is still better than waiting for death."

Lei Jun sighed and paced back and forth in the office. Once high-spirited, he now found his hands had nowhere to rest.

"There is no longer any room for us to survive in the domestic market."

"Transsion and Huawei, with their two companies and four brands, have already occupied the entire domestic price range from 1000 to 5000."

"Even if we sell at 1499, we still can't beat the honor 6."

Just as Lin Bin opened his mouth to speak, Lei Jun suddenly stopped and looked at him.

"Book the tickets. We'll have a meeting next week to discuss the transformation of Dami Company."

"Transformation? Transform where?"

Lin Bin looked at Lei Jun with a worried face; they couldn't even make phones well, yet they wanted to transform?

"The Mijia smart ecosystem."

"Smart home is definitely the next trend."

Speaking of smart homes, that trace of confidence reappeared in Lei Jun's eyes. After all, if they couldn't beat them in phones, they would build an ecosystem!

This is MIUI, and it is also the greatest feature of Android!

Openness!

Although Transsion could make phones, chips, and cars—things Dami Company couldn't make—Dami Company could make rice cookers, air purifiers, robot vacuums, and drones!

Transsion wouldn't make these, but this was still part of a tech dream, and it could still drive up the company's valuation.

Facing Lei Jun's grand dream, Lin Bin once again failed to react.

Is this still a tech company? This is clearly a general store?

"Old Lei, do you mean Xiaomi is going to become a department store?"

"Not a department store, a smart ecosystem company."

Lei Jun's face lit up with a smile again. Indeed, Lin Bin was the one who understood him best; he understood with just a hint.

"Phones are just the entry point, but there is more than one entry point."

"Smart home is the next battlefield; no matter how strong Transsion is, it can't do everything."

He picked up his phone and flipped to a news story. The headline read: "Transsion guangyun series exceeds 5 million, setting a new mobile phone sales record in China!"

Closing the news, Lei Jun muttered to himself: "Xiaomi ecosystem chain, activate!"

But what he didn't know was that at the Transsion headquarters in Shenzhen, Shen Fei was already planning the path for smart homes.

Chips, screens, sensors, and the external sales business gave Transsion plenty of cash.

A portion of this money flowed into advanced scientific research breakthroughs, and a portion flowed into the IoT platform.

What Xiaomi wanted to do, Transsion was already doing, only Lei Jun didn't know it yet.

...

However, Lei Jun received another piece of good news. Although this matter failed last year, the United States had not given up.

After half a year of compromise, on April 15, 2013, the United States released the Entity List once again.

When Li Qing was woken up by a phone call, he was having a dream.

In the dream, the boss was on stage launching a new product, and the crowd below was packed with people.

He was standing backstage when a sudden gust of wind blew the process list in his hand away; no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't catch up to the paper.

Then the phone rang, and he woke up.

"General Manager Li, the United States has imposed sanctions again."

Li Qing woke up instantly and opened his email to see the notification.

This time, it wasn't targeting Huaxin Investment; it was aimed directly at Transsion.

On the Entity List, Transsion Technology, Transsion Panel, and Transsion Semiconductor were all included.

Any company using United States technology was prohibited from supplying Transsion.

He read down the list item by item: lithography equipment, lithography materials, special gases, screen base materials, and EDA software—all core links in the semiconductor and screen supply chain.

Last time was a warning shot, but this time they were attacking the door directly; the United States had indeed learned to be clever.

This matter was urgent, so Li Qing immediately called Shen Fei.

"Boss, you sanctioned us first... this time, it's targeting semiconductors and screen panels."

There was no sound on the other end of the line. He thought Shen Fei hadn't woken up yet, so he called out softly again.

"Got it. Meeting tomorrow morning at 7 o'clock."

Shen Fei was still not nervous at all; after all, the semiconductor substitution plan was also underway simultaneously.

With grain in hand, why panic?

...

At 7:30, the large conference room at Transsion headquarters was packed with people.

The projector displayed the full text of the sanctions notice from the US Department of Commerce.

Shen Fei picked up his coffee cup and took a sip; he felt much more energetic instantly.

After Zhang Mingzhu "unloaded," she recovered the feeling of first love again, but that had kept Shen Fei quite busy; having received another phone call in the middle of the night, it would be difficult without coffee to keep him going.

"The situation isn't much, but the United States is serious this time."

"Lithography equipment, materials, gases, OLED screen evaporation machines—this time, they've banned everything they could think of regarding semiconductor production."

Shen Fei took another sip of coffee to refresh himself, then looked at the department heads present.

"Who's first?"

As the Semiconductor Division was the main target, the person in charge, Professor Li Jiahui, was the first to stand up.

"Boss, we use self-developed EDA tools. Their ban is nothing to worry about; it won't have any impact on our production."

Shen Fei nodded. What Professor Li Jiahui said was absolutely reliable; after all, he had started self-developing architectural designs a year ago.

As for EDA tools, Shen Fei had also redeemed them using system points, so there was absolutely no problem in that regard!

However, special gases might really be a bottleneck. After all, they had technical reserves in other areas, but the gap in this area was indeed a bit large, and Transsion was not yet prepared...