379: Chapter 379 Lei Jun's Big Machete

The most critical point was that President Shin Jong-kyun knew this phone wasn't lacking a cooling system; while not particularly elaborate, it did have copper sheets.

This indicated that the "Ice Dragon" Qualcomm spoke of at the launch event didn't exist at all; this was clearly just a little Snapdragon 801.

The technical lead, who had received a lobbying fee, coughed and reminded him:

"President Shin, this is an engineering prototype. The cooling solution hasn't been optimized yet. If we use our best cooling technology, it should be controllable within an acceptable range.

The key is that if we don't use Qualcomm's Snapdragon 801, the performance of our Galaxy S5 will be crushed by Transsion.

Our Exynos chip won't be ready for mass production until the second half of next year at the earliest, and internally it's estimated to be 20nm; they are under a lot of pressure regarding the 14nm process."

President Shin Jong-kyun placed the phone on the desk, his hands feeling slightly restless.

He was very clear about his own semiconductor division's processor roadmap.

The previous generation Exynos 5410 used the 28nm process and was completely crushed by the Transsion 910.

The next-generation Exynos 5432 would be 20nm, with performance estimated to be on par with the actual level of the Snapdragon 801, but mass production wouldn't happen until the second half of 2014.

The S5 might be released as early as the fourth quarter of this year, and it would still be using 14nm.

There would be a gap of six months to a year in between.

Without the Snapdragon 801, Samsung would only be left eating dust behind Transsion.

"Contact Qualcomm and set up a time to discuss procurement." President Shin Jong-kyun finally made his decision. Although he knew this was a "Fire Dragon," he had no right to refuse.

"But we must push the price down; use our order volume as leverage."

...

Almost at the same time, at Xiaomi in Beijing.

Lei Jun was also looking at the spec sheet for the Snapdragon 801. His expression was strange, like seeing an overpriced item in a supermarket.

He wanted it, but felt it wasn't worth it.

Lin Bin sat opposite him, also shaking his head hesitantly:

"Old Lei, the benchmark score of the Snapdragon 801 is significantly higher than the Taishan 910, and it has broken the 60,000 mark for the first time.

If our next-generation flagship chip doesn't use this processor, we truly won't have any competitiveness in the market.

The public opinion pressure from this last batch of Mi Fans will be immense."

Lei Jun also revealed a hint of helplessness. While Mi Fans were his greatest weapon, they were also the most skilled at stabbing him in the throat.

Sometimes he would really be driven mad by these people. It was he who had taught them how to evaluate processors...

Yet after they understood, they instantly felt that the Snapdragon 600 and some MediaTek chips used by Xiaomi were trash, with no gratitude at all.

[Zhao Ming: Isn't this my job? Why am I taking on extra work for myself?]

Lei Jun put down the spec sheet, his eyes drifting for a moment. After all, there were still over a million Fire Dragon 800s in the warehouse... How to handle these chips was still a problem, and now a new big brother had arrived.

Qualcomm's iteration speed was truly annoying.

"What about the power consumption issues? I'm talking about actual power consumption; don't give me a bunch of Pokémon again."

"The current actual tests are 35% higher than the Taishan 910," Lin Bin answered truthfully. "However, Qualcomm claims it's within a controllable range.

Our test prototype's performance is also acceptable, fitting our initial marketing slogan."

Fitting the marketing slogan meant "Born for fever," it seems the Snapdragon 801 is burning quite hot.

Lei Jun sighed and paced back and forth in his office.

Xiaomi phones had always focused on cost-effectiveness, with very thin profit margins, making them extremely sensitive to supply chain prices.

Life, which was already difficult, became even harder after Honor entered the market.

He had tried various paths, but they all ended in failure.

It wasn't that he hadn't thought about switching, but the price was right there.

Qualcomm's Snapdragon 801 currently has an official quote of $75, which is about half the price of the Taishan 710.

If they switched to Taishan, not to mention whether they could even secure it, even if they could, it wouldn't be less than $100.

This cost would make the pricing of Xiaomi phones uncompetitive.

Therefore, they only had this one choice.

"Go negotiate," Lei Jun stopped pacing. "The price must be pushed down."

"Their chip has power consumption issues; that is our bargaining chip.

Also, keep in contact with Transsion; if possible, we should also release a phone with the Taishan 710."

Lin Bin nodded and got up to leave, but he didn't think this 710 concept phone would ever come out. After all, Old Lei had suffered so many losses at the hands of Transsion, how could they possibly reconcile?

Meanwhile, the presidents of various mobile phone businesses were lining up to meet with the head of Qualcomm's mobile business.

Most of them held a purchase letter of intent in their hands, their faces plastered with smiles, but in their hearts, they were cursing... Damn it, Qualcomm is making a killing again.

...

The negotiation location agreed upon by Xiaomi and Qualcomm was the 19th floor of the headquarters.

Lei Jun brought Lin Bin and the Xiaomi supply chain director; the three of them.

On Qualcomm's side was the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Mobile Business, Moorcroft.

The other party was a very typical United States professional manager, but he had one weakness: he liked to chat about golf for 10 minutes at the start of negotiations.

Lei Jun was very tactful and gave him this opportunity. After flattering him for a long time, he finally got down to business.

"Mr. Moorcroft, your golf game is truly admirable. I hope to have the time to play a round with you.

However, time is tight; shall we discuss the price first?"

After the flattery, Lei Jun took a Xiaomi test report out of his briefcase and pushed it onto the table.

It contained the actual power consumption test data of the Snapdragon 801 engineering prototype by Dami Company.

The Asphalt game that ran continuously at the launch event only achieved an actual frame rate of 35 fps on Xiaomi's engineering prototype, and in the worst-case scenario, it would drop below 30 fps.

As for the worst-case results, Lei Jun didn't write them down; he saved face for Qualcomm. He believed that their engineers would surely understand these data points.

"Mr. Moorcroft, and this temperature—the maximum temperature is 47.3 degrees, which has already exceeded the comfort range acceptable to consumers.

There is a huge gap between the power consumption curve chart at your launch event and the actual performance.

If it weren't for the fact that the performance is truly strong, we wouldn't be buying this chip at all."

Moorcroft's expression changed slightly. This was the first manufacturer that dared to expose this defect during negotiations.

However, it was still a seller's market, and they still held the initiative, so he quickly regained his professional smile.

"President Lei, the cooling solution for engineering prototypes is not optimized; this is industry practice.

The mass-produced version will have significant improvements.

Believe in me, and believe in TSMC's technology."

But Lei Jun didn't take the bait; he stared into the other party's eyes and continued aggressively:

"How much improvement? Do you have specific data?"