380: Chapter 380 Rice's New Flagship Work

Moorecroft hesitated for a moment.

Of course, he didn't have any data, because Lin Kangtong himself wasn't sure how much the temperature could drop after the improvements.

It was just something he had said off the cuff.

Lei Jun noticed his hesitation and pressed his advantage: "Mr. Moore, I don't deny the performance of the Snapdragon 801, but its power consumption issues are an objective fact.

Although Transsion's performance is lower than yours, consumers won't just stare at benchmark scores after they get their hands on the device; they will care about whether it gets hot and how long the battery lasts."

Lei Jun paused for a moment, his tone carrying a hint of temper for the first time:

"With the rollout of Transsion's chip sales business, Qualcomm needs large orders to prove its strength, and Xiaomi needs high-end chips to maintain its competitiveness.

This is a win-win situation, but the price must show some sincerity."

Moorecroft looked at Lei Jun, feeling a sense of unfamiliarity for the first time; he hadn't expected that Lei Jun, usually such a gentle lamb, would one day open his mouth like a lion.

It was truly a case of a tiger falling to the plains and being bullied by dogs, and the one doing the bullying was a pug at that.

But in the end, he held his head high and said: "Mr. Lei, our official quote is 75 dollars. Considering our partnership with Xiaomi, we can offer it at 70 dollars, and we can deduct 15% from the final payment, which would bring it to less than 60 dollars.

This is our true bottom line."

"60 dollars."

Lei Jun smiled, but there was no intention of cooperation in that smile.

"Mr. Moore, although the performance of the Transsion Taishan 620 cannot compare to your chip, and its price isn't in the top tier, its power consumption control is better, and the consumer experience is on an entirely different level.

At your current price, consumers won't pay for it."

After saying this, Lei Jun raised three fingers: "30 dollars. This is the highest price I can accept."

Moorecroft's face finally couldn't hold back.

He turned to look at the person in charge of the Asia-Pacific sales region, and the two exchanged a look.

Then he nodded, reaching a consensus.

"Mr. Lei, 30 dollars is too low; our costs are more than that.

With the final rebates and various costs included, the lowest we can go is 57 dollars. If you are willing to accept, buy it; if not, go consider Transsion!"

After saying this, the two men stood up directly, unwilling to pay any more attention to Lei Jun.

"Wait."

Now it was Lei Jun's turn to be anxious; after all, he had been focused on slashing the price but had forgotten one reality.

The Snapdragon 801 was on pre-sale; this chip hadn't even started production yet. Qualcomm didn't have a large inventory on hand, so getting them to concede on price was very difficult.

In the end, Lei Jun took a step back, giving Qualcomm some face, and the two sides signed a partnership agreement quite happily.

After returning to the country, Lei Jun immediately started preparing for the launch event without pause.

After all, the batch of Fire Dragon 800s on hand still needed to be dealt with...

They had to be sold before the other Fire Dragon chips exploded, so the launch event was ultimately scheduled for October 5th.

At the end of the National Day holiday, Mi Fans returning from their trips could happily head to offline Xiaomi stores, pick out a true value-for-money flagship xiaomi note 3, and then end their wonderful National Day holiday.

This time, the launch event was chosen to be held at the Peking University stadium.

This stadium, which could accommodate 3,000 people, was packed with university students from all over Kyoto.

Although Xiaomi's status on the internet was gradually declining, in the eyes of students, especially middle school students, Xiaomi was still a decent brand. Although it might not necessarily be better than Honor, its playability was not something Honor's antiques could compare to.

At 2:30, the lights dimmed, and a countdown appeared on the big screen.

Ten, nine, eight, seven... With every number that ticked down, the audience below shouted along.

Xiaomi had been doing this kind of ritual for four years, and every time it managed to bring many Mi Fans to tears.

Lei Jun walked quickly from the side of the stage; his pace was fast, as if he couldn't wait to meet his old friends.

"Hello everyone!" He waved to the audience below, "Thank you all for coming to the xiaomi note 3 launch event.

I really wanted to meet you all, but I never had the time. Today, we have finally gathered together again."

Lei Jun performed very sincerely, and the applause from below lasted for a long time.

Lin Bin, behind the central stage, breathed a sigh of relief.

Although a large number of Mi Fans had left the fandom, many newcomers had also joined the circle. As long as there was this kind of order, it wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

Lei Jun stood on the stage, waiting for the applause to end before beginning today's launch event.

However, he didn't talk about the product directly—after all, the xiaomi note was far inferior to Honor's products—but instead, as usual, he started by telling a little story.

"Two months ago, I went to Japan, not for tourism, but to meet someone.

This person is a retired engineer from Kyocera named Tanaka Masao."

As he walked, he pointed to the PPT behind him, where a photo of this engineer appeared.

"The old gentleman is 73 this year and has spent his whole life researching ceramic materials. When I went, the old gentleman was still busy working. To be honest, I was shocked at the time."

The PPT on stage also changed, showing a photo of Lei Jun and Tanaka Masao taking a warm picture together.

"I stated my purpose at the time, and Mr. Tanaka warmly hosted us and told us about the difficulties of ceramics.

And as you all know, we have been exploring the application of ceramics in mobile phones since the Xiaomi era.

But ceramic back covers have one difficulty: they lack toughness and are easy to break.

In the past four years, we have tried more than 30 formulas, and none of them were satisfactory."

Seeing the audience below getting emotionally engaged, Lei Jun paused, his tone becoming even deeper.

"Later, someone told me that Mr. Tanaka had written a paper when he was young, proposing a very bold ceramic toughening solution.

But that paper was by Ni Hongyu and was published in a very obscure journal; almost no one had ever cited it.

I pulled a lot of strings and finally found Mr. Tanaka's address. I flew to Osaka personally, took a three-hour train, and arrived at a small town."

When Lei Jun started explaining, Chen Fei also saw Chen Hai on the side.

"Chief Engineer Chen, have you ever heard of this solution?"

"Just listen to him spouting nonsense. If that solution were really useful, it wouldn't have been published in some obscure journal, and it wouldn't have gone unused for decades."

Seeing Chen Hai's disgusted expression, Zhang Mingzhu, who was beside him, laughed instantly.

After all, in her impression, Chen Hai, in order to repay Shen Fei for recognizing his talent, had always been that serious, hardworking person; him swearing was simply too rare.

At the launch event, Lei Jun was still explaining. He had finished talking about the courtyard in Tanaka's house, and then he said:

"I chatted with Mr. Tanaka for four hours. At first, he was unwilling to license the technology to us, saying he was old and didn't want to go through the trouble.

But later, I showed him every product from the Xiaomi 1 to the Xiaomi 5 and told him about our dream: to let everyone enjoy the fun of technology.

The old gentleman cried. He said he had been waiting 20 years for someone who understood ceramics."

Lei Jun's voice choked up, and the Mi Fans below also began to wipe away tears...