389: Chapter 389 Here we go again! Free advertising delivered to your door.

"Our market share has hit rock bottom, and our reputation cannot fall any further. This time, we must properly protect our image; we cannot let our users pay for our mistakes."

Lin Bin looked puzzled. Things were already like this—was there really any need to keep up this persona?

"Free recall, change the cooling solution. Add another copper pipe to the motherboard, add graphene cooling pads to the middle frame, and channel the heat to the middle frame. Don't let the ceramic back cover be the only path for heat dissipation. All new batches of phones will be produced according to the new design, and users who have already purchased the phones will get free repairs and upgrades."

"But what about production capacity?"

"Pay the foundry more. After all, our smart home products are about to launch soon, and our reputation during this period is very important."

Lin Bin thought about it for a long time. Although this was to protect their reputation, it was real money. However, for the sake of the smart home business, this was a necessary investment.

The official Xiaomi Weibo account released an announcement.

It detailed Xiaomi's responsibility while also dragging Qualcomm out to take the blame. After all, if it weren't for the Fire Dragon 800... their ceramic back cover would have surely become a classic of its generation and an object for competitors to imitate.

From then on, whenever anyone mentioned phones with ceramic back covers, they would mention the xiaomi note 3... and yet...

At the same time, Lei Jun personally cooked up a bowl of 'chicken soup for the soul' and served it to the Mi Fans who followed him.

"First, I want to say sorry to every user who purchased the xiaomi note 3. Some batches of the xiaomi note 3 have design flaws in the cooling solution, which causes the phone body temperature to be too high under high loads, affecting the user experience. This was my decision-making error. To let everyone experience the new product as soon as possible, we blindly trusted our partner's words. At the same time, in order to rush for the first launch, we compressed the cooling test cycle, which caused some problems to go undiscovered before the market release. This is not just Qualcomm's fault; it is my fault. I know that you chose the xiaomi note 3 because you believe in Xiaomi. You believed in Lei Jun, who went offline to personally visit the old masters. I'm sorry, I have failed your trust. Therefore, we have decided that all xiaomi note 3s that have been sold, regardless of whether heating issues have been discovered, can be returned to the factory for a free upgrade. At the same time, new batches will add cooling copper pipes and other cooling materials, and heating performance will be significantly improved. The free upgrade activity starts tomorrow, with Xiaomi covering all shipping and repair costs. I have nothing else to say, only one sentence: I am sorry."

After the Weibo post went out, the comment section was filled with curses for the first few minutes.

But now, those following Xiaomi were definitely the 'purified' die-hard fans, so as they kept cursing, the trend started to change.

"I'm done scolding. But to be honest, being able to recall 100,000 units so decisively shows that Lei Jun still has a conscience. Manufacturers with problems always play dead or shift the blame; Lei Jun is the first one to stand up and say 'this is my fault.' Based on this alone, I believe the free upgrade will definitely solve our problem."

"You've been screwed over by Qualcomm so many times, yet you still believe in them. Lei Jun, is something wrong with your brain? Next time, can you finish the tests before releasing?"

"The ceramic back cover is truly beautiful. If the heating issue is solved after the upgrade, this phone will still be the most beautiful one this year."

Lei Jun sat alone in his office, scrolling through those comments.

He read the ones scolding him, and he understood them, but seeing those who supported him, he felt that binding with college students was his most correct choice. It was just a great pity that this strategy had been snatched up by a competitor...

...After a period of tug-of-war, the United States finally decided... to test Transsion again.

So, on October 1st, in the press briefing room of the US Department of Commerce, Mary Smith stepped onto the podium as the cameras rolled.

"The Department of Commerce is closely monitoring the end-use of chip products from the Chinese company Transsion Technology. According to relevant laws, the Department of Commerce has the right to include companies involving national security risks on the Unverified List. The investigation is currently underway, and we do not rule out the possibility of further escalation..."

After saying this, Mary Smith quickly stepped off the stage.

The Unverified List: This belongs to the enhanced observation and review list within the United States export control system, not an official sanctions blacklist.

Originally, the entities on this list should be foreign companies that they want to investigate but cannot complete end-use verification for various reasons. But Transsion is quite special; after all, it has already been on the sanctions list several times, but it was useless... and instead caused the United States to suffer heavy losses.

But they couldn't just leave it alone, so they looked around and finally pinned this charge on them.

When the news reached China, it was 3:00 AM Beijing time, and a new entry had been added to the trending search list: #United States Sanctions Transsion for the Fourth Time#

"Here they come again? Do these people have to do this every autumn, like clockwork?"

"The second and third times were useless. I thought they would follow the old Chinese saying: 'Once, twice, but not a third time,' but in the end... Transsion brought out a lot of things the first three times; the third time, they even brought out an engine. This time, what do you want them to bring out? A nuclear-powered phone?"

"I suspect there's a professional mole inside their Department of Commerce. Every time Transsion's R&D hits a bottleneck, the United States comes with a wave of sanctions, and then the bottleneck is broken..."

The next afternoon, at a relevant routine press conference in China, the spokesperson was asked this question, and she thought for a moment before replying:

"We firmly oppose the US abuse of national power, even if it is based on groundless speculation. The United States often uses the pretext of national security as an excuse to practice trade protectionism; this is blatant technological hegemony. We will take all necessary measures to insist on safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises."

Meanwhile, Shen Fei also posted an update on Weibo, accompanied by a panda meme. It showed a lazy panda with its legs crossed, with the caption: "Here we go again."

The text of Shen Fei's post was only a few sentences: "We get stronger every time we are sanctioned. This is already the fourth time; can you change the script? You've forced us to sell our delivery assets, forced us to exit the market, and even threatened to freeze all our funds. This time, let's not test each other anymore; just freeze all our assets and ban us from entering the US market, okay? By the way, are there any better reasons? Waiting online, it's quite urgent."

"Mr. Shen is treating the US sanctions as an annual performance review [doge]."

"US Department of Commerce: Just wait for me, I'm flipping through the Tech Bible, looking for a field you haven't broken through yet."

"Transsion has treated the US sanctions as free advertising; every time after the sanctions, Transsion's mobile phone sales skyrocket."

Shen Fei also personally jumped into the comments to reply: "The S5 is coming soon. This time there are three major breakthroughs, and we are going to rewrite the form factor of mobile phone screens..."