48: Chapter 48. Plans for the Domestic Market.

"We expect to start trial production by the end of the month, with an initial batch of 50,000 units," Chen Hai said.

"The Smartphone can currently be planned entirely here. The assembly cost can be controlled at around 120 USD."

Shen Fei did a quick calculation. The cost of 120 was just for hardware and assembly; the total cost certainly wasn't that low.

Adding taxes, shipping, and sales expenses, the cost would be around 150. Selling them for 249 or 299, with a gross margin controlled at 40-50%, would be quite good.

But this price would be considered absolutely high-end in Africa, and it had a huge advantage compared to Nokia's high-end Feature phones, as well as Samsung and Apple's starting prices that easily hit four or five hundred USD.

The middle to high-end class could try to get their hands on it, but compared to Lei Jun's 1999, it seemed a bit cheap.

"How is the application ecosystem coming along? Give me the detailed report from Mr. Huang."

Shen Fei asked this crucial question. To have the Smartphone win over high-end customers in Africa, the application ecosystem was also an issue.

"Boss, that's the second piece of good news I wanted to tell you."

Chen Hai's face was still filled with an uncontrollable smile. He had communicated a lot with Huang Tianya over the past few days and learned about many of the latest developments.

"There are currently 16 African internet companies invested in by Mr. Huang that have developed corresponding software. Although they are all startups, user growth is very fast."

As Chen Hai spoke, his hands didn't stop moving; he pulled out a document from the side.

It listed the corresponding supporting software being developed for Tos: for example, the social software "AfroChat" in Nigeria, online education "EduAfrika" in Kenya, music streaming in South Africa... and mobile payment software in Mauritius.

With this initial software, this engineering prototype was no longer a toy, but a Smartphone that could be mentioned in the same breath as Apple.

What? You say MediaTek and Transsion don't deserve it? But after enhancement by the black tech enhancement center, the chip performance had been greatly improved, and the user experience of this phone was truly on par with the first-generation Apple.

After all, the current Apple was not the giant of later generations; Apple Inc. only held the title of the world's first Smartphone.

Shen Fei held the phone and pondered slowly.

The progress of this phone was indeed a bit faster than they had expected; from the decision to make a Smartphone to the appearance of the prototype today, it had only been a little over 6 months.

"Professor Chen." Shen Fei suddenly stopped. "This phone is officially named transsion s1. It will launch in Nigeria next month."

"And the pricing?"

"Temporarily set at 299 USD." Shen Fei thought for a moment and gave an answer. "We want African consumers to know that a Smartphone is not a luxury item, but a tool that everyone can afford. Of course, this is just my initial idea. We'll discuss it at a meeting later. You should also prepare a more detailed cost analysis report, and then we'll discuss it properly."

Chen Hai nodded heavily.

When leaving the laboratory, Shen Fei looked back and saw that the engineers were still busy.

However, ever since he took over, the laboratory had undergone earth-shaking changes. Not only had the headcount doubled, but the team had gradually become younger, with the average age dropping significantly from the original 35 to 30.

Although they were young, their technical skills were top-notch.

Shen Fei's phone vibrated slightly; it was a message from Zhang Mingzhu.

"I've decided. I'm not staying at school for the summer break. I'm going to Guangzhou, I'm going to work for you."

Shen Fei took a look and replied: "No problem, see you in Guangzhou. I'll give you the newest phone in the world when you get here."

After sending the message, Shen Fei began to think deeply.

If he remembered correctly, in his previous life, Chinese mobile phone manufacturers took more than 10 years to go from being followers to running alongside the leaders.

Lei Jun certainly deserved credit for the large-scale popularization of Smartphones domestically, and 1999 was indeed a good direction. He could suggest to Huawei later to bring out Honor ahead of time.

As for technological competition, now that he had the black tech enhancement center, he was confident that he could shorten this process to 5 years or even 3 years.

transsion s1 was just the beginning; there would be complete Smartphones equipped with self-developed chips later.

For now, he had to firmly grasp the Smartphone market in Africa first.

...

July 1st, Transsion headquarters strategic conference room.

The level of the meeting held this time was indeed very high. The head of Huaxin Investment, Huang Tianya, was also sitting next to Shen Fei.

Besides that, Chen Hai, Li Qing, and others also participated.

Even Mr. Adebayo, the person in charge of Africa, was invited to participate.

Two days ago, when Mr. Adebayo saw the news, he was very excited. After all, although he had been promised before that he could attend headquarters meetings, the distance was far... Actually, he hadn't particularly expected it.

But when he actually got the news, he was so excited that he couldn't sleep for two days. He had to present his own plan at this meeting; he couldn't let the boss down.

The rendering and detailed parameters of the transsion s1 were already projected on the screen.

"Everyone, the S1 will go into mass production next month. We must decide on the launch market today," Shen Fei clapped his hands to draw everyone's attention to the big screen. "And the final pricing. Let's discuss this issue today."

Li Qing, the head of marketing and promotion, spoke first: "I suggest at least 299."

This price is more than half cheaper than the prices of competitors like HTC, Apple, and Samsung, but they can lower it significantly through carrier contracts.

So with a price of 299, we have an absolute price advantage, and we can maintain a high gross margin of over 50%. At the same time, this also creates a certain gap between the Smartphone and ordinary Feature phones."

The financial director didn't speak but picked up a pen and calculated carefully.

The BOM hardware cost is 120, plus shipping, tariffs, and marketing, the total cost should come to 150 USD.

Li Qing's price is indeed appropriate.

"I support Director Li; the pricing of 299 is quite reasonable."

"But our goal is not to fight Samsung for high-end users." Chen Hai took the initiative to voice his opposition, and Liu Zhihong also nodded silently.

"Our core purpose is to cultivate users, help us further improve the ecosystem of the Tos system, and discover problems with our self-developed chips. This requires volume. If the price is too high, leading to poor sales, all our plans will be affected accordingly."

Seeing that Chen Hai had finished speaking, Liu Zhihong picked up the engineering prototype and played with it carefully for a while. The feel was indeed good.

Not to mention being on par with Apple, it could definitely go head-to-head with a latecomer like HTC.

"From a technical perspective, the S1's performance is indeed worth 299, and even 349 would be fine. But from a market perspective... I suggest we can have different versions. The basic version can be brought down to 249, then cut the rear camera to 1 million pixels, reduce the storage a bit, and then increase the price according to different memory capacities. Then the high-end version..."