87: Chapter 87 The Wolf is Coming? Fruit Enters China

After browsing the system mall, Shen Fei sighed helplessly. Sure enough, special offers don't refresh every time.

Redeem! OLED Screen production line.

The original 13,000 Industrial Innovation Points instantly dropped back to 7,000. Shen Fei casually bundled a primary AI algorithm package; these 10,000-plus points were gone before they even warmed up.

But Shen Fei soon excitedly checked the technical gift package; it was still the hallmark of the Human Trafficker System.

Buy an OLED Screen production line and get engineers for free. (500 people)

Purchasing the algorithm package also came with a team, a full 300-person AI algorithm team. The sub-projects included not only voice assistants and AI robots but also various large AI models...

With these technologies, Shen Fei immediately had Li Ziqi establish a new Transsion panel company and a Transsion AI Technology Research Institute!

...

Time passed quickly, and soon it was October 30, 2009. China Unicom attached great importance to this day and had been advertising early on, announcing that Apple was officially entering China!

Beijing, Xidan Joy City.

At 6:00 AM, before dawn, a long queue had already formed in front of Apple's first flagship store in China.

Hundreds of Apple fans wrapped in down jackets lined up there.

Of course, the smarter ones brought their own folding chairs.

This was Apple, the pioneer manufacturer of Smartphones. The smart devices they developed must be better than the products of imitators like the Huawei mate series, Meizu, and HTC.

As for the experience of the parallel import versions they had on hand...

Those were all parallel imports without adaptation, so it was normal that the experience wouldn't beat the mate series. From today on... Apple's Smartphones would surely slaughter these imitators.

With such expectations, their faces were filled with excitement and anticipation.

"There are two more hours until we can buy the official domestic iPhone."

"I specifically took time off work to come here; I must get the first batch."

"I heard the price is quite good. This contract phone is very cost-effective; you can get the phone by pre-paying for the service plan."

As they discussed, the crowd began to stir. Media reporters wove through the crowd conducting interviews, and this scene was also recorded by the lenses of BBC, CNN, and Reuters.

They had already thought of their article headlines: Apple officially enters China, fans' enthusiasm runs high, forming a long queue early on.

At 8:00 AM, the store doors opened.

The first batch of customers rushed into the store and headed straight for the Apple display counters. In the smooth glass display cases, the Apple 3Gs were displayed quietly. They were indescribably beautiful, and many people's faces were filled with the light of technology!

"I want a black 32G version!"

"White 16G, give me two."

"Can I sign up for a contract phone here?"

The salesperson was sweating profusely. Fortunately, China Unicom headquarters had sent a group of employees directly to handle the contract phone program, but even so, long queues still formed in front of the cash registers.

The sound of POS machines swiping cards came one after another.

Seeing this scene, the store manager was filled with joy. Apple entering the Chinese market immediately gained the support of the vast number of fans, and sales would surely be explosive.

Until...

"Huh? Why doesn't this phone have WiFi?" A young girl holding the just-unboxed phone asked the salesperson in confusion.

"Uh... dear, the domestic version doesn't support WiFi functionality for the time being, but our China Unicom 3G network is also very fast, and the experience might even be better..." the salesperson explained, biting the bullet.

"Then I want a refund." The girl put the phone back on the counter. "If I can't connect to WiFi, how am I supposed to use it at home?"

Seeing her like this, the sales guide stopped explaining and replied bluntly: "It's written on the counter, right? Once sold, no returns. Besides, this isn't Apple's intention; it's that our domestic policy doesn't allow it."

Before the girl could speak again, the person next to her urged: "Are you buying it or not? If not, hurry up and leave."

"She looks like she's just putting on airs. She has no real ability and is just looking for trouble."

...

At 10:00 AM sharp, the store manager looked at the real-time sales data, and his expression wasn't actually that good.

After being open for more than two hours, sales were only a little over 300 units. One must know that he had prepared more than 2,000 units for this launch.

This number was far below the headquarters' predictions.

According to China Unicom headquarters' estimates, the initial sales for the three flagship stores in Beijing should have exceeded 5,000 units, but instead...

The target was missed by quite a bit. Even worse, the return rate was as high as 8%, mostly due to the lack of WiFi or other series of issues. There were indeed some quality problems with this batch of products.

At the same time, some buzz started appearing on digital forums.

For example, a post on Tieba had just been published, and the replies in the comment section instantly reached 99+: #Apple Enters China! Is it a dominant crushing, or a massive failure?#

"I was quite looking forward to Apple's Smartphone, thinking it would at least be better than the parallel imports, but it turns out there's no difference from the parallel imports."

"Yes, especially that Chinese input method; it's so hard to use, it's practically anti-human."

"Why do so many apps on the Apple store cost money, especially plants vs. zombies... The Huawei next door has it as a free download, but here it actually costs 2.99 USD."

"This map... doesn't it even have Baidu Maps?"

"The charger port isn't even compatible with my mp3 player, trash."

"The people above might be complaining about functionality, but you are just looking for trouble. Didn't the mate series also redesign its charging port? Why only attack Apple?"

...

Faced with the online public opinion, the China Unicom headquarters conference room immediately held an internal meeting.

On the large screen at the back of the conference room, it was written directly: Find the cause.

Below that were written the very ugly initial sales figures: This morning, the total sales of the iphone 3g series were only 1,800 units.

Among them, Beijing sold over 800 units, Shanghai sold over 600 units, and Guangzhou sold over 400 units. These sales figures were only for the pilot cities; across the rest of the country, there were over 5,000 pre-orders in total.

But even adding them together, the initial sales didn't break 10,000, which is a situation of critical acclaim but poor sales.

"Mr. Wang, this data..."

The Marketing Director's voice was a bit shaky. Previously, in the internal meeting, he had guaranteed with certainty that with the contract price, the initial sales would definitely catch up to the mate series.

By then, China Telecom and China Mobile would definitely regret it.

It was precisely because of his guaranteed survey data that the two big bosses signed a massive contract for 5 million units, yet now the first week's sales data might not even reach 20,000 units.

Although this product was well-received, most consumers would subconsciously compare it with the mate series as soon as they got their hands on it.

The result was definitely that Apple's system experience was slightly better, but the gap wasn't as large as imagined.

Many people would subconsciously give up once they considered the price difference...

At this moment, China Unicom Chairman Wang Jianzhou sat at the head of the table, not wanting to speak at all, but his heart was filled with panic.

It seemed like his position was gone.

A 5 million unit order, with a procurement price of 3,000 yuan per bare phone. The total payment was 15 billion! This was the largest single procurement in the history of China Unicom, and also the biggest gamble.

But now, just as it had started, he could already see signs of losing.

By then, not only would his position be gone, but he might also...