Reinventing the Millennium.

On July 7, Echo Silicon Valley R&D Center.

According to the rhythm of weekly high-level meetings after the press conference, Fang Zhuo once again held a coordination meeting of managers from China, the United States, and Europe to determine the company's plan for the second half of the year.

The mobile phone Mars needs to be continuously optimized together with the Android system, and starting from August, it will start large-scale publicity, final approval of supply chain prices, and docking with operators and other important tasks.

The meeting was rather lengthy, the time difference of the three places was different, and everyone was very busy recently. As a result, in the middle of the meeting, there was another problem with the online conference system.

From morning till night, Fang Zhuo finally ran out of patience the moment he announced the end of the meeting.

"I have said more than once that we need a stable, stable, stable conference software."

"I just don't understand, is this thing so difficult?"

Fang Zhuo got up and signaled the others to get off work, and Yu Hong and Xu Kedeng followed him to the office.

When he entered the office, he poured two large glasses of water before pouring tea for President Yu and Director Xu.

Yu Hong made a cup of coffee by herself, glanced at the dazzling array of mobile phones and mobile phone parts on the desk, and said with a smile: "I was attacked by domestic mobile phone manufacturers a while ago, and I have never seen you so annoyed."

She said to Xu Keden again: "Mr. Xu, look at Mr. Fang's desk, is this more like a laboratory than your laboratory?"

Nokia's, Motorola's, Samsung's.

Flip, candy bar, touch screen.

The colors are also colorful.

Xu Keden said sincerely: "Mr. Fang is doing what he does and loves what he does. Without this spirit, how can our Mars come about."

"I just want to see how you guys are fooled by me." Fang Zhuo swiped his arm, swept out a space where files can be placed, and answered Mr. Yu's words, "It's been less than a month since the iPhone was released, and now it's selling well." If it’s over 1, just 50 mobile phones are enough for a major domestic manufacturer to work for a year.”

He shook his head slightly: "I want to be angry too, but I just can't get angry. Mr. Cai from MediaTek even helped me out with a word. I heard it's very helpful."

Calculated at US$199, the 50 units are US$0.995 million, but some of Apple’s sales still have retail prices. Although the proportion is not clear, it is more than US$1 million in revenue.

Based on what Fang Zhuo has considered in the past two days, the revenue in less than a month is enough for Morningstar Semiconductor to work for more than half a year.

Morningstar Semiconductor's revenue last year was 2.2 million US dollars, the previous year in 2005 was 1.7 million US dollars.

This increase is not bad, and it is expected to have an even better increase of more than 40% this year.

But in Fang Zhuo's mind, it was still not fierce enough.

Yu Hong nodded slowly, without paying attention to small domestic manufacturers, picked up an iPhone from the table, frowned and said: "The reputation of the iPhone on the Internet is still very good, and its system is indeed Smooth."

Having said that, both she and Fang Zhuo looked at Xu Keden.

Xu Keden spread his hands innocently, what are you looking at me for?

The two realized that this was not a problem with the hardware of the mobile phone, but a problem with the Android system.

The three of them sighed in unison.

Since the release of the iPhone, the system experience has troubled the relevant personnel of Yike and Google.

Including Schmidt, after he really tried the iPhone, he spoke in a soft voice in front of Fang Zhuo, and even ordered YouTube's advertising fee in August to be discounted on top of the discount.

Fang Zhuo already had psychological expectations. Although he was also dissatisfied, he was not as unhappy as everyone imagined.

However, looking at Schmidt's appearance, he felt that it was inappropriate not to get angry, so he really found an opportunity for a meeting between the two parties to politely get angry, and reprimanded Google for its problems in system development.

Having said that, although Yike and Google have discovered the link of the gap, consumers also spontaneously mentioned Mars in the good word-of-mouth of the iPhone.

Previously, some media called the iPhone released by Apple the "God Phone", but after the Yike press conference, this title gradually disappeared.

When consumers got their iPhones, there was some teasing.

"Why can't this God phone take selfies?"

"I bought a god phone from AT&T. The problem is, this god phone is a god 2G phone. I decided to let my family try Yike's Mars phone at the end of the year. I hope I can take a group photo at Christmas!"

Although Yike Mars has not yet been released, and although the selfie of Mars only appeared at the press conference, the idea of ​​the front camera is not only applicable to Finns, but also applicable to American consumers who have hands.

"One-handed selfie", this is one of the Yike advertisements that YouTube will push in mid-August.

From the beginning to the end, Fang Zhuo's idea of ​​mobile phone competition is to differentiate competition based on his own strengths.

"Apple has not announced the release plan for the European market for a long time." Yu Hong mentioned an important recent development of Apple.

"European operators are not like AT&T and Apple, which has cooperated for a long time. We have taken the landslide Deutsche Telekom. Whether it is Vodafone in the UK or Orange in France, they are not easy to accept Apple's cooperation model in a short time." Fang Zhuo personally tried the difficult operator.

If it weren't for the special situation of Deutsche Telekom's coaching change + sharp drop in profits, Yike might still be struggling with T-Mobile now.

Similarly, Apple wants to replicate its cooperation with US operators in the European market, which requires time, energy, games and compromises.

Judging from the current situation, it will be difficult for Apple to get involved in the European market for quite a while, which is good for Echo.

There is another important reason for this that cannot be ignored. Europe is several years ahead of 3G in the United States. Although there is still a lot of space, the concept has already penetrated more, and the 2G version of the iPhone is not so popular.

Fang Zhuo talked about this, and then connected with Pan Ben from Europe on the spot, and chatted impromptuly about the chaos and competition of operators in various European countries.

"There is still a drastic change in the supply chain. Mr. Fang, do you think the iPhone will respond to the drop in storage prices?" Yu Hong raised a question that was not discussed at today's meeting.

Fang Zhuo couldn't help correcting Yu Hong's statement: "That's not a fall...that's an avalanche..."

At the beginning of this year, the price of 1G storage was $12.

By April, the price had dropped to $4, $10 and back again.

Now at the end of July, the price has leaked all the way to $7.

苹果的4G存储从48美元成本到现在是20美元，易科的8G版本则是减少了56美元。

What makes storage manufacturers most desperate is that they don't know if they can keep the $5 mark.

They don't think about rebounding now.

This is a complete collapse of the price system of the global storage industry. From the United States, Europe to South Korea, Japan to the mainland, and Taiwan, including Qimonda, which Fang Zhuo cooperated with, and SMIC, which has established a good relationship, have all been more or less affected.

On the contrary, Ice Core escaped a catastrophe in Lin'an because of the production of niche storage.

Fang Zhuo is still observing this matter, and is still waiting for the financial turmoil to further disrupt the situation in the storage industry.

He feels that from 12 to 5, this 5 is definitely not the bottom, and there is even hope that it will go straight to 2 dollars.

At $5, manufacturers are complaining and bleeding, and when it reaches $2, let’s see how many others can breathe.

However, all this reflected in the mobile terminal is a good opportunity to reduce costs.

"Steve Jobs will definitely take action. From word of mouth to sales to the competitive environment to the European market, he should take action." Fang Zhuo put himself in the situation and felt that if he changed himself, he might make a move on the price.

Yu Hong's judgment on this point is between two and two, but she trusts her boss's sensitivity in this regard.

On the contrary, Xu Kedeng was a little bit murmured in his heart, the cost has been reduced, and Apple has made this money for nothing, so he must be happy, what else should he do?
However, on the afternoon of the second day, Xu Corden posted on the Internet the price cuts and adjustment announcements on Apple's official website, as well as Jobs' open letter to users.

Apple announced that it will stop selling the 4G storage version of the iPhone.

Apple announced that the 8G storage version of the iPhone has been reduced from $599 to $399, a price cut of up to 33.4%.

And, it will launch a 16G version of the iPhone in the fourth quarter.

In an open letter, Jobs apologized for the sudden price cut and promised to compensate old users.

He said that he still believes that the price cut is a correct decision, which is conducive to expanding the iPhone user camp, but also admits that the company should take better care of the feelings of early users while expanding new users through price cuts.

Jobs promised that all users who bought the iPhone before the price cut would get a $100 voucher each, which could be used to purchase any product at Apple's retail store or online store.

However, there is a sentence in the open letter that "the field of technology is always full of changes and improvements. If you always wait for price cuts or want to buy the latest models, you will never be able to buy high-tech products" which angered many users who have already bought iPhones.

——How did you change and improve your high-tech products in such a short period of time?What did you do early?
For this reason, on the second day after Apple's announcement, an iPhone user announced that he would sue Apple, arguing that such a drastic price cut has damaged his own rights and interests.

A price cut, have disturbed.

It’s okay if you don’t have a choice, but it’s less than 5 months before the release of Yike Mars. Many users declared on the Internet that “even if it’s the same price, don’t buy an iPhone, buy Mars for Christmas”.

After such adjustments, the iPhone is completely on par with Mars in terms of price and storage version, $399/8G, $499/16G.

Yike and Google watched the movement on the Internet and watched the fun from the sidelines.

However, looking at this bustling will set him on fire.

Just 3 days after the iPhone price cut was announced, Apple's staff claimed that many of the bad comments about its own products now come from its competitor Yike, which is taking the opportunity to discredit it.

Yi Ke:?
Conscience of heaven and earth, Fang Zhuo and Yi Ke are just watching the fun this time.

Even, Fang Zhuo understood such price cuts and adjustments from the bottom of his heart.

Unexpectedly, there is no room for good people in this world.

Before Fang Zhuo could respond, Google's Schmidt was reluctant.

He posted a selfie and a profile photo of Mars directly on Facebook, writing: "Thank you Mars, it let you use a cheaper iPhone, but if you are willing to wait, you can buy it at Christmas Selfie a family portrait, oh yes, and a 3G function as a bonus.”

The real iron triangle!

Google Schmidt!
Fang Zhuo found it strange that after half a year, Schmidt, who was on stage at the Apple press conference, even directly mocked the "old club".

He mentioned this matter when he called Schmidt and asked: "If I remember correctly, Google and Apple have cooperated on the search side, Lao Shi, are you being frivolous?"

"Can you tear your jersey and be frivolous on the court?" Schmidt asked back.

"It's different, the occasion is different." Fang Zhuo reminded, "Besides, I'm young, and I'm very good with sports, unlike the public's perception of you, who are old, treacherous, and control everything behind the scenes."

Schmidt felt Mr. Fang was being modest.

But to be honest, Yi Ke and Mr. Fang are indeed very restrained in the promotion of Mars.

He even felt a little conservative.

If you do it yourself, you must seize the iPhone's price cuts to attack it.

"Mobile phones are different from players. I still hope that Mars can establish a brand image from the product to the company and even the management. 3G and smart phones will bring mobile phone manufacturers to a relatively fair starting line." Fang Zhuo told Schmidt Talked about some of my own thoughts, "Mars has a unique front camera and a software ecological framework brought by the 3G network. These represent mobile phone technologies that are already at the forefront."

"Schmidt, if you want to become an external director of Yike, you must remember our purpose and keep making progress!"

In the words of Jobs, these are high-tech products, and the process of keeping high-tech products in progress itself has its own subtle brand culture transmission.

Fang Zhuo is carefully considering the establishment of a mobile phone brand culture, wanting more long-term benefits.

And, he is also carefully choosing channels to convey his ideas to consumers.

However, no matter how cautious and cautious, a technology and business conference I attended in early August was still slightly cheated.

On August 8, Fang Zhuo agreed to the All Things Digital Conference co-hosted by two columnists Walter and Kara of the Wall Street Journal after being carefully selected by the public relations department of Yike.

The reason given by the company is that this program has a good reputation, and it has interviewed many well-known business leaders such as Bill Gates and Jobs this year, which is in line with the brand positioning that Yike is pursuing now.

However, when Fang Zhuo arrived at the scene, he soon found in the background that Jobs had already been interviewed in front.

"Kara, you didn't inform us in advance that Jobs is also participating in this interview." Yike's staff was very dissatisfied with this, and negotiated with the host in the background, intending to cancel the interview.

"Hey, hey, don't you guys think this is a great opportunity? Listen, listen, Jobs talked about your product." Kara tried hard to save the plan, and he said to Mr. Fang who was in charge, "Fang In short, Jobs also didn't know you would come, you are fair, fair."

The program used a trick to bring together the heads of two competing companies for an interview.

They have done similar things before and achieved good results, and the object of that time was Musk.

Fang Zhuo listened attentively and heard the cheers of the audience.

"Okay, it's good to be fair, give me a good appearance." He waved to his staff and asked the host.

Cara got excited and planned to contact another host, Walter, through the headset, so that Mr. Fang could appear in front of the audience properly.