Top of the Great Era

Chapter 2892: A promising copycat phone

Zhuang Xiangrong didn't know Zhou Buqi's plan, so he told him everything: "Tianyu also developed business in India. In the most successful year, we sold more than 180 million mobile phones in India. However, it has been slow in the past two years because of the Indian ban."

Zhou Buqi asked: "Is it related to the IMEI code?"

Zhuang Xiangrong nodded, "Yes, it's the IMEI code. India has strengthened its supervision in this area. Just a few months ago, it seized a batch of domestically produced knockoff phones shipped to India. There were more than 300,000 of them, all without IMEI codes."

"That's a huge loss!"

"Yes, they confiscated it once they found it. According to the Indian style, after confiscating it, they can sell it to domestic operators for secondary sales."

"possible."

Even if Zhou Buqi didn't understand it, he could guess that India was really corrupt.

Zhuang Xiangrong said: "It has been difficult to make knockoff phones in China in recent years. Even Tianyu has encountered such a big dilemma. Other mobile phone manufacturers really have no way out. Even within our company, we often hear such voices, saying that Tianyu will definitely die, and it depends on when. Times have changed, and the gray space is getting smaller and smaller."

Zhou Buqi asked: "Why go through the gray area? Just go directly to the Indian authorities to apply for IMEI code approval!"

"It's too difficult." Zhuang Xiangrong shook his head. "The cost of the IMEI code is not to buy it from an international IMEI code laboratory, which can be ignored. The biggest cost is actually the public relations with various approval departments. In China, we have calculated that if you want to go through all the procedures, the price of an IMEI code can be as high as 5-8 yuan. India is even more serious. If you want to approve a number segment, you have to go through so many departments. It will cost you $100 million."

Zhou Buqi was a little surprised and looked at Lei Jun beside him.

Xiaomi wants to reduce costs to the extreme.

However, the IMEI code is a meaningless and unreasonable cost investment.

Every mobile phone in the world has a unique IMEI code.

If you want to obtain this IMEI code, you need to apply to an international IMEI code laboratory. The price is actually not high, only US$400 for one number segment, and one number segment has 100 million codes.

The most difficult part is actually the approval and authorization of standard codes in different countries.

For example, the United States is 01, the United Kingdom is 35, China is 86, and India is 91.

Then all the codes are integrated to form a unique IMEI code. It is not enough to pass this step, you also need to pass the operator's level and obtain the network access permission from the operator, so that the mobile phone can be connected to the operator's signal network.

Each step of the process costs money.

Zhuang Xiangrong saw the doubts from Boss Zhou and sighed, "After all, knockoff phones are not regular phones. It's actually very difficult to apply for regular codes, unlike big manufacturers like Xiaomi, Hisense, and Coolpad. In addition to the same network connection fees with operators, if you want to get approval from other departments, you have to invest more...

Lei Jun smiled, "Aishida shouldn't have any obstacles in this regard."

Zhou Buqi was still concerned about the Indian market. "So what are you doing now? Are you still doing business in the Indian market?"

"Do it, do it secretly." Zhuang Xiangrong was helpless, "We have finally opened up this channel, we can't just give up like this."

Zhou Buqi asked: "Do you have a legal IMEI code?"

"No." Zhuang Xiangrong shook his head. "If we go through the legal procedures, there will be no profit. The sellers in India are not willing to do that. They are responsible for the arrangement and get us a batch of IMEI codes. Then we just use them repeatedly."

Zhou Buqi laughed and said, "Can it pass customs?"

Zhuang Xiangrong said: "It may not be possible to find out. Even if it is found, we may give some money to the customs inspection team and they will release it. But there are special cases. Sometimes there are inspectors or parliamentarians supervising, and we can't get through. Sometimes we can also encounter black-and-white thieves. There is nothing we can do but try our luck. We can't waste this market in vain. India is very poor. If it is fully liberalized, I estimate that at least 2 million counterfeit mobile phones can be consumed in India every year."

India's population is about the same as China's.

And India is richer than Africa.

1 million people can afford mid- to high-end smartphones, 3 million can afford low-end smartphones, and more people can only buy copycat phones. Having a tool that can make phone calls is enough to satisfy them.

  With such a big market and such a huge opportunity, who can seize it?

Looking around the world, there are only domestic mobile phone manufacturers!

And it is a very embarrassing copycat phone manufacturer.

The cost of regular feature phones is not low. It is different for knock-off phones. Using some leftovers is considered conscientious. You can use obsolete products, unqualified products from regular production lines, or even second-hand spare parts.

As the crown of copycat mobile phones, Tianyu has been so successful mainly because the quality of its mobile phones is guaranteed to a certain extent. It does not use second-hand and substandard products to deceive consumers, thus forming a certain brand advantage belonging to copycat mobile phones.

Zhou Buqi then asked: "How much do you usually sell mobile phones for in India?"

Zhuang Xiangrong said: "We don't sell them. We sell them to local dealers. Our selling price is only about 20 to yuan per phone. We can at least have a % profit margin. It's actually a very good business. It's just that India's regulations have become stricter in the past two years, so it's difficult to do business."

Zhou Buqi asked: "Why don't you think of developing other markets? South Asia, Southeast Asia, Pakistan, etc."

"Uh..." Zhuang Xiangrong hesitated, a little embarrassed, "The technology is still not good enough. We haven't developed a model that can adapt to the networks of operators in other countries."

"Network format?"

"Correct."

"Ah."

Zhou Buqi understood immediately.

Different operators adopt different network formats.

For example, China Mobile is TD-SCDMA and China Unicom is WCDMA.

If a mobile phone wants to access the network, it needs corresponding baseband chips, analog baseband chips, radio frequency chips and other communication accessories to adapt to the operator's network standards. Different chips also require different processors and motherboards to match, which requires readjusting the internal structure of the mobile phone and the entire external design.

This is not easy.

Domestic copycat phone manufacturers have little technical ability, and many of them are like small workshops. The reason why the industry has developed so well is that MediaTek provides a one-stop service, and the entire board is assembled. Copycat phone manufacturers buy it, make a shell, install batteries, keyboards, earpieces and speakers, and put a label on it and they can sell it.

It is not easy to develop a mobile phone that can be adapted to more operators.

However, these obstacles are not a problem for Zhou Buqi.

He's going to do something big!

  In the past year, the global sales of mobile phones reached 20 billion, including 10 billion smart phones and 10 billion feature phones. Most people who still use knockoff phones these days do so for the sake of cheapness, which means that the domestic knockoff phone industry still has a huge market demand internationally.

Tianyu's little tricks are really insignificant.

There still needs to be a stronger person to lead this industry.

……

Zhou Buqi originally wanted to talk more with Mr. Zhuang from Tianyu about the counterfeit mobile phone industry.

But soon, two bosses came to visit.

Among them was one person Zhou Buqi knew, Luo Yonghao, the founder of Smartisan smartphone. It was a bit surprising that he was invited.

Same purpose.

Everyone has heard that Boss Zhou did Meizu a big favor, helping it get rid of the supply-side threat from Samsung.

  You helped Meizu, can you help me?

The purpose of this industry symposium is to discuss how to fight against Qualcomm.

In fact, the threat from the supply chain is not limited to Qualcomm. Even some domestic suppliers have similar tactics, which seriously restricts the healthy development of the domestic mobile phone industry.

It is far from enough to just fight against Qualcomm.

Zhou Buqi did not refuse and said generously: "Help! All of you must help! This afternoon, at the symposium, we will discuss this matter!"