Reboot 2003

Chapter 207 115: Whose Responsibility (Three in One)

A taxi drove across the street, but Gu Wenjie subconsciously walked into the telecommunications store.

Because his hair was messed up while sleeping on the plane, he looked a bit slovenly. The black security guard at the door looked at him suspiciously.

The interior of the store adopts the recently popular cafe layout, with not many people doing business at the counter and not many people at other display tables.

But many customers crowded in front of a round table in the middle, and they almost surrounded the round table, where a male shopping guide introduced their products.

"It has three price ranges, $199 is the most comfortable choice, after all, it has the most functions, it has 32MB of running memory capacity, it has Bluetooth devices, it has a 200-megapixel lens, and its standby time Longer…”

“The second is the more mainstream $159, which has perfect functions and also has a 130-megapixel camera. It also comes with a data package worth $20...”

"Hey, tell us about the $49 Lite! Let us buy the Lite!"

"Sorry, friends, I know you like that Lite very much..."

I don't know what these people are discussing, Gu Wenjie squeezed in. He survived the news of the hot sale of this mobile phone last month, but he has been very busy recently, so he has not had time to pay attention.

"Sorry, please give me one."

The others looked at Gu Wenjie. Gu Wenjie scanned the crowd and found that almost all of them were young people or Chinese.

"One for each." Gu Wenjie said.

The shopping guide felt that Gu Wenjie was a little out of touch with his words: "But sir, the $49 Lite has been sold out..."

"What about the other two? Give me one of each."

"Are you an employee of Lucent?"

"Why do you say that?"

"Because there is a Lucent R&D laboratory nearby, three Lucent employees have recently bought this set of mobile phones..."

Gu Wenjie shook his head no and confirmed that he wanted to buy two XingX1s. One was the official release version priced at US$159, and the other was the Pro version priced at US$199.

The price is indeed not expensive, and considering the cost-effectiveness, it does have everything you need.

However, there seemed to be not much left of the $159 model. While the shopping guide was preparing the procedures for Gu Wenjie, other customers seemed indifferent - although they came early, they had no intention of buying.

Is it because young people cannot afford expensive mobile phones?Gu Wenjie remembered hearing them say just now that what they wanted to buy was a Lite, which was the $49 one. It was obviously a smartphone, so how could it be sold so cheaply?
And he soon understood what was going on. The shopping guide asked him if he needed a new calling card for both mobile phones?Gu Wenjie said that he had a Melician phone, and it was also from AT&T, but the shopping guide said that these phones needed to be paired with a value-added service contract, otherwise the $199 Pro phone would cost $329, while the $159 regular version would cost $265.

Gu Wenjie thought it was troublesome, so he paid for the mobile phone directly. Fortunately, there will be no charging items in the future. Not only that, but also gave him two 20-dollar data packages. , saying this is free.

Gu Wenjie took two big boxes and went out. On the way out, a Chinese man spoke to him in Chinese: "Hey, buddy, if you just buy this phone at full price, aren't you afraid of it breaking down?"

"what happened?"

"Galaxy phones can currently only use AT&T calling cards. It is said that cards that are not original are prone to malfunctions because their systems are different, and it is difficult to repair if something malfunctions. Many people buy them and directly scrap them. Recently, the return rate has been very high. I feel It’s still quite tricky.”

Gu Wenjie frowned and started chatting with this person: "So its quality is poor?"

"After all, it is a new mobile phone. It uses so many new technologies, and it was made by us Chinese people. Our Chinese community likes to use it. I can only say that the poor quality is understandable..." The Chinese opened a box Cigarette, "Want one?"

"No, I don't smoke, thank you." Gu Wenjie politely refused, but still tried to figure out the crux of the problem, "But I saw that many people were interested in this just now, but no one bought it."

"After all, there is only one online phone, and those college students will go crazy when they see that kind of phone, so they buy the 49 Lite. If it wears out, they can return it. If they can't return it, they just buy a new one, because they don't have high expectations in the first place. The failure rate is actually not high, and now the phones are sold out."

"How about the function of 49? Is it not stuck?"

“If it’s not stuck, it’s just an internet phone. It comes with a music player, no camera, no replaceable battery, and no built-in accessories such as headphones. The call quality is also poor, but it has all the internet functions it should have. In fact, it’s not any worse than other mobile phones, especially for young people.”

Gu Wenjie asked him, "Which one are you going to buy?"

"I won't buy it." The Chinese man said as if he was very proud. "If you have Lite, just make do with it. If you don't have it, just wait for melon seeds."

"Ha ha……"

After chatting for a while, Gu Wenjie almost understood.

Considering that this is my first time making a mobile phone and I have no technical experience, it is normal to have this kind of problem.

Then he took a taxi and changed the SIM card for his $199 phone in the car. Fortunately, it didn't malfunction.

After lighting up the phone, it took some time to start the communication device. The 2-inch color screen is slightly smaller than the current mainstream screens, but the resolution of the pixels is about the same. The workmanship of the casing and keyboard is also so-so; although there is nothing on the promotional poster. It feels like it, but when you really hold it in your hand, it still feels cheap. Gu Wenjie picked up his Nokia N73 that had just removed the phone card again and couldn't help thinking in his heart.

But it’s also a $200-level product — just now at the AT&T store, Gu Wenjie also saw that the contract phone of the Nokia N73 is also $199. At the same price, the performance of the N73 is almost a level higher than that of the X1Pro, but there are still people who buy it. XingX1……

The reason is quite obvious. After opening the screen of the mobile phone, it is said that the self-developed system based on Linux looks very good. The interface is as beautiful and natural as a desktop graphics system. Compared with it, it is like that of Nokia N73. A traditional OS seems cheap.

And the interface is exactly as advertised - it's an Internet phone.

It does not have many interface applications. Basic applications - traditional functions such as phone, email, camera, clock and memo naturally do not require the Internet, but the clock can automatically synchronize time, and memo seems to be able to communicate with the Galaxy Browser server. It has networking capabilities.

However, weather, stocks, news and music seem to have Internet services, although most of them are not complicated. Music and weather are services of operators, and stocks and news are shell browsers that access fixed URLs. From the above point of view, it is true that many functions are realized in a simpler way through a simple kernel.

The same is certainly true for the two main applications - waybo and Facebook. As for the browser, which is the technical core of this phone, it has an orange stick figure logo similar to the solar system. When opened, there is a Google search box on the homepage, and there is also waybo and other commonly used navigation addresses.

Gu Wenjie entered Waybo.com, and the mobile-specific page with blue characters on a white background was directly displayed. He could log in directly with his own account, or he could access the separately packaged Waybo application. The two interfaces are actually similar, but the company's recent Technicians are making adjustments to it and seem to be planning to make the interface of Waybo in application form more concise and beautiful.

Of course, there are quite a few mobile phones that can do this now. Although it is almost impossible for most mobile phones to access pages customized for the complex standards of PCs because of the kernel, Linux is originally a Desktop Kernel, which naturally has its benefits...

Gu Wenjie opened his own Kuaikan official website in the browser.Unlike Weibo, which is user-oriented, Kuaikan Media is a website for merchants. It does not need to make simple pages that adapt to mobile phone standards to increase the security risk of the website.

But he still opened it—on the small screen of the mobile phone, the narrow text was as big as the eye of a needle, and the picture webpage of Kuaikan Media was completely presented by it.Gu Wenjie became interested, looked at the instruction manual, pressed the left and right keys, the screen began to zoom, and then the content on it began to be recognizable, but because the page was too large, the screen began to freeze visible to the naked eye during the zooming process stand up……

Seeing this, Gu Wenjie frowned.

This is undoubtedly an epoch-making product. The concept of using the Internet as the core allows its user groups to be divided very clearly. Not only does it have an advantage in marketing in specific fields, but the product can also be one step ahead - in the final analysis, the Internet should be It is a way of providing services. The PC browser can be used as its medium. The same is true for mobile phones. By using these network services, even if the quality of the mobile phone is poor and the use is a little laggy, as long as it is convenient enough, these problems should be tolerated. of.

but……

Thinking of this, Gu Wenjie felt more and more that the problem he was thinking of was huge.

He exited the browser and tried to make a call with this mobile phone, just happened to have something to look for.

"Hello, Old Chen?"

"What's wrong? Aren't you going to see Ji Xianglin?"

"I'm going, it's not time yet." Gu Wenjie glanced out the car window, "Just now I saw a store with a promotional poster of your mobile phone on the side of the road, and went in to buy your mobile phone."

As expected, the person on the other side became interested: "Which one is it? What kind of thing?"

"I bought one of each to give it a try, to support my old friend's business. Except that the cheapest one was out of stock, it felt pretty good..."

"Hey, the cheapest one is customized by the operator. No matter how well it sells, it doesn't give us a few cents. In fact, it's not worth it. We lose money and make a profit. But are there so many people buying this one?"

"Yeah, you can't buy them at all. I only bought the last two..."

"What's the scene like?"

"It's just like an ordinary telecom store. A group of people gather in front of your mobile phone..." "Tell me more about it. I don't know how it is sold."

"Hey, I said..."

He obviously made the mobile phone himself, but he didn't even know what the place where the mobile phone was sold was like, yet he kept pestering him, an outsider, with questions. Gu Wenjie felt that he was convinced.

However, Gu Wenjie is almost used to his old partner's urine, and although he has never been to the scene, he seems to have a thorough understanding of the key factors...

"After all, AT&T was spun off from Bell Labs. They have been a loyal supporter of the Internet for a long time. They have cooperation projects with Microsoft, Apple, and Google. Of course, most people don't know it yet. In short, they are very interested in the concepts we provide. Interested, now the sales and after-sales service of Galaxy mobile phones are all represented by them..."

"These operators are now engaged in large-scale contract phone services in order to grab users. This model does not seem to be very popular in China, but they think that our mobile phones can increase the subscription rate of network traffic packages, so they are very fond of our products. They are willing to use their money to subsidize the cost of mobile phone sales.”

"Fortunately, ZTE seems to have obtained some export tax deductions. It's not a big loss now that it's sold at such a low price. But I'm really impressed by their repair rate. I've shipped all the goods to their stores. After one test, it's not a big loss." I can’t even turn it on, and I don’t know how they performed the test..."

Mr. Chen couldn't stop talking about this. Gu Wenjie listened for a while and echoed: "It seems that ZTE is indeed dragging you down. Our country's manufacturing industry is still too backward, so why didn't you find other OEMs in the first place?" Woolen cloth?"

Mr. Chen replied: "Didn't you expect it to be so successful? I originally thought it would be good if the mobile phone could run. The browser developed by the R&D department is really good. I used WebKit to build a mobile browser that has all the functions it should have." Got it."

Gu Wenjie nodded: "The system is not bad, but the mobile phone system company seems to be acquired by you temporarily..."

"It's not that they do a good job, it's that the money spent is worth it," said Boss Chen. "No one has ever successfully built a mobile Linux system, but I found an outsourcer and it was done in no time. Guess who?"

"Google? I think they're pretty close to you..."

"It's better to count on Microsoft than on Google now." Boss Chen said, "To customize Linux, of course we need to find a mature Linux company. Red Hat set up a team to help us. Although Linus didn't come, he helped us introduce several Chinese companies. of Linux contributors.”

But how to ensure data security?Gu Wenjie thought about it but didn't ask. After all, this phone was originally developed in close cooperation with ZTE. Maybe he didn't care about it in the first place.

"No wonder, it's not that easy to get a Linux-heavy system on a mobile phone, and it seems that this mobile phone can't use other software..."

"It can be improved gradually in the future."

Mr. Chen seemed to take this question lightly, but when Gu Wenjie said this, he became a little concerned: "I am willing to believe this, but I tried it just now, and it was a bit stuck when accessing the normal page, but when I click on the quick-view page At that time, its performance seems to be not enough..."

Mr. Chen said: "More or less, it is still mainly based on free access to mobile pages and browser performance as its main selling points, but the performance of mobile phones is improving, and this problem will not be a problem in the future."

Gu Wenjie said, "But I remember, didn't you want to make a Guazi mobile phone? With this system, if it is used on a touch screen, then..."

Gu Wenjie quickly realized that he seemed to have asked a very bad question. After all, the touch screen on mobile phones was not a brilliant technology. It had appeared a long time ago. The reason why no one used it was because it was really unnecessary—— On the one hand, the technology was immature at the time, and to use it as the only control method had to use a sensor pen, which was really not easy to use.

On the other hand, touch technology requires a considerable amount of computing resources. The mobile phone chips in the original stage are not very powerful, so naturally there is no way to ensure its quality while ensuring the smoothness of the system.

As for the Galaxy Network phone... it's very difficult for this candy bar phone with a keyboard to run the mLinux system. If it's moved to a Guazi phone, what kind of lag will it be like?
The partner said: "Life will always find a way for itself. When you do something not for money, many problems will no longer be problems."

"You've arrived!"

While talking, the driver had already arrived at the destination. Gu Wenjie took out a banknote to pay the bill and got out of the car with a lot of things. When they got off the car, the two of them no longer discussed the issue.

Gu Wenjie saw the agreed coffee shop and thought about those words, but it was time to discuss the business later.

The two chatted outside for several minutes before Gu Wenjie walked in.

Entering the coffee shop, Gu Wenjie put away his phone and saw Teacher Ji, who had always been lackluster, sitting in the corner at the back, carefully reading a newspaper in his hand.

"Hi, old season."

Gu Wenjie sat opposite him, Ji Xianglin looked at so many things in his hands in surprise: "What is this?"

"Mobile phone." Gu Wenjie asked him holding an unopened box, "Do you want it? Galaxy Software's latest X1 mobile phone, I bought an extra one and can give it to you."

Ji Xianglin shook his head: "No need..."

"Do you want a data package?" Gu Wenjie asked him again, "But only AT&T phone cards can be used. Buy a mobile phone and get a free package."

Ji Xianglin continued to shake his head, but he had no time to chat with Gu Wenjie: "Jim, have you read the news? Today, the Meilican government issued a document saying that it will provide financial support for real estate."

"Oh?"

Gu Wenjie raised his head, and Ji Xianglin pushed the fresh newspaper in front of him.The front page of the newspaper showed a picture of George W. Bush frowning and looking sharply at the camera. The title seemed to be a temporary bill on real estate that had just been drafted in Congress.

"Give real estate... a guarantee." Gu Wenjie picked up the newspaper and said to himself, "How?"

"Reduce taxes on housing and housing, increase fiscal investment, and expand direct economic support to families who cannot afford to buy or rent a house." Ji Xianglin said, "It is also recommended that banks tighten their credit scale."

Gu Wenjie was stunned and quickly looked at the news, but the news was official, and it was obviously the tone of the Democratic Party camp.The photo of George W. Bush on the front page has a sharp gaze, as if he is looking at the people outside the newspaper with malice, which makes people feel very uncomfortable.

The content of the report also said that the Bush administration has realized the badness of the housing policy due to the recent outspoken speeches of some Democrats, so now that it sees that the situation is not good, it is starting to pretend and deliberately disrupt the market order...

"The Democratic Party has betrayed us." Ji Xianglin leaned back in his chair and said, "In this month's midterm elections, they won 80% of the seats and have almost locked in their advantage in the next election, so when the authorities try to improve existing policies , they went back to accusing Republicans of trying to interfere with market freedoms."

The waiter brought the coffee. Gu Wenjie was still holding the newly purchased mobile phone in his hand. He felt a little short-circuited for a moment: "Where's that Joseph? Isn't he calling with us to let the government bail out the housing market?"

"He said on Weibo yesterday that the Republican Party is taking this opportunity to reach into the financial market. He thinks that this level of bottom-up policy is too reckless and radical." Ji Xianglin, who has always been stern, seems to have some Responding emotionally, he seemed to laugh, "So what do you think, Jim?"

"I don't know." Gu Wenjie said frankly, "It was you and Lao Chen who decided to make this judgment public to the public, so that more people could discover the disaster we saw and reduce some of the public's losses. I will only cooperate. Your plan seems to have some effect now, doesn’t it?”

"Maybe." Ji Xianglin said, "But today's housing prices have risen again, and the government has given the market confidence. Since the announcement of stopping interest rate hikes in June, this is the second wave of rising against the trend, and the rate of increase is not as high as Small."

Gu Wenjie couldn't understand: "So what do you want? What should we do next?"

"To be honest, I don't know." Ji Xianglin said, "I am a bank actuary. I have a happy family and a prosperous life. I am not pursuing getting rich overnight. I can stay in the banking system and live a decent life. I In fact, I am more willing to use my knowledge to bring some positive benefits to society."

Gu Wenjie nodded: "I understand, so do you think we should go further and persuade the authorities to increase policy intensity?"

Ji Xianglin said: "Actually, I think we have found the wrong person. What can the authorities do? They can only do this, and if they make any big moves, they will be attacked by political opponents."

"Then maybe you should go to a bank?"

"Banks do not need to be responsible for bad debts." Ji Xianglin said, "They have packaged bad debts and good debts into MBS and CDOs and sold them. Asking them to lend less is tantamount to killing them."

"So...insurance company?"

"They only make credit guarantees for financial products that have not had major problems based on market experience. They don't do it, and some people do it."

"So the problem lies with Fannie and Freddie? Or the investors?"

"Fang and Freddie are the country's economic development tools, and it is their responsibility to cooperate with the underwriting of MBS. Investors were deceived by the banks and did not understand the risks involved, so they will naturally choose financial products with higher profits..."

"So should we be warning investors of the risks?"

Gu Wenjie seemed to be seriously considering this question, but Ji Xianglin smiled and shook his head.

"Maybe, but we have already done this, and now it seems to be counterproductive." He said, "And I couldn't sleep last night. I thought about it seriously. Maybe in a mature society, a person should do what is within his responsibilities." For example, real estate developers will want to sell houses, the government will want to develop the economy, and banks will want to lend more loans. However, we scholars need to provide more theories and guide our society in a better direction. Now it seems that, I’m not very good in this area.”

Gu Wenjie scratched his head, and Ji Xianglin said to him: "But I am not a scholar now, but an actuary. Maybe finance is a field born to make money... I asked you willfully before to let me meet with that congressman. In the process, theories that are unfavorable to your plan were elaborated. Although now that I have reacted, you may have known the result for a long time, but I am still grateful that you are willing to give me this opportunity."

Gu Wenjie played with the phone in his hand and smiled. "It's okay. After all, we are also socially responsible investors."

Ji Xianglin nodded and did not expose this argument. Instead, he made a suggestion: "As a thank you, and as an apology for delaying your investment opportunity, can you allow me to join you? I think I may be more suitable to be a financial manager. And now there should be no one who understands the operating model of CDO products better than me. I can help you operate funds legally and purchase more valuable CDS. Now a lot of capital is pouring into this field. If you are willing to invest in short selling, I I will resign to help you run that fund."

(End of this chapter)