Chapter 736: One hundred million per minute
Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rundi
Catherine couldn’t believe her eyes. She has been a reporter for many years and attended countless Silicon Valley’s product launch conferences, but it was the first time she had been genuinely amazed by a product.
When Jiang Chen on the stage rolled the phone into a watch and put it around his wrist, a spectrum of light formed an ent.i.ty on his palm.
Everyone held their breath.
Hologram!
No, not just holograms! She personally watched Jiang Chen touch the hologram and operate the phone by touching the holographic screen. The screen suspending in the air was like a physical screen, and the transparent operating interface was simple but aesthetic.
Holographic interaction technology! And it was a holographic interaction that had completely separated from the physical interface!
She didn’t know what words she could use to describe the shock in her heart at the moment. She peeked at her peers’ notes and saw the chief reporter of the Daily Mail’s pen tremble before he jot down one word.
Incredible.
Yeah… maybe only the word incredible could depict the shock of the audience.
As it was too shocking to see, Catherine’s chin was in a jaw-dropping state during the rest of the conference.
Fully charged, the phone could operate for 24 hours. It adopted the Deep Blue M1 processor chip designed by Future Technology with a performance equivalent to twice to the phone with the same price.
Because the mobile phone itself was already thinner than the USB interface, for this purpose, Future Heavy Industrial had specially designed a wireless charger for charging. In addition, Future Technology completely abandoned wired headsets and directly configured a Bluetooth headset. The headset or the phone could be used to change into speaker or headset mode.
Abandoning the original sim card design, Future phone adopted a similar concept proposed by Apple and Samsung as early as 2015. However, due to the impact on the wireless carriers, this feature was temporarily unavailable in some countries. Instead, Future Technology had added a sim card scanning function.
In addition to these unbelievable functions, Future was also introducing different colors, such as Deep s.p.a.ce Gray, Snowflake Silver, Rose Gold, and Gay Violet to provide the most distinguished services to the most distinguished customers.
Well, in fact, there was no difference between the different colors. Graphene was transparent, and the only difference between these different colors was the fluorescent material that was incorporated into them, that is, the color of the screen frame and the clock… and the price.
Among them, the basic colors such as orange and blue were the cheapest. The direct selling price was 950 dollars before tax, and the selling price of Rich Gold was as high as 1,100 dollars, which was more than 150 dollars higher!
By the way, these tricks of making money were learned from Apple.
Jiang Chen, named chief designer, was unclear about the difference between light pink and Rose Gold. However, the comments on the official website broadcast had already exploded. According to Jean’s data a.n.a.lysis and statistics, 70% of users had a strong preference for Rose Gold.
“Future, let us welcome the future together!”
As Jiang Chen concluded the presentation with a pun, the presentation of this product launch came to an end. The reporters stepped forward and directed the cameras and microphones at Jiang Chen.
“Mr. Jiang, will Future be positioned as a high-end phone? Did your designer consider that the $950 price, for most middle-income people, especially those in developing countries, is difficult to accept?”
“Future is positioned as a high-tech product. We don’t want to label it with a low-end or high-end label. Buying an iPhone 8 for $950 may pain you for a while, but I promise you, if you buy a Future, you will only feel that it is a great purchase,” Jiang Chen said.
The reporters’ eyes lit up, and their pens furiously jotted notes down.
[Future Group Chairman Jiang Chen at the press conference criticized Apple’s iPhone 8 price for being too expensive to match its poor functionality.]
Controversy and gossip were always easier to sell than the product itself. Jiang Chen didn’t care about his exaggerated facts.
After all, it was hype.
“Mr. Jiang, when will Future be on sale?”
“Mr. Jiang, there is rumor online about you and Emma Watson…”
“…”
The two-hour questioning session quickly pa.s.sed, but the enthusiasm of the journalists at the venue did not diminish at all. When Jiang Chen walked out from the siege of reporters, the body injected with genetic vaccine even felt a little weariness.
Pus.h.i.+ng the door into the backstage room, Jiang Chen sunk into a chair while letting out a long breath. Xia s.h.i.+yu walked over with a gla.s.s of water. Jiang Chen took the water and chugged it clean.
“It’s exhausting. I don’t know how the reporters have so many questions.”
Although he was complaining, a smile hanged on his mouth.
The explosion of Future had, to some extent, reflected the market’s expectations for the product. It is foreseeable that on the day of the release, being out of stock would be the inevitable.
“Did you know? The peak number of live viewers just exceeded one billion.” Standing next to him with her arms folded Xia s.h.i.+yu smiled.
One billion?!
After hearing this figure, Jiang Chen was astonished. Even though he was full of confidence in the Future’s popularity, he was startled by this figure. One billion online viewers, fortunately, the official website’s server is a quantum computer, or just this ridiculous traffic would blow up the official website of Future Technology.
“According to the online users’ IP, we have identified a list of 200 lucky users and have now issued prizes based on the address they filled in. In addition, the official website sales link has been open for ten minutes, and the 200,000 phones on hand were sold out within a minute.”
With the current production efficiency of the New Malaysia Special District, the average profit of a Future phone was 600 US Dollar and 200,000 mobile phones were all sold. In other words, in just one minute, the Future Group made 120 million.
This is ridiculous.
The FED’s printer cannot match this speed.
“Let Future Heavy Industrial re-adjust their production capacity, and increase monthly production to 4 million pieces within two months, and increase it to 9 million before the end of this year!”
“I have already delegated people to do that.” Xia s.h.i.+yu nodded and pushed her gla.s.ses up. Then she added, “In addition, five companies including Samsung and Foxconn submitted a letter of intent to us and expressed their willingness to negotiate with us on Future to help us increase our production capacity.”
“What’s their proposal?”
“They are willing to be our OEM for the Dark Blue M1 chip, graphene screen, and battery for a total of 13 parts. It is estimated that this move can save costs of 79 US Dollar. And it will be able to increase our production capacity to 5 million per month in a short period of time,” Xia s.h.i.+yu said.
Jiang Chen pondered this for half a minute; his index finger tapped gently on the table. Then he said.
“The Future Group does not have the plan of OEM for the time being. You can just tell them that.”
“Okay, I’ll draft the email later.” Xia s.h.i.+yu nodded.
For outsourcing, Xia s.h.i.+yu also held opposing views. However, she still needed to consult Jiang Chen.
In order to build a complete set of electronic production lines in New Malaysia Special District, Future had already invested 2 billion US Dollar. Although OEMs could allow for large-scale production, minimize product costs in a short period of time, and increase production, the side effects were also obvious; it’d lead to an outflow of technology.
Although the 21 components including the Deep Blue M1 chip have been registered for patents in all countries, Future Heavy Industrial’s electronic production processes were still business secrets.
If made public, it meant that the OEMs would possess the same production technologies. Companies that did not have their own products were fine, but for Samsung that was both in the OEM and the phone production business, they could easily develop their own graphene mobile phones and at most pay a patent fee to Jiang Chen.
For Future Group, it would be a lost cause.
Patent barriers and technical barriers. Under the protection of these two strongholds, could Future Group maintain their monopoly in the market and ensure its hegemony?!