Chapter 257: 1 Million Unit OEM Order! Hammer Technology Established!

"Mr. Chen, the OEM order for the 360 phone has been sent to Cai Jingming at the Hefei factory."

Zhou Hongyi spoke with an uncontrollable joy in his tone; he paused and added, "Mr. Chen, thank you."

He knew clearly that relying solely on the strength of 360 and Huawei, it would be difficult to sell 50,000 units of stock and 86,000 pre-orders on the launch day.

The front warehouse delivery model of Yunsu Express, combined with AuroraOS and the battery management system, made the 360 G800 Pro shine, quickly receiving market feedback and greatly alleviating the lag and overheating issues of Android phones.

The supply chain quality of Sister Chengzi Technology was also significantly superior to Haier's.

At least the black screen problem has not appeared again!

"Congratulations, Mr. Zhou. What is the total pre-order volume now?" Chen Yansen heard the pride in Zhou Hongyi's words and asked casually.

The more 360 phones sold, the more Sister Chengzi Technology earned.

No one would dislike someone who makes money for them!

"114,000 units. Adding the 50,000 units of stock sold, I estimate the total sales for two days will break 200,000 units." Zhou Hongyi replied with a smile.

This result still had a certain gap compared to Sister Chengzi phones, but compared to Xiaomi, it was by no means inferior.

The phone market in 2012 was just this magical; users, in the face of extreme cost-performance ratio, simply didn't care about brand and system compatibility issues.

If it's cheap, they dare to buy!

Even phones with four SIM cards, four standby modes, and running lights like "Big Pineapple" and "Big Banana" could be popular for a time; it was no surprise that 360 phones could sell 200,000 units.

There is nothing that cannot be sold, only a price that cannot be sold.

After all, a few years later, even the photo-editing phones made by Meitu Xiuxiu could sell millions of units.

Chen Yansen chatted with Zhou Hongyi for a while and hung up the phone ten minutes later.

He casually opened his email and indeed found a message copied to him by Cai Jingming; the content clearly stated: OEM order volume: 1 million units!

Zhou Hongyi was confident in himself and wasn't afraid of it ending up in his hands unsold.

Chen Yansen snorted, but he didn't take it to heart; this order could bring 160 million in revenue to the Sister Chengzi phone factory.

He wished there were more people like Zhou Hongyi.

At the same time.

The success of 360 phones also made many people sniff out business opportunities.

First Chen Yansen, then Zhou Hongyi.

The phone industry at this moment gave people the illusion of "stupid people with lots of money, come quickly."

A group of people were itching to move, including Ding Lei of NetEase, Ding Xiuhong who had just established Da Ke Le, Wang Xiaoyan of Little Chili, and Luo Yonghao who had publicly stated he wanted to make phones.

Logically, making phones has little to do with a teacher, but Luo Yonghao didn't think so.

Chen Yansen was a college student who previously did e-commerce; Zhou Hongyi even started with the 3721 rogue software. If these two could do it, there was no reason he couldn't.

Especially last November, after he went to Xiaomi headquarters and communicated with Lei Jun, he felt even more that making phones had no difficulty.

Thus, on May 2nd, Luo Yonghao announced on Weibo in a high-profile manner: Hammer Technology is officially established; first make an Android custom system, then make phones.

The implication was: "I have no money; those who want to invest, come quickly."

Upon learning this, Lei Jun was stunned first, then helplessly shook his head; he didn't expect that in just one year, the smartphone track would have become this competitive.

Last year, he invited Luo Yonghao to visit Xiaomi, intending to use the latter's influence in the internet and tech circles to hype up Xiaomi phones.

But Luo Yonghao misunderstood, thinking Xiaomi wanted to recruit him as a partner.

As a result, Lei Jun sat in his office listening to Luo Yonghao spout a lot of insights on the phone industry and advise him to adjust Xiaomi's product planning: "Making phones must focus on design and user experience."

Lei Jun wanted to get up and leave at that moment, but to maintain his dignity, he patiently listened to Luo Yonghao's high-flown talk.

But he soon regretted it, thinking he should have ended this meaningless communication sooner.

If making phones according to Luo Yonghao's ideas, the material cost alone would be 1,700 to 2,000 yuan; then what price should be set?

3,000 yuan or 4,000 yuan?

This is pure nonsense!

Lei Jun only wanted to make high-performance, high cost-performance mid-to-low-end phones; as for whether to make high-end phones or if they could be made, at least they would have to wait another two or three years.

Wait until Xiaomi has a firm foothold in the phone industry before talking about it.

After returning, Luo Yonghao thought for a whole night, feeling that his philosophy clashed with Lei Jun's; rather than joining Xiaomi, he might as well make phones himself.

What Lei Jun didn't know was that he originally wanted to recruit a Brand Director for Xiaomi, but not only did it fail, he also cultivated a potential rival for Xiaomi, single-handedly igniting Luo Yonghao's phone dream.

"Mr. Lei, the preparation work for Xiaomi Mi 2 and Xiaomi 1S is complete. When will the new product launch conference be held?"

Li Wanqiang from the Marketing Department pushed the door open, interrupting Lei Jun's thoughts.

"Have you communicated with Mr. Chen of Sister Chengzi Technology as well?" Lei Jun came to his senses and asked slowly.

"Yes, the product design, technical specifications, bill of materials, and quality standard documents have all been sent to them." Li Wanqiang pulled out a chair and sat down directly.

"The total sales of the first-generation Xiaomi phone are less than 5 million units, which is far from the initial expectation. According to the original launch plan, the Xiaomi Mi 2 and Xiaomi 1S would not be pushed to the market this early."

Lei Jun sighed, saying with full reluctance.

All in all, the first-generation Xiaomi phone was sold for only eight months; once the new product goes online, it will likely be discontinued.

In the phone industry, an eight-month lifecycle is not short; even the golden sales period for Apple phones is usually only one year.

But the key point is that Xiaomi phone sales are too low; averaging out, it's only over 500,000 units a month, which is five or six times less than Sister Chengzi phones.

"Mr. Lei, the market environment changes too fast; if the speed is too slow, you will easily be overtaken by competitors. Additionally, the configuration and price of 360 phones have had a huge impact on the sales of the first-generation Xiaomi phone; yesterday's total online sales were only 10,000 units."

Li Wanqiang advised.

The longer the launch of the new product is delayed, the more unfavorable it is for Xiaomi.

"Set it for May 8th; the meaning is good! Hope these two new products can bring a brand new turning point to Xiaomi."

Lei Jun frowned slightly, remained silent for a while, and then gave an answer.

"Okay, Mr. Lei. Regarding the competitors, should we invite Mr. Yu from Huawei?"

Li Wanqiang continued to ask.

Two days ago on Weibo's war of words, although Yu Chendong hadn't joined the fray himself, he was still mocked and jeered at plenty.

There was no big grudge, but meeting face-to-face was inevitably a little awkward.

"I'll handle it." Lei Yijun prepared to personally call Yu Chendong to apologize, and to ease the relationship along the way.

In fact, Lei Yijun in 2012 was still a Huawei fan, often interacting with Yu Chendong on Weibo, praising Huawei's products.

Just like Luo Yonghao at this time was also a Mi fan — although he felt his management philosophy differed from Lei Yijun's, that didn't affect his liking for Xiaomi's products.

The next morning, Luo Yonghao received an invitation to the Xiaomi 2 new product launch event, the venue still being the 798 Art Center in Yanjing.

He didn't think much of it and decided on the spot to keep the appointment as scheduled.

On one hand, Luo Yonghao wanted to get a close look at Xiaomi's new products; on the other hand, he could also accumulate more supplier resources at the launch event, preparing for the next step of the Hammer phone.

Meanwhile.

Chen Yansen put down his phone, thought briefly, and decided to head to Yanjing.

Compared to the Xiaomi 2 launch event, the more important purpose of this trip was to inspect Gao De and ByteDance.

Although Xiao Jun and Zhang Yiming, these two people, were both younger brothers he had personally picked, but human hearts are fickle — for the subsidiaries' operations and management, not only must one control them through financial means, one must also strengthen on-site supervision and strategic oversight.

Chen Yansen understood that sitting in an office looking at reports would never let one see through the real operational difficulties of a project; those hidden contradictions and the team's centrifugal tendencies lurking behind the data could only be detected by going there in person.

He planned to use two days to hold in-depth talks with the middle and senior management, and then use the company's internal forum, office software, and email to establish a real-time feedback mechanism with the grassroots employees.

Once any abnormal movement occurred at the subsidiaries, he had to be the first to know, to avoid sudden crises that would affect his business layout.

Over the next few days, Pinbei was busy preparing for the 618 mega-sale, and Sister Chengzi's tech was also planning the Autumn new arrivals launch event.

Chen Yansen boarded a plane and flew to Yanjing once again.

(End of this chapter)