Chapter 287: The World

Xucheng, top floor of the Sky Garden, the banquet hall shimmered brilliantly.

After hearing Ma Wenteng's teasing, Huang Zhang paid it no mind—Penguin couldn't even figure out e-commerce, let alone make phones?

But when his gaze landed on Chen Yansen, his expression froze, his mind momentarily stalling.

Given the partnership between Senlian Capital and Penguin, if Ma Wenteng made phones, he had a very real chance of success.

If even Zhou Hongyi and Ding Lei could do it, why not Ma Wenteng?

"You piece of pink intestine! You're nothing but a shit-stirrer!" Huang Zhang muttered inwardly, glaring at Chen Yansen.

He was furious about Orange Tech sharing its smartphone OS, supply chain, and production equipment—but he dared not provoke Chen Yansen, so all he could do was glare harder and curse under his breath.

Though Chen Yansen hadn't extended his spiritual sense, his acute senses still detected someone staring at him.

He instinctively turned around, locking eyes with Huang Zhang, startling the man.

Huang Zhang quickly switched to a warm smile, released Ma Wenteng's hand, and stepped forward: "Comrade Chen, congratulations on Orange Phone surpassing 20 million annual sales—now the benchmark of China's smartphones!"

"Comrade Huang, you flatter me too much. Product quality can't be judged by sales alone; Meizu, as an industry pioneer, has always been a model for Orange Tech to learn from."

Chen Yansen smiled faintly and shook Huang Zhang's right hand in praise.

Everyone lifts the sedan chair—it's only polite to return the favor.

"Meizu also hopes to collaborate with outstanding companies like Orange Tech for mutual progress. I'm particularly interested in your fast-charging patent…"

Halfway through his sentence, Huang Zhang revealed his true purpose.

"No problem. Have someone from your side contact us to handle the patent licensing contract."

Chen Yansen didn't refuse—he agreed promptly.

"Straight to the point!" Huang Zhang nodded approvingly, smiling in praise.

"I heard Meizu is looking for an OEM factory?" Chen Yansen asked, his tone implying something more.

Huang Zhang instantly understood and replied without hesitation: "Meizu's own factory capacity is insufficient—I can assign part of the MX2 manufacturing order to Orange Tech."

Give a peach, receive a plum—reciprocity keeps the relationship flowing.

Seeing Huang Zhang was cooperative, Chen Yansen was equally satisfied. After apologizing briefly, he seated Ma Wenteng and Liu Zhiping, then greeted Zhou Hongyi.

"Comrade Chen, I just came to join the buzz—you go ahead with your business." Zhou Hongyi rose quickly as Chen Yansen approached, grinning.

"How were 360's sales last month?" Chen Yansen asked casually.

"About 600, 00 units—100, 00 more than the Xiaomi 1S." Zhou Hongyi's voice was just loud enough to reach Lei Yi's ears.

Lei Yi shot Zhou Hongyi a cold glance—disdain mixed with simmering anger.

Because Zhou Hongyi was telling the truth!

The Xiaomi 1S with MIUI, under identical specs and price, simply couldn't outsell the 360 phone with AuroraOS.

How could he not be furious!

"How far along is 360's new product development? The Lucheng factory's capacity is still reserved for you." Chen Yansen asked again.

"Almost done—we'll finish industrial and hardware design by mid- to late September." Zhou Hongyi replied honestly.

To secure patent licenses for the OS, fast charging, and battery management, Zhou Hongyi had no reason to hide anything from Chen Yansen.

Plus, Orange Tech's factory was already 360's OEM—there was no need to conceal anything.

"Congratulations in advance on your new phone's success," Chen Yansen said with a genuine smile.

After all, every 360 phone sold earned Orange Tech 160 yuan in hardware margin and patent licensing fees.

Zhou Hongyi was essentially working for him.

Did it matter whether the phone carried the 360 or Orange brand?

Chen Yansen didn't care at all!

After dealing with Zhou Hongyi, he moved to the supplier area, exchanged pleasantries with representatives from Qualcomm, Sony, Desai, JD. om, and over a dozen other firms, then took his seat in the front row.

"Comrade Chen, for the next batch of Xiaomi 1S units, I'd like to switch to AuroraOS." Lei Yi whispered beside him.

He'd originally planned to develop his own OS, but Zhou Hongyi's mockery had pushed him over the edge—he'd crush 360's momentum first.

"Is MIUI no longer being updated?" Chen Yansen turned to ask.

Though AuroraOS seemed popular, no third smartphone maker besides 360 and NetEase was willing to adopt it.

First, hardware compatibility was difficult—Xiaomi and Orange Tech had different hardware designs and features; even though both were Android-based custom systems, their optimization goals differed, likely causing issues with camera algorithms, fast charging, and screen display, degrading user experience.

NetEase and 360 had thoroughly adapted their hardware to AuroraOS from the ground up.

Second, smartphone OSes collect user habits and preferences—this data was extremely valuable, and manufacturers rarely wanted to abandon it.

Third, every customized OS had a massive app ecosystem—apps, games, developer communities—switching OSes meant handing over terminal software profits to someone else.

"If MIUI's next version still can't match AuroraOS's performance, it might as well shut down."

Lei Yi chuckled bitterly.

His logic was simple: pressure the R&D team—and himself.

The sales gap between the 360 G800 Pro and Xiaomi 1S had awakened him—MIUI's hardware compatibility and smoothness were far inferior to AuroraOS.

If you can't win, shut down?

Chen Yansen glanced at Zhou Hongyi, then at Lei Yi—he hadn't expected 360's success to cast such a psychological shadow over Lei Yi.

But he didn't take it seriously.

A merchant's words were rarely more than half-truths.

Anyway, Xiaomi's flagship was the Mi2; using the Xiaomi 1S to test market response wouldn't cost much.

"Fine. But the Xiaomi 1S hardware must be modified to unlock AuroraOS's full performance."

Chen Yansen nodded without hesitation.

"Understood, thank you, Comrade Chen." Lei Yi exhaled deeply, then shot Zhou Hongyi a furious glare.

Unaware that behind him, Huang Zhang of Meizu was also watching him, smirking with contempt: If it weren't for me teaching him how to make phones, he wouldn't know shit about them.

In the lavish banquet hall, everyone carried hidden motives.

At precisely 2 p. ., the central stage screen lit up.

A plump, round orange filled the entire LED screen, then shifted to show Orange Tech's headquarters, with employees from AuroraOS R&D, industrial design, and hardware design sharing the creation process of Orange Phone on camera.

It was crude—but refreshingly authentic!

Especially for fans, who for the first time realized that every module of AuroraOS had dozens of engineers behind it.

Some from Tsinghua or Peking University, others from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, even programmers from Nokia, Motorola, and Google.

For the first time, footage of Orange Phone's shell strength tests was revealed—staff dropping, crushing, and twisting devices to check durability and deformation resistance.

The simple, brutal visuals instantly captured fans' and media's attention.

Then the camera shifted to Shencheng's smartphone factory, showing the manufacturing process of Orange Phone.

Followed by user testimonials from Beijing, Jinling, Shanghai, and Shencheng, ending with several East African users holding Orange Phones and shouting "Orange!" into the camera.

Lights flashed—Wang Teng stepped onto the stage in a sharp suit, bathed in spotlight, striding forward confidently.

"Thank you to over a thousand guests who traveled far and endured hardship to attend Orange Tech's autumn product launch in Xucheng. I'm Wang Teng—thank you all!"

Compared to last time, Wang Teng, now with hosting experience, was noticeably calmer—no trembling hands, no nervousness. After his opening remarks, he scanned the crowd from left to right, utterly composed.

"Today, I'll introduce two new products and one intelligent voice interaction engine: the Orange C3 and the Green Orange D1S."

Wang Teng spoke slowly and deliberately.

As he finished, he pressed his remote—behind him, a high-definition CG image of the Orange C3 appeared.

Rounded corners, ultra-narrow bezels, full-gesture controls—no physical buttons visible on the front.

The body was ultra-thin—just 6. 8 millimeters.

In the 2012 smartphone market, it stood head and shoulders above the rest.

"The Orange C3 retains the high performance and high cost-performance advantages of the Orange C2, powered by the Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core chip, the APQ8064, built on a 28nm process to boost performance and reduce power consumption."

"Each core reaches up to 1. GHz, delivering strong computing power for multitasking and running heavy apps—60% more performance than the Snapdragon MSM8260, with 65% lower power consumption."

"Integrated Adreno 320 GPU supports advanced graphics and compute APIs, delivering outstanding graphics processing and smooth gaming experiences."

As Wang Teng explained, he demonstrated each performance improvement with real-world examples.

"The main display is a 5. -inch JD. om HD Super AMOLED screen—far superior to traditional LCDs in 'image quality, energy efficiency, and form factor.' Brightness reaches 800 to 1000 nits, clearly visible even under sunlight, and uses pixel-shifting technology to drastically reduce burn-in risk."

As soon as Wang Teng finished, everyone realized the Orange C3's price wouldn't be cheap.

Just the screen's material cost was 400 yuan per unit.

The chip cost was secondary—a Snapdragon APQ8064 with integrated baseband normally cost $50, but since NVIDIA dropped the Tegra 3 price from $42 to $32, Qualcomm had to follow suit to retain KA clients, offering Orange Tech $36 per chip.

The Xiaomi Mi2 also used the Snapdragon APQ8064—just from the chip price drop, Xiaomi gained over 90 yuan in gross profit per unit, adding 4. % to its gross margin.

Why did some 2012 smartphone manufacturers delay increasing production volume?

Was it insufficient OEM capacity?

Was it shortage of core components?

Neither!

Most were waiting for Moore's Law to drive prices down.

They weren't unprofitable—they were delaying profits, earning slowly, systematically, with control and quality.

Take the Orange C2: in January, its total BOM cost was 1, 40 yuan. Just seven months later, it dropped to 1, 20 yuan.

Ignoring production, after-sales, sales, and logistics costs—just the component price difference earned 220 yuan more per unit.

"The AuroraOS 1. system with 3GB RAM and 16GB ROM—some may ask, why 3GB RAM? Are you trying to profit from hardware?"

"Because the Orange C3 integrates the Moss Voice Interaction Engine. To ensure users experience full functionality, we needed to increase RAM…"

Wang Teng added slowly.

The Orange C3's camera remained identical to the Orange C2: 16-megapixel rear, 5-megapixel front.

The battery capacity is 2620 mAh, supports fast charging, and can play and record 1080p full HD video, equipped with gravity sensor, accelerometer, ambient light sensor, proximity sensor, and other components.

Wang Teng spent an hour explaining the software ecosystem and hardware modules of the Orange C3.

Everyone in the audience waited for the price to be announced.

Lei Yi's expression remained calm, but a flicker of delight passed through his eyes—he suspected that after establishing itself in the mobile industry, Orange Tech still intended to target the premium market.

In an instant, the pressure on him dropped sharply.

Yu Chendong, Chen Yongming, Huang Zhang, Zhou Hongyi, Ding Lei, and others were silently calculating the material costs and final retail price of the Orange C3.

"2899 yuan!"

Wang Teng pressed the controller, and the screen behind him switched displays.

The Orange C3 32GB version is priced at 3199 yuan; the 64GB version is 3699 yuan.

This price is far lower than the launch prices of the iPhone 4S, Shanxing Galaxy Note 2, and HTC One X, and only about 400 yuan higher than the Meizu MX2 and OPPO Finder.

"This is likely the world's first smartphone with 3GB RAM."

Yu Chendong couldn't help but remark.

Generally, 2GB RAM was sufficient—apps in 2012 didn't consume much memory—but Wang Teng listed several reasons to ensure a smooth experience for the intelligent interaction system, AI imaging, and AI search engine.

Lingxi Browser and Lingxi Search made their debut as built-in software on the Orange phone.

With Orange phone shipment volumes, it could capture over 10% market share within a year.

Next, Wang Teng continued introducing the Qingcheng D1S.

This phone was originally named Orange D1S, an upgraded version of the Orange D1, but after Zhou Shouzhi joined Orange Tech, the company differentiated its high-end and low-end product lines.

The Qingcheng D1S's hardware specifications changed little, but the upgrades were core components: the 4. -inch TFT screen was upgraded to 4. inches, and the 512MB RAM was increased to 1GB.

"What's the price of the Qingcheng D1S?"

Wang Teng paused for three seconds before continuing: "999 yuan!"

Fuck!

How much?

Yu Chendong, Lei Yi, Zhou Hongyi, and others froze instantly, staring rigidly at Wang Teng.

This is completely leaving no room for anyone else to survive!

Meizu opened its mouth, wanting to grab a chair and hurl it at Chen Yan.

(End of chapter)