Chapter 386: Lei Yi's Army: Is There Anything Wrong With Just Wanting to Survive

The Northern Ice Kingdom is vast with a sparse population; excluding Mokes, the people in the remaining regions all share one trait: they are poor!

Even as powerful as Apple, its monthly sales in the Northern Ice Kingdom are only one hundred thousand units.

Of course, Sister Chengzi phone sales are concentrated in low-end models; in the mid-range market, performance still cannot rival Star Mountain and Apple.

Chen Yansen multitasked, listening to the work report while flipping through the Eastern European market competitor price monitoring sheet and store traffic analysis report.

Immediately after, market heads from various countries successively raised numerous issues such as customs clearance delays, system language optimization progress, and local marketing material review mechanisms.

Zhou Shouzhi calmly conducted understanding, analysis, and mastery, then provided solutions.

Excellent managers usually possess a set of logically rigorous methodologies; if the train of thought is correct, the direction will not go wrong.

Chen Yansen looked at Old Zhou, nodded in satisfaction, and thought: No wonder Lei Yi's army is usually stingy, yet is willing to give Zhou Shouzhi a raise and stock options.

This fellow's execution ability is indeed extremely outstanding!

In February, the total sales volume in the Eastern European market was 405,000.

Next, Sister Chengzi Technology will continue to increase marketing activity density and strengthen channel construction.

For instance, launching summer student discounts, finalizing contract phone revenue-sharing plans with Romanian operators, and advancing the opening preparations for direct-operated stores in Serbia.

One hour later, the Sister Chengzi phone Eastern European market monthly meeting concluded.

Seeing that the boss had not expressed any opinion throughout, Zhou Shouzhi quietly asked after everyone else had left: "Boss, do you have any new instructions regarding the development of the Eastern European market?"

"You have done well in channel network construction, brand promotion, and localized operations, but the proportion of low-end models is too high. You can use low-priced products to open the market, but you cannot rely on low-price strategies long-term."

Chen Yansen said slowly and calmly.

"Understood, Boss. I get it. I will reorganize the expansion plan for the Eastern European market later." Zhou Shouzhi responded immediately.

"Has the time for the new product launch been set?" Chen Yansen asked again.

"March 18th, 2 PM, Sky Garden." Zhou Shouzhi answered.

"Aurora Future OS will make its debut. Keep an eye on it for me and don't let anything go wrong." Chen Yansen patted Old Zhou's shoulder and instructed.

"Rest assured, Wang Teng and Ye Qiuping and I will check the process again before next week." Zhou Shouzhi nodded and agreed.

Chen Yansen hummed, stood up, and walked out of the conference room.

He glanced out the window; the sky was filled with clouds, shimmering with colorful light, and the distant rapeseed fields were lush and green.

He raised his hand to look at his wristwatch; it was a quarter past four in the afternoon.

Back in the office, Mr. Chen sat down heavily, waved his hand, and a bottle of ice-cold cola automatically flew into his palm.

"Fizz!"

Chen Yansen took a huge gulp, then propped his feet on the desk, leaned back in the soft boss's chair, and contentedly scrolled through Mimo short videos.

It must be said, the recommendation algorithm created by Zhang Yiming and Liang Bo is indeed unique; the more you scroll, the more addictive it becomes.

Video bloggers in the North American region, in pursuit of traffic, have forced boundary-pushing content into various fancy forms.

Mr. Chen casually scrolled for several hours, finally sighing with emotion: Too flashy.

The video content and value orientation on Mimo are too vulgar, but this exactly caters to the preferences of local users.

Cumulative registered users have exceeded thirty million, with daily active users over ten million.

Vine short videos, a subsidiary of Twitter, are no match for Mimo at all.

Meanwhile.

A blockbuster news item broke: Microsoft is about to acquire Nokia's mobile phone business, with an estimated acquisition price exceeding seven billion US dollars!

Instantly causing a shock online!

Although Nokia is no longer in its glory due to the failure of the Symbian system, its global mobile phone shipments last year still ranked second.

With sales of 330 million, just 50 million units short of the first place, has it now fallen to the point of selling itself?

In fact, Nokia's sales volume at this time, though seemingly extremely high, was over 70% feature phones; it is a paper tiger!

And Microsoft's purpose in acquiring Nokia is also very simple!

First, seize mobile market share, counter Apple and Google, and increase the market share of the Windows Phone system;

Second, Nokia possesses 8,500 design patents and 30,000 utility patents; by acquiring key patents, it can enhance its own competitiveness.

Simply put, Microsoft wants to use Nokia's mobile phone market to promote the ecosystem development of the Windows Phone system.

In Microsoft's view, a mobile operating system is just that; the technical difficulty is not high, and there is no need to hand the market over to Android and iOS.

As the system hegemon of the PC era, it naturally also wants to consolidate its system status in the mobile era.

Spending hundreds of billions of Chinese Yuan just to fight for mobile network market share is truly shocking.

Although Aurora Future OS from Sister Chengzi Technology has not been released, it has already spread throughout the circle.

"If one wants to popularize Aurora Future OS, I'm afraid it won't be that simple. Windows Phone is coming on strong, and the momentum of Android and iOS is already established."

Upon hearing this, Lei Yi's army shook his head with a smile.

He believed in Sister Chengzi Technology's R&D strength and also believed in Chen Yansen's operational ability and business skills, but the process of replacing Android or iOS was no less difficult than changing the heavens and earth.

"Mr. Lei, the production plans for the Xiaomi 2A and Xiaomi 2S have been submitted to the Sister Chengzi phone factory; equipment debugging is expected to be completed by mid-March." Li Wanqiang interjected.

For him, developing a proprietary operating system was hard work with little reward; he didn't understand why Chen Yansen was spending so much manpower, material resources, and money.

The industrial chain involved in mobile phones is as numerous as cow hairs; from CPU to GPU, cameras, storage chips, and batteries, every module involves tens of thousands of patents.

Why not just pay money to buy them?

"For the two models, the quantity equipped with the Aurora Future OS system is only 5,000 units. Did Sister Chengzi Technology say anything about that?" Lei Yi's army asked.

"No." Li Wanqiang replied.

After hearing this, Lei Yi's army secretly breathed a sigh of relief, fearing he might offend Chen Yansen on this matter.

"Mr. Lei, Sister Chengzi Technology's new product launch is set for March 18th." Li Wanqiang reminded.

"Alright, I know." Lei Yi's army said.

On the other side.

In the brightly lit headquarters building of Xiaomi, within the office area where the MIUI department is located, Li Xingwei sat with a solemn expression, staring blankly into space.

The computer screen before him was black, clearly not in a working state.

He was one of the founding team members of Xiaomi Technology, employee number 12, and a core development engineer of the MIUI system.

"Let's start with the Android custom system first; once Xiaomi phones occupy a certain proportion of the domestic market, we will leverage our terminal market advantage to build China's own mobile operating system." The big pie Lei Yijun had painted for him when he first joined kept flashing through his mind.

He came from Microsoft and had also participated in the system development of Windows Phone.

The reason he joined Xiaomi was first and foremost the generous treatment and tempting stock option rewards; secondly, he also wanted to develop a pure-blood version of a domestic operating system.

But two weeks ago, Lei Yijun announced the information that the MIUI system would stop iterating and upgrading.

In other words, the boss had decided to abandon the MIUI system.

For this group of people, the options were either to transfer to the Xiaomi Application Ecosystem Department or to hold their posts, provide system maintenance for existing users, and then be slowly abandoned by the company.

"A-Wei, what are you thinking about?"

At this moment, Sun Peng, who was also a main creator of the MIUI system, bumped his shoulder and asked.

【71】 "Brother Peng, you say even the Xiaomi 2A and Xiaomi 2S don't use the MIUI system; is there still any necessity for our department to exist?" Li Xingwei asked with a bitter smile.

"Brother Peng, you say even the Xiaomi 2A and Xiaomi 2S don't use the MIUI system; is there still any necessity for our department to exist?" Li Xingwei asked with a bitter smile.

"A-Wei, it's just working; as long as there's work to do, isn't that enough! Don't worry, with your abilities, if you are transferred to the Application Ecosystem Department in the future, you can at least get the title of General Manager." Sun Peng said, not taking it seriously.

"Then what about MIUI?" Li Xingwei countered.

"Isn't there AuroraOS?" Sun Peng shrugged his shoulders.

Li Xingwei let out a speechless laugh, not knowing what to say.

After pondering for a long while, he said to Sun Peng: "Brother Peng, take care."

"A-Wei, what do you mean?" Sun Peng opened his mouth, a look of surprise appearing in his eyes.

"Resignation!"

Having finished speaking, Li Xingwei strode purposefully in the direction of Lei Yijun's office.

"Resignation?"

Three minutes later, Lei Yijun looked at his capable assistant before him and asked, puzzled and confused.

Li Xingwei was one of Xiaomi's first batch of employees; he remembered clearly that on the day Xiaomi was founded, he had personally handed a steaming hot bowl of millet porridge to the other party.

He had casually spoken a few bold words and was also happy that the company could recruit a senior R&D personnel from the Windows Phone system.

It had been less than three years, and the other party actually wanted to resign voluntarily?

"Mr. Lei, if the MIUI system isn't being made anymore, what can I do if I stay?" Li Xingwei looked at Lei Yijun with burning eyes and asked.

"I plan to establish the Xiaomi Internet Operations Department, and you will serve as the General Manager, responsible for the Xiaomi Browser business." Lei Yijun said seriously.

"The MIUI system is just a temporary setback; is giving up too early?" After hearing Lei Yijun's arrangement, Li Xingwei couldn't help but question.

"Xiaomi must survive first before it has a chance to walk the path of independent R&D; do you understand?" Lei Yijun snorted coldly, leaned back in his chair, and his tone became a bit harsh.

"Mr. Lei, thank you for your favor and trust, but I am a stubborn person; please approve my resignation application."

Li Xingwei suddenly stood up and urged him without any courtesy.

Lei Yijun took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the impulse to get angry, and waved his hand, saying: "I understand, get out."

How could he not understand Li Xingwei's thoughts, but the difficulty of developing a self-researched system was not something that could be accomplished just by opening one's mouth.

Was Microsoft's influence not strong enough?

After being online for three years, its market share only accounted for 5%.

To improve user adoption, Microsoft even spared no expense in spending 7 billion US dollars to buy Nokia's mobile phone business.

Does Xiaomi have sales volume?

Does Xiaomi have funds?

Let him do it with his head!

Who doesn't want to use a self-researched operating system to build an ecological moat for their own products.

Li Xingwei left in dejection.

"Damn it, is it wrong that I just want to survive?" Lei Yijun, with red eyes, roared silently in his heart.

Damn Zhou Hongyi!

Biting down on Xiaomi and not letting go all day long!

Lei Yijun wanted to win once so badly!

In this business adjustment, Li Xingwei became the first person to resign from Xiaomi's 13-person founding team.

"Li Xingwei? Accept him, make him your deputy."

After listening to Wang Teng's statement, Chen Yansen didn't think much and chose to hire Li Xingwei.

The system R&D department of Sister Chengzi Technology had long been divided into two groups: AuroraOS and AuroraFutureOS; the former handled deep Android customization, while the latter was responsible for version upgrades of AuroraFutureOS.

"Okay, Boss, then shall I put him in the AuroraFutureOS group?" Wang Teng asked for Chen Yansen's opinion.

"Sure." Chen Yansen replied.

In a few words, Li Xingwei's career for the rest of his life was decided.

For Chen Yansen, Li Xingwei's joining did not cause him to pay much attention.

After all, the Technology Department and AI Laboratory of Sister Chengzi Technology were filled with senior engineers from companies like Microsoft, Google, and Oracle.

Li Xingwei's resume could only be said to be quite good, but it was far from reaching the level that would make him take it seriously.

Time passed in the blink of an eye, and the spring new product launch conference of Sister Chengzi Technology was held as scheduled.

(End of this chapter)