Chapter 839 Apple Price Cut (4k)
July 24, Yike Silicon Valley R&D Center.
Following the rhythm of a weekly high-level meeting after the press conference, Fang Zhuo once again held a coordinating meeting with managers from China, the United States, and Europe to determine the company's plan for the second half of the year.
The mobile phone Mars needs to be continuously optimized together with the Android system, and starting from August, it will start important tasks such as large-scale publicity, final determination of supply chain prices, and docking with operators.
The meeting was relatively lengthy, the time differences between the three places were different, and everyone was very busy recently. As a result, halfway through the meeting, another problem occurred with the online conference system.
From morning to night, Fang Zhuo finally ran out of patience the moment he announced the end of the meeting.
"I have said more than once that we need a stable, stable, stable conferencing software."
"I just don't understand, is this thing so difficult?"
Fang Zhuo stood up and signaled others to get off work. Yu Hong and Xu Keden followed him to the office.
When he entered the office, he drank two large glasses of water before pouring tea for Mr. Yu and Director Xu.
Yu Hong made a cup of coffee by herself, then glanced at the dazzling array of mobile phones and mobile phone parts on her desk, and said with a smile: "I was attacked by domestic mobile phone manufacturers a while ago, but I never saw you so annoyed."
She then said to Xu Keden: "Teacher Xu, look at Mr. Fang's table. Does it look more like a laboratory than your laboratory?"
Nokia, Motorola, Samsung.
Clamshell, straight, touch screen.
The colors are also colorful.
Xu Keden said sincerely: "Mr. Fang loves what he does. Without this spirit, where would our Mars be?"
"I just want to see how you fooled me." Fang Zhuo swept his arm to clear an open space where files could be placed, and then answered Mr. Yu's words, "The iPhone has been on sale for less than a month, and now the sales volume It’s well over 500,000. Just these 500,000 mobile phones are enough for a major domestic manufacturer to work for a year.”
He shook his head slightly: "I also want to be angry, but I just can't get angry. However, Mr. Cai from MediaTek also said something to help me. I heard it is very effective."
Calculated at US$199, these 500,000 units are worth US$99.5 million. However, some of Apple’s sales still have retail prices. Although the proportion is unclear, the revenue is more than US$100 million.
Based on what Fang Zhuo has been thinking about in the past two days, the revenue in less than one month is enough for Morningstar Semiconductor to work for more than half a year.
Morningstar Semiconductor's revenue last year was US$220 million, compared with US$170 million in 2005.
This is a good increase, and it is expected to have an even better increase of more than 40% this year.
But in Fang Zhuo's mind, it was still not strong enough.
Yu Hong nodded slowly and did not pay attention to the small domestic manufacturers. She picked up an iPhone from the table and frowned: "The iPhone's reputation on the Internet is still very good, and its system is indeed Smooth.”
After saying this, she and Fang Zhuo both looked at Xu Keden.
Xu Keden spread his hands innocently, what do you want to see me do?
The two people realized that this was not a problem with the phone's hardware, but with the Android system.
The three of them sighed in unison.
Since the release of the iPhone, the issue of system experience has troubled relevant personnel at Yike and Google.
Including Schmidt, after he really tried the iPhone, he spoke softly in front of Fang Zhuo, and even personally ordered a discount on top of the discount for YouTube advertising expenses in August.
Fang Zhuo had psychological expectations. Although he was dissatisfied, he was not as dissatisfied as everyone imagined.
However, looking at Schmidt's appearance, he felt that it was inappropriate not to get angry, so he actually found an opportunity for a meeting between the two parties to politely get angry, reprimanding Google for its system development problems.
Having said that, although Yike and Google have discovered the gaps, consumers have also spontaneously mentioned Mars in their good reputation for the iPhone.
Some media previously called the iPhone released by Apple the "God Phone", but after the Yike conference, such a title gradually disappeared.
When consumers got the iPhone, some teasing appeared.
“Why can’t this God’s phone take selfies?”
"I bought a God mobile phone from AT&T. The problem is, this God mobile phone is a God 2G mobile phone. I decided to let my family try Yike's Mars mobile phone at the end of the year. I hope I can take a group photo on Christmas!"
Although Yiko Mars has not been released yet, and although the selfie of Mars only appeared at the press conference, the idea of the front camera is not only applicable to Finns, but also to American consumers who can use it.
“One-hand selfie” is one of the Yike ads that YouTube will push in mid-August.
From the beginning to the end, Fang Zhuo's idea of mobile phone competition is differentiated competition based on his own strengths.
"Apple has yet to announce its sales plan for the European market." Yu Hong mentioned an important recent development of Apple.
"European operators are not like AT&T and Apple who have cooperated for a long time. Deutsche Telekom, which was declining, was taken over by us. Whether it is Vodafone in the UK or Orange in France, they will not be easy to accept Apple's cooperation model in a short period of time." Fang Zhuo personally tried the difficult operator.
If it weren't for the special circumstances of Deutsche Telekom's coaching change and plummeting profits, Yike might still be struggling with T-Mobile.
Similarly, if Apple wants to replicate its cooperation with US operators in the European market, it will take time, energy, bargaining and compromise.
Judging from the current situation, it will be difficult for Apple to get involved in the European market for quite some time, which is good for Yike.
There is another important reason that cannot be ignored. Europe is several years ahead of the US in 3G. Although there is still a lot of room, the concept has been more penetrated, and the 2G version of the iPhone is not so popular.
Fang Zhuo talked about these, and then connected with Pan Ben in Europe on the spot to chat about the chaos and competition of operators in various European countries.
"There is still a very drastic change in the supply chain now. Mr. Fang, do you think the iPhone will respond to the decline in storage prices?" Yu Hong raised a question that was not discussed at today's meeting.
Fang Zhuo couldn't help but correct Yu Hong's statement: "That's not a decline... That's an avalanche..."
At the beginning of this year, the price of 1G storage was $12.
By April, the price had dropped to $10 and $9 and then fluctuated back and forth.
Now at the end of July, the price has dropped all the way to $5.
Apple's 4G storage costs $20 from $48, while Yike's 8G version costs $56 less.
What makes storage manufacturers most desperate is that they don't know whether the $5 mark can be maintained.
They are no longer considering rebounding.
This is a comprehensive collapse of the global storage industry price system, from the United States, Europe to South Korea, Japan to the mainland, Taiwan, including Qimonda, which Fang Zhuo cooperates with, and SMIC, which is on good terms, have been affected to varying degrees.
On the contrary, Bingxin escaped in Lin'an because it produces niche storage.
Fang Zhuo is still observing this matter and is still waiting for the financial storm to further disrupt the situation in the storage industry.
He feels that from 12 to 5, this 5 is definitely not the bottom, and there is even hope to go straight to 2 dollars.
At $5, manufacturers are already complaining and bleeding, and when it reaches $2, let's see how many can still breathe.
However, all this reflects that mobile phone terminals are a positive for reducing costs.
"Jobs will definitely take action, from word of mouth to sales to competitive environment to the European market. He should take action." Fang Zhuo put herself in his shoes and felt that if it were her, she might make a move on the price.
Yu Hong's judgment on this point was ambiguous, but she trusted her boss's keenness in this regard.
Xu Kedeng was a little grumbling in his heart. The cost had been reduced, and Apple had made this money for free, so it must be happy. What else should it do?
However, the next afternoon, Xu Kedeng refreshed the price reduction and adjustment announcement on Apple's official website and Jobs' open letter to users on the Internet.
Apple announced that it would stop selling the 4G storage version of the iPhone.
Apple announced that the 8G storage version of the iPhone would be reduced from US$599 to US$399, a price reduction of 33.4%.
And it will launch 1 in the fourth quarter.
In his open letter, Jobs apologized for the sudden price reduction and promised to compensate old users.
He said that he still believed that the price reduction was a correct decision and would help expand the user base of the iPhone, but he also admitted that while the company expanded new users through price cuts, it should take better care of the feelings of early users.
Jobs promised that all users who bought iPhones before the price cut would receive a $100 voucher to buy any product at Apple retail stores or online stores.
However, there was a sentence in the open letter: "The field of technology is always full of changes and improvements. If you always wait for price cuts or want to buy the latest models, you will never be able to buy high-tech products." This angered many users who had already bought iPhones.
—— Did you make changes and improvements to your high-tech products in such a short time? What were you doing before?
For this reason, on the second day after Apple's announcement, an iPhone user announced that he would sue Apple, believing that such a fierce price cut had damaged his rights.
A price cut, a lot of disturbances.
If there was no choice, it would be fine, but there were less than 5 months before the release of Yike Mars. Many users declared online that "even if the price is the same, I will not buy an iPhone, I will buy Mars for Christmas."
After such adjustments, the iPhone is completely comparable to Mars in terms of price and storage version, $399/8G, $499/16G.
Yike and Google looked at the movement on the Internet and watched the excitement from the side.
However, the excitement turned into a fire.
Just three days after the iPhone announced a price cut, Apple staff claimed that many of the negative comments about its own products came from its competitor Yike, and that the other party was taking the opportunity to smear it.
Yike:?
In all honesty, Fang Zhuo and Yike were just watching the excitement this time.
In fact, Fang Zhuo understood the price cut and adjustment from the bottom of his heart.
Unexpectedly, this world cannot accommodate good people.
Before Fang Zhuo could respond, Google's Schmidt was unwilling.
He directly posted a selfie and a side photo of Mars on Facebook, and wrote: "Thank Mars, it allows you to use a cheaper iPhone, but if you are willing to wait, you can take a family selfie on Christmas, oh yes, and give away a 3G function."
The real iron triangle!
Google Schmidt!
Fang Zhuo thought it was strange that half a year later, Schmidt, who had appeared at the Apple conference, actually mocked his "old boss" directly.
When he called Schmidt, he mentioned this matter and asked, "If I remember correctly, Google and Apple have cooperation on the search side. Old Schmidt, are you a little frivolous?"
"Can you be as frivolous as you tearing your jersey in the stadium?" Schmidt asked back.
"It's different, the occasion is different." Fang Zhuo reminded, "Besides, I'm young and fit in with sports. I'm not like the public's perception of you, who are cunning and control everything behind the scenes."
Schmidt felt that Mr. Fang was modest.
But to be honest, Yi Ke and Mr. Fang were indeed very restrained in promoting Mars.
He even felt that they were a little conservative.
If he were to do it himself, he would definitely seize the price cut of the iPhone to attack it fiercely.
"Mobile phones are different from players. I still hope that Mars can establish a brand image from products to companies and even management. 3G and smart phones bring all mobile phone manufacturers to a relatively fair starting line." Fang Zhuo talked to Schmidt about his own ideas. "Mars has a unique front camera and a software ecosystem framework brought by the 3G network. The mobile phone technology represented by these is already at the forefront."
"Schmidt, if you want to become an external director of Yike, you must remember our purpose and keep improving!"
In the words of Jobs, this is a high-tech product, and the process of high-tech products keeping improving itself has its own subtle brand culture transmission.
Fang Zhuo is carefully considering the establishment of mobile phone brand culture and wants longer-term benefits.
And, he is also carefully choosing channels to convey his ideas to consumers.
However, no matter how cautious he was, he was still a little cheated at a technology and business conference he attended in early August.
On August 2, after careful selection by Yike's public relations department, Fang Zhuo agreed to the All Things Digital Conference co-hosted by Walter and Kara, two columnists of the Wall Street Journal.
The company's reason was that the show had a good reputation and had interviewed many well-known business leaders such as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs this year, which was in line with the brand positioning that Yike was pursuing now.
However, when Fang Zhuo arrived at the scene, he soon found out in the background that Steve Jobs was already being interviewed in front.
"Kara, you didn't tell us in advance that Steve Jobs would also participate in this interview." Yike's staff was very dissatisfied with this and negotiated with the host in the background, intending to cancel the interview.
"Hey, hey, don't you think this is a good opportunity? Listen, listen, Steve Jobs talked about your product." Kara tried to save the plan, and he said to Mr. Fang who could make the decision, "Mr. Fang, Steve Jobs also didn't know you would come. You are fair, fair."
The program played a little trick and brought together the heads of the two competing companies for an interview.
They had done something similar before and achieved good results. The object of that time was Musk.
Fang Zhuo listened attentively and heard the cheers of the audience.
"Okay, just be fair and give me a good appearance." He waved to his staff and asked the host.
Kara became excited and planned to contact another host, Walter, through the headset to let Mr. Fang appear in front of the audience appropriately.