Chapter 905 If You Don’t Pay, Then I Won’t Pay Either

In the second week of July, with the official release of Yike Mars2, the competition in the global mobile phone industry has become increasingly fierce.

In other words, the competition among the giants in the global mobile phone industry has become particularly fierce.

On July 11, the second day after the release of Mars2, Motorola and Samsung announced the release time of their new phones.

Motorola was on July 20, and Samsung was on August 26.

It is worth mentioning that the two giants soon had more specific news leaked, saying that the new phones would use capacitive touch screens.

So far, the top five in the world, Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, and LG have all come out, plus HTC, which has a strong OEM strength in partnership with Microsoft, and Yike and Apple, the two dark horses leading the emerging track, a total of 8 manufacturers, jointly exerted their strength in the field of touch-screen smart phones.

The intensive release of new products will inevitably drive more manufacturers from top to bottom to participate in the competition of the great waves.

On the same day, Apple responded to Nokia and will file a corresponding lawsuit in the US court.

Consumers see the product, and manufacturers are calculating patents.

It was only in the early hours of the morning in Silicon Valley that Schmidt, who had flown to Europe and brought people to meet with Nokia, sent the latest news of the contact.

- Nokia asked Yike to pay up to $500 million in patent fees, and it was a lump sum.

According to Schmidt's analysis and speculation on the phone, a lump sum payment could probably be negotiated into installments, and this $500 million...

What does this number equate to?

It is equivalent to biting off the fattest piece of meat from Yike, compressing the smooth operation of Yike's working capital to the greatest extent.

In the past six months, Yike has sold more than 7 million Mars units, not counting the subsequent share of customers, because most of them are purchased by operators, and the profit of hardware alone is more than 700 million US dollars.

In addition, the costs of research and development, acquisitions, publicity and promotion are not included.

And, for Fang Zhuo, this is equivalent to half of Bingxin's production line.

Oh no, with the improvement of process technology, the price of production lines has also risen, but it is also equivalent to a small half of the production line.

Fang Zhuo's reply to Schmidt was simple: "Nokia is asking for too much. It's impossible. Such patent fees are pure blackmail. There is no need to talk about it."

"Nokia's attitude is quite firm. I have an appointment with Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo tomorrow." Schmidt said, "We can see his attitude tomorrow."

Fang Zhuo thanked Mr. Schmidt for his sincere efforts and felt a little guilty for his perfunctory attitude.

A few hours later, Schmidt brought Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo's original words.

-"This is the patent fee Nokia asked for. If Yi Ke is not willing, the court will turn this number into 1 billion US dollars."

Schmidt was afraid that Fang Zhuo would vent his anger on him, so he promised that he would not change a word. However, he did not hear the expected anger.

Fang Zhuo just said calmly: "Nokia is shamelessly blackmailing. In this case, there is no need to talk. See you in court."

"Yi Ke's Mars has a good prospect. This 500 million US dollars seems to be a lot. If it can be divided into two or three years, I think it is not unacceptable. The most important thing is to solve the worries about patents." Schmidt gave his own advice.

Schmidt even said with great certainty: "If Yike's account is short of funds, Google can borrow funds."

He did not doubt Mr. Fang's personal wealth, but individuals are individuals and companies are companies, and sometimes they are two different things.

Fang Zhuo never expected Mr. Shi to say this, and he was deeply moved and refused: "Schmidt, we are not without chips. I am waiting for Nokia to enter the capacitive screen market. If he wants $1 billion, let him take it!"

Schmidt persuaded him again on the phone, and after hearing Mr. Fang's firm attitude, he had to consider trying harder at Nokia.

When the call ended, Fang Zhuo put down his phone and said to Yu Hong with emotion: "Schmidt is willing to let Google borrow money to pay our patent fees. It seems that I thought too bad of Schmidt."

"Well, I don't really understand what's going on between you three." Yu Hong frowned, "I don't even know who the other corner is."

Fang Zhuo didn't talk about things that he sometimes didn't know very well, and gave his opinion on Nokia's high patent fees: "We need to invest more in research and development, apply for more patents, and sell more products."

Also, attract more short selling.

"Now the competition is so fierce, Nokia wants to take away our liquidity, complete the patent authorization of the capacitive screen, and then launch a touch-screen mobile phone without patent troubles." Yu Hong exhaled, "If we go through the legal process, is the time Nokia sacrificed for this really worth it?"

It's not that the touch-screen patent cannot be circumvented, but it will inevitably take more time.

Nokia has already slowed down in terms of products, and will it continue to slow down because of such disputes?

"Who knows? We will do our best. Even if we are fined more patent fees in the end, tomorrow's Yike will be stronger than today's Yike." Fang Zhuo has evaluated Nokia many times on different occasions and doesn't want to think about his competitors anymore.

Yu Hong nodded slightly. She believed that this year's Mars2 would be better. Judging from the products of competitors that she has seen so far, none of them are as good as her own.

"Oh yes, why is there no movement from HTC?" Fang Zhuo thought of another thing, "Didn't I ask him to come to us at the press conference? Let's ask for patent fees and see if HTC can get us Nokia. 500 million yuan in patent fees is not enough, but 100 million yuan is fine.”

Yu Hong: "..."

This is blackmail, right? Yike has sold more than 7 million products, and HTC hasn’t seen any splash yet.

Fang Zhuo knew what Xiao Yu was thinking: "Perhaps we shouted, maybe they paid back, let's talk about it, there have been enough lawsuits recently, it's better to have one less problem than one more thing, and everyone can just make products quietly."

Yu Hong took the order and left. She planned to urge LG Electronics by the way.

Now among the eight powerful companies entering the market, Yike, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, and Apple all have their own patent authorizations. Motorola, which is about to release products, is also in contact. Generally speaking, everyone wants to compete with each other with their products.

As for the other three companies, Nokia showed arrogance, LG tried to resist, and HTC seemed hesitant.

When the news from Yike was passed to HTC, as a treasure island company, Wang Xuehong, the head of the company, was surprised by the development of Yike on the one hand, and hesitant on the way to handle the patent fees on the other.

After repeated internal discussions, Wang Xuehong planned to lead her team to Silicon Valley to talk to the person in charge.

However, just as she was preparing to set off, news came out in the industry.

Nokia and Yike have broken down on patent fees. Yike is unwilling to pay the fees demanded by Nokia and will continue to seek legal solutions.

When Wang Xuehong heard the news, her original decision was suddenly overturned.

——If you don’t pay it, then I won’t pay it either.

Soon, HTC gave Yike a firm reply, saying it was willing to cross-authorize patents and did not approve of the method of paying patent fees.

Fang Zhuo was extremely surprised by this and was not willing to hand it over at all? Could it be that you also have a back-up plan?

This is really embarrassing.

On the golf course, Fang Zhuo met a new friend who worked at ITC in the United States. He originally just wanted to urge the ban on LG Electronics.

Sometimes, he really isn't as cruel as he wants to be.

Stay up all night and code another small chapter.

I've been quite busy lately, so I'll have to wait until the middle of the month to add monthly tickets, and it'll be almost unbusy by then.