Chapter 138 Orange Mobile Engineering Edition, Hardware Trouble (asking for monthly ticket)
The third day of summer vacation.
After the morning meeting at the Entrepreneurship Park, Chen Yansen drove to Zhuxian Town Science and Technology Park.
The download volume of Aurora OS has exceeded 20 million. In this way, even if only 10% of Orange mobile phone users support it, it can still sell 2 million units.
It is generally believed in the digital industry that the two most anticipated new products in 2011 are Lei Yijun's Xiaomi phone and Chen Yansen's Orange phone.
After all, Xiaomi and Orange Technology are the first mobile phone manufacturers to launch customized operating systems, improving the user experience from the software level.
There are millions or even tens of millions of potential users alone.
Although Orange Technology has not announced the release date of the new phone, the establishment of the Orange mobile phone factory in Shenzhen is equivalent to telling the outside world that Orange mobile phones are only one step away from being launched on the market.
There were not many cars on the road, and ten minutes later, the car drove into the Science and Technology Park.
As soon as Chen Yansen went up to the second floor, he saw Gao Weilin holding a computer, sitting on a rattan chair in the balcony rest area, drinking coffee slowly. It was obvious that he had adapted to the work and life in Xucheng.
"Old Gao, aren't you feeling hot?" Chen Yansen walked over with a smile and sat down opposite Gao Weilin.
The warm sun was rising in the east, and it was already a bit stuffy.
"Boss, can you try the coffee beans I just bought? They're new from Nariño this year, and they have a citrus aroma."
Gao Weilin was about to stand up and say hello when Chen Yansen pushed him back to his seat, so he raised his glass and recommended it with a smile.
The morning sun felt warm on his body, and Gao Weilin seemed to be enjoying it.
"No, I'm not used to it." Chen Yansen waved his hand and refused, then asked: "What did Lotte say?"
"There is great interest, but Rakuten, like Ali, is short of funds. Based on the current development status of FoxTao, whether using the price-to-sales ratio valuation method or the price-to-earnings ratio valuation method, the final valuation will not be less than 2.5 billion US dollars."
Gao Weilin shrugged and said with a smile: "This is a big investment for Lotte, so I contacted Augusta Capital again and planned to sell Fox Tao in a package by adopting a one-owner and one-duplicate joint sale method."
This type of acquisition is not common in the Mainland, but it is a routine operation in Hong Kong Island.
For many venture capital firms, controlling rights are not important; all that matters is making a profit.
After Lotte learned that Ali was also interested in FoxTao, it was planning to use its relationship with SoftBank to join hands with Augusta to acquire FoxTao and then merge it into Ali Baba.
This is how we can realize our plan of indirectly acquiring shares in Ali! Compared with the shares of FoxTao, the shares of Ali, the e-commerce giant, are obviously more attractive.
"I always trust you in what you do." Chen Yansen nodded without raising any questions.
Boss, we've only known each other for a month?
Gao Weilin opened his mouth and wanted to complain, but he held it back.
After resigning, he worked even harder during the period he worked in the mainland than when he was working at Mega Group.
He knew very well that once he completed the equity sale, he would become famous in the domestic Internet business circle.
"Boss, the financial accounting and fund management of the Orange Mobile Phone Factory have been incorporated into the Financial Shared Center and ERP management system. Every account is transparent and traceable, and it is difficult for people below to tamper with it."
Gao Weilin put away his distracting thoughts and continued.
"Okay, I get it. Go ahead and get busy. If you need help, ask HR to recruit for you."
Chen Yansen responded, stood up and walked upstairs.
He directly rejected the industrial design draft initially submitted by the R&D team because the width of the upper, lower, left and right borders was wide enough to park a row of RVs.
Compared with the borderless mobile phones that will be available more than a decade later, it’s too ugly to look at.
Engineers explained that this is due to the backwardness of the current COG screen packaging technology, which requires a wide border to accommodate electronic components such as driving circuits and cables, which is really helpless.
After some investigation, Chen Yansen was sure that the engineer had not deceived him.
But in 2011, it’s not that there is no solution, it just increases the cost of the packaging process, which is why it was abandoned by 99.9% of mobile phone brands on the market.
Chen Yansen wondered, if Orange phones are similar to Xiaomi, Meizu, and Samsung, and do not have their own unique advantages, why would users choose Orange? Is it because Aurora OS is smoother than the native Android system?
So why would users just flash the phone? So Chen Yansen overturned the first design and started over.
First, it invested heavily in purchasing COF packaging equipment. This more advanced packaging technology can package chips onto flexible circuit boards and then connect them to the screen, greatly reducing the width of the border.
There are basically no mobile phone factories in China that use COF packaging technology. After inquiring, Cao Dahua and Zuo Hongyu found out that they could only buy imported first-hand equipment, which cost RMB 700,000 each, which is more than RMB 500,000 more expensive than second-hand COG packaging equipment.
Secondly, add virtual buttons to reduce the chin space of the phone.
In this regard, Apple, which has always been bold, did not dare to directly cancel the Home button.
Xiaomi also retained the three major Android keys on its first generation mobile phone, namely the return key, home key and multi-tasking management key.
Chen Yansen did it in one step, abolishing all touch keys and adopting global gesture operation.
In terms of hardware, an ultra-high sensitivity touch screen is selected; in terms of system, the Aurora system is deeply modified to optimize the touch delay problem.
In addition, the processor has been replaced with Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8260, which has performance comparable to the A5 processor used in the Apple 4S, and is the same model as the first generation Xiaomi phone.
Finally, the plastic shell of the mobile phone was changed to high-strength aluminum alloy.
Although the cost has increased, the appearance strength of the phone has been improved and the probability of screen breakage caused by narrowing the bezel has been reduced.
After calculating the cost, the materials alone amounted to 1,100 yuan! Adding the R&D, manufacturing, promotion and sales costs, if a mobile phone is sold at 1,999 yuan, even if the supply chain is strictly controlled, the gross profit will not reach 10%.
However, what Chen Yansen cares about is not the few dozen yuan of gross profit, but how much humanitarian support the mobile phone industry can bring to him from research and development to sales terminals.
As soon as Chen Yansen went up to the third floor, two engineers came over with a 4.5-inch engineering version of Orange mobile phone in their hands and greeted him with a smile.
"Boss, this is the engineering version sample sent from Shenzhen. Zhou Ze and I have tested it, and the touch delay is basically within the acceptable range."
Zhang Cong is the head of the industrial design group, and Zhou Ze he mentioned is the head of the hardware design group.
One of them is from ZTE and the other is from Huawei's Honor mobile phone team.
"Oh, Lao Cao is pretty quick."
Chen Yansen took the phone and followed the two people towards the testing group.
The testing team has about ten engineers, each with an Orange phone, and they are conducting rigorous tests on performance, interfaces and sensors.
And test the smoothness of audio and video playback, whether the sound quality is distorted, whether the audio and video are out of sync, etc.
In addition, there are many issues such as heat dissipation, battery life and mobile phone compatibility. The testing phase alone will take a month.
Chen Yansen requested that bugs be resolved as much as possible before the product goes on the market.
If the product is discovered by users after it is put on the market, the losses will be incalculable regardless of recall or compensation.
Chen Yansen knew that it was better to be cautious.
For example, Aurora OS actually underwent two weeks of testing before it went online, but there were still many minor bugs after it went online.
Zhang Cong and Zhou Ze led Chen Yansen to stay in the testing group for a whole morning and reported all the problems they had found one by one.
System problems are directly fed back to Wang Teng.
In terms of hardware, if it is a problem with the supplier, give them a warning first, and replace it directly if it does not change.
"Boss, is there any room for further improvement in appearance?"
After Zhang Cong finished his report, he asked tentatively.
In 2011, everyone's aesthetic taste for smartphones was basically based on Apple, including Zhang Cong.
Therefore, the appearance of the Orange phone is 30% like the iPhone 4, and a bit similar to the Meizu M9, but with narrower bezels and thinner thickness.
For this reason, the material cost of each mobile phone is 200 yuan more than originally planned, but it feels really good to use, with a silky touch, and the aluminum alloy back cover is very textured, and looks more upscale than those plastic materials.
“The current design is pretty good.”
Chen Yansen nodded in agreement. The engineering machine had already come out, and it would be very troublesome to adjust the exterior design. He was present when the sample was finalized, so there was no need to make trouble.
"Boss, there is a problem with the hardware. There are 100 engineering machines in total, but I found that the battery sizes are not uniform, with the maximum error being 1.3 mm."
Zhou Ze said seriously.
You should know that mobile phones are precision digital products, and there are clear requirements for the placement of each electronic component.
If the battery size does not meet the design standards, the assembled device will definitely not function properly.
“It’s a little bit outrageous.”
Chen Yansen was slightly stunned. In his opinion, the supplier only needed to produce according to the contract requirements. How could such a big mistake occur?
Zhou Ze took out two batteries and placed them on the table.
When Chen Yansen saw it, he immediately burst out laughing. The size difference between the two batteries was obvious and could be distinguished with the naked eye.
In front of the two of them, he immediately took out his cell phone and called Zuo Hongyu.
"The battery supplier was changed. After this batch of engineering machines were manufactured, did you and Lao Cao not inspect the goods?"
Chen Yansen asked bluntly.
"Ah!? We checked it, but didn't find any problems." Zuo Hongyu did check it, but he only tested the phone's functions and didn't disassemble it to check the hardware.
Electronic components such as processors, screens, cameras and speakers have corresponding warehousing inspection processes and usually do not cause any problems.
"There is a discrepancy between the battery size and the design requirements. If such a supplier is not replaced, there is no guarantee that there will be more trouble in the future."
Chen Yansen did not scold Zuo Hongyu again, but just gave him serious instructions.
He sighed in his heart: These suppliers in Huaqiangbei are really not very reliable.
Little do people know that in the past few years when copycat phones have been prevalent, as long as the battery does not explode, it is considered a good product.
As for the mismatch in specifications, an error of 1-2 mm, at worst you can just force it in manually, it's not like it can't be used anyway.
"Okay, boss." Zuo Hongyu's face turned pale and blue. He didn't expect that he would make such a big mistake in the supply chain.
After hanging up the phone, he immediately led his men into the material warehouse and found the batch of goods sent by Youpu.
"Vernier caliper!" Zuo Hongyu shouted to his assistant.
"Mr. Zuo, here you go." The assistant standing nearby hurriedly handed it over.
Zuo Hongyu picked up a battery and began to measure its length, width and height, but his expression became increasingly ugly.
The error is 0.3 mm!
The error is 0.5 mm!
The error is 0.9 mm!
"Damn it, you even dared to cheat me, Zuo Hongyu. Who inspected and accepted this batch of goods? Get out of here right now!"
Zuo Hongyu was furious and started cursing.
Then, he took out his cell phone and called the person in charge of Youpu Battery: "Mr. Wang, three out of ten batteries you sent are not up to standard. Are you kidding me?"
"Boss Zuo, you are too polite! Don't worry, the batteries in our factory are guaranteed not to explode. As long as they can be used, it's fine. I will arrange it for you in Xinghe Renjian later..."
Wang Hongde on the other end of the phone laughed and answered perfunctorily.
"I'll arrange for your mother! Take these broken things away from me immediately!" Zuo Hongyu cursed unceremoniously.
"Mr. Zuo, ask around and see which company can make the battery size exactly right? If you have the ability, sue them! Uop has never taken back the goods it has sold."
Wang Hongde is also a tough guy. He is not afraid at all and says with a chuckle.
"Fuck! Forget about the balance!" Zuo Hongyu threatened.
"Haha, I never thought about taking the balance. Mr. Zuo, tell the big fish from the north behind you not to break the rules of Huaqiangbei at every turn."
Wang Hongde laughed, threw down this warning, and hung up the phone.
Zuo Hongyu only then realized that the recruitment benefits offered by Orange Technology in Shenzhen seemed to have affected the interests of some people.
After a moment's thought, he reported the situation to Chen Yansen.
(End of this chapter)
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