Chapter 4 Planning Smartphone

Chapter 4 Planning Smartphone

Chapter 4 Planning Smartphone

Xie Jianyong is a veteran mobile phone designer. After listening to what Xu Shenxue said and thinking about it for a while, he thought he understood what Xu Shenxue wanted... a mid-to-low-end smart phone.

This is going to be a serious smart phone!

But smartphones and feature phones are not the same thing. No matter whether a smartphone is high-end or low-end, it is still a smartphone. It has all the necessary chips, a large capacitive screen with touch input, and a smartphone operating system.

As for smart phones, no matter whether they are good or bad, high-end or low-end, it is too difficult for them to make them.
After thinking for a long time, he said, "Boss Xu, if we really want to do it, we can definitely do it as long as we invest enough. After all, all kinds of hardware and systems are readily available on the market. If we really want to do it, we just need to integrate the hardware and customize the system software."

"But we need to customize the Android system, optimize the interface, and integrate the hardware. This will probably take at least one or two hundred engineers a long time. I'm talking about real engineers, not half-baked ones... The R&D investment will be huge!"

As he spoke, Xie Jianyong considered carefully and said, "Mr. Xu, everyone knows the benefits of smart phones, but Huaqiangnan has not actually made any. The technology is too difficult and the R&D investment is too large."

"Everyone is waiting for Lianke to come up with a smart phone solution. Once Lianke offers a package of solutions, it will be easy to do. Optimistically speaking, it will take about three years. It won't be too late for us to do it then."

Xu Shenxue naturally knew that Xie Jianyong's words were quite pertinent, and even the best choice under normal circumstances.

The original unknown brand manufacturers in Huaqiang South did not start to produce smartphones until 2012. The reason was simple: it was not until the end of 2011 that Lianke came up with a package solution for smartphones.

Thanks to Lianke's low-priced chips and a series of turnkey technical support, the generic manufacturers in Huaqiangnan were able to produce smartphones... But at that time, all kinds of low-end mobile phones of different brands also emerged all at once, so there was no room for generic mobile phone manufacturers.

Before Lianke released its turnkey solution for smartphones, smartphones were exclusive to those mobile phone manufacturers with strong financial resources and capabilities. Without some strong capabilities, you really couldn’t make a smartphone.

Even if all the hardware is purchased from outside, hardware integration alone is an extremely troublesome task, and then the Android system also has to be customized and modified to a certain extent, which is also quite difficult.

Normally speaking, developing smartphones at this point in time is a huge opportunity for those big-name manufacturers with strong capabilities.

However, for the weak Weiku Electronics, it is like jumping into a fire pit. There is a high probability that it will spend a large amount of money but get nothing in the end.

But... this is normal.

But Xu Shenxue is not normal... No, WeCool Electronics is not normal... That's not right either, it should be said that Xu Shenxue has a system!

With the support of the scientific research system, an ordinary technician can be transformed into a technical backbone, a technical backbone can be transformed into an expert, and an expert can be transformed into the world's top bosses.

What direct impact will this bring? R&D costs will be greatly reduced, and R&D time will be greatly shortened.

When other manufacturers develop a certain technology, they have to hire a top engineer with an annual salary of one million, plus a group of senior engineers with an annual salary of hundreds of thousands, and spend a year to do it.

However, Xu Shenxue can use the scientific research system to let an ordinary engineer with an annual salary of 100,000 yuan lead a group of rookie engineers with an annual salary of tens of thousands of yuan to do it. In fact, because the scientific research quota can greatly stimulate inspiration and efficiency, the required research and development time may even be shorter.

The most important thing is that Xu Shenxue can also invite some real technical experts and give them systematic scientific research quotas, so as to bring out efficient research and development that does not exist in the real society and overcome technical problems that other technical teams cannot solve until they die.

Solve the 0-1 problem!
When it comes to scientific research, success is not something you can achieve simply by working hard. More often than not, it depends on inspiration, talent, and luck.

An ordinary scientist leads a large team to work on a project for ten or eight years, but still cannot complete the task. Then a genius scientist passes by, takes a quick look and casually gives a solution... Are you angry?
Don't think it's exaggerated, reality is just that exaggerated.

Writing a novel requires logic, and in order to make technological progress more reasonable, a scientific research system must be arranged...

But reality doesn’t need logic!

The system's scientific research quotas can provide researchers with all-round learning and scientific research enhancement, including inspiration and talent!

And this is the reason why Xu Shenxue plans to make smart phones...

He even prepared the appearance of the product in advance. The aluminum alloy body, a 3.5-inch screen, and three physical buttons on the front are enough: home, back, and menu. Any more would be an insult to the industrial aesthetics of the reborn! It would be best if it was a touch button, but if not, a smaller physical button would be acceptable.

If possible, he would like to have purely virtual buttons, but he doesn't know whether the early Android system supports it and whether customized optimization can do it.

Then put a Qualcomm or Samsung chip on it, and then purchase a bunch of other miscellaneous parts and components for assembly.

It is equipped with a non-removable battery... This is mainly to reduce the weight and thickness of the body, and to make more rational use of the internal space of the body and carry a larger capacity battery. The weight and thickness are directly related to the appearance.

For Xu Shenxue's first anticipated smartphone, performance and other factors were secondary. Early Android was so poor, and the cost and price were there, so the performance couldn't be that good; it just had to be usable.

But... your appearance must be good!

Whether a mobile phone is easy to use or not is something only you know, but whether it looks good or not is something everyone around you knows!

So everything else can be tolerated, but appearance must be the best that can be achieved under the existing conditions!
This is also the reason why Xu Shenxue plans to make a non-removable battery and an aluminum alloy metal body, in order to make it more beautiful and thinner!
Under normal circumstances, it would be very difficult to make such a mobile phone. At least the R&D investment would be very large, and it would be impossible to make it without some hard power.

However, Xu Shenxue has the help of a scientific research system, which can significantly reduce R&D costs, thus making it possible for WeCool Electronics to develop smart phones.

Of course, even so, making smart phones still requires a lot of money, and the salaries of a large number of engineers alone are not a small amount.

Fortunately, the Weiku Electronics Co., Ltd. left by the original father still has some assets!
Although the current situation of WeCool Electronics is not very good, it does not mean that it is not making money...it is just that the profit is a little less than before.

The original owner and the company's top management were worried because the revenue and profits of WeCool Electronics had been declining for four consecutive months. If this continued, it would sooner or later turn from profit to loss.

But even so, Weiku Electronics' net profit reached more than one million last month.

During the period when the original father was in charge, WeCool Electronics had a stronger ability to make money.

Moreover, the original father was an old-school businessman who was very stable in business. He would not blindly invest the money he earned into production, leaving Xu Shenxue with a considerable fortune.

Over the years, WeCool Electronics has actually made a lot of money, but only a portion of it has been used for research and development and expanded production, and the rest has been kept in the company's account for emergencies.

There is also a part that has invested in a lot of fixed assets in the name of the company. For example, the industrial land and factory buildings of their WeCool Electronics Company are the company's own assets, not rented factories!
In addition, the company has a self-used shop in Huaqiang South and a large office in the CBD center of the city. This office was originally used for its own use, but in the end, due to cost considerations, it did not move in and instead rented it out to collect rent.

These fixed assets alone are worth tens of millions.

Of course, the original father also received a portion of the dividends, which, after paying taxes, became part of his personal assets… You can’t keep all the money in the company.

A small portion of these dividend funds were used for family expenses, but most of them were used for stable investments, such as buying a lot of houses.

Xu Shenxue did a simple calculation and found that according to the company's situation, by drawing out part of the cash flow and mortgaging part of the fixed assets, he could probably withdraw 30 million yuan without affecting the company's normal operations and while still having a certain risk resistance.

If the company adds the capital generated from its existing low-end feature phone business, it will be able to use approximately 40 to 50 million yuan in the first year to develop smartphones.

The exact number will depend on the subsequent hematopoietic capacity of low-end feature phones.

In addition, this part of the funds is only the corporate funds of Weiku Electronics Co., Ltd., and does not include Xu Shenxue's personal assets of approximately 20 million yuan and personal assets worth at least 10 million yuan under Xu's mother's name.

And Xu Shenxue is not planning to use these private funds to invest in smart phone projects!
Even though Xu Shenxue was very confident in making smart phones, he had to leave a way out for everything. No matter how high the success rate was, he couldn't invest all his money into it without leaving any way out for himself.

Xu Shenxue wanted to make sure that if the smartphone project failed, he would still have a chance to make a comeback or simply get laid off!
(End of this chapter)