Chapter 1111 Everyone takes a step back
"Well, the functions of Kunlun mobile phones and Apple mobile phones are very close. If the sales of Apple mobile phones are booming, then Kunlun mobile phones will not be bad either.
Therefore, whatever level of contract phone ATT launches, Verizon will launch the same level of contract phone.
That way, Verizon doesn't miss out on a potentially great opportunity, and you both make money. " Saidenberg said.
In his view, the default risk of contract machines is actually controllable because it is tied to personal credit reporting.
The reason why he is unwilling to introduce too high subsidies has to do with capital flow.
Kunlun Mobile is happy to take away the purchase price at once, but it will take Verizon two years to earn back the money.
He prefers a step-by-step approach to giving money all at once.
This way the risk is controllable.
No opportunity will be missed.
After Xu Liang thought about it briefly, "The subsidy is increased to US$150. If the sales task of 1 million units cannot be completed within two years, Kunlun Mobile will bear half of the price difference you subsidize."
Seidenberg thought for a moment and nodded.
“A pleasure to work with.”
“A pleasure to work with.”
Both sides shook hands.
A verbal agreement was reached and the atmosphere in the conference room relaxed.
"Xu, does Kunlun still want to have another round of contact with T-Mobile and Sprint?"
Seidenberg laughed.
"Of course, Kunlun needs more partners."
Xu Liang didn’t mince words either.
You can't hide this kind of thing.
"You'd better not have too high hopes. I can guarantee that those two conservative old guys will never be as bold as Verizon."
Looking at this proud old guy, Xu Liang smiled and didn't say much.
The smartphone situation is not particularly clear right now, so telecom companies are still relatively cautious.
When the smart phone trend sets off, the initiative in cooperation will be exchanged.
Let this old guy be arrogant for a year and a half.
In addition, even if half of the subsidy is really refunded, Kunlun Mobile will not lose money because the profit margin is really high.
Currently, Kunlun mobile phones are anchored by Apple.
Therefore, the price is very high, and the purpose is to seize the high-end market during this precious window period when the smartphone wave is just emerging.
Currently, there are only two smartphones on the market, Kunlun and Apple, and the performance of Kunlun is no worse than that of Apple.
But if Apple follows the trajectory of its previous life, Kunlun Mobile will face increasing pressure.
Fortunately, Hongmeng shares the research and development of the Android system, and Kunlun is only responsible for the SOC and the entire machine, otherwise the pressure will be even greater.
Therefore, if we want to continue to compete with Apple, we must open up the European and American markets with stronger consumption power, increase mobile phone shipments, and make revenue, volume, R&D, etc. all bigger and stronger.
For this long-term strategy, it is acceptable for him to not make money in the mobile phone business for the time being, or even to suffer losses.
Wait for the Chinese market to grow.
Even if a trade war breaks out and Kunlun falls into Huawei's predicament and loses its global market, it doesn't have to worry about being beaten to death.
……
After leaving Verizon, Xu Liang led the team to T-Mobile and Sprint without stopping.
When he went to negotiate with T-Mobile, Nick Sears, one of the founders of Android in the United States and the current CEO of Android in the United States, also made a special trip from Silicon Valley.
Sears was a marketing executive at T-Mobile before joining Android.
It was precisely because of this relationship that in the previous life, when iPhone and ATT formed an alliance to run rampant in the United States.
Google iPhone1/HTCDream, the first Android mobile phone launched by Google and HTC, was able to embrace T-Mobile and achieved impressive sales results.
At that time, the bare metal price of Google iPhone 1 was US$400, not much cheaper than the iPhone. The price of the contract model in the United States was US$179, but users had to sign a two-year service contract with T-Mobile.
T-Mobile is a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom and the only mobile phone company that uses a unified brand in Europe and the United States. In addition to tens of millions of users in the United States, they also have nearly 100 million users in Europe and in the markets of Germany and the United Kingdom. The share ratio is very high.
In the previous life, Google iPhone 1 landed in the UK through T-Mobile's operator sales channel, and also launched a "zero yuan purchase" campaign there. The monthly fee was 40 pounds, and after signing a two-year service contract, the phone could be taken home for free.
However, it was 2008 when Google iPhone 1 came out.
At that time, T-Mobile saw that ATT had embraced Apple and made a lot of money, so it paid subsidies at all costs.
Now, this company has the same attitude as Verizon, and is dubious about Kunlun's "one million unit shipments in two years" commitment.
Xu Liang followed the old rules and put forward three conditions: subsidies, the right to decide sales strategies, and a share of phone charges.
T-Mobile rejected the last two items and only agreed to the first subsidy, but it was a little hesitant about the intensity of the subsidy.
Although Sears kept reassuring and saying good things, T-Mobile executives still insisted on their own opinions and refused to provide particularly large subsidies.
Xu Liang used all his tricks, but the opponent still refused to give in.
The last stop was Spurling.
The conditions of this company are even more outrageous than the previous two. They actually want Kunlun Mobile to jointly provide subsidies.
This disappointed him.
In Xu Liang's view, although this company is the smallest and is riddled with debt, performance decline, and management turmoil, as long as it puts its full bets on Kunlun Mobile, it may be able to usher in a counterattack.
Unfortunately, not many people have such vision and determination.
If Sprint really had this kind of talent, it would not gradually become lonely and Masayoshi Son would take over.
It is actually difficult for foreigners to buy real high-quality assets in the United States, because local chaebols are not short of money, unless they look down on them.
After running around for a few days and negotiating a round, although he was very tired, Xu Liang basically understood the situation of each telecommunications company, including the vision and level of the management, their true views on Kunlun Mobile Phones, etc.
After mastering these situations, they can then make a decision to cooperate.
Returning to Kunlun Mobile's Silicon Valley office, Xu Liang immediately held a closed-door meeting with senior executives.
"After this round of discussions, as we expected, the priority for cooperation is Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint."
Lei Jun paused, looked at Xu Liang, and added another sentence.
"Considering Sprint's own predicament and the conditions it has given, this company can be eliminated directly. Moreover, this company's network signal stability is the worst. If we cooperate with them, Kunlun mobile phone users will complain every day. It may also affect our brand reputation.”
Xu Liang nodded. Lei Jun's worry was not unreasonable. You need to be very careful when choosing partners. Moreover, they are a new brand and it is crucial to get the first shot. That's why he made a special trip to try to be right for everyone. Potential partners are well aware of this.
After thinking for a few seconds, Xu Liang continued:
"Let's just exclude Sprint and discuss the remaining two companies now."
“Verizon and T-Mobile have similar attitudes towards the intensity of subsidies.”
Lei Jun analyzed: "If we choose to cooperate with the larger Verizon, Kunlun mobile phone sales and network stability in the United States will be better than T-Mobile.
And if you choose T-Mobile, it means opening up the US market and half of the European market. ”
"Then we must choose T-Mobile to cooperate. For our task of shipping 1 million mobile phones in the next year, we have to rely on the European and American markets.
By choosing T-Mobile, we only need to win over Russia, Ukraine, Poland and other Eastern European countries that T-Mobile does not cover, even if it fully covers the two major markets of North America and Europe.
This is the fastest and most convenient way!
We will also make up for our shortcomings in sales channels as quickly as possible. In the next competition with Apple, we will not lose ground due to insufficient sales coverage. ”
The speaker was Zhou Peng, CEO of Kunlun North America Branch.
Lei Jun nodded, "That's why it's good to choose T-Mobile.
Their network signal in the United States is poor, but compared to the two giants ATT and Verizon, it is not so bad that it cannot be used.
But there is a long-term problem. T-Mobile deployed 3G relatively late and was the slowest of the four US operators to deploy 3G.
According to the cooperation disclosed by Ericsson and T-Mobile, T-Mobile 3G network will start commercial operation in 2007, the network will be basically formed in 2008, and it will have to wait until 2009 for complete completion. ”
Lei Jun turned to look at Xu Liang and said: "We will launch the 3G version of our next mobile phone. If we choose T-Mobile to cooperate, local users in American cities that do not have 3G network coverage may not choose our mobile phone.
While all the friends around me are holding iPhones and experiencing the pleasure of surfing the Internet on 3G, Kunlun mobile phone users can only use 2G or 2.5G networks.
There is no harm without comparison, which will give users the impression that Kunlun phones are not good. ”
Xu Liang nodded, "You are right. In addition to 3G network coverage, there is actually another problem.
If we hand over the two large markets of the United States and Western Europe to T-Mobile, don’t you think it will be too big to lose? ”
Lei Jun, Zhou Peng and others all nodded after thinking for a moment.
Xu Liang said with a smile: "Dividing the world into market segments and choosing two or more agents for each market can allow agents to catch up with each other and maintain healthy competition.
If there is only one agent, in addition to creating inertia, it will also threaten upstream mobile phone companies. ”
After listening to Xu Liang's long-term plan, Lei Jun felt that the boss had thought very well and was well versed in the checks and balances in traditional culture.
"But now we have no way to sign multiple agents, we can only be the exclusive agent." Lei Jun said.
Xu Liang nodded, "I know this. Telecom companies are not fools. They expect a best-selling mobile phone to increase the number of their network users and the average income of a single user.
This kind of agreement with multiple agents can only be thought about at the moment, because we have not yet produced sales volume to prove our value.
But in the future, this is not unthinkable. ”
Lei Jun nodded, the reason is very simple, that is, if you are good enough in the future, you can turn against the customers. If you are not awesome now, you can only be a guest and be honest.
"Then let's finalize Verizon when we cooperate?" Lei Jun asked.
Xu Liang nodded slightly and made the final decision.
He doesn't like the old man James, but business and personal emotions cannot be confused. From multiple angles, Verizon is Kunlun Mobile's most ideal partner at the moment.
The old man puts on airs and likes to manipulate things, but this is actually quite normal.
Because Verizon's status in the United States is similar to that of China Mobile and China Unicom in China, with annual revenue of nearly 100 billion U.S. dollars, ranking among the top 50 of the Fortune 500 in the world and the top dozen of the Fortune 500 in the United States.
Being willing to cooperate with them, a fledgling Chinese company, may already be a kind of support and preferential treatment in the eyes of the old man.
Of course, the old man is by no means not optimistic about smartphones at all as he said. He just wants to strive for more favorable cooperation conditions.
The power of the combination of ATT and Apple has not yet been revealed. Verizon, out of defensive psychology, casually supports a Kunlun mobile phone. If it succeeds, it will be an unexpected surprise. If it fails, it will not suffer too much loss.
Besides the first time, there is another very important reason.
Vidyone is deploying 3G networks in French-speaking countries in Europe and is preparing to enter the Spanish and Portuguese markets this year.
Kunlun Mobile is a timely help to Vivendi Telecom, which can greatly improve their services and users.
Cooperation benefits both sides.
……
When the news of the cooperation between Kunlun Mobile and Verizon was announced, it quickly aroused a heated discussion in the United States.
Executives from local technology companies such as Motorola and Palm remained the same, jumping out to make some sarcastic comments.
“I don’t know how Golden Caesar convinced Mr. James. Even if Kunlun Mobile solves the problem of sales channels through this, it still needs to conquer consumers if it wants to truly succeed in the United States.
Priced at US$499 and US$599, these are the prices of the world’s most high-end mobile phones.
Kunlun Mobile launches its first mobile phone, and even targets such a high-end market with its first product. I really don’t know whether to say it is courageous or overly optimistic..."
"The iPhone is priced so high, but at least it is supported by Apple's 30 years of consumer electronics brand heritage. What does the Kunlun phone have? Is it supported by four thousand years of civilization history?"
……
Apple and Kunlun Mobile are like two aliens breaking into the mobile phone market.
Some time ago, colleagues in the mobile phone industry were focusing on criticizing Apple, because Apple and ATT have already reached a cooperation, which is obviously well-prepared.
In their eyes, Kunlun Mobile is not as big of a threat as Apple.
But now Kunlun Mobile has opened up sales channels, making it clear that the company is going to make a big splash in the United States.
How can the executives of major mobile phone companies tolerate this?
They have transferred their firepower from Apple to Kunlun mobile phones.
Xu Liang was naturally too lazy to pay attention to these barking dogs. After a while, they would cry.
At the same time, Apple also noticed the actions of Kunlun mobile phones.
Cook is not Jobs. He is a standard business manager without Jobs's eccentric temper and contempt for the Chinese market.
On the contrary, he attaches great importance to the rapidly developing Chinese market.
Therefore, as a fan of smartphones, not only did I not look down on Kunlun Mobile, but I regarded this company as a major enemy.
While Cook urged various departments to speed up work, he also began to deal with the patent lawsuit with Kunlun Mobile Phone.
At present, the patent lawsuit between Kunlun Mobile Phone and Apple has entered a new stage.
(End of chapter)