Chapter 245 Concept Phone
Three days later, Chen Jing returned from the capital to host the August monthly meeting.
"Since this meeting is mainly focused on mobile phones, other departments don't need to attend," Chen Jing announced. She had spent nearly a month in Beijing, talking herself hoarse to finally secure a 50-mu plot of land near TP University at a price somewhere between commercial and industrial development rates. The site's construction progress and use would be strictly monitored by the government to prevent Yuanxin from secretly diverting it to other projects.
"Director Liu, you'll handle the next routine meeting," Chen Jing said to Liu Hongyan, the administrative director attending the session.
Liu nodded. She was the only administrative staff present; the others were from the mobile phone and marketing departments.
As for R&D, Xi Xiaoding wasn't attending—only Qin Weimin and Tian Yaoming had come, since they were currently working on integrating the phone's SoC and baseband.
"The numbers from the past three days look good," Chen Jing said, holding up the report and smiling at Wan Yongliang and Duan Yongping. "Thank you both."
"It wasn't too hard. Once the strategy took effect, things picked up quickly," Wan Yongliang replied, glancing at Duan Yongping. "Right, Lao Duan?"
Duan smiled and nodded, visibly relieved.
Over the past few months, even though he held an imperial decree (so to speak) and had full support from his predecessor Wang Rui, Duan had still underestimated how hard it would be to fully integrate into the mobile division—or maybe "integration" was a better word than "take control."
And that was with the twenty-plus people he brought over when he jumped ship. If he had come alone, who knows how long it would've taken for him to settle in as the director of the mobile division and factory head.
The factory workers didn't have much of a voice, but the design and sales teams had deep Yuanxin roots—and those people were prideful to the bone.
And Yuanxin had a very real "Electronics Science and Technology clique" flavor.
To be fair, they weren't uncooperative, but Duan always felt like they saw him as an outsider.
He didn't know if this was Su Yuanshan's way of testing him, or if Su simply noticed this issue and sent him in as a disruptive "catfish."
In any case, Duan had to work hard to blend in.
It wasn't until he personally led the team to design the now-iconic universal charger—and proposed several innovative design solutions—that the "Yuanxin gang" in the mobile department finally accepted him.
He couldn't help but feel a bit emotional. This was the mark of a true tech company.
And now that the phone was selling like hotcakes, Duan had fully won the respect of the entire division—thousands of people. He had secured his position.
"Lao Duan, give us a status update," Chen Jing said.
Duan nodded and began speaking off the cuff without any notes.
"In the past three days, we've sold over 20,000 units.
Excluding the 2,000 purchased internally by Yuanxin employees, about 18,000 were sold to the market—margin of error within 200 units."
"Of those 18,000, around 12,000 were sold in the south of the Yangtze River, and 8,000 in the north. This aligns well with the current economic development trends and distribution under the ongoing reform era."
"In the West, the sales performance surprised us.
Whereas domestic consumers are still hesitant about brand identity, foreign consumers seem more mature. They focus more on features and appearance."
"As for nearby regions, sales in Hong Kong exceeded those in Taiwan—despite the two areas having similar economic conditions."
Duan glanced at Chen Jing, paused for a moment, then added,
"Our preliminary analysis suggests that Taiwanese consumers still have a lower level of recognition for mainland products compared to those in Hong Kong."
Chen Jing nodded calmly.
"That's to be expected. Due to media influence, there's a general cognitive bias against the mainland in Taiwan. If we want to enter that market, we'll need to internationalize our brand messaging and collaborate with local firms. That's a future task—not urgent now."
"Agreed," Duan said, moving on.
"In Southeast Asia, the Four Little Tigers' purchasing power has impressed us.
Despite their smaller populations, their spending is strong.
Also, in Malaysia, President Wang successfully secured a distributor. We don't have concrete numbers yet, but based on the feedback, the Vidoo brand is well received."
"Our next step is to continue scaling production—upgrade and transform the Special Zone factory."
"On the manufacturing side, we aim to build a large-scale production zone that can rival giants like MOTO and Siemens. On the sales side, we will further consolidate our channels and grow our international influence. On the operational side, we'll push for scientific management and resource allocation. Expand and reform at the same time—eliminate bad habits, absorb best practices."
Duan laid it all out carefully. He knew that what he just touched on was starting to involve the broader Yuanxin operational model. But he wanted to say it anyway.
A company—especially one as massive as Yuanxin—would eventually face serious problems if it didn't adopt a solid management structure.
The most basic of those? Factionalism.
Since he had noticed it, he felt obligated to bring it to Su Yuanshan's attention.
He didn't believe that someone as smart as Su hadn't already seen the warning signs.
"Yes, Lao Duan makes a good point," Chen Jing said with a smile, seeing that he had finished. "So what's the concrete plan?"
"We're still developing the specifics—it'll take some time.
Lao Wan and I need to further study domestic and international mobile trends.
We also want to conduct a full analysis of Western consumers' design preferences."
As he spoke, Duan opened a folder and handed out some colorful prints.
Su Yuanshan took one and realized they were concept sketches of various phone designs.
Some were candy-bar style, some flip phones, some sliders—and one was a foldable phone with a screen on the top flap. It immediately reminded Su of the V998.
He stared at Duan in astonishment.
This guy... so bold?
But he quickly realized these weren't fully engineered designs—they were pure concepts.
Technologically, foldable phones weren't feasible yet.
"These were created by our design department.
After a round of internal screening, these six models stood out as the most visually appealing.
Of course, each has its own technical challenges."
"This last one's a bit too ambitious, no?"
Tian Yaoming pointed to the foldable design and chuckled.
"That screen is huge—how do you solve the flex cable wear problem?"
"And you'd have to integrate the baseband into the CPU.
Otherwise, the PCB will be way too big," Qin Weimin added.
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