As the time drew closer to the autumn press conference, Fang Zhuo's mood was unexpectedly calm, but the top management of Yike and Bingxin were already making some noise.
Mars 8.8 is a product that surpasses global competitors, and it is also a product that surpasses itself.
If we follow the conventional iteration, there should be Mars 8, but now it has stepped to 8.8, and this innovation is particularly exciting.
"President Fangda, we are all waiting for your countdown. We at Tesco have also made a countdown and are just waiting for the relay activities. How are you? Are you nervous?"
On the morning of November 14, with only one day left before the press conference, Su Wei opened the door of the Yike 23 President Office with a swipe of her face.
"I don't seem nervous. I shouldn't be nervous. I seem to be nervous." Fang Zhuo was drinking tea and said with a smile after taking a sip.
"Recently, many media at home and abroad have been discussing Yike's products. I think even Penguin is rare to give positive comments." Su Wei talked about the public reaction, "People feel that Yike's products have not been so good since it has been developed for so long.
It’s almost no hard work, it’s very solid step by step, and you, the leader, can do it all, so this Mars 8.8 is worth looking forward to.”
Along with the countdown is the product code name. The meaning of 8.8 is not difficult to interpret. Mainstream opinions believe that this comes from Yike’s confidence and is a product transcendence.
Yike's autumn conference is tomorrow at 7 pm Beijing time, and as of today, the countdown has already appeared in well-known global offline landmarks such as Times Square in New York and Lujiazui in Shanghai.
Whether it is the media or consumers, everyone's expectations have been raised.
"It's a pity that if the press conference had been brought forward a few days, our Yiguo Shopping Festival would have been able to take advantage of it. Now we can only hold a separate event for Yiguo." Su Wei added.
Fang Zhuo just listened with a smile.
Su Wei glanced at the neatly arranged documents on the desk and felt that the man didn't seem to be doing any work before she came in, so she asked, "What are you thinking about?"
"I'm thinking about the future." Fang Zhuo replied sincerely.
"A lot of pressure?" Su Wei asked.
"No, it's getting smaller and smaller. I'm just thinking about what kind of decisions can bring about a better future." Fang Zhuo handed the tea cup to Teacher Xiao Su, "Qi He has already gone to Sogou and had a brief chat with Sohu.
He said we should increase revenue and reduce expenditure, which is right."
Su Wei added hot water and listened carefully.
"I'm thinking about whether to let Yike hold ice core in the future to completely connect upstream and downstream. If the global business shrinks, it will be more efficient to enter new areas to compete in an integrated manner." Fang Zhuo stood up from behind the table and slowly
Walking to the floor-to-ceiling window and looking into the distance, "Yike and Bingxin can still do a lot. In recent years, Silicon Valley and Shanghai have established many research and development projects. If Yike encounters strong interference, there will be room for growth in the country in the future."
Instead, it got bigger.”
Yike's main focus is consumer electronics.
In the future, the integration of Yike and Ice Core can broaden the business field. First, the global semiconductor supply chain will be reshaped, and the role and significance of Ice Core will be higher. Second, cutting-edge products from companies such as Intel and Nvidia may also be
Sales restricted.
These will provide more opportunities for Yike and Bingxin.
In the past decade or so, Yike's core products have transitioned from players to smartphones. In the future, we may be able to provide more solutions including hardware to the industry.
Ice Core's current 16nm is already very advanced. It is impossible to return the purchased equipment, but subsequent debugging will become a problem. These can be solved, and some projects to reinvent the wheel have already been underway.
Even if it remains at the 16nm level, this process is sufficient for many products. For example, China has intensively introduced many support policies for the new energy automobile industry this year, and the production capacity allocation of ice cores has changed slightly as a result.
Of course, Fang Zhuo believes that after solving some difficulties, the ice core manufacturing process will not stay at 16nm, but it may be more difficult in the most cutting-edge fields.
"A behemoth that integrates software and hardware?" Su Wei summed it up and suddenly smiled.
Fang Zhuo saw Teacher Xiao Su's smile and guessed where the smile came from: "Yeah, when we first made the player, we mentioned the integration of software and hardware. I didn't expect that it might be this form of integration in the end."
That "software and hardware integration" is not this "software and hardware integration".
"That sounds pretty good. President Fangda is far-sighted and he is rich anyway." Su Wei gave a thumbs up.
"It's not that I'm far-sighted, it's that someone will force us to work together." Fang Zhuo returned to his seat and twisted his stiff neck, "Come on, let's see tomorrow first."
Su Wei followed and looked forward to the results of tomorrow's new product. As for the challenges facing Yike...if the sky falls, the man in front of him will support it, so just do the job you are doing.
Yike's autumn conference is at 7 pm, which is also 6 am Eastern Time.
Because it is Yike, and because of the confidence shown by Yike, this press conference can be said to be the focus of the industry. The senior executives of almost all mobile phone brands have set alarm clocks in advance to pay attention to the appearance of the annual flagship.
Many reporters from European and American media have also arrived in Shanghai in advance, hoping to provide news from Yike as soon as possible.
At six o'clock in the afternoon, many guests had already entered the "Yike Center", which has gradually become a regular venue for Yike press conferences. In addition to employees, partners, media reporters, and this time there were also Fang Zhuo's personal friends.
Like Zhang Chaoyang, the head of Sohu...
Domestic reporters are very familiar with this person, but they feel that the lighting at the Yike venue today may not be very good, and the lighting makes this person's expression flicker.
Wang Xiaochuan, who was sitting next to Zhang Chaoyang, probably had the right angle, and the expression on his face was very clear.
However, people like them, including IDG's Xiong Xiaoge, Shenxin Science and Technology's Wang Fengyi and others, all sat in the second and third rows. Sitting in the first row were Ice Core executives who had never attended the press conference before, Liang Mengsong, Hu Zhengming, and Qiu Ciyun.
Wait for everyone to arrive.
As usual, the press conference will still be broadcast live at home and abroad. Before the time is up, the lenses and screens are being adjusted, but the countdown that is still lit is very conspicuous.
10,9,8,7……
3,2,1!
The countdown entered the final ten seconds, and the lights in the entire venue went out. Only a beam of light shone on Fang Zhuo, the head of Yike, who was walking on stage.
I don't know who shouted the countdown at the scene. By the last three seconds, the entire audience was already converging.
At the end of the countdown, the flagship "Mars 8.8" burst out from the screen of the Yike Center. At the same time, the same words appeared on the official website of Yike, New York's Times Square, London's Piccadilly Circus and other places.
Mars 8.8 is here.
The lights at the press conference were on the stage.
Fang Zhuo raised his hand and looked at his smart watch, smiled at the guests and the global audience and said, "Hello everyone, we meet again."
He continued without waiting for applause: "The company asked me to talk about the smart watch on the wrist first, but I was chatting with my friends before going on stage and everyone was paying special attention to this year's mobile phones, so I adjusted the order and started with
We are very satisfied with Mars 8.8.”
There were some cheers.
Still before the cheers and applause got louder, the head of Yike took out this year's flagship Mars 8.8 directly from his pocket.
A black 5.1-inch full-screen Mars flagship standard version.
Compared with the previous generation of Mars 7, its corners have become rounded and it is quite shiny under the light.
"We still have to thank our screen suppliers. Since we released the full-screen mobile phone, it has been loved by consumers around the world. Sharp has also worked hard on it in the past two years. Last year it solved the production capacity problem, and this year it will
The screen is made more beautiful.”
Fang Zhuo did not swipe the screen with his hand this time, but directly picked up the front camera and unlocked the screen directly.
He looked at it for a moment, as if looking at the resolution on the full screen.
"Sharp exclusively provided us with a 2560X1440 pixel screen this year. I think the display effect is quite amazing. You can give it a try after you get it. The picture is very delicate."
"Oh, yes, I think I said last year that we have developed a face algorithm. This year I think it is mature enough to show everyone that you can unlock it by just swiping your face just like I did. It is very smooth."
Fang Zhuo locked the screen, swiped it open, and locked it again. This time he switched to fingerprint unlocking. There was no difference between the two methods with the naked eye.
He talked about the security issues of face recognition and the efforts made in this area, and continued to introduce the small changes this year: "This year we used a better vibration motor, which can bring you more operation possibilities, including some
I tried the presentation effect of mobile games when I was bored on a plane before, and I thought it was pretty good."
"This vibration effect can be turned off, including when everyone taps the screen with their fingers..."
Fang Zhuo tapped the screen of his phone twice with his knuckles. The phone vibrated slightly and a successful screenshot popped up on the screen.
He used two fingers to pull down from the top of the screen and successfully took a screenshot again.
"This year we have made some small designs that are convenient for everyone's daily use. Using gestures like this reduces the tediousness of clicking into the function menu, and you can also set up customizations."
"Of course, you can also call Siri and you can do the same thing."
Fang Zhuo introduced the functions of Mars 8.8 step by step.
It's just that the screen has improved, face recognition has been provided, and gestures seem to be more convenient to use, but...are these Mars 8.8?
Are these the flagships presented by Yike using the one-month countdown?
It seems that just naming it after Mars 8 is enough.
It’s not that the screen isn’t delicate, or that face unlocking isn’t smooth, it’s just that the month-long promotion has raised many consumers’ expectations to very high levels.
The introduction by the head of Yike on the stage continues, from Siri to wireless charging.
To be honest, wireless charging is indeed quite advanced nowadays, but this is not unique to Yike. Samsung Trump in September already provided such a function, well, Apple did not.
Such Mars 8.8 does not seem to give a big enough surprise.
The guests in the audience were vaguely disappointed. It was not that the flagship was not good enough, but the improvement was not beyond expectations. As Mr. Fang himself said, he mentioned facial recognition last year, and this year it was just to make up for it.
Are there any other improvements?
In the current competition among smartphones, there are more and less flagship-level technologies, which does not seem to bring too much decision-making chips to the majority of consumers.
From the end of the countdown to halfway through the introduction, the performance of Mars 8.8 was not as shocking as the full-screen display brought by Yike before.
"Mr. Zhang, I saw a lot of disappointed voices in the YouTube comments."
Zheng Jingjie, the vice president of Taiwan Journal, accompanied the leader Zhang Zhongqi to watch Yike's press conference today. He was also watching the real-time feedback and noticed that too much publicity may have caused backlash.
"Product innovation is difficult. The innovations that Yike has come up with in recent years are not easy. Therefore, it is the leader of high-end mobile phone brands." Zhang Zhongmo shook his head slightly, "It's pretty good, but it seems to be just good."
Zheng Jingjie nodded and said with a smile: "I see that Fang Zhuo has not introduced this year's Zhurong chip for a long time. I wonder if Yike will have any comparison parameters after getting Samsung and Apple."
"There is a problem with Qualcomm's design this time." Zhang Zhongmo frowned when he heard the other two brands, "Users already have Trump's heat dissipation problem, but Apple's is good enough."
He does not believe that Zhurong chip can surpass Apple's A8 in terms of parameters. In order to successfully pry Apple as a major customer from Samsung, Taiwanese journalists participated in the design of Apple's A8 a year ago.
Therefore, the A8 can better reflect the profound knowledge of Taiji's 20nm manufacturing process than the Snapdragon 810.
Zhang Zhongtong feels that Qualcomm may have been affected by the recent turmoil and has become somewhat self-conscious.
He looked at the young head of Yike on the computer screen, listened to his introduction of the Android system update, and shook his head slightly: "Turn it off, wait until the news reports are ready, let's go to the meeting first."
The reporter's meeting was at 7:30. Zhang Zhongyan postponed the time because of Yike's press conference, but now, he does not think that Yike Mars 8.8 has too much technology to surpass its competitors.
This time the Mars 8.8 seems to be a bucket phone that integrates advanced technologies. It has facial recognition and wireless charging, and the front camera that was previously limited to a full screen has also been enhanced... and so on.
Zhang Zhongtong and Zheng Jingjie entered the conference room while walking and chatting. Because the Snapdragon 810 equipped by Samsung has some performance flaws, this meeting is to discuss cooperating with Qualcomm to launch the new Snapdragon 811 in an attempt to solve the currently criticized problems.
As for whether it can be solved... At present, it seems that Qualcomm is not sufficiently prepared to abandon its own architecture and use the public version.
The theme of the meeting was Qualcomm, and it was inevitable to talk about the extraordinary general meeting of shareholders to be held today.
"Qualcomm's Jacobs is relieved this time, Yike's mobile phone will not have too much impact." Zhang Zhongmo commented.
Everyone at the meeting laughed. Everyone was basically sure that Yike was behind the Qualcomm turmoil, and the activities of the two companies on the same day were inevitably suspicious.
However, the laughter is not over yet.
Vice President Zheng Jingjie glanced at the silent mobile phone screen and saw the sudden increase in comments on YouTube. He scrolled up and down and couldn't help but exclaimed in surprise: "Huh?"
Zhang Zhongtou turned his head and asked with his eyes.
Zheng Jingjie held the phone in front of his face and said at a loss: "8.8 is a 16nm chip..."
The strong wind swept through the conference room of the reporter, destroying the mood of everyone present. Everyone's face was filled with shock and disbelief.
Impossible, no, no, no, impossible...
Various thoughts came to Zhang Zhongtong's mind, and he ordered a beat later: "Turn on the live broadcast."
Zheng Jingjie hurriedly turned on the sound and heard the thanks from the head of Yike coming from inside.
“Thank you to Ice Core International for its efforts in this chip!”
The strong wind rolled up the dark clouds, and the name of Bingxin International was like lightning in the clouds, and then the rumble of thunder reached my ears.
Zhang Zhongtou didn't know where he was for a moment, but he felt that the storm was hitting him in the face.