Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

”I’ll give you a firm answer tomorrow.” Zhou Hongyi didn’t rush his decision, wanting to see today’s pre-order sales first.

”Alright, no problem,” Chen Yansen replied before hanging up.

He estimated that the total sales for the 360 G800 Pro Sparkle could reach around 2 million units.

After all, smartphone buyers in 2012 were easy to fool. A big screen, lots of memory, a high-megapixel camera—if you stacked the specs well and added a consumer-friendly price, it was guaranteed to sell.

Just like how a few years later, when 360 fully entered the mobile phone industry, it would have annual shipments of at least five to six million units.

A few minutes later, Lei Yijun called as well. ”President Chen, you’re manufacturing for the 360 Mobile Phone. Aren’t you afraid of getting flamed by netizens?”

”President Lei, my people are waiting to work and eat. Zhou Hongyi offered a high price. I hope you can understand,” Chen Yansen said with a faint, unhurried smile.

But inwardly, he was thinking: ’It’s really because you’re not trying hard enough to use up the Orange Phone Factory’s production capacity.’

”President Chen, what’s your sales forecast for the 360 G800 Pro Sparkle?” Lei Yijun asked bluntly.

”No less than a million units. Two million is also possible,” Chen Yansen answered truthfully.

He had spoken with Yu Chendong. Huawei was planning to tweak the G800 Pro Sparkle’s design and release it as their main model for the second half of the year to break into the low-to-mid-range market.

This showed that Huawei hadn’t short-changed Zhou Hongyi on the hardware and industrial design.

As long as 360’s pre-installed software could be uninstalled smoothly, selling two million units a year would be no problem at all.

”President Chen, you’re that confident in this product?” Lei Yijun was stunned. He trusted Chen Yansen’s judgment, which made him all the more surprised.

”The G800 Pro Sparkle is running on Aurora OS 1.3,” Chen Yansen stated plainly.

It sounded like a massive flex, but Lei Yijun knew that the Aurora OS really was that good.

For a few dazed seconds, he even wanted to abandon the MIUI system and jump ship to Aurora OS, but in the end, he forced himself to resist the impulse.

’If I even gave up on MIUI, what part of the Xiaomi Mobile Phone would still be ours?’

”You’re giving Zhou Hongyi an opportunity, but he might not appreciate it. Be careful he doesn’t turn around and bite you one day,” Lei Yijun warned.

”I’m very experienced when it comes to training dogs. President Lei, you should probably worry more about how you’re going to handle the impact of the 360 Mobile Phone,” Chen Yansen replied with a soft chuckle.

The rivalry between 360 and Xiaomi was, in reality, a competition pitting Huawei and Orange Technology against Xiaomi.

To be honest, Xiaomi held no advantage in either its OS or its hardware.

Lei Yijun knew full well that the first-generation Xiaomi Mobile Phone’s life cycle was at its end. To weaken the impact of the 360 Mobile Phone, Xiaomi had to quickly launch a thousand-yuan phone with comparable specs but stronger performance.

After dealing with Lei Yijun, Chen Yansen glanced at his watch, pushed open the door, went downstairs, and drove toward Xuyuan.

「Meanwhile.」

Even though the price of the 360 G800 Pro Sparkle had gone back up to 1,299 yuan, customers’ interest in placing orders didn’t diminish in the slightest.

In fact, some buyers in places like Hu City, Yanjing, and Jinling received their phones that very afternoon.

After testing them out, most buyers found that the 360 G800 Pro Sparkle’s performance was surprisingly good.

Perhaps because expectations were low enough, most users were very satisfied with 360’s first phone.

Suddenly, the comment sections on 360 Mall and Zhou Hongyi’s page were flooded with positive reviews.

Some tech bloggers even published in-depth ”hardcore” reviews of the 360 Mobile Phone.

This had an extremely positive effect on the 360 Mobile Phone’s pre-order sales.

By early morning, pre-orders for the 360 G800 Pro Sparkle had reached 86,000. Combined with the 50,000 units in stock, total sales on the launch day hit 136,000.

These numbers made Ding Lei, who had previously given up on making phones, suddenly reignite with interest.

’If even Zhou Hongyi can succeed, there’s no reason I can’t!’