Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

May 28th, 798 Art Center.

Before Chen Yansen could even reach the entrance of the conference hall, Lei Yijun and Li Wanqiang hurried over to greet him.

”President Chen, welcome! Thank you for coming all this way.”

Lei Yijun said, his face beaming and eyes crinkling with a smile.

It couldn’t be helped. Xiaomi had offended too many of its peers, so very few competitors were willing to attend Xiaomi’s new product launch. Only Chen Yansen and Yu Chendong had shown up.

Competitors like Meizu, OPPO, and ZTE hadn’t even sent a representative. As for rabble like 360, he naturally hadn’t even sent them an invitation.

Given Chen Yansen’s status in the industry, his presence alone was a great honor. Lei Yijun’s heart warmed, filled with gratitude.

”Lao Zhou’s in for it this time. Once the Redmi 1 comes out, sales of the Qingcheng D2 will take a hit too,” Chen Yansen teased.

Lei Yijun would make a profit, but he himself would never lose.

He’d earn from the manufacturing fee, he’d earn from the price difference on electronic components, and he’d earn again from Human Dao Fire. A triple win.

”360 has been kicking Xiaomi’s ass for a year. It’s about time you let me win for once, right?” Lei Yijun said with a cold smile.

Zhou Hongyi had been publicly badmouthing him time and again, and Lei Yijun had long been itching to strike back. But with the lackluster sales of the Xiaomi 1S and Xiaomi 2, he lacked the confidence to talk trash back.

Chen Yansen found it amusing.

It was clear how furious Lei Yijun was, given that Zhou Hongyi’s tirades had practically forced the Redmi 1 to launch three months early.

”I’ll add the Redmi 1 to Pinbei’s ten-billion subsidy product pool then. Since President Lei wants to win, I’ll definitely give you a boost.”

Chen Yansen agreed readily.

The Redmi 1 also ran on the Aurora Future OS, so of course he was going to give it some extra support.

”Thank you, President Chen. This way, please.” Lei Yijun grinned, gesturing with his hand.

’My gamble paid off!’ he thought.

As the second smartphone in the world to fully adopt the Aurora Future OS, the Redmi 1 held immense strategic value for Orange Technology.

Not only had Chen Yansen personally come to Yanjing, but he had also verbally promised to provide Xiaomi with sales resources.

’President Chen is a reliable man!’

Lei Yijun smiled faintly, reflecting inwardly.

Chen Yansen nodded and, escorted by Lei Yijun and Li Wanqiang, took a seat in the front row.

”Mr. Chen, hello. I’m Roger, Vice President of Qualcomm’s Great China Region.”

A middle-aged white man seated next to him initiated the conversation.

”Hello, Roger,” Chen Yansen replied.

He had only ever met Wang Xiang, the President of Qualcomm’s Great China Region. Roger was a newcomer recently transferred from the Lighthouse Country headquarters.

Zuo Hongyu might have had contact with him, but Chen Yansen wasn’t familiar with the man.

”Mr. Chen, on behalf of Qualcomm, I would like to purchase the architecture license for the Orange Z1 Instruction Set from Orange Technology,” Roger said, getting straight to the point.

Half an hour ago, he had received a call from headquarters. The mission was simple: establish a cooperative relationship with Orange Technology.

Initially, he had scoffed at the head office’s decision. But when he learned that Apple’s A7 was using the Orange Z1 Instruction Set and had abandoned the ARM architecture, he was instantly floored.

Although he had heard the Orange Z1 Instruction Set mentioned before, he knew very little about its performance and had assumed it was just a rudimentary product.

But now it dawned on him. An instruction set patent that could entice both Apple and Qualcomm must be quite impressive in terms of coding efficiency and performance.

Although Qualcomm currently relied mainly on ARM architecture, and adopting a new instruction set would require a complete chip redesign at an extremely high cost, ARM’s licensing fees were too expensive.

Therefore, purchasing the Orange Z1 Instruction Set would give them another option and, at the same time, allow them to pressure ARM into lowering its licensing fees.

Whether Qualcomm would actually design a chip based on the Orange Z1 Instruction Set was, for now, unknown.

Maybe they would, maybe they wouldn’t.

”A one-time licensing fee of 3 million US Dollars, plus a 1% royalty,” Chen Yansen replied without a second thought.

”Mr. Chen, I have no objection to the one-time licensing fee, but a 1% royalty is too high. ARM only charges 0.5%.”

Roger said with a frown.