"Mr. Galvin, what do you think of the Mphone launched by Newman?"
Since the launch of Mphone, almost all the big guys in the mobile phone industry have been asked this question, what do they think of Mphone.
The reporters who were invited to attend the Mphone launch conference did not have a deep experience of the Mphone product at the conference site. It was difficult to feel the special features of it just through the picture promotion or Zhou Xingan's speech.
After they experienced it at the door, the reporters realized that this product was completely different from previous mobile phones and would definitely be a classic Newman product.
Mphone's reputation has grown extremely quickly. As Zhou Xin's personal platform, he has spent a lot of effort on marketing and promotion. All online forums and physical magazines are discussing Mphone.
Journalists who feared that the world would be in chaos went to interview the CEOs of traditional mobile phone giants about what they thought of disruptors like Mphone.
Galvin is the chairman and CEO of Motorola. He is the grandson of Motorola founder Paul Galvin.
Galvin has never experienced Mphone at all, and all information about Mphone comes from the media. He has no time to care about Mphone.
Although the logo of Mphone is very similar to Motorola.
Galvin pondered for a moment and then said: “I have dealt with Newman, he is an outstanding entrepreneur, and I believe he can do equally well in the mobile phone industry.
Mphone is an excellent product, but it may be a little far away from what Newman said at the press conference to subvert the mobile phone industry.
Motorola is also developing a new project internally. This new project, named RAZR, will truly change people's perception of mobile phones. "
When Matrix bought the Matrix brand from Motorola, Zhou Xin dealt with Galvin.
The price of 20 million may seem expensive, but it is not expensive from the perspective of a long-term brand.
The original iPhone trademark belonged to Cisco. Cisco launched a phone named iPhone in 2006, while Apple's iPhone was launched in 2007. Cisco and Apple fought a lengthy lawsuit over the iPhone trademark.
In the end, the two parties reached an agreement to share the iPhone trademark globally, and Apple paid far more than $20 million for this.
"Mr. Galvin, what do you think about modifying computer applications and pre-loading them on mobile phones?" the reporter asked.
"It's a creative idea, but I'm skeptical that people will actually need it," Galvin said.
Because you know, taking NewPay as an example, currently only Walmart supports NewPay electronic payment in offline stores. Will people buy a mobile phone specifically to go shopping at Walmart?
As for WeChat and Weibo, I don’t think people need such cumbersome mobile applications. On the contrary, I am very optimistic about M-mail. This is a very interesting innovation. From the perspective of business consumers, I think this function is very necessary.
As for the rest, I have reservations. It is possible that Newman has once again grasped a point that we have not grasped, and has gained insight into the needs that consumers have not discovered themselves. It is not necessarily true.
If this product is not made by Newman, then I will only think that it is a somewhat interesting product, and it has Newman's name on it. I think anything is possible, but it just subverts the mobile phone industry. This slogan is a bit big. "
Galvin is definitely one of the top CEOs in Motorola's nearly century-long history. Recently affected by the bursting of the Internet bubble, he is leading Motorola's large-scale restructuring, including large-scale layoffs, closing factories and reducing expenses.
But at this point in time, from a reporter's perspective, I think Galvin is just a lucky man who became the chairman of Motorola by relying on the shadow of his ancestors.
The reporter continued to ask: "Mr. Galvin, what do you think of the Mphone's starting price of US$599, 1GB US$599, and 2GB US$699?"
Galvin said: "The appearance of the Mphone is very attractive. Even so, the pricing is mainly due to Newman's confidence. He is confident that consumers will pay for the Newman name."
"Mr. Galvin, thank you for accepting this phone interview from The Wall Street Journal."
Currently, general mobile phone prices range from US$199 to US$299. BlackBerry used to mainly make pagers and handheld computers. In 2003, the first BlackBerry mobile phone 6230 was released, priced at about US$200.
When Nokia's 6320 was launched, it came with an MP3 player. It was the first mobile phone with an MP3 player function after the Siemens SL45. It was priced at US$400. It was criticized by online forums at the time, saying that Nokia's price was too high. Consumers believe that the price of Nokia 6320 should not exceed US$350.
The reason why Galvin is said to be a top CEO is that while he single-handedly led the layoffs of Motorola, he also promoted the RAZR plan. This research and development plan lasted for about three years and launched the Motorola RAZR V3 mobile phone, which is also commonly known as The Motorola Blade.
This flip phone, which weighs less than 100 grams and is only 13.9 mm at its thinnest point, is the best product in Motorola’s history and is naturally its most popular product. Global sales exceeded 130 million units, making it the best-selling product in the history of the world. flip phone.
The Motorola Blade was priced at only $499 when it was launched, and the price dropped to $349 the following year.
The price of the first-generation iPhone was also US$599, but when the first-generation iPhone was released, although the price was US$599, they signed a two-year contract with AT&T (which can be regarded as Americen Telecom). Users were After purchasing an AT&T calling plan, you can get an original iPhone with 4GB of memory for $299.
In other words, even when Apple first started making iPhones, while they set the price high, they also had to find various ways to keep the price below $300.
Mphone uses a lot of advanced technology, and the storage and the most advanced process chips alone are a huge expense. But even with prices of $599 and $699, the profit margin is still 40%.
When determining pricing, at this point in time, profit is not the most important. The most important thing is to expand the market as quickly as possible. Enough consumers will buy Mphone and use it to form a sub-ecological moat.
There are only two ecosystems of smartphones in later generations, IOS and Android. The current hardware conditions are not enough to support the operating system, let alone opening the application store to software developers.
Therefore, it is now impossible to share benefits with other companies so that they can join the MOS ecosystem and build a moat based on the operating system.
Then only through software, that is, these software, such a sub-ecology, that is to say, users use these software, and users will be bound by the software.
Consumers have been buying Apple to a large extent because of their dependence on the ecology, so the "sub-ecology" built by software can also allow consumers to develop this dependence.
For now, it is exclusive to Mphone. When the mobile operating system matures, Internet companies can be introduced to develop apps, and then these three products will be opened to other mobile phone manufacturers.
"How is the current sales volume?" In a new working week, Zhou Xin came to Matrix's office building. They rented several buildings to form an area as Matrix's office location.
Simo looked at the report data in his hand and said: "Currently, the number of activated Mphones in the United States in the first week has been close to 80,000. Among them, 50,000 Mphones were paid by scanning the QR code through NewPay.
For a consumer product priced at such a high price, this figure is already remarkable. "
Zhou Xin’s worries can be relieved. Unlike Matrix keyboards, which are only sold through flagship stores and online, Mphone is available in almost all offline sales channels.
But what they focus on is not the sales number, because there is the possibility of stocking out. They are more concerned about the number of mobile phone activations, which is the most real number.
It represents how many users start using Mphone after users purchase it, and it is also related to the success or failure of Mphone's built-in applications.
Zhou Xin said: "Continue to pay attention to the number of Mphone activations. Our data needs to be refined to every day, and we need to pay attention to the sales in each state, and let the sales department and advertising department target states with poor sales. Think of strategy.”
After Zhou Xin paused for a moment, he continued: "Who among the famous figures in Silicon Valley currently has not used Mphone?
Our targets are not only famous figures in Silicon Valley, but who are famous in the United States and who are the most watched celebrities? Just contact them and ask them to help us promote Mphone.
We only need him to use a mobile phone and register an account on Weibo.
In addition, I will personally communicate with Time Warner that Quora will become the next application to be launched on Mphone. "
Why Zhou Xin is satisfied with the activation of 80,000 iPhones in the first week is because when the first-generation iPhone was released, only 1.3 million were sold.
The iPhone didn’t take off until the second iPhone, the iPhone 3G, with sales of 11 million units, making the iPhone a booming presence in the mobile Internet era.
For a semi-smart phone like the Mphone, the fact that it could sell 80,000 units in the first week was a result of marketing efforts, offline channels, and Zhou Xin’s fame.
And unlike other mobile phones, the sales of other mobile phone brands are at their peak when they are released. As time goes by, they must reduce prices to boost sales, and the effect is limited. This is somewhat similar to the movie box office. The movie box office is the highest in the first week, and then it continues to decline.
With the help of the mobile APP ecosystem, Mphone will only increase the reputation of Mphone with the accumulation of content and users, thereby driving sales growth.
Seamus quickly said: "Okay, I will arrange them as soon as possible, sort the celebrities according to their influence, and then invite them."
Zhou Xin nodded: "The other is the research and development of multi-touch capacitive touch screens. You need to personally control the progress.
In my opinion, Mphone can be considered a success. Whether the next generation Mphone can succeed or not, the success or failure of the touch screen is the key.
What a wonderful thing it is to have a complete screen without the constraints of a keyboard.
Mphone will have more room to play, and more web applications can be moved to mobile phones. "
Seamo, who has retired from Nokia, has gained a new lease of life after joining Matrix. After personally participating in the Mphone project, and the first week sales proved that consumers are willing to pay for Mphone, he became even more passionate about his work.
The most painful thing for a person is to lose one's goals. Most of the time, Simo has already entered the grave. He has just reached the peak of his career and became the chairman of Nokia. He was kicked out by Nokia in less than two years. He originally thought that there was no hope of revenge in life, but the success of Mphone made him He vaguely saw the hope of revenge.
The longer he worked at Nokia, the stronger the hatred brewed. All Simo wanted to do was work at Matrix for a few more years and personally see Mphone knock Nokia off the altar.
As for removing Nokia from the mobile phone brand, he has never thought about it.
The audience for Mphone in its first week was mainly consumers who were interested in cutting-edge technology, and most of the buyers were concentrated in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Internet practitioners like Apple engineers, Microsoft developers, Yahoo product managers, etc.
This group of people has a loud voice on the Internet. This is similar to the slogan of Xiaomi when it was first launched. To put it bluntly, it was to please programmers, and the programmers' long time surfing the Internet caused them to Have the right to speak.
The same is true of hard work, and 996 on the Internet can become a social topic. The hard work of the civil engineering industry was completely silent in public opinion two years ago.
Therefore, the right to speak in public opinion is very important.
The Mphone buying crowd has led to the fact that netizens can see Mphone discussion posts and tap messages everywhere on the Internet.
"When Newman was making a mobile phone, I knew that what he made would definitely attract me. Although I didn't buy the official matrix keyboard, I liked their design very much. I bought a keyboard made in China, which is at least as good as the matrix keyboard. There are nine images.
When the Mphone announced its appearance, I knew that this was indeed Newman's design language, simple and advanced. Now there is a reason to buy it. It is easy to fake a keyboard, but not so easy to fake a mobile phone. When I went to the San Francisco flagship store to experience the Mphone prototype two days ago, I was intoxicated by the perfect feel.
Compared with the metal texture, the plastic feel of other phones is so inferior that I want to complain that they are just shit. After getting started, I was even more obsessed with the touch keys of the physical keyboard, which was exactly the same as the Matrix keyboard that amazed me. Of course, the target of Mphone is not the Matrix keyboard, but other mobile phones.
The other thing is the screen. Compared with other mobile phones that only have screens the size of two finger covers, the screen of the Mphone can be described as luxurious. It feels really good to be able to read the text content at a glance. Not to mention that the screen of the Mphone is a color screen.
From the tactile feel to the typing feedback of the keyboard to the visual experience, the Mphone compares favorably with all the mobile phones I have used before, and this is before I have experienced the Mphone's built-in software. There are too many things to say about the use of Mphone's built-in software. Only by experiencing it can you know how convenient it is to use Internet applications on your mobile phone.
I no longer have to sit in front of the computer to read forums. Weibo is enough to meet my daily needs, not to mention the high-quality articles in WeChat. "
At present, WeChat public accounts are mainly operated by enterprises, and individual content editors are still in their infancy. When personal public accounts become popular, WeChat will be more interesting, and traditional media will also be able to realize the power of self-media.
“After completing the payment through NewPay under the guidance of the store clerk, I truly realized that a new era is coming, and the Mphone is a change in the past lifestyle. Since I bought the Mphone, I have never taken a credit card with me when I go out.
When shopping outside, even if the merchant does not support scan-code payment, I will ask him if he has a computer and whether he can transfer money. I transfer the money to him through NewPay, and he logs in to his NewPay account on the computer for verification. . Most stores support this method.
Finally, I want to say that Mphone is really easy to use. I can completely understand what Newman said about the change from calling to communication. In my opinion, this is a revolution in the mobile phone industry. "
This blog was posted on his own blog by a well-known editor in Silicon Valley. If Zhou Xin could see it, he would definitely think that it would be great if Mphone users had this kind of tap water capability. NewPay is doing offline promotion. The resistance will be much smaller then.
After the launch of Mphone, NewPay has frequently launched attacks in the consumer field. Zhou Xin’s expectations for NewPay are not limited to Walmart.
NewPay is talking about almost all of the top consumer brands in the United States, from McDonald's, KFC, Starbucks, Subway, etc. in the catering industry to Metro and Carrefour in the retail industry.
A common problem that arises during the advancement process is that chain brands in the catering industry are easy to negotiate and they are willing to actively promote them.
Zhou Xin didn't even mention that these catering giants have already thought of setting up a group for each restaurant through enterprise QQ, and then carry out regional marketing.
Marketing on a city basis is still not targeted enough. They hope to market to every restaurant, especially McDonald's, which operates all restaurants directly.
Retail giants are generally difficult to talk to. Whether it is Metro or Carrefour, they all hope to become shareholders of NewPay like Wal-Mart. They can discuss cooperation after becoming shareholders of NewPay.
Zhou Xin didn't plan to talk about it for the time being, so he just arranged for someone to push it forward. He didn't know whether the conversation would be possible.
As for why the bank did not restrict the development of NewPay?
First of all, NewPay’s shareholder list includes top financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and Morgan.
Secondly, there are very few funds deposited in NewPay, and most users are still accustomed to putting money in bank cards. For banks, NewPay is just a transfer station, and the payment behind it is still essentially completed through the bank.
If NewPay launches Huabei and Yu'ebao functions, then Wall Street banks will have to go all out. Not only banks, but also financial institutions will have to panic, and then the financial department will be forced to go astray. We are still at the stage of boiling the frog in warm water.
"Richard, have you noticed something?" At noon that day, Henry and Richard sat opposite each other in Apple's internal restaurant. They both had a dinner plate in front of them. Henry raised his head and looked at each other and asked. .
Richard also raised his head and asked, "What's the matter?"
Henry glanced at the Mphone in his hand, and then said: "Since we bought the Mphone, we have been looking at it every time we have lunch.
I am staring at my iPhone while eating, and you are the same, staring at your iPhone while eating.
Not just today, but every day. "
Richard said: "I know what you mean, you want to say that Mphone has magic, and its magic changes our living habits.
Our lifestyle changed in just a few days.
We were scrolling through Weibo while eating, and the first reaction to chatting was to pass, otherwise we would all communicate with each other through WeChat.
When paying outside, I subconsciously opened the NewPay payment code, and then took out my credit card in embarrassment when the other party said that NewPay was not supported. "
Not everyone is like the previous blogger who has the patience to ask every store whether NewPay transfer payment is available here.
After Richard finished speaking, Henry put down the phone: “Yes, don’t you think this is scary?
It’s incredible how successful Newman’s products have been in changing our habits.
There are mixed opinions about Mphone from the outside world, but almost all people around me who have used Mphone have positive reviews.
And from a product perspective, after Mphone has user barriers, it will be very difficult for latecomers to catch up. When Steve asked me how Apple could surpass Mphone, I couldn't answer.
The mobile phone industry is very dependent on the supply chain, and it is very difficult to widen the gap with independently developed technology. But Newman has found a unique way to differentiate itself from other phones: apps.
As the first mobile phone with a large number of pre-loaded Internet applications, Mphone is bound to enjoy the dividends brought by being first.
Can Apple phones still have similar bonuses? "
Henry's tone was full of solemnity. Only Internet people could realize the changes brought about by Mphone.
Not only Internet people, but Wall Street people have also smelled it. Wal-Mart is the only listed company that is good for Mphone. Its stock price has been rising. Although it does not rise much every day, it takes three steps forward and two steps back. From the K-line chart, it is stable. Incomparable rising trend.
When Henry was talking, Richard took a big bite, chewed it slowly and swallowed it before saying: "Why should we worry?
We are not Apple's shareholders, nor are we Apple's founders, we are just employees.
We can't give you a plan, and others can't give a plan either. Steve coming to ask you shows that he himself also has no idea.
We don’t need to worry when no one can come up with a solution.
And compared to us, the giants in the mobile phone industry are probably more anxious. If no one can think of a way, the only option is to imitate Mphone.
In addition, Matrix’s spring recruitment is about to start soon. Do we want to give it a try? "
Henry was quite helpless about Richard's free-spirited character. He said: "Both of us have signed a non-competition agreement and cannot go to the Matrix."
Richard disagreed: "Apple has not made mobile phones, and Apple's mobile phone projects are still in the PPT stage.
And when we signed the non-competition agreement, Apple’s business scope did not include mobile phones at all.
I have studied the non-competition agreement and it cannot restrict us from joining Matrix's mobile phone R&D department. "
Matrix's spring recruitment not only recruits people from Silicon Valley, but also has established a branch in China and is also recruiting people aggressively.
As for the software, Zhou Xin split it up. WeChat was placed under the name of Tencent, and Weibo was established as a separate company.
Therefore Matrix only contains hardware and operating systems.
After the mobile operating system ecosystem is launched, Zhou Xin plans to set up a software company in China to develop apps specifically for the American market.
The application update speed of Americen's Internet industry is much slower than that of its Chinese counterparts. What Twitter was like in 2010, what it will be like in 2020. It is better to leave this part of the business to China.
I have been busy during the day today, and there are really too many things to do after the wedding.
I originally thought I could write with peace of mind this week, but the result was unsatisfactory.
(End of chapter)
