February 28th, Monday.
OTTO Technology.
“This is the final product of the phone. It’s already in mass production, so it would be difficult to make changes now.” Chang You handed a phone to Lin Wan.
Lin Wan took it and found that the sample was still as heavy as the previous prototype, but there were extremely obvious differences in appearance.
The previous prototype had left Lin Wan with an impression that could be simply summarized as bulky and crude—a plain black plastic shell without any decoration, feeling heavy and uncomfortable in the hand. Whether viewed from the front, back, or side, it achieved 360 degrees of awkwardness, looking unsellable from any angle.
But now, after switching to a custom glass casing, the feeling was instantly different!
The glass shell felt nice to the touch, and with a frosted matte treatment, it wouldn’t become a fingerprint collector. Compared to the prototype, it seemed slimmer and much more rounded in hand.
The back was very simple, with only a solid-colored logo—the same one that had appeared in the movie “A Better Tomorrow.”
And it could light up, with a breathing light effect option.
Of course, if you were worried about power consumption, you could turn it off.
However, for a phone with a 5800mAh battery, even if this light were constantly on, the phone would still easily last an entire day.
The front design was relatively standard, with both a forehead and chin, though they had been made as narrow as possible.
The full-screen solutions currently on the market were still very immature. Considering that this phone had relatively high specifications—it could be called a gaming phone—there needed to be space for both hands to grip when playing games in landscape mode.
So, no matter how they looked at it, the front could only be designed in this form.
The sides were somewhat different from other phones on the market. The power charging port was on the side, ensuring that when charging while playing games, the charging cable wouldn’t touch your hands.
In short, this appearance was highly similar to the phone in the movie, with an overall minimalist style and a certain technological and futuristic feel.
It wasn’t completely identical because the phone in the movie was designed as a completely full-screen format to express a better futuristic feel, which couldn’t be achieved in reality.
But if viewed from the back or side, or when the screen was off, it was almost identical to the phone in the movie.
Lin Wan couldn’t help but weigh it in her hand.
Yes, still heavy.
Although after switching to the official glass casing, it appeared smaller than the prototype and looked like a relatively normal large phone, the weight remained unchanged, still somewhat heavy.
But high refresh rate screens and top-tier SOCs were all power-hungry components. Without the 5800mAh large battery, battery life would be problematic, and having a large battery inevitably meant sacrificing weight.
Fingerprint unlock, very few native applications on the desktop, and absolutely no bundled applications. The only thing worth mentioning was that the various UI animations were made very smoothly.
Chang You coughed lightly and explained: “Mr. Pei’s requirements.”
“He wouldn’t let us make those bundled functions. We had to maintain the native state of the Aizuo system as much as possible, so there is no bundled software at all. All the software that users might need has been placed in the recommended section of the phone’s app market.”
“Of course, we haven’t been idle. We optimized all aspects, including UI animations.”
“It’s not completely useless. At least it looks much smoother…”
Chang You himself didn’t sound very confident.
Optimizing UI animations, such as making app switching and scaling more responsive, was indeed quite comfortable under a high refresh rate screen, but in reality, it was just a change in perception and didn’t improve the phone’s performance.
Lin Wan, however, lit up, very pleased.
She repeatedly opened an app, cleared it from the process, opened it again, and cleared it again, playing with it tirelessly.
Then, she took out her latest Shenhua flagship phone for comparison, and it was clear that in terms of this particular experience, OTTO Technology’s phone was superior.
“I think it’s great. This is in line with Mr. Pei’s consistent design philosophy of taking simple things to the extreme,” Lin Wan praised enthusiastically.
After examining the phone from top to bottom, Lin Wan reached her conclusion.
“It seems that apart from being heavy and expensive, there aren’t any other major flaws.”
Chang You nodded: “That’s true, but these two flaws aren’t easy to fix…”
“Of course, we’re only producing a thousand units initially, each priced at 8,199 yuan. Because of the low production volume, the current approach is viable. After all, it’s not aimed at the mass market and doesn’t pursue millions in sales. We’ll just sell a few thousand or tens of thousands of units first.”
“Even if it’s a bit heavy and expensive, as long as we sell it to people who aren’t too sensitive about weight and price, it’s fine.”
“The key is whether this phone has attractive features that will make them willing to sacrifice some weight and money.”
Lin Wan nodded: “That’s why I’m here today.”
She pushed a form to Chang You and explained: “These are all the benefits we can secure for this phone model. Take a look.”
Chang You took it and found that the form contained all the previously discussed exclusive benefits for OTTO phone users, roughly divided into several major categories.
【Gaming Category】
“Hot Blood Battle Song” mobile version can enable high frame rate mode, specially optimized.
GOG mobile version (not yet completed) can enable high frame rate mode, specially optimized.
Binding a Tenda Games account grants one new game every year.
Tenda Games will regularly launch exclusive appearances, skins, weapons, and other benefits for phone users, available for purchase at low prices.
【Entertainment Category】
Endpoint Chinese Website Ultimate VIP: Initial recommendation tickets and monthly tickets are the highest on the site, 30% discount on subscriptions, priority testing of new features.
Fei Huang Studio Connoisseur: All web dramas free to watch, two preview tickets included for new movie releases.
(Hidden benefit) TPDb website high-priority user.
【Lifestyle Category】
Slackin’ Internet Café Gaming Expert: 30% discount on consumption, one free drink of choice daily.
Slackin’ Delivery Premium Member: Regular red packets, free delivery fees.
Mingyun Private Kitchen VIP: One complimentary dish for single consumptions reaching 3,000 yuan (specific dish depends on actual consumption amount).
Headwind Logistics VIP Customer: Priority in sending and receiving parcels.
【Other Categories】
Trade-in: An Additional 500 yuan discount on top of the old phone valuation.
Exchange Only, No Repairs: For non-human damage, new phone delivered with data transfer, old phone recycled; for human-caused damage, three free repairs per year.
Accessories Included: Up to five free applications annually for screen protectors and phone cases for this model.
5% off all categories: Applicable to all Tenda-related industries (projects on TPDb website), an additional 5% discount on top of original discounts.
Lifetime Benefit Updates: Whenever Tenda launches a new business, an exclusive benefit will be made available to OTTO phone users.
…
Chang You read through the entire form and couldn’t help but marvel.
Now it has finally lived up to the 8,199 yuan price tag!
Mission accomplished!
When Mr. Pei had previously required this phone to be priced directly in the 8,000 yuan range, Chang You thought it would be difficult, almost impossible.
But now it seemed that Mr. Pei clearly understood that with the various industries of Tenda Group “backing” it up, this phone could indeed sell for 8,000 yuan.
The range of benefits here was very broad. Some had clear standards, while others were more vague, seeming to be filler.
For example, “Lifetime Benefit Updates” only promised that any new industry Tenda launched in the future would open exclusive benefits for phone users, but didn’t commit to the specific amount of those benefits.
This was mainly to avoid making promises that couldn’t be fulfilled in the future, which would be awkward.
These benefits basically involved various departments of Tenda, with considerable discount levels. Especially if you lived in Jingzhou, you could really make the most of these benefits.
Of course, while users were taking advantage of Tenda’s offers, Tenda was also using these benefits to attract new users. Nobody was losing out.
These benefits weren’t simply various industries subsidizing or giving profits to OTTO Technology; these benefits were all included in the phone’s premium price.
The phone was priced at 8,199 yuan, two to three thousand more expensive than Apple or Shenhua’s current flagship phones. After accounting for hardware configuration and brand premium, the additional cost was in these add-on services.
After the phone was sold, Chang You would naturally return some of the profits to these departments.
Initially selling only a thousand units, this rebate would certainly be nominal, but if future phone sales could reach hundreds of thousands of units, this portion of profit would be very substantial.
As for the specific implementation method, it was simple. The phone had NFC, so after binding identity and accounts, users could simply scan their phones at internet cafés and offline stores, and online, everything could be handled with one Tenda account.
Chang You looked carefully at the details of these benefits again and had some questions.
“What game is GOG? Is it difficult to implement high frame rate mode and exclusive optimization?”
Lin Wan replied: “It’s the battle game that the Tenda Games department is currently developing, abbreviated as GOG.”
“High frame rate mode and exclusive optimization aren’t difficult, but currently, we don’t plan to open them to other phone models because the high frame rate mode requires screen refresh rate capability, and power consumption will increase significantly.”
“The mobile version of GOG is not yet fully developed. It might have to be released on the phone’s app store after the phone is officially launched.”
“‘Hot Blood Battle Song’ has already been arranged. The high frame rate mode of this game might have more hype than actual effect, but that’s fine. This game has many players, and with a little promotion, quite a few phones could be sold.”
Chang You was somewhat hesitant: “I’m a bit worried about owing too many favors to other departments, which might be difficult to handle in the future.”
Lin Wan smiled: “You don’t need to worry about that.”
“There’s no favoritism between Tenda’s internal departments. As long as OTTO Technology can develop and grow, and in the future, phones sell millions of units like Shenhua, then the relationship will reverse, with phones promoting other businesses.”
“You don’t need to feel uncomfortable. The best return is to do a good job with the phone business.”
“By the way, how many product lines have been planned?”
Chang You was silent for a moment: “There’s no plan for product lines at the moment.”
“Because in Mr. Pei’s plan, we’ll only make high-end phones. A phone priced at 8,000 yuan that still needs to ensure a low overall net profit margin requires stacking specs.”
“And product line planning, focusing on business, photography, or appearance, and so on, targets different groups of people, which inevitably means sacrificing content that isn’t as important to target audiences. For example, a camera phone prepared for women often has a high aesthetic value but doesn’t come with the best flagship chip.”
“In our phone, all components are maxed out. To sum it up, it’s balanced and straightforward. The product form has been determined.”
“So… I haven’t figured out if there’s a need to plan other product lines yet.”
“I’ll find an opportunity to consult with Mr. Pei again. He might be busy with other work recently; I haven’t been able to reach him.”
Lin Wan thought for a moment: “Yes, that’s right. I was wrong. We haven’t learned to walk yet, and I’m already thinking about flying. Let’s focus on this phone first and sell these thousand units before thinking further.”
“So, shall we call it OTTO 1? That seems a bit odd.”
Chang You said, “Let’s call it OTTO E1.”
“E represents the English prefix ‘extra,’ as in ‘extraordinary,’ ‘extravagant,’ ‘extreme,’ indicating that our phone is extreme, luxurious, and full of added value.”