Chapter 287 Strategic Partners
After hanging up the phone, Su Yuanshan and Chen Jing returned to the reception area.
"Old Duan really is a talent," Chen Jing said with a smile. "He understands consumer psychology so well."
Su Yuanshan nodded, feeling a bit emotional as well. These people, who were already top-tier talents in his previous life, had only grown even stronger after being given a broader platform at Yuanxin.
Because Yuanxin wanted to maintain a high-end brand image, products like mobile phones — direct-to-consumer items — had always been priced to match imported goods.
As a result, there were always some people who would jump out and say, "You didn't pay import taxes, so why are you charging so much?"
Despite months of heavy advertising and promotional efforts aimed at building the brand and boosting sales, the results still fell short of expectations.
To be honest, for a phone built entirely with domestically owned core technologies — and one that could match or even exceed imported models by every metric — everyone at Yuanxin carried a certain pride.
In their eyes, Yuanxin had done so much publicity work that even if they hadn't done anything at all, they should have naturally achieved domestic dominance.
But reality was much harsher.
Even with slogans shouted to the heavens, building a brand still meant fighting against broader trends — and with the deepening of the Reform and Opening Up policy, a flood of workshop-style small factories had sprung up across the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta.
From clothing and shoes to knockoff toys and small appliances, countless "domestic products," many of them cobbled together by hand, had flooded into every household.
You could even walk into a random appliance repair shop in a small town and, within half a day, they'd assemble a TV for you.
All these products shared one feature: they were cheap.
Unbelievably cheap.
And cheap almost always meant poor quality.
Thus, Yuanxin's path to building a premium phone brand had been fraught with difficulty.
Over the past few months, both the marketing team and the mobile division had quietly voiced the hope that phone prices could be lowered — because market research showed that even a modest price cut of a few hundred yuan would dramatically boost sales.
But Su Yuanshan had stubbornly insisted on maintaining the price policy, so that voice remained a minority opinion.
"Honestly, I'm not maintaining the price just to make money," Su Yuanshan said with a sigh. "It's because once you lower it, it's almost impossible to raise it again."
He smiled. "Old Duan's move is brilliant. And involving the media makes it even better.
As long as the media sees that our next-gen product is still priced consistently, the image holds."
Chen Jing smiled warmly. "You get both the prestige and the practical benefits."
"Exactly."
...
Because of his high hopes for the National Day promotions, Su Yuanshan felt much less enthusiastic about the software expo.
And since few heavyweight foreign acquaintances — like Bill Gates — had come this time, he didn't even bother attending the expo despite being right next door.
He did, however, invite Kutaragi Ken — who had once again come for the software expo — to visit Yuanxin.
Now that Yuanxin was starting its overseas expansion, dealing with relationships with international giants had become unavoidable.
Thanks to earlier dealings around EDA, Yuanxin still maintained contact — and even ongoing cooperation — with several industry giants.
But when it came to true "strategic partners," there were only two.
Texas Instruments.
And Sony.
After chatting with Kutaragi about the future of home game consoles, Su Yuanshan shifted the conversation to the prospects for handheld gaming.
The two of them had remarkably aligned views — agreeing that only once products launched and faced real-world testing would anyone truly understand player preferences.
"Mr. Kutaragi, please have some tea," Su Yuanshan said, personally pouring a cup.
"Thank you," Kutaragi said, bowing slightly, lifting the cup with both hands, and taking a careful sip.
"Excellent tea."
"Shame I can't appreciate it properly," Su Yuanshan said self-deprecatingly. "I can only enjoy coffee."
"Haha, I barely know anything about tea myself," Kutaragi laughed.
Su Yuanshan smiled and, after a brief pause, said quietly,
"Mr. Kutaragi, have you or your company ever given serious thought to the future of LCD panels?"
Kutaragi blinked, clearly surprised, and then looked seriously at Su Yuanshan.
"Su-san, do you have ideas about LCDs?"
Su Yuanshan slowly nodded.
In the future, although Kutaragi ultimately wouldn't become Sony's president — for various reasons — he had certainly been a strong contender.
Since Su Yuanshan had decided to make Sony his primary ally in Japan, it made far more sense to support someone he already had a good relationship with, rather than trying to build new ones later.
Even though Sony was still a powerhouse in consumer electronics — especially in the television sector, maintaining dominance with its Trinitron CRTs — it had largely missed the boat on LCD technology, which would sweep the world in the coming years.
In that sense, Sony and Yuanxin shared similar challenges.
They could be natural allies.
After a few seconds of silence, Su Yuanshan said slowly,
"Mr. Kutaragi, although your company's Trinitron CRTs still have tremendous potential — especially with the trend toward flat and large screens in computer monitors —
I firmly believe that LCD displays are the future."
Kutaragi's brows furrowed deeply. He stared at Su Yuanshan for a long moment without speaking.
When it came to Su Yuanshan, his admiration ran deep.
He had worked closely with Yuanxin's YX architecture CPU team and Xinghai's 3D graphics core team — he knew better than anyone that both Yuanxin and Xinghai were products of Su Yuanshan's genius.
This man was the real deal — a true prodigy.
Not just technically brilliant, but blessed with extraordinary foresight.
If Su Yuanshan was speaking with this kind of conviction, it wasn't random.
After a long silence, Kutaragi finally said quietly,
"Su-san, are you suggesting that Yuanxin might enter the LCD field?"
He hesitated, then added uncertainly,
"And... together with us?"
"Yes," Su Yuanshan said calmly, meeting Kutaragi's gaze.
"We at Yuanxin would very much like to maintain and expand our friendly cooperation with Sony —
to work together in more fields,
to create results that could change the world for the better."
"And when it comes to LCD panels...
Yuanxin alone can't catch up."
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