Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

The lights at the 2013 Orange Technology product launch were dazzling. The audience below the stage was in an uproar, the venue filled with the ceaseless hum of discussion.

”Is the thousand-yuan phone era already a thing of the past? Is it the hundred-yuan phone era now?”

”No offense, guys, but the Qingcheng D2 is only 799 yuan. It makes me feel like an idiot for spending 1699 yuan on a Lenovo S820!”

”I thought the Qingcheng D1S and the ZTE U950 Beidou Little Whirlwind were the absolute peak for thousand-yuan phones. I never expected the Qingcheng D2 to smash the price down to 799 yuan!”

”Now *this* is a true ’people’s phone’ that everyone can afford!”

On live streams hosted by Penguin Video, YY, Youku, Sohu, and Sina, netizens frantically spammed the bullet comments.

”Orange Technology is a cancer on the industry! They don’t make a profit, and they won’t let their competitors make one either!”

”Yeah, how can they guarantee their workers’ wages when they’re selling for so little?”

”Oh, give me a break! You spend all day spouting crap online without doing a shred of research! The Orange Phone Factory pays 25 yuan an hour, with overtime up to triple pay. Room and board are included, and workers can make over 7,000 a month. You’re worried about them? Why don’t you worry about whether your own salary even hits 5,000!”

”Dude, can you delete this? My friend saw it and isn’t feeling so good.”

”HOLY SHIT! My defenses are shattered! I only make four thousand before taxes!”

Comments flooded the screen at a rate of hundreds of thousands per second, a blur that was impossible to read with the naked eye.

Media outlets like Huxiu, IT Dark Horse, and 21st Century Digital Circle all began publishing real-time reports.

Just half an hour after the event began, keywords like ’Qingcheng D2,’ ’People’s Phone,’ and ’Hundred-Yuan Phone’ had all shot into the top ten on the trending charts.

The search indexes for Qian Du, 360, Sogou, and Lingxi Search skyrocketed!

For most average users, 999 yuan was a bit steep, but at 799 yuan, they felt they had to buy one, no matter what.

A 5.0-inch screen, 1GB of RAM and 4GB of storage, a 2000 mAh battery, a MediaTek dual-core 1.3GHz processor, and the Aurora OS 1.6 system—all for just 799 yuan!

Even if it blew up, you’d have to praise it for the spectacular bang it made!

After all, any other manufacturer would sell a smartphone with the same specs for at least 1,200 yuan. A more unscrupulous company would dare to ask for 2,000 or even 3,000 yuan.

Chen Yansen sat in the front row, a smile on his face.

’Can’t be helped,’ he thought. ’The Luzhou No. 4 Factory just expanded its production capacity. We’ll just have to let our competitors suffer a little.’

Besides, even if he didn’t make a move, Lei Yijun would likely launch the first-generation Hongmi phone, and Coolpad was set to release its legendary eight-core phone, the Dashen F1, next year.

Furthermore, brands like Da Kele, nibiru, Xiaolajiao, Celestial Language, and Hisense were all targeting the thousand-yuan phone market as well.

’Better to make the first cut yourself than be forced into a price war by your rivals.’

Standing center stage, Wang Teng silently pressed the remote, and the image on the large screen behind him changed.

A new phone with an ultra-thin body, an enormous screen, and ultra-narrow bezels appeared before the eyes of tens of millions: it featured a curved-corner design, a sleek and sophisticated look, and was available in black, white, and silver.

”This is the Orange C3S, an upgraded version of the Orange C3. The screen is the same 5.5-inch HD Super AMOLED from Jingdongfang, but we’ve upgraded the CPU from a Snapdragon S4 to a Snapdragon 600, with a max clock speed of up to 1.9GHz for faster processing.”

”In benchmark tests, the Orange C3S scores 4,000 points higher than the Orange C3. Its data read and processing efficiency is also improved by about 30 percent, providing users with a much smoother experience.”

Wang Teng explained slowly.

He paused for a moment before continuing, ”It’s configured with 3GB of RAM and 16GB of ROM, a built-in full-powered Moss Voice Assistant, a 5-megapixel front camera, a 16-megapixel rear camera, the Aurora OS 1.6 system, a 2620 mAh battery, and it supports fast charging...”

Simply put, the only upgrades the Orange C3S had over the Orange C3 were the processor and the Moss Voice Assistant.

It seemed like a disappointingly minor upgrade, leaving the tens of millions of viewers both in the venue and watching online feeling a bit let down.

The 16GB standard edition was priced at 2,799 yuan, the 32GB premium edition at 3,099 yuan, and the 64GB top-tier edition at 3,599 yuan.

A 100-yuan price drop across the entire product line was the greatest show of goodwill Orange Technology was offering.

”Additionally, besides the standard Aurora OS, both the Qingcheng D2 and the Orange C3S will have an optional Aurora Future OS version available for purchase at the same price. Aurora Future OS was developed independently by Orange Technology.”

Wang Teng added this suddenly after announcing the prices.

The competitors and suppliers mostly knew about Aurora Future OS beforehand. But for many of the invited Orange Technology fans in attendance, this was the first they were hearing that the company had, without any fanfare, developed its own mobile operating system.

”It’s not another Aliyun OS, is it?”

Instantly, a wave of skepticism spread through the crowd.

This was mainly because of Ah Li’s previous actions, which had been so embarrassing that domestic users could hardly show their faces.

They had loudly proclaimed to the world that Aliyun OS was an independently developed mobile operating system, but in reality, it used Android’s runtime, framework, and tools, while simultaneously being incompatible with the Android ecosystem.

The impostor was trying to lock the real hero out of his own house!

From Google’s perspective, it was like, ’Fine, use my damn system. But to turn around and claim you developed it yourself? That’s a low blow, isn’t it?’

Originally, Aliyun and Acer had planned to launch a new phone model running Aliyun OS.

Unexpectedly, Google gave Acer a direct ultimatum: side with Ah Li, and you’re immediately kicked out of the alliance and your patent licenses will be revoked.

In the end, the scheduled product launch was dejectedly canceled.

Now, Orange Technology was a leader among domestic phone brands. If it followed in Ah Li’s footsteps and made a fool of itself, its users would also feel utterly humiliated.

”Relax, Aurora Future OS isn’t cut from the same cloth as Aliyun OS. They’ve already set up an open-source community for global developers and hardware manufacturers. If even one line of their code was copied from Android, Google would’ve already thrown a fit.”

”An operating system’s success hinges on whether it has enough app support. As a brand-new system, just how many developers will be willing to adapt their apps for Aurora Future OS?”