Shockingly, a counterfeit factory has produced a 3-nanometer chip.

Chapter 41: Waveguide's Confident Launch, Sales...

Daressalaam, Tanzania's largest commercial street.

The huge GG sign for Bird has just been hung up, with the words "Bird mobile phone, the real magic phone in Africa" ​​written in Swahili.

It's priced at only $98.

Inside the store, the first batch of 5 mobile phones were piled up like a small mountain. Zhou Ming, the manager of Bird who was in charge of developing the African market, stood at the door, looking at the crowd with full confidence.

To avoid disrupting Transsion's foothold in Africa, Waveguide chose Tanzania as its first stop.

He learned that there was a slight misunderstanding between Chuanyin and this country.

So they contacted Minister Mohammed through an intermediary and promised to invest in building a factory in Tanzania if sales reached 50 units.

Furthermore, we guarantee that the investment amount will not be less than US$5000 million, and we will provide a more sincere solution, including but not limited to upstream industries such as assembly lines, casing processing lines, and battery production lines.

Mohammed was furious, and Waveguide was indeed more sincere. So he readily gave them all sorts of conveniences: fast customs clearance, tax-free warehousing, and even permission to conduct promotional activities in government buildings, while guaranteeing certain government procurement plans.

"Mr. Zhou, the foot traffic is pretty good," a local distributor said with a smile.

A member of the waveguide pioneering team confidently stated, "Transsion sells for $99, we sell for $98, and we'll even throw in a memory card."

With such sincerity on display, it's bound to be a hit.

"Mr. Kofi, let's finalize it now. Deciding to become the distributor for our brand would be a great decision."

"The results are indeed quite good. They're not sharing any meat with us through telepathy; they're destined to go nowhere."

Kofi observed carefully for a while, watching the bustling shops, and finally nodded seriously.

"Sign it. We'll open 10 stores first to test the waters. If it goes well, I'll secure the agency rights for the Zanzibar region."

"Mr. Kofi, this is a wise choice."

Zhou Ming smiled and shook hands with him, having already secured another one. What could Chuan Yin possibly use to fight him? Building channels in Africa? An idiotic act.

Bird will definitely be able to crush them quickly, after all, this African version of the phone completely imitates the design of the Transsion T1.

It has slightly higher specifications, a 100mAh larger battery, and better camera pixels, but its algorithms are slightly inferior.

With advantages in both cost and selling price compared to Transsion, capturing the African market would be a piece of cake.

But five hours after opening, things started to go wrong.

The store was crowded, but very few people actually bought anything. Many customers picked up a Bird phone, looked at it, put it down, and then turned to go to the Transsion store next door.

"What's going on?" Zhou Ming grabbed a salesperson. "Is it because you didn't explain things properly, making consumers dissatisfied with our product? Our configuration is better, so how could the conversion rate be so low?"

The salesperson said with a distressed expression, "Mr. Zhou, the customers all say... the photos aren't good. They say their faces are all black in the pictures, and they can't see anything at all."

"How is that possible? If their 50-pixel lens can take good pictures, how could our 100 million-pixel lens be any worse?"

Zhou Ming picked up his phone and took a test photo of the local employee next to him.

And it turned out that this test was surprisingly effective...

The photos did indeed have problems; under indoor lighting, the Black employee's facial details were blurry and his complexion appeared dull.

Unconvinced, he picked up a Transsion T1 and tapped it. The resulting image was extremely bright and clear.

"And... customers asked if they could insert four cards, and we told them they could only use two. So they didn't buy it," another salesperson added. "They also asked about battery life, and we told them it could last about seven days."

They said the Transsion T1 could last 10 days, and the Power Max at least 14 days…

Zhou Ming's expression gradually changed; things didn't seem so simple.

He refused to believe it and instructed his assistant to buy a Transsion T1 and a Powermax to conduct a more detailed comparison.

He always felt that this phone had some unique magic added to its market in Africa.

However, after disassembly, it was found to be the same as the disassembly results in China. The design is a slightly modified version of the reference design, but there is no heat dissipation, and the battery capacity is 100 mg smaller than theirs.

However, its battery life definitely surpasses that of the Waveguide T1.

As for the photo quality, the difference is indeed worlds apart, especially when photographing Black employees.

"This is fucking..." Zhou Ming cursed, "We're using the same chip as Transsion, so why are we being treated differently?"

And this photo-taking algorithm...

Just then, a commotion broke out across the street, and the already small number of customers vanished instantly, with even fewer customers entering the store.

After the Bird marketing team left the store, they discovered that Transsion's store had also put up a new banner: "Due to certain factors, Transsion is temporarily withdrawing from the Tanzanian market."

传音T1 、T80手机清仓大甩卖，T80仅需28美刀、T80A仅需32美刀，T1仅需90美刀。」

To make matters worse, some "smugglers" have set up stalls in front of Transsion stores, selling Transsion T1 Pro phones smuggled from there for only $99.

They also hung up the same banner: 12-day battery life, upgraded photography...

Seeing this, Zhou Ming instantly understood the hidden plan behind the telepathic communication. No wonder their progress had been so smooth; they were waiting for him here...

"He's really heartless," he gritted his teeth and dialed Li Xiangdong's number.

"Mr. Li, things are not good... Transsion has released a new model and lowered the price. Although we used our connections to bypass their review process, they still entered the market through unofficial channels."

"Well, our sales here... are less than one-tenth of what we expected."

After saying that, Zhou Ming had a guilty look on his face. After all, this was far from one-tenth; it was hard to even reach one-thousandth.

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone, then Li Xiangdong's voice, laced with suppressed anger, came through: "Lower the price, lower it to $80. I refuse to believe that a $20 discount won't make us lose..."

"But Mr. Li, with $80, our profit margin is only..."

"Let's open up the market first," Li Xiangdong roared. "Once sales go up, costs can be reduced, and with pricing power, we'll have everything."

Do as instructed.

After hanging up the phone, Zhou Ming looked at the mountain of cell phones piled up in the store and a sense of foreboding welled up in his heart.

This battle is probably not as simple as they imagine.

…………

Guangzhou, China, Transsion Building.

Shen Fei looked at the latest intelligence report sent by Adebayos and laughed out loud.

As expected, Bird couldn't hold on any longer and started a price war.

But Transsion isn't afraid of a price war, after all, it has a recycling and dismantling center, giving it a significant cost advantage. Plus, it has unique cutting-edge technology to back it up.

$80.

Let them see what real cost control looks like.

He dialed Chen Hai's number: "How's the mass production progress of the T1 Pro?"

"Boss, the second batch will be taken offline in one day."

"Give them all to the parallel traders so they can ship them to Tanzania. Also, notify Adebayor that other markets will give away 20 free charges when you buy a T1 Pro."

Limited time offer, one week only.

"clear."

After hanging up the phone, Shen Fei walked to the world map. The red dots indicating the shift of the African plate had spread to more than 20 countries. If Waveguide wanted to make a breakthrough there, then they would have some fun.