Chapter 152: Outsourced Production
Titan 3 Unpack Event
The atmosphere at the event reached a fever pitch after the benchmark scores were announced.
“As you can see, the Titan 3 is overwhelming. Performance doesn’t lie.”
Cheon Jun-young’s confident statement was met with a round of applause.
Just as he was about to conclude the event, waving to the reporters, an unexpected voice rang out from somewhere.
“Wait, what was the Quantum 2 benchmark score?”
At the reporter’s shout, everyone’s attention shifted momentarily.
“What? The Quantum 2 score is already out?”
“What’s the score that’s causing such a stir?”
The reporter who had just hung up the phone spoke with a dazed expression.
“Quantum 2… it’s 6,100.”
An instant silence fell over the entire venue.
Cheon Jun-young, forgetting he was holding the microphone, shouted in a fluster.
“What did you just say? What’s the Quantum 2 score?”
At Cheon Jun-young’s flustered voice, the reporters and attendees who were about to leave turned back.
“The Quantum 2 benchmark is 6,100. It’s the official score just released at the Dojin Tech event…”
Cheon Jun-young’s face paled and stiffened.
“This can’t be… With an eMMC controller, such a score is absolutely impossible…”
Then, from behind him, an Ahsung representative showed him the phone screen with a trembling voice.
“…Executive Director, posts are flooding SNS and online communities saying the Quantum 2 benchmark score has surpassed 6,000.”
Seeing the screen, Cheon Jun-young’s body shook violently, unable to stand still.
His lips trembled in shock.
“Th… this must be some kind of mistake…”
At the same time, at the Dojin Tech Unpack Event.
The moment the benchmark results appeared on the screen,
the audience and reporters seemed stunned, unable to speak.
[Quantum 2: 6,100]
The silence was brief.
Soon, explosive applause and cheers filled the venue.
“Wow, this is insane. 6,000 points!”
“Is such a score possible without UFS 2.0?”
Amidst the questions and cheers from the audience, I smiled and took the microphone.
“Our Quantum 2 maximizes real-world performance not only through hardware but also software optimization. Especially with our self-developed SDRAM caching technology, we’ve overcome the bottleneck of the existing eMMC controller, and the result you see is the benchmark score that dramatically improves user-perceived performance.”
The venue erupted in disbelief, but there was no denying what they had just witnessed.
…
…
…
A few days later.
“CEO, here are the initial sales figures for the Quantum 2.”
I took the report from Executive Vice President Hong Chung-ki, half-expecting, half-anxious, and checked it.
“…5.8 million units in a week?”
“Yes, including the second week’s pre-order volume, it exceeds 12 million units.”
This was a record-breaking figure for both feature phones and smartphones.
More than double the initial target.
Surprising, but not entirely satisfying.
‘Before the regression, the A-Phone 15 sold 47 million units in its first weekend. Still a long way to go.’
Of course, when the A-Phone 15 was released, feature phones had already disappeared from the mobile market,
and A-ple had an absolute market share.
“With the surge in Quantum 2 sales, Dongtan Plant 2 is operating at full capacity, yet we’re struggling to keep up with demand.”
Originally expected to take 18 months, Dongtan Plant 2 was completed in 15 months thanks to Park Cheol-jin’s efforts,
and despite starting operations recently, this was the situation.
“Even with a combined smartphone production capacity of 9 million units per month from both plants, it’s not enough?”
“Yes, strangely, as the Quantum 2 gained popularity, sales of the Quantum 1-S and Quantum 1-A also soared. We need to increase capacity further.”
I replied calmly.
“I’ve already instructed Executive Director Oh Seong-hak to secure additional land for a new factory while acquiring the data center site.”
At my words, Hong Chung-ki smiled and nodded.
“I heard about that too. Unlike the Dongtan 1 and 2 plant sites, you instructed to secure a large-scale site this time, right?”
“It’s frustrating to keep expanding capacity bit by bit. And we need to further expand our semiconductor business and logistics centers for Pang Pang’s lightning delivery.”
“I’ll take care of the details on that front.”
I turned to Seong-hwan.
“How’s the consumer reaction?”
At my question, Seong-hwan excitedly showed me his laptop screen.
“It’s faster to show you than explain.”
The community board Seong-hwan was on was flooded with talk about the Quantum 2.
└ Wow, what’s with the Quantum 2? Why is it so good?
└ The real-world performance feels way better than the benchmark score?
└ Not just performance, the design is perfect too.
└ Lower memory capacity and no UFS than the Titan 3, yet I can’t tell the difference.
└ Honestly, I think the Quantum is better in terms of operation and screen transitions too.
└ LOL, what happened to Ahsung? Who would buy a Titan in this situation?
“In the Quantum 2 user satisfaction survey, 95% said they would repurchase, and 98% said they would recommend it to others. I think our product loyalty is starting to take root, brother.”
I smiled and nodded.
“How about Ahsung?”
“Already, 40% of Titan 3 pre-order customers have canceled and switched to the Quantum 2.”
Hong Chung-ki added.
“Inside Ahsung Group, Chairman Cheon Ho-tae is furious and reportedly plans to overhaul the mobile division.”
“After consecutive smartphone failures, that’s expected.”
“Definitely, looking at the numbers, it’s understandable.”
Hong Chung-ki handed me the prepared data.
It detailed Ahsung Electronics’ mobile division performance to date.
“170 million feature phones and 12 million smartphones…”
For a company that once held 60% domestic and 25% global market share, it was a dismal performance.
“Thanks to our Quantum’s success, Ahsung’s domestic market share has dropped to 35%.”
Seong-hwan continued.
“Once Quantum 2 sales are included, the share will drop even further.”
“But Ahsung won’t fall so easily.”
Hong Chung-ki nodded in agreement.
“Chairman Cheon Ho-tae will find a way, even if it means overhauling the entire mobile division.”
“I’ll take down Ahsung’s mobile division before that.”
At my words, Hong Chung-ki looked surprised.
“Is that… possible?”
“I think it’s entirely possible.”
“It won’t be easy. While we may lead in smartphone sales, in overall mobile sales, Ahsung still holds more than double our volume.”
True.
Last year, our mobile sales were 70 million units, less than half of Ahsung’s 182 million.
“Ultimately, Ahsung’s last stronghold is the feature phone market. As the Quantum 2’s impact intensifies, Ahsung’s smartphone sales will decline faster.”
The feature phone market, centered in emerging countries, the Middle East, and Africa, had an annual demand of nearly 400 million units,
with Ahsung holding nearly half of that.
“I’ll cut off Ahsung’s lifeline, starting with feature phones.”
Despite the audacity of declaring war on the mobile division of South Korea’s top conglomerate,
neither Seong-hwan nor Hong Chung-ki seemed overly surprised.
“Planning to flood the market with affordable smartphones to kill the feature phone market?”
“The issue is our production capacity isn’t enough to dominate the feature phone market.”
We already had an annual capacity of 100 million units,
and despite continuous expansion, capacity was always insufficient.
Hong Chung-ki continued.
“Securing new land and expanding further will take at least a year.”
With Dongtan Plant 2 already at full capacity,
the only option for further expansion, as Hong said, was building a new factory.
Of course, assuming we build it ourselves…
“How about outsourcing the production of affordable smartphones?”
At my suggestion, Hong’s eyes widened.
“Outsource the production of the Quantum 1-A?”
“Yes, outsource the affordable lineup centered around the Quantum 1-A, and we’ll focus on premium models, R&D, and brand strategy.”
“Oh, that’s a good idea.”
Following Seong-hwan, Hong Chung-ki also nodded.
“I think it’s a viable plan. We’ll focus on producing the high-margin Quantum 1-S and Quantum 2-S, and outsource the low-margin affordable models to increase market share.”
“But is there a suitable partner for outsourcing?”
Many would jump at the chance to work with us, but we weren’t planning to hand it to just anyone.
“Chairman Park Jeong-tae of Cheongun Electronics could handle the volume and quality we need.”
At the mention of Cheongun Electronics, Seong-hwan looked surprised.
“Cheongun Electronics is a major corporation. Would they really take on our outsourcing?”
“Actually, it might be possible.”
At Hong Chung-ki’s response, I smiled.
“Because Cheongun Electronics’ mobile division isn’t doing so well either, right?”
“Yes, the Proda phone series they launched with our technical support was initially successful, but since the Proda 4, which fully transitioned to smartphones, sales have plummeted.”
“Right, I heard that. After applying their own OS to the Proda 4, they’ve struggled to sell even 5 million units per release.”
Seong-hwan also seemed well-informed.
“So they have excess capacity. If we can utilize that for affordable models, we can definitely take a chunk of Ahsung’s feature phone market share.”
“Then let’s schedule a meeting with Chairman Park Jeong-tae of Cheongun right away.”
At Seong-hwan’s enthusiastic suggestion, I nodded.