You might not believe it, but today I actually got kidney stones, finally experiencing the most painful pain in the world!
Later generations would analyze why the previously obscure brand Zhong Mi 1, upon its appearance, immediately reached the pinnacle of success. It was the result of favorable timing, advantageous location, and opportune circumstances.
In reality, 2004 was a critical turning point in social development and the mobile phone industry.
From this year onwards, mobile phones began to pursue more features like cameras, color screens, and higher pixel counts. The honest brick phones were no longer desirable, much like how in the era of smartphones, feature phones became obsolete.
It is easy for humans to upgrade their consumption habits, but very difficult to downgrade them.
Therefore, there was a large wave of demand for new mobile phones in the market. However, manufacturers did not respond promptly to this demand. Their color screen and camera phones remained in the price range of over $700, causing many Americans, despite having the desire, to be unwilling to spend a fortune on such a phone.
After all, although America is wealthy, the average per capita savings were only $300. It was quite difficult for them to come up with over $700 at once.
Historically, it wasn't until 2005 that major manufacturers proactively lowered the prices of these phones to around $500, which then truly opened up the market.
Historically, the global total sales of Motorola's RAZR phone, totaling 120 million units, were achieved in the two years of 2005-2006.
It's just that they probably won't see this sales figure reach $120 million in their lifetime. Because in just twenty days, Zhong Mi 1 snatched away over ten million in sales.
At $240 per unit, this was a price that any American could afford and refuse. For $240, one could own a color screen, camera, and gaming phone, something many people had never dared to imagine.
So, many people rushed to buy it immediately, without any marketing or advertising. The crowds queuing outside every outlet were the best advertisement. Anyone who saw this would inevitably want to inquire about what was being sold here.
At the time, media outlets that usually required payment were now coming uninvited, starting to report this major news. After all, such a significant event couldn't be controlled by a single media outlet.
If you withheld the broadcast, other television stations would surely cover it, and then the ratings and attention would belong to others, having nothing to do with them.
Therefore, reporters from major television stations swarmed in, comprehensively reporting the entire incident. Although some reporters' biases were evident, as they questioned the quality of the Zhong Mi 1 phone while reporting, nobody cared about their skepticism. If you didn't buy it, someone else would.
Later, because Jerry Guo's video surpassed 20 million views online, becoming one of the hottest videos, many people discovered the secret to traffic and began trying to produce similar review videos, evaluating from all angles.
Of course, in these reviews, Zhong Mi 1 did not seem as dazzling. Many aspects inferior to Motorola and Nokia were also identified. But it didn't matter, as they only sold it for $240.
With such a price, what more could one ask for?
People also have a herd mentality. When everyone rushes to buy something, even if that item is a piece of junk, it will be so scarce that it will continuously be out of stock, because once this "junk" is sold out, it's gone.
There was also another reason: Atari was a childhood memory for many. Now that a childhood memory was so popular, it naturally had considerable goodwill attached to it.
Regardless, later analyses by experts concluded that Zhong Mi 1's success was due to the release of the right phone at the right price at the right time, leading to unparalleled achievements.
However, this was primarily the analysis of foreign experts. Domestic experts had their own insights, believing that Zhong Mi 1's success was the result of the concerted efforts of China's domestic electronic technology industry alliance and the gradually emerging vast electronic product manufacturing capacity of China.
Later, when Lei Jun was interviewed, he admitted that he only brought 3 million units of Zhong Mi 1 to the United States. It wasn't that Lei Jun didn't want to bring more; it was that he had used more than half of his personal fortune to produce these phones, and he ran out of money.
But after the fervent sales of Zhong Mi, over 10 million phones were directly air-freighted to the United States within a month, satisfying the demands of a large number of consumers. This was the result of the explosive power of China's terrifyingly vast manufacturing capacity.
Even with this explosive growth, the production capacity of Zhong Mi 1 was still insufficient. Many users had been waiting for over a month and still couldn't get their desired phones.
Just as everyone was feeling extremely frustrated, they suddenly noticed that Michael Jackson had posted on Weibo again. This time, his Weibo post was quite down-to-earth.
Judging from the pictures, Michael Jackson himself, disguised as a tall, dark-skinned man with a biker gang, secretly went to queue up to buy a Zhong Mi 1 phone.
Below the pictures was a caption: "My assistant said he failed to buy one three times in a row. This time I'm coming myself. If I manage to buy one, I'm firing my assistant!" Good heavens, the assistant beside him was truly miserable.
And based on this Weibo post, many users first recognized that this was an Atari Communications outlet in Las Vegas.
As a result, all of Las Vegas was in an uproar. They rushed towards this outlet and soon found Michael Jackson in disguise.
When the two buyers queuing in front of and behind Michael Jackson realized they were standing next to Michael Jackson, they both showed expressions of disbelief.
Fortunately, the police acted quickly, and officers arrived promptly to maintain order at the scene, preventing non-queuing individuals from approaching Michael Jackson.
However, Michael Jackson did not act aloof. Instead, he used a microphone to address the surging fans from behind the police and stated that he was determined to buy a Zhong Mi 1 phone to break his own record!
"You just need to say a word, and they'll voluntarily give you one!" a fan shouted.
"No, that wouldn't have any meaning. I have to queue up and buy my own Zhong Mi 1 phone!" Michael Jackson replied. The crowd cheered at his humble words. The police officers around him, however, felt a headache coming on; it seemed they wouldn't be getting off work anytime soon.
Of course, the police weren't overly sad or upset. Because before they set out, they had received an invitation to give a class to students at a private school.
This might not sound like a pleasant task, but private schools don't invite police for free; they pay. The total fee was around $300,000.
After deducting $100,000 to be submitted to the police department, the remaining $200,000 was the teaching fee for all the police officers present, with each person receiving approximately $1,000.
You see, this is not a matter of illegal or corrupt behavior. America is such an upright nation.
Motivated by this $1,000 teaching fee, the police diligently maintained crowd control, allowing Michael Jackson to walk step by step with the queue into the outlet.
At this point, it wasn't just a throng of fans; nearly all of Las Vegas's media had arrived, madly taking photos of Michael Jackson from a distance of 10 meters.
Then, when only 5 customers remained in the queue in front of Michael Jackson, the store clerk stood up and said regretfully, "I'm sorry, all the phones in this batch have been sold out. The next batch will be available in 5 days. Please come back to queue then!"
"FK!" Michael Jackson exclaimed, then quickly covered his mouth. He would have to apologize to the surrounding media today for his slip of the tongue.
The media, of course, would not miss such big news. Although they themselves often used the word "fk" in their daily lives, "fk" coming from Michael Jackson's mouth carried a completely different weight. They believed that news of Michael Jackson's anger and curse due to his unsuccessful queuing would likely become a sensation across America, or even the world, as he was a global superstar.
The news of Michael Jackson personally queuing to buy a Zhong Mi 1 phone was also expected to become a global hot topic, further driving the worldwide popularity of Zhong Mi 1!
Currently, over 20 distributors in Europe are in contact with Lei Jun to secure the European dealership rights for Zhong Mi 1, and it is believed that Zhong Mi 1 will soon appear in major global markets.
"It seems I am very regretful that I cannot fire my incompetent assistant!" Michael Jackson laughed heartily and was about to leave when the store clerk suddenly said, "Mr. Michael Jackson, if you don't have specific requirements regarding the phone's price, then I believe there is another phone here that would be very suitable for you!"
"Oh, what phone?" Michael Jackson asked curiously. The store clerk quickly pointed to a poster behind her, "This is the vivo music phone that our company launched yesterday!"
"Music phone?" Michael Jackson's eyes lit up. The store clerk quickly introduced, "Yes, this is a phone specifically designed for music. It uses Sony's music playback chip and has a built-in sound card, which can perfectly showcase the highest quality..."
"At the same time, this phone also boasts a large color screen, a 300,000-pixel camera, and an exclusive marquee design!" the clerk said, seizing the opportunity to promote it vigorously.
"Make way, let us in, we want to get in!" At this moment, the reporters and onlookers at the entrance could no longer restrain themselves and finally forced their way into the outlet. Finally, the police supervisor stepped forward, allowing all media outlets to send one reporter representative in for interviews, while refusing entry to other users into the outlet.
After all, the phones were sold out, so there was no need for everyone to enter the outlet.