When the official notice came out, the onlookers who were furious before were stunned. It turned out not to be cheating, but due to the mobile device?
Then what kind of mobile phone could have such an amazing effect that it could increase game performance by more than double? Just as everyone was baffled, the official once again provided an answer.
However, it wasn't a direct answer, but rather they followed the announcement and created a brand new leaderboard called the High-Performance Mobile Gaming Device Ranking. They also listed the phones that qualified for this leaderboard, and currently, there was only one phone: bellmi1. It was clear that this Zhongmi 1 phone was the culprit behind all of this.
At the same time, the scores of over a thousand points that were previously dominant on the old leaderboard all disappeared and were transferred to this High-Performance Mobile leaderboard. The score of 733 points once again became the top spot, and the entire leaderboard returned to its original state.
The way oo Mobile Game Center handled this was undeniably clever. On one hand, they upheld their commitment to fair gaming principles and did not penalize players with high scores obtained through legitimate means due to public outcry.
But at the same time, they separated the leaderboard into two, allowing the old leaderboard to return to its original appearance, thus preventing further player anger.
It was a perfect solution to all problems.
Of course, in the eyes of some experts, the announcement hid many other things, the first of which was the issue of the two separate leaderboards.
Many players felt very unhappy about the names of these two leaderboards. What did they mean by "Ordinary Performance Device Leaderboard" and "High-Performance Device Leaderboard"?
Did their Motorola flagship phone, which they bought for thousands of dollars, only qualify as an "ordinary performance" phone? And was there only one phone in the world that could be called a "high-performance device"?
This announcement implicitly divided all phones into two categories: ordinary performance phones and high-performance phones. Then, relying on the unique and immense power of the internet, it directly pushed these two leaderboards to all users.
Moreover, the announcement used such terms to describe the effect of this high-performance phone: "This phone can reduce game operation difficulty, while also improving game running speed and enhancing game visual performance!"
Even advertisements written with hundreds of thousands of dollars in ad spend couldn't boast like this.
And the most brilliant part was that because of this announcement, which resolved the online public opinion crisis, oo Mobile Game Center was severely criticized by netizens for three days due to the sudden appearance of this high-performance device. Therefore, netizens did not suspect that this announcement was an advertisement, but rather believed it to be a conclusion reached by oo Mobile Game Center after actual verification.
This never-before-heard-of Zhongmi 1 phone, q, could indeed improve game running speed and enhance game visual performance. These were definitely true and reliable, and no one would doubt the authenticity of these words.
From this, one could see how terrifying the advertising effect of such an announcement could be.
The facts proved this to be true. Soon, many people stopped caring about the cheater and began to focus their attention on this highly praised phone, the only one categorized as a high-performance device, and what exactly it was.
Furthermore, with such high performance, wouldn't the price of this phone surpass the ceiling of all non-luxury, non-scam phones currently on the market: the price of the Tianxing 5 phone?
In the internet age, when discovering something curious, the first thing people do is search online.
Then, a strange thing happened. When users entered the phone model "bellmi1" into the Google search engine, they found no results.
This result made all the curious people incredulous. Were there things in this world that couldn't be found on the internet? After all, even something like Area 51 had at least millions of pieces of information on the US internet, along with various Area 51 revelations, and even detailed content like "My 102 Stories with Area 51 and Aliens" for reference.
It was incredible that a phone that could be sold to all users couldn't be found any information about.
Some people, who lived close to shopping malls, immediately rushed to nearby malls to inquire about the phone. However, they found nothing. There wasn't a single counter selling this phone in the entire mall.
Some people even guessed based on the name that it should be a product of Bell Mobile. When they searched for information related to Bell Mobile, they discovered that Bell Mobile had also mysteriously disappeared. All places that previously sold Bell Mobile phones had stopped sales and stated that Bell Mobile had recalled all its products and would no longer sell previous models. Only some online second-hand stores could now find Bell Mobile phones.
All of this was too bizarre, so the topics of where to buy the Zhongmi phone and what the Zhongmi phone looked like quickly replaced the original cheating discussion and became the new hot topics on Weibo. Countless people were inquiring about this mysterious phone.
Fortunately, when a sufficient number of people were curious about something, the collective power could uncover the truth.
Soon, someone started posting several pictures on Weibo, including the packaging box of the Zhongmi 1 phone and photos of the phone itself, finally allowing curious netizens to see the actual product.
And the first time many netizens saw this phone, they exclaimed, "Isn't this the Tianxing 5 phone?"
That's right, this Zhongmi 1 phone and the Tianxing 5 phone were indeed very similar in appearance. Both were standard rectangular shapes, and both had a very large rectangular screen that occupied over 70% of the phone's surface. It could be said that they were the standard look of a future smartphone.
"Judging by its appearance, this phone must be expensive and perform very well!" As time went on, the Tianxing 5 phone's exclusive distribution channel through blind boxes, coupled with its price of around $2000, meant that it consistently remained in a state of insufficient supply. Therefore, the Tianxing 5 phone had firmly established itself as the best-performing, high-end phone available on the market.
Of course, Motorola, Nokia, and Samsung had successively released announcements about their new flagship phones claiming to surpass the Tianxing 5 phone in performance. However, these phones had not yet been released for sale, so the Tianxing 5's position was unshakeable.
The striking similarity in appearance between the Zhongmi 1 phone and the Tianxing 5 phone made many people instinctively feel that this phone was extraordinary.
Of course, according to the pictures, this phone did not have a slider design, and therefore, it did not have the full keyboard design of the Tianxing 5. The Zhongmi 1 phone's keyboard was located below the screen, with traditional phone buttons. However, because the screen occupied a large amount of space, these buttons were arranged very densely, but overall, it did not affect their use.
Seeing these pictures, users generally formed the impression that this Zhongmi 1 phone should be a simplified version of the Tianxing 5 phone, and its price should also be a simplified version of the Tianxing 5, estimated to be at least around $1000.
That price was still quite high.
However, at this time, the audience wasn't too concerned about the price, as they had no intention of buying this Zhongmi 1 phone yet. After all, it was a completely unheard-of phone brand, and there were no sales advertisements visible in the market, nor did they even know where it was sold.
Most importantly, they had only seen these few pictures and had no idea about the actual usage of the phone. They felt it was somewhat unreliable to buy it directly.
As a result, a large number of viewers began to leave messages under this account, asking the author to release more information. The author's response was also swift. After about a few hours, there were over 600,000 messages and requests.
At this moment, a video appeared under his account. Upon opening the video, the first thing that appeared was a close-up of a face, seemingly adjusting something towards the camera with a confused expression.
After fiddling for a few seconds, as if confirming that the camera was working, the person began to speak. This was an ordinary-looking American.
He sat in front of the camera somewhat awkwardly and began by greeting the audience, "Hello everyone, my name is Jerry Guo, and I'm an ordinary mobile phone user. I saw many friends online who were very curious about the Zhongmi 1 phone. I happened to have bought one. According to the salesperson, I was the 99th user to purchase this phone in the entire United States. So, I wanted to share this phone with everyone and my experience and gains from using it for the past three days."
"I previously posted some pictures, but many viewers expressed dissatisfaction, so I thought of filming a video to satisfy everyone's curiosity. Also, many features of this phone can only be demonstrated through video. So, I applied for video recording permission from Weibo, and to my surprise, it was approved quickly, allowing me to upload the video. However, my skills are not good, and my camera is not great, so please bear with it!"
"First, let me introduce the protagonist of today: the Zhongmi 1 phone. Personally, I believe it is the best phone of 2004, bar none!" Jerry Guo took a deep breath and said.