Chapter 1 The Tianxing Mobile Phone Era
The first generation Tianxing mobile phone, launched in 2001, has now seen its fifth generation released. The pace has been incredibly fast, averaging nearly two generations of phones per year.
Furthermore, these aren't mere incremental upgrades; each generation of Tianxing phones has featured significant improvements.
The first generation Tianxing was the first among all knock-off phones to sport a color screen. xxs1
The second generation added a camera function.
The third generation could record video and included games.
The fourth generation adopted a slider design with a full screen on the front, also incorporating a touchscreen.
The fifth generation, the current Tianxing 5, builds upon these four core features by changing the sliding mechanism from top-to-bottom to side-to-side. This allows a single phone to possess a key quantity comparable to a computer keyboard.
In simple terms, Boss Huang essentially released the Nokia N97, which was originally slated for a 2008 release, directly in 2004.
Although its specific performance lagged behind the 2008 N97, for example, the touchscreen feel was still quite poor and best used with a stylus.
Additionally, the system's functionality and user experience were inferior to the N97, and the camera's pixel count was also lower. However, undoubtedly, in 2004, the N97 was the undisputed king and a device destined to dominate the market upon its release.
After all, this was Nokia's super weapon designed as an "iPhone killer," although this very "iPhone killer" was eventually killed by the iPhone.
Consequently, the launch of the Tianxing 5 led to changes that even the Jiangnan Group itself hadn't anticipated.
Initially, Tianxing phones were treated rather passively within the Jiangnan Group, considered experimental products.
They were passive because sales were not a priority; no model in the Tianxing series had ever exceeded 100,000 units sold. Regardless of sales figures, Boss Huang consistently poured money into them.
And as experimental products, the entire Tianxing series served as Liu Nian's laboratory. Liu Nian could test all his mobile phone ideas and innovations on the Tianxing phones. Once he felt a product had reached a stage of development worthy of a new generation, it would be put into production and sold as such.
This resulted in Tianxing's product cycles having no discernible pattern. Unlike Apple, which consistently releases a new iPhone model every October, regardless of whether it features revolutionary breakthroughs, Tianxing's updates were entirely dependent on Liu Nian's research and development progress. For instance, Tianxing 1 was launched in October 2001, shortly after Boss Huang acquired Tianxing. Tianxing 1 was essentially a prototype that Liu Nian had already developed through his prior technical accumulation.
Then, Tianxing 2 was released in March 2002, a mere five months later.
This was because, with the substantial financial backing from Boss Huang, many issues that were previously insurmountable due to funding problems were no longer obstacles. Liu Nian's accumulated ideas could be materialized, leading to the birth of Tianxing 2, which possessed game-changing features, in just five months.
The gap between Tianxing 2 and Tianxing 3 was even shorter, taking less than five months, just four months, with Tianxing 3 launching in July 2002. This was due to relatively minor hardware updates between Tianxing 3 and Tianxing 2, with the focus being on significant software advancements, which was a culmination of technology accumulated since 2001, hence the rapid update cycle.
However, the transition from Tianxing 3 to Tianxing 4 took a solid year, not being released until May 2003.
This was understandable, as transitioning from a traditional candy bar phone to a slider phone, while also incorporating a large screen and touchscreen functionality, required significant time and R&D in hardware scientific research capabilities and technical patents.
Finally, Tianxing 5 also took over a year, launching in July 2004.
While the visual changes between Tianxing 5 and Tianxing 4 were not drastic, the complexity of the side-sliding mechanism in Tianxing 5 was several times higher than that of Tianxing 4. Moreover, the sleek super keyboard, the internal system design, and the front-facing camera all presented immense challenges for the Tianxing phones.
To put it simply, from Tianxing 1 to Tianxing 3, Tianxing phones acted as assemblers, primarily purchasing various components available on the market and then assembling them into advanced phones according to their own ideas.
However, starting from Tianxing 4, Tianxing had become a complete manufacturer. After all, technologies like touchscreens, large screens, and sliding mechanisms were top-tier in the mobile phone industry and not available for purchase on the market. Integrating them organically into a single phone required extensive research, all of which was undertaken by Tianxing itself.
When Tianxing 5 was being developed, Boss Huang was still in the United States. On the phone, Liu Nian directly informed Boss Huang that Tianxing phones were now the world's strongest traditional mobile phone manufacturers, and their phones were the world's most advanced.
Perhaps in terms of basic technical accumulation, they might not have matched established companies like Nokia and Motorola. However, in terms of mobile phone technology innovation, Tianxing was already unrivaled.
These were bold words indeed.
And this boldness was funded by Boss Huang's money. Tianxing generated virtually no profit. Even though each of their phones could cost upwards of ten thousand yuan to acquire, they truly hadn't made much money for Boss Huang. All profits from Tianxing phones were reinvested into research and development.
And even that wasn't enough. If it weren't for Jiangnan Optoelectronics, Jiangnan Technology, and the Huaxia Electrical Appliance Industry Development Alliance successively donating or selling their technologies to Tianxing, Tianxing would never have developed to this stage so quickly.
However, upon the creation of Tianxing 5, Boss Huang and Liu Nian had reached a consensus: Tianxing 5 would be the final feature phone produced and manufactured by Tianxing in the feature phone era.
Henceforth, Tianxing phones would fully transition to the smartphone era, dedicating all their accumulated technical ideas and manufacturing capabilities from the feature phone era to smartphone development. Their sole objective was to preempt Apple's release of the first iPhone and launch the world's first smartphone.
This goal was extremely challenging, as Apple had decades of experience in the overall computer industry, and this expertise provided a significant advantage in mobile phone production.
Furthermore, Apple's backing by the United States in technological matters also represented a considerable advantage.
Then there was the five-digit mobile phone operating system developed by Boss Huang and Liu Nian. This idea of starting from scratch meant that Jiangnan's feature phones had to begin anew. In 2004, they had to catch up from the 1944 era of binary systems to the 2004 era, chasing sixty years of technological development and time, the difficulty and hardship of which were unimaginable.
Therefore, when Liu Nian felt he could no longer achieve significant technical accumulation through traditional feature phones, he directly abandoned further feature phone development and redirected all R&D efforts to smartphone development.
According to Boss Huang's plan, after the launch of the smartphone, the Tianxing brand would undergo a brand upgrade. This meant that Tianxing 5 was the swansong for the Tianxing series; there would be no Tianxing 6.
This is going a bit too far off track; let's get back to the main point.
Precisely because the Tianxing series of mobile phones pursued extreme technology, Tianxing phones always led the entire market. This had been the case since the era of Tianxing 1, as in 2001, color screen phones were still rare.
However, if the flagship models of brands like Nokia could still hold their own against Tianxing in the Tianxing 1 era, then the appearance of the Tianxing 5 mobile phone within blind boxes completely stunned the market.
Countless tech enthusiasts, seeing this phone obtainable only through blind boxes, were left in awe. They had never imagined that a mobile phone could reach such a level; it was as if it were a phone from the future.
To be fair, in terms of market positioning, Tianxing phones have always been the most premium and the most aloof.
Firstly, Tianxing phones never advertised. Apart from the occasional pull-up banner displayed outside Jiangnan stores, there was no other promotion for Tianxing phones.
Let alone television commercials, there was no advertising in magazines or newspapers either. Tianxing phone market promotion expenses were always zero, which was the aspect most adored by mobile phone enthusiasts.
People are sometimes perverse; the less you advertise, the more they perceive you as a high-class entity.
Secondly, there was the pricing of Tianxing phones. Initially, Tianxing phones required a full draw from a blind box to obtain. Later, even with the addition of an exchange mode, the price remained above 5,000 yuan. By the time of Tianxing 5, the price for acquiring it from the black market had risen to 8,000 yuan, establishing it as a decisive price leader, crushing Nokia, Motorola, and Samsung.
If these two points alone were the basis, then Tianxing phones would not have possessed such a premium and aloof persona. After all, one could easily take a knock-off phone, refrain from advertising, and set its price at 10,000 yuan.
The key was that they genuinely led the entire market and, most critically, had the backing of the Jiangnan Group.
The functional leadership in the market allowed Tianxing phones to possess the capital for premium and aloofness, while the backing of the Jiangnan Group ensured that Tianxing phones, even without any advertising, reached all users.
After all, in China, there is virtually no one who hasn't visited a Jiangnan blind box store, and therefore, everyone has seen the Tianxing phone that is perpetually displayed in the prime position, enjoying the treatment of three LED spotlights and an acrylic protective case. It was impossible not to know of Tianxing phones' existence.
Thus, even though Tianxing phones were unadvertised, expensive, and produced in low quantities, after three years of cultivation, Tianxing phones had undoubtedly become the pinnacle of the Chinese mobile phone market. They were a rare domestic brand whose value in the eyes of users surpassed foreign brands like Nokia, Motorola, and Samsung.
Among the wealthy in China, they might not have been as knowledgeable about phones. However, among those in China who understood phones and had a bit of money, the Tianxing phone was their dream goddess. They would go to great lengths, even scrimping and saving for months, just to buy a Tianxing phone.
But soon, these individuals found themselves unable to afford, or even obtain, the latest Tianxing 5.