Becoming a Russian Oligarch After Rebirth
Chapter 1341 - 1070: Reinventing the Mobile Phone_2

Chapter 1341: Chapter 1070: Reinventing the Mobile Phone_2

Wang Ye watched TV and laughed. It seemed like this life would be the same as his last one, with Apple phones still creating a frenzy of panic buying worldwide.

Especially the earlier generations of Apple phones, every year when a new model was released, they would trigger a shopping craze in almost every country.

Everyone wanted to get their hands on the new phone as soon as possible, and of course, there were plenty of scalpers.

Some people didn’t want to queue up on site to hog the phones and yet wanted to get them sooner, so they had no choice but to buy from scalpers at a higher price.

Wang Ye still remembered that his colleague at the company had bought a phone from scalpers for an extra thousand or two.

There were also widely circulated news stories about "selling kidneys for phones"...

Anyway, he couldn’t understand what these people were thinking. It was just a phone, after all. Even if it was very good and advanced, what of it? The ultimate use of a phone is to make calls, send WeChat messages, or for some people, play games and watch videos.

Buying it a few days earlier or later wouldn’t delay anything.

He himself had bought several Apple phones but was not what you’d call a die-hard fan; instead, he often criticized Apple’s lousy signal.

In office building corridors or elevators, Apple phones basically had no signal, but other people’s Android phones could make and receive calls normally.

Moreover, Apple’s poor battery life was an old problem that wasn’t resolved until the release of the 13th generation phone. However, the issue with poor signal reception was still not addressed.

Also, it’s best not to use Apple phones in areas with particularly cold weather, something Wang Ye had learned the hard way.

One winter, he went on a business trip to the Northeast just as a cold wave hit, down to negative twenty or thirty degrees.

After finishing his business with a client in a remote area, Wang Ye wanted to hail a car back to the hotel. To his dismay, his phone, which showed over thirty percent battery life remaining, shut down within two minutes of taking it out...

That day, he had to walk back to the hotel for two or three hours in the bitter cold, so the experience left a deep impression on him!

After that, he stopped using Apple phones and started using Huawei’s MATE series.

But now, Wang Ye wouldn’t speak any ill of Apple phones in public. On the contrary, he would highly praise this revolutionary new phone because the better Apple phones sold, the more money he could make!

Who would go against their own wallet...

Even after the new product launch, Wang Ye directly "went through the back door" to buy fifty new phones in advance at the Apple headquarters!

Now, the phones he, Nalan Yaqi, and Nova used were all the new Apple phones...

He wanted not only to use them himself but also to bring them back for the people around him, getting the bigwigs at the Kremlin, Duma, and the Government to ditch old relics like Vichu and switch to Apple phones, which represented the pinnacle of high tech!

Even if Apple couldn’t launch in Moscow for the time being, he had to start "pre-heating" this trend of using Apple phones in advance. That was something Wang Ye, as a major shareholder, must do.

As long as these people were seen using Apple phones in public on TV news or in newspapers, it would be like giving Apple a wave of free advertising.

When the wealthy in Moscow saw the big shots at the top no longer using Vichu but collectively switching to Apple phones, of course, they would follow suit.

By the time Apple phones launched in Moscow and the whole of Eastern Europe, they would instantly become a roaring success!

......

The next day, the whole world was discussing the new phone just released by Apple, with experts from all fields weighing in. There were those who praised Apple vehemently, and, of course, there were many who criticized the new Apple phone.

"You guys obviously haven’t realized how terrible it is to equip a phone with a touchscreen. I can already foresee the obvious problems with this approach. I’ll stick with my Samsung A707, thanks... And the color is also a disappointment."

"5 hours of battery life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Are you kidding me? Are you sure this is a phone, not a laptop?"

"I think it’s pretty, but it probably won’t become the iPod of the phone industry... How long does it take Apple to develop a phone, while Samsung and Motorola can launch a new phone every few months and keep innovating, getting better and better. Sadly, if I want to text, I still prefer using a physical keyboard rather than weirdly tapping on a screen."

"I think the iPhone is nothing special. As a PDA user and Windows Mobile user, this thing is of no use to my phone... Apple, please develop a real PDA instead."

These were all voices on the internet, and, of course, there were also many who supported Apple, with people arguing in various forums and communities.

And within the traditional phone industry, various phone giants were also very concerned about the phone newly released by Apple.

Although most of them somewhat acknowledged Apple’s innovation, they did not believe that this phone would truly upset the existing phone market.

Because Apple had only launched this one phone with a retail price as high as five hundred US dollars, it was considered a high-end phone, and this just couldn’t possibly become truly popular.

Phone giants like Nokia, Samsung, and Motorola, although they sold tens of millions or even hundreds of millions every year, the real high-volume sales were of low-end models that cost only one or two hundred US dollars.

So, they didn’t feel any pressure; it was nothing more than a new brand appearing in the phone market, perhaps able to snatch some market share from high-end phones, but it wouldn’t have a real impact on the overall market.

...

TV news, online arguments, and phone industry evaluations were things that had nothing to do with Wang Ye.

After attending the new product launch, he didn’t stay long, only visiting the Apple headquarters the next day to attend a board meeting. Then, at the meeting as a major shareholder, he praised the executive team for their contributions to the company and boldly predicted that the company’s newly launched phone would achieve sales beyond expectations. He suggested that Boss Qiao and Cook integrate the industry chain as quickly as possible, increase phone production, and bring the company’s new phone to global consumers who were eagerly waiting...

After the meeting, Wang Ye chatted with Boss Qiao and Cook and specifically mentioned that Apple should open retail stores in Eastern Europe, in cities like Moscow, Petersburg, Yalta, Kiev, Astana, and so on.

As for the location, there was no need to look for one; there were ready-made ones, namely the Xiao Ying shopping center, which just so happened to an ultra-luxury positioned mall, meeting Apple’s site selection requirements...

This matter was, in fact, brought up by Nalan Yaqi, who pestered Wang Ye last night to mention it.

Clearly, Nalan Yaqi was very optimistic about the future of the Apple brand and Apple phone. Her Xiao Ying shopping center was positioned at the high end with good sales, but it just appeared too quiet...

So, when she saw the long queues outside the Apple retail stores broadcast on TV the previous day, her eyes lit up with the idea.

That was to bring Apple retail stores into her own Xiao Ying shopping center!

Wang Ye, pestered relentlessly by her, had no choice but to agree to her request. Today, he brought it up in front of Boss Qiao and Cook, and even specifically talked about redesigning the Apple retail stores to create a comfortable and elegant shopping and experience environment for consumers.

Boss Qiao and Cook certainly wouldn’t object; Wang Ye’s proposal was beneficial for the company, especially the retail store image enhancement suggested by Wang Ye, which Boss Qiao found quite appealing and planned to schedule arrangements.

...

He stayed in San Francisco for only two days, and on the third morning, Wang Ye took his private plane and returned to Moscow.

This trip to the United States was very low-key, and no unexpected occurrences arose.

Aside from a few Apple executives and the United States’ Diplomatic Security Bureau, hardly anyone knew he had been to the United States...