readsfreenovel Chapter 380 Starlight Notebook
Chapter 380 Starlight Notebook
When Ling Yun got out of the car, the wind was blowing in from the north, stinging his neck. He shivered and zipped his jacket all the way up. The national flag hung on the flagpole at the factory gate, rustling in the wind, the flag ropes clanging against the iron pole.
As Ling Yun was about to walk inside, Ma Baoguo came out of the office building to greet her. He was wearing a dark blue work uniform with worn-out cuffs and a tightly buttoned collar. He walked over quickly, followed by two people, one carrying a notebook and the other a water cup.
"President Ling." Ma Baoguo extended his hand, and Ling Yun shook it. His hand was rough and warm.
"Let's take a look at the production line," Ling Yun said.
Ma Baoguo nodded, took the water glass from the person behind him, and handed it to Ling Yun. "President Ling, warm your hands, it's too cold."
Ling Yun took the water cup and followed him towards the workshop. The workshop was at the very back of the factory area, a newly built three-story building with gray exterior walls and large, spotlessly clean windows. Several forklifts were parked at the entrance, unloading goods; the cardboard boxes were printed with the "Alienware" logo. Workers, dressed in uniform blue overalls with their hats pulled up tightly, pushed flatbed carts in and out. No one spoke; only the beeping sounds of the forklifts reversing filled the air.
Ma Baoguo pushed open the workshop door, and a wave of heat rushed towards him. The heating was on full blast, a completely different world from the outside. The production lines stretched out in two rows, from one end to the other, as far as the eye could see.
The workers sat at their workstations, heads down, their hands never stopping. The conveyor belt moved slowly, transporting motherboards from one end to the other. The lights were fluorescent, row upon row, illuminating the entire workshop in a blinding white light. The air was filled with the smell of rosin and new plastic, a mixture that gave the distinctive odor of an electronics factory.
Ma Baoguo walked ahead, his pace neither fast nor slow. He pointed to the first production line and said, "This one is for motherboard surface mounting. It's a Samsung surface mount machine, bought last year, the precision is sufficient. It can mount two thousand pieces a day. The yield rate is ninety-eight percent." Ling Yun stood beside the production line, watching the robotic arm move up and down, the suction nozzle picking up components the size of rice grains, pressing them onto the circuit board, pressing them down, and releasing them. The movements were too fast to see clearly. Next to him, a worker stared at a screen, which displayed various numbers, red and green. He watched for a while, then continued walking forward.
The second line was final assembly. Workers installed the motherboards into the base cases, connected the ribbon cables, and tightened the screws. Their movements were practiced and efficient; once one station finished, it was passed to the next, like an assembly line. Lingyun stood behind a female worker, watching her tighten the screws. Left hand holding the screw, right hand the electric screwdriver, aligned with the hole, pressed down, click—done. Next, click, done. Then next, click. She didn't look up, and had no idea who was standing behind her.
Ma Baoguo, standing nearby, said, "This line can assemble 1,500 units a day. We're currently operating two shifts, each eight hours. If there are more orders, we can operate three shifts."
Lingyun asked him, "What's the daily production now?" Ma Baoguo replied, "Around 1,200. The aliens are in a hurry to get the goods, and sales are good in the US, about 400 to 500 units a day. Europe has also started placing orders, about 100 to 200 units a day. Adding some that are shipped domestically, it's about 1,200. The inventory is maintained at around 2,000 units, which isn't enough to meet demand."
Lingyun continued walking forward. The third line was testing; every assembled laptop had to be put on the test bench and run through the test. The screen was checked for brightness, key presses, touchpad functionality, speaker operation, and network connectivity. A worker sat at each test bench, a laptop in front of them, tapping away and staring intently at the screen. Next to them was a monitor running a test program, a green progress bar moving step by step. When it reached the end, a "ding" sounded, indicating it had passed. The worker removed the laptop, placed it on a shelf, and moved on to the next one.
Ling Yun stood in front of the shelf and picked up a laptop. It had a silver-gray casing, very thin, a bit thinner than typical laptops. He opened the lid; the screen lit up, displaying the Starry Sky system desktop with a blue starry sky and white shooting stars. He swiped his finger across the touchpad; the cursor followed smoothly. He opened a folder, then closed it. He opened a browser, then closed it. He opened a text editor, typed a few words, then deleted them. He closed the lid and put it back on the shelf. He asked Ma Baoguo, "How much did this alien laptop cost?"
Ma Baoguo said, "It costs $1,200. The imported components such as memory, hard drive, and screen are relatively expensive."
Ling Yun nodded and continued walking. The fourth line was packaging. Workers were packing the tested laptops into black cardboard boxes printed with an alien logo—an alien head with long, narrow eyes and a narrow face. Inside each box was a power adapter, an instruction manual, and a white charging cable secured with a cable tie. The workers sealed the boxes and placed them on a tray nearby. The tray was already stacked very high, neatly arranged like a wall.
Ling Yun stood in front of that wall for a while. He turned around, looked at Ma Baoguo, and said, "Let's go to the conference room to talk."
The conference room's heating had just been turned on, so it wasn't very warm yet. Several people sat on either side of the long table. Ling Yun sat at the head of the table, with Ma Baoguo to his left and Li Mo to his right. Wang Jianguo sat next to Ma Baoguo, holding a notebook. Zhao Weiguo sat next to Li Mo, with a thermos in front of him. Chen Lingling sat by the window, a stack of documents spread out in front of her.
Ling Yun didn't sit down. He stood in front of the whiteboard and picked up a marker. He wrote a few words on the whiteboard: "Starlight Notebook." After writing, he turned around and looked at everyone.
He said, "The Alienware business has been successful. The response in the US has been good, both in reviews and orders. But Alienware is positioned as a high-end product, priced at $1,999, which is unaffordable in China. What China needs is a cheap laptop. For students, teachers, and ordinary office workers. It doesn't need to have high performance, just enough to get by. It needs long battery life, light weight, and a low price."
He paused, glancing around. Ma Baoguo was flipping through the documents in front of him, while Wang Jianguo was writing something in his notebook with his head down.
Ling Yun continued, "This laptop is called Starlight. It uses an ARM chip, the Starry Sky operating system, and our own screen, battery, and casing. Its configuration is one level lower than Alienware's, and its price is also one level lower. Alienware sells for $1,999, while Starlight sells for 6,000 RMB, which is one-third the price of Alienware."
Ma Baoguo looked up at Ling Yun and asked, "How much should we reduce production costs?"
Ling Yun said, "Four thousand."
Ma Baoguo paused, his brow furrowing slightly. "Four thousand? The core components are all imported. It's difficult to reduce costs to four thousand. Each Alienware unit earns five hundred US dollars, or four thousand RMB. Starlight is very likely to lose money. Why should we put our limited production capacity into producing Starlight?"
Ling Yun said, "Alienware is about making profits, while Starlight is about seizing market share. If we don't seize the domestic market, will others take it? Yixiang, Zhengfang, and Fangtong are all eyeing the laptop market. And there are foreign companies like Dell, HP, and Toshiba; they'll be here sooner or later."
"If you don't secure your spot now, you won't even have a place to stand when others arrive. Starlight isn't aiming to make a profit, just break even. The priority is to build up the user base and retain users. Once users get used to the Starlight system, they'll buy your system again when they upgrade their computers. This is about building an ecosystem, not just a business."