The capital’s press conference venue.
On the giant screen, a live broadcast of the Longyao S1 launch event in the United States appeared.
Yu Xin, dressed in a black suit, stood at the center of the stage inside San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center, speaking fluently in a foreign language.
Behind her was another enormous dragon-shaped logo.
“Now, let us witness the true face of the Longyao S1 together.”
Yu Xin smiled faintly and gently pressed the remote in her hand.
The image changed, and a 360-degree rendering of the Longyao S1 slowly appeared on the giant screen.
It had a black body, clean, angular lines, and subtly rounded corners. The front featured a 3.7-inch capacitive touchscreen, with a circular physical Home button embedded beneath it. The back was made of glass, with a camera and flash arranged in the upper-left corner and a delicate dragon-shaped logo in the exact center.
The entire venue fell silent.
Almost everyone stared wide-eyed at the Longyao S1 displayed on the screen.
A few seconds later, the entire hall erupted in an uproar as deafening as a tsunami.
“Holy crap! Am I seeing this right?!”
“How does this phone look exactly like the Fruit 4?”
“Other than the dragon logo on the back, the exterior, frame, buttons, and screen layout are all exact copies!”
“This is insane!”
“They’re selling a knockoff for 2,999?”
“Jobs is probably laughing his head off. He just launched a new phone, and someone’s already replicated it for free.”
“This is hilarious. They actually have the nerve to copy Fruit so blatantly.”
“…”
Inside the capital’s venue, chaos erupted. Countless reporters abruptly rose to their feet as camera shutters flashed furiously, and the entire scene instantly spiraled out of control.
Many of the big names from the tech industry seated below the stage frowned, unable to stop themselves from complaining inwardly.
That’s it?
Domestic phone manufacturers really never fail to disappoint.
At this point in 2010, the Fruit 4 was the pinnacle of smartphones—the absolute benchmark of technological aesthetics.
The revolutionary phone design personally defined by Jobs was considered unique and impossible to replicate.
Now, a brand-new domestic company had suddenly appeared with a phone that copied the design outright. In everyone’s eyes, it was cheap, shameless opportunism with absolutely no bottom line.
The internet tycoons seated in the front row wore various expressions of surprise.
They, too, could hardly believe that the first phone released by Wanlonghui Group would look like this. Yet the facts were right before their eyes: every detail in the rendering was virtually identical to the Fruit 4.
Still, they managed to restrain themselves. Rather than openly criticizing the phone like the other attendees, they all turned, almost in unison, toward the girl seated in the middle of the first row.
When they saw that her expression remained calm—and that she was even smiling—they grew puzzled.
Could she have another card up her sleeve?
On the other side of the world, the foreigners at the Moscone Convention Center were equally stunned.
“What? What’s the difference between this and the Fruit 4?”
“It’s exactly the same! Apart from the logo, it’s identical!”
“Has this Longguo company gone insane? They’re copying Fruit outright?”
“This is Longguo design? Isn’t this the new phone Fruit just unveiled a few days ago? They took someone else’s exterior, slapped on their own logo, and called it a new product?”
“My God, this is the first time I’ve seen a Longguo company be this bold. They’re actually launching a knockoff openly at an event like this.”
“How ridiculous!”
“…”
As the discussions below the stage neared the point of explosion, Yu Xin lightly tapped the microphone.
“Everyone, please calm down.”
“I know what you’re thinking. Hear me out first.”
Yu Xin’s voice rang throughout the venue through the speakers. The noisy crowd gradually quieted, and everyone wanted to see how the person in charge of Wanlonghui planned to explain this awkward situation.
“I also know that all of you must think the Longyao S1 copied the Fruit 4.”
“To be honest, when I first saw the leaked images of Fruit’s new phone, I was shocked too.”
“At the time, I thought, How could there be such a coincidence?”
“But later, I figured it out. The reason the Fruit 4 copied the exterior of our Longyao S1 is actually quite understandable.”
???
???
Countless question marks seemed to spring above the heads of the audience.
Wait.
What had this girl just said?
Fruit copied Longyao?
It wasn’t Longyao copying Fruit, but Fruit copying Longyao?
“Perhaps truly great designs shine like fireflies in the darkness. No matter where they hide, they always attract everyone’s attention.
“Fruit’s design team probably saw the design plans for our Longyao S1 and was blinded by their radiance. They got so excited that they couldn’t help but borrow the design.”
A restrained wave of laughter swept through the audience.
This woman was vicious. Everyone knew that Longyao had copied Fruit, yet she could claim—without the slightest embarrassment—that Fruit had copied Longyao. She even said that Fruit had been blinded by the brilliance of Longyao’s design.
“I know you don’t believe me. If I were in your shoes, I wouldn’t believe it either.”
“So, now, please look at the giant screen.”
Yu Xin pressed the remote again, and the image changed once more.
Two documents appeared side by side on the giant screen. On the left was Longyao S1’s exterior design patent application; on the right was Fruit 4’s publicly disclosed exterior design patent document. The key dates in both documents were highlighted.
Longyao S1’s exterior design patent application date: December, XXX year.
Fruit 4’s exterior design patent publication date: July, XXX year.
Longyao S1’s application had been filed a full six months before Fruit 4’s patent was made public.
Boom!
The moment they saw the patent application date, everyone at both the capital venue and the San Francisco venue erupted.
Longyao’s patent was actually more than six months older than the Fruit 4’s?
It was almost impossible to believe.
Yet Yu Xin’s next words were the true killing blow.
“As you can see, we have registered the exterior design patent in all major countries and regions around the world, including East Continent, West Continent, and North America. So, as for who copied whom, I believe the answer is self-evident.”
At this point, Yu Xin deliberately adopted a joking tone.
“But it’s all right. Wanlonghui Group is a very magnanimous company, so we have no intention of pursuing Fruit or Mr. Jobs for patent infringement, nor will we demand exorbitant licensing fees.
“Longyao is willing to grant Fruit a free license for this exterior design patent. We have only one requirement: Fruit must publicly acknowledge that the two designs are identical and issue a formal written apology.
“One statement in exchange for a free patent license. How does that sound? Aren’t we being reasonable?”
When the tech-industry bigwigs, reporters, and ordinary spectators in the audience heard this, they were all left speechless.
Was it reasonable? On the surface, yes.
But in reality, anyone could see that this was a massive strategic trap.
If Jobs really issued a public apology, it would amount to admitting before the entire world that Apple had copied the design of a Dragon Nation smartphone. Apple’s aura of greatness would shatter overnight.
But if Jobs refused to apologize, Apple would have to face a multinational patent-infringement lawsuit.
Although Longyao had said it would not pursue the matter, that was the sort of statement one should take with a grain of salt. They were all adults—anyone who took it seriously would be a fool.
In short, no matter what Apple chose, there was only one outcome: the Longyao S1 would ride Apple’s coattails and become famous overnight.
That was a truly ruthless move!
“All right, that’s enough about the design,” Yu Xin said, clapping her hands. In a relaxed tone, she smoothly brought the topic back on track. “Next, let’s take a look at the Longyao S1’s hardware specifications.”
The image on the big screen changed once again, displaying the Longyao S1’s detailed specifications one by one.
“The Longyao S1 features a 3.7-inch capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 480 by 800 pixels. Its processor is our independently developed LX-A1 chip, based on the ARM architecture, with a clock speed of 800 MHz. It integrates a PowerVR SGX530 graphics processor and comes with 512 megabytes of RAM and 8 gigabytes of internal storage. The rear camera is a 5-megapixel autofocus camera that supports video recording, while the front-facing camera has 300,000 pixels and supports video calls. The battery has a capacity of 1,800 mAh, providing up to a day and a half of battery life under normal use.”
The previous-generation Mi 1 seemed to have used the same 480-by-800 resolution. Although it could not compare with the stunning Retina display on the iPhone 4, at this point in 2010, it was still far ahead of the competition.
With an independently developed chip, a 5-megapixel camera, and a large 1,800 mAh battery, those specifications placed the phone firmly in the upper midrange—or even higher—of the current smartphone market.
“Beyond the hardware, our biggest highlight is another specially recommended application installed on the Longyao S1.”
The moment Yu Xin finished speaking, the large screen behind her abruptly switched images.
A pitch-black cosmic background instantly filled the entire display. Then, a huge blue planet slowly emerged.
It was WeChat’s startup screen: one person, one Earth, and a sense of loneliness and longing for connection distilled to the barest simplicity.
The startup screen alone instantly seized everyone’s attention. It was especially striking.
“WeChat—a brand-new instant-messaging tool for mobile phones.”
The moment those words appeared, Pony Ma’s expression changed in the imperial capital venue.
Oh, no! This was clearly aimed straight at him!
