CHAPTER 283: CHAPTER 283: A HEAVY BLOW

Jiang Cheng looked at Zhang Manlin and couldn’t help but chuckle inside. Who would have thought that even a strong woman like Zhang Manlin could be charmed by him? In the end, does he possess some quality that attracts women?

While Zhang Manlin was surprised by the ten billion figure, those in other phone companies found their CEOs and old hands in a panic!

Jinli Company!

Even though it was past one in the morning, more than half of the senior executives remained in the meeting room, lights still on, staring at the terrifying figure on the Cosmic Umbrella Technology Company’s official website, all plunged into silence.

President Liu’s expression was equally grim. Usually, he wore a smile, and all the senior executives of Jinli Technology knew that this expression only appeared when the company faced a significant crisis.

"What was the total domestic phone market sales last year?" President Liu asked, trembling, as he looked at the figure, questioning an executive beside him.

The executive quickly replied, "President Liu, last year’s total domestic phone market sales were seven hundred million." Upon hearing this, President Liu suddenly laughed foolishly, and everyone around didn’t dare to speak a word, also frightened by that figure on the Cosmic Umbrella Technology Company’s website.

"Seven hundred million, hahaha, seven hundred million, well, well, well, their hourly order revenue matches what these domestic manufacturers strive for over one and a half years, and since they monopolized the transparent phone technology, who knows how much they profit from each phone sold? Well, well, well!"

"After today, I reckon we’re all going to become the next Nokia!" President Liu suddenly seemed ten years older. Jinli Company had only developed so well over the past few years, and he always thought he did well, but unexpectedly, Cosmic Umbrella Technology Company’s emergence pushed these established manufacturers to the brink within a year!

Of course, he had no regrets. No regrets for what he did with other phone companies against Cosmic Umbrella Technology Company. To him, the replacement of previously popular smartphones by transparent phones was merely a matter of time.

What? Jinli also wants to make transparent phones?

Sorry, but the key new graphene preparation technology for manufacturing transparent phones is in the hands of Cosmic Umbrella Technology Company. Do you think they would kindly sell it to you?

Whoever masters the technology controls the industry’s big picture! The lauded President Liu stared at the long string of numbers on Cosmic Umbrella Technology’s website, rooted there wordlessly.

And the rest of the directors and executives could only keep silent as well!

Faced with the launch of the Elf MINI phone by Cosmic Umbrella Technology Company, they had no solution whatsoever.

Spread rumors again? Are people really fools?

They could foresee that the future of the phone industry was destined to belong to transparent phones!

In the overseas Apple and LG, Cook and Kwon Bang-seok wore expressions similar to President Liu, sharing similar thoughts.

If their situations could be summarized in a sentence, it would definitely be: Today, we all became Nokia!

One night passed just like that.

Yesterday’s Elf MINI phone release in the middle of the night caused a considerable stir, and various media outlets felt they had found a new topic, each hastily started writing up reports.

And overnight, the CEOs of those phone companies all found themselves suffering from insomnia, each developing a fear of going to work.

There was no particular reason; they dreaded hearing any news about the Elf MINI phone by Cosmic Umbrella Technology Company, dreaded hearing about their company’s stock plummeting in the stock market, dreaded getting those helpless reports from their subordinates about declining phone sales!

All those phone company CEOs decidedly understood what lay ahead for them....

They were self-aware, every one of them.

They knew that this time, unlike before, their future was destined to become like Nokia. Issues they began pondering over broadly were:

When to start laying off employees?

When to shift the company’s focus to another industry?

When to start transferring company shares?

At nine in the morning, the Huaxia Stock Market officially opened.

With Cosmic Umbrella Technology Company revealing the first-day global sales figures, even a fool realized what the situation was—this marked the arrival of a new era! The phone industry was entirely catering to the transparent phone’s domination.

Many holders of phone company stocks sold them without hesitation, leaving the stock market in shambles with a sea of green numbers!

Jinli Company: "It’s bad, it’s bad, President Liu, our stocks have hit limit down!"

Similar scenarios played out in numerous domestic phone companies; just overnight, those companies’ valuations plummeted to an unknown degree.

Countless phone company executives submitted their resignations, and many company employees were late to work.

Because they knew their current company no longer had any future.

Meanwhile, overseas at LG and Apple, it was the same—at market open, their stocks plummeted aggressively, nearly driving the veteran CEOs out of their minds!

"How is this possible? How can a phone sell ten billion units in an hour? This is ridiculous, utterly ridiculous! We’ve only managed to secure our position after years of effort at Apple, yet who would have known we’d be defeated so easily!" Cook lay weakly in his office chair, venting his anger at the assistant beside him.

Since he took over Apple Inc., he’d never encountered such a situation, especially one where death seemed certain!

The assistant beside him looked utterly innocent, "Can you blame me for this? I have nothing to do with this... although he was unwilling to admit it, this was indeed a transformative era, a historical changeover! It’s an irreversible fact. In fact, long ago when the transparent phone first appeared and astonished the world, he already had an inkling. It’s just that he never voiced it and didn’t expect it would come so soon...

."Sigh....!" Cook heaved a heavy sigh, his eyes filled with helplessness, knowing now, there was nothing he could do!

As for LG’s Kwon Bang-seok, compared to Cook, he was relatively more at ease because, although LG was indeed a global top in the phone market, the disappearance of the phone market allowed them to shift focus to another industry; it would just be extremely painful!