Luo Yonghao, the founder of Smartisan: "Slapping people in the face" is part of my job

"I particularly dislike the practice of some mobile phone manufacturers setting a high price when a new product is launched, and then reducing the price soon afterwards. We will stick to this price throughout the entire product cycle, unless the next generation of products is launched and the previous generation needs to clear inventory, then we may reduce the price for sales."

Regarding the pricing of domestic mobile phones, Luo Yonghao, the founder of Smartisan, once shouted indignantly for the Smartisan mobile phone. But before the shouting had completely died down, news of the Smartisan mobile phone's price being slashed by 1,000 yuan came flooding in.

From then on, it was foreshadowed that Luo Yonghao’s “face-slapping” work would never stop.

Compared with Lei Jun, the founder of Xiaomi, Luo Yonghao, who switched from a training school to the mobile phone industry, can be said to be more capable of and better at using Internet thinking; or, in other words, the little-known Hammer phone has more Internet temperament than the "highly popular" Xiaomi.

At the beginning of Smartisan mobile phone, Luo Yonghao won the support of 70 million investors with his "invincible talk" and "honest craftsman's face". When Smartisan T1 was launched, Smartisan Technology completed the B round of financing with a financing amount of 180 million yuan, which pushed the overall market valuation of Smartisan Technology to more than 1 billion yuan.

Of course, all the dazzling achievements come from the mystery of the Hammer phone. When a double-sided magic mirror with double-sided glass, the weight of a brick, fixed wallpaper, and buttons on both sides came out, the story of "slapping in the face" has really just begun.

Luo's idea for the Hammer phone is somewhat similar to that of Steve Jobs, that is, he does not care about the ideas and difficulties of engineers at all. Luo's definition of Hammer is: a truly fascinating mobile phone product should be one that people can't put down, has a very beautiful interface, is considerate and humanized in design, and is highly intuitive, without the need to read the manual.

Of course, it turns out that Lao Luo is not as rich and patient as Boss Qiao.

On May 20, 2014, the Smartisan smartphone was officially released; on July 8, the Smartisan T1 smartphone began shipping. Immediately afterwards, Luo Yonghao published a microblog titled "About production capacity and shipment, about gratitude and apology", in which he generously claimed that "due to the stringent requirements for workmanship, the yield rate on the production line is currently low", and "most of the products on our production line that cannot pass quality inspection are much better in workmanship than those of most mobile phone manufacturers, and the daily output does not exceed 1,000 units." In short, Luo Yonghao completed the first face-slapping work in the history of the Smartisan smartphone.

Although the Hammer phone can be called a genuine domestic brand in terms of design, production line, and marketing, Luo Yonghao still differentiates it from other domestic brands through price, and tries to open the market door of fan economy with the "feelings". The result is that there are very few literary and artistic people, and even fewer mid-to-high-end literary and artistic people. In addition, "feelings" are not as valuable as Luo Yonghao imagined.

Earlier this month, when the Smartisan T1 4G version was available for pre-order on Tmall, the number of pre-orders for the Smartisan phone was not only 0.5, but was also artificially tampered with by "multiplying by three", and was once again involved in the "fake scandal". Although Tmall later took the initiative to admit its unilateral fault, and Luo Yonghao said, "There has never been such a wonderful product and brand that has encountered such a large-scale misunderstanding, slander and defamation", we still cannot help but classify it as a "face-slapping" move by Luo Yonghao. Because both the brand and the channel operator suffered losses in this public relations crisis.

Of course, the real reason that prompted Luo Yonghao to take "slapping others in the face" as his job was the big price cut. Because, whether it was the price cut news or the price cut extent, Hammer Mobile Phone can be said to have created a new record for domestic mobile phone brands.

As soon as the price cut news came out, netizens dug up Luo Yonghao's response on August 4, 2013 to netizens' prediction that the price of Hammer phone would not exceed 1999 yuan. At that time, Luo Yonghao was also paranoid enough, and his sentence "If it is less than 2500 yuan, I am your grandson" did the best job of "slapping" this time.

At present, although Luo Yonghao responded to the doubts of netizens and users on the grounds of supply chain and product sales period, it has to be admitted that the Hammer phone under Luo Yonghao's leadership has completely slipped from the initial high-end market to the low-end market where domestic brand phones should be. In other words, the Hammer phone has finally begun to take the price as a guide and get on the right track.

Some people always think that what Luo sells is not a mobile phone, but a sentiment. I am stupid and only know how much a Hammer phone is worth, but I don't know that sentiment can make a living.

Today, the magical slogan of the Hammer phone is still posted in the elevators: "It is so simple, elegant and easy to use that it is hard to believe that it is a domestic mobile phone."

Before it goes through the embarrassing process of mechanically updating configuration, improving cost-effectiveness, and optimizing the interface, let us still believe that it is a domestic mobile phone.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.