Letv’s event “Breaking Boundaries with Letv’s Ecosystem” was held in Beijing, and the Silicon Valley, simultaneously. Jia Yueting, founder of Letv, spoke to the public again after one year and introduced Le Super Phones, the first ecosystem phones in the world that support the vertically integrated Letv ecosystem. Three flagship products in two series, the Le 1 series and the Le Max series, were launched in the event. The Phones are equipped with state-of-the-art Qualcomm and MediaTek chips. Le Max is the world’s first phone to adopt a full metal, full floating glass and bezel-free ID design. It also has the narrowest display edge (less than 1.5 mm). It also boasts the 2K Sharp “Le Screen”, 21 MP Sony camera, custom-made Le HiFi and flippable Type-C port. The Le 1 series, including Le 1 and Le 1 Pro, use the world’s first pricing model based on BOM cost at RMB 1,499 and RMB 2,499 respectively. The flagship Le Max represents the culmination of technology and hardware and follows a unique user-pricing model, enabling the users to set the price with reference to the publicized BOM cost. The engineering version of the Le Phones will start receiving buyers’ reservation at 10:00am on April 15 on shop.letv.com, and the flash sales starting at 10:00 am on April 21. The 200,000 mass produced Le Phones will start receiving buyers’ reservation at 14:00 on May 5, and will be available for purchase at noon on May 19.
In the afternoon, Jia Yueting gave a speech for about two hours, during which he criticized Apple’s lack of openness for inhibiting innovation and progress of the mobile industry. He stressed that Letv has surpassed Apple in many areas such as design, craftsmanship, hardware, video ecosystem and business model. Letv’s open vertically integrated ecosystem, first of its kind in the world, has initiated the transformation of the mobile industry from the smart age to the ecosystem age. Mr. Jia elaborated on the concept, product, ecosystem, EUI, business model and pricing model of the Le Phones and was the first in the industry to disclose the BOM cost and mass production cost. He also took the ground-shaking step to use a pricing model based on mass production cost, a free hardware plan and a free data plan.
With its revolutionary business, product, sales and pricing models, Letv is going to redefine the mobile industry just like what it did to the television industry with its Super TVs. The mobile industry will now enter the age of vertical integration and open ecosystem, which is set to create new user value.
The unprecedented Letv event lasted for a whole day, attracting more than 1000 media from around the world. It was broadcast live worldwide on Letv.com and other video websites and the total number of viewers exceeded 100 million, setting yet another record in the history of the Internet and mobile industries. Letv successfully set a new standard for this industry in terms of the event’s duration, scale and influence.
Le Phone is not only a mobile phone. Instead, it is a comprehensive mobile Internet ecosystem. Letv is trying to break Apple’s monopoly and bring down the barriers of hardware, applications, interactions, organizations and innovation with the powerful ecosystem, to create new value for users, new types of products and new functions by crossing different industries. Letv will vertically integrate the industrial chain and set higher standards for hardware, thus pushing for the advent of new technologies and materials. Letv will give life to hardware and disrupt the traditional manufacturers and the Internet marketers. The open vertically integrated ecosystem launched by Letv will be the future of phones and greater revolution can be expected for this industry.
Letv introduced the world’s first ecosystem UI system, the EUI, which is a cross-device ecosystemic interactive hub. The mobile version of the EUI has redefined the boundaries of mobile Internet. It will cover Letv’s TV, Phone and Auto applications and features high-speed connectivity and seamless connection with the Letv ecosystem. The mobile version of the EUI on Le Phones features the world’s first categorized desktops: a unique Live desk, Application Desk, and LeView. It turns live broadcast and videos into new portals to the mobile Internet. Live shows are available 24 hours a day on Live Desk, which provides online live broadcasting, satellite TV, Le Channel and StarCast. LeView enables users to search, aggregate, recommend, remark and share. Excellent connectivity and seamless connection between different desks make the Ideaflow Interaction possible, therefore bringing down the barriers between applications and services and redefining the way people connect to the mobile Internet.
The launch event featured stars such as Huang Xiaoming, G.E.M.Tang, Yu Quan, Tsui Hark and Zheng Xiaolong. Hundreds of celebrities gave their support to Le Phones on Weibo. The event was also supported by Letv.com, Letv, LeVP, Letv Cloud Computing, Letv Sports, Letv Music, LeCar, wangjiu.com and other ecosystem companies. Le Phone’s global partners Qualcomm and Sharp, who are world leaders in the smart chip and tablet industries respectively, also joined the event. This fully demonstrated Le Phone’s open vertically integrated ecosystem and its position and influence in the market right from the very beginning. Just like what Mr. Feng Xing, President of Lemobile, said, even if there was no ecosystem, Le Super Phones would still be powerful phones; but with the ecosystem, the Le Super Phones will be the pioneers to revolutionize the mobile Internet.
