In November 2013, Suzhou Lantian Laptop OEM Factory, the startup team of Thor notebooks and several senior media review engineers discussed the new Thor 911 product together to understand user feedback for upcoming products;
In April 2019, Thor used JD big data deep mining combined with C2M reverse customization, and jointly launched the industry's first 16-inch high-performance laptop . So far, many manufacturers have followed up with 16-inch products;
JD
JD
JD in July 2021, Thor 4K MiniLED screen high-end notebooks were released in shock...
In just 8 years, Raytheon Technology has grown from a maker company invested and incubated by the "person-on-one" model within Haier Group to a high-performance professional computer hardware manufacturer, and has been selected as the " World Brand Lab " China's 500 Most Valuable Brand List for two consecutive years.
You should know that the industry has many notebook brands that were founded earlier than Thor. In the current time when the laptop OEM model is so transparent, Thor conveys many different brand spirits to the industry and users.
As a young notebook brand, how did Thor repeatedly win the love of young people and constantly break through itself to make the product cutting-edge and fashionable? How does the corporate culture of "because of Thunder fans, Thunder" connect the relationship between Thunder and users? With these questions in mind, we visited the top supply chain company in Thor in Chongqing, , Quanta Computer and BOE B8 display panel intelligent manufacturing factory, and had in-depth conversations with Li Yanbing, executive vice president of Thor Technology and general manager of Thor, and saw Thor's determination and confidence in creating a trendy domestic product of professional computer hardware.
Thor Technology founder & executive vice president and general manager of Thor Technology Li Yanbing interview site
01 How can young brands gain a foothold?
In Chongqing Western New City Bonded Zone, Quanta Chongqing Manufacturing City 's scale spreads several companies. Here, countless top supply chain companies are gathered in the PC industry, and they produce notebook products for many world-class PC brands, including Thor. According to relevant data in 2021, Chongqing has become the city with the largest production of PC and notes in the country.
At this moment, in the manufacturing workshop of Quanda , there are almost no people in the huge workshop. The PCB motherboard of the new Thor ZERO mini LED series is flowing rhythmically on the production line. As we can see, in this workshop known as , the production of PCB has been fully automated, and the patches, plug-ins and quality inspection of components are automatically controlled by the computer.
Thor Quanta notebook production workshop, the most critical PCB board patch plug-ins and detection have all realized full automation
To ensure quality, Thor's notebook will undergo 20,000 ash aging, as well as high temperature and high humidity, body compression resistance, drop and earthquake resistance, etc.
Thor's notebook complete extreme simulation test list
On the assembly line, more than 30 workers completed Thor's ZERO mini under the careful division of labor, installation and inspection process The assembly and quality inspection of new LED series products also include military quality tests for notebooks such as high and low temperatures, drops and earthquake resistance in professional laboratories.
At the same time, looking at the straight line distance of 33km to the Guangda factory, it is BOE B8 Chongqing manufacturing factory. The display panel of the new Thor ZERO mini LED series comes from here. In the 1/10th dust-level automation workshop of the operating room, there is almost no one on duty. A Corning glass substrate with a thickness of only 0.2mm will eventually become a 1008 backlit mini LED display screen here.
is the latest display technology that has been entered into in the industry at present. The size of the mini LED is about 200μm, which is much smaller than the LED beads with traditional LCD backlighting. This means that for the same 14-inch display, the panel using mini LED backlight technology can put more backlight beads in the panel. The more light beads mean the higher the number of partitions that can be realized. The number of backlit partitions of Thor T-BOOK 14 notebooks is 1008, which is also the highest number of partitions that can be achieved by the current 14-inch mini LED screen.The more partitioned backlights, the higher the light control accuracy, the higher the brightness and contrast that can be achieved, so the contrast and dark field performance will be better, and there will be no screen burning phenomenon that may exist in OLED. Therefore, it is even better in terms of screen color expression and service life. Thor and BOE have worked in-depth cooperation on mini LED technology, once again leading the cutting-edge technology trend of mini LED high-performance notebooks, and continue to lead the notebook industry to develop towards mini LED screens.
In fact, the supply chain is actually just a microcosm. Faced with the once-existing but now disappearing in the market, and from those still strong PC brands, Thor has established a completely different product design idea from other products - breaking the idea of "back-end technology promoting front-end development of " in traditional PC design. It is no longer about pushing whatever manufacturers are in the market, but about pushing what manufacturers are lacking in the market.
Therefore, since its birth, Thor has attached great importance to cooperation with top supply chains in the industry. This is not easy for a new brand. Looking back at the birth of the first generation of Thor 911 products, Thor spent a lot of effort on the radiator to compete with the foundry for the right to speak, but this did not make Thor give up. Instead, it further strengthened its determination and confidence to strengthen quality, increase sales, and grasp the right to speak in the supply chain industry.
Therefore, the number of years the Thor brand was born will last as long as the cooperation with top suppliers such as Quanta and BOE. When we talked with Li Yanbing, executive vice president of Thunder Technology and general manager of Thunder Technology, we learned that Thunder did not hesitate to invest heavily in R&D, which is a lot of money for a PC manufacturing company less than 10 years ago.
Take Thor’s upcoming T-BOOK 14 notebook, as for Thor’s upcoming T-BOOK 14 notebook, this product that has devoted Thor’s development history for more than a year reflects Thor’s increasingly powerful product development capabilities. Unlike many common thin and light notebooks, T-BOOK 14 does not have the B-side screen bezel that traditional notebooks have. Instead, it has introduced the "FILT" light screen technology in conjunction with BOE. FLIT is the abbreviation of the English first letter of the four words "full screen", lightweight, integrated, and ultra-thin". After adopting the light screen technology, the screen and the magnesium-aluminum alloy top cover are integrated nested, and a built-in under-screen camera is truly realized. The Thor T-BOOK 14, which adopts FILT technology, has a weight reduction of about 100g, an overall thickness reduction of 0.7mm, and has achieved an ultra-narrow bezel of 1.2mm and a screen-to-body ratio of up to 95%, becoming an advocate and leader of the true full-screen technology of the thin and lightweight industry.
Thor T-BOOK 14 innovative design without B-side frames will lead the new development of the industry's thin and light notebook full-screen technology
In fact, Thor's footsteps not only stay in the single track of notebooks, but after more than 8 years of development, Thor's product line layout has been very complete. At present, three core product lines have been formed, including notebooks, high-performance desktops, and peripheral peripherals, and the products have been extended to four major application scenarios: creative design, business office, domestic information innovation, and e-sports.
Thor's product family photo
It can be seen that Thor has been deeply rooted in the market for eight years. The reason why it has been able to gain a foothold in the market and continues to grow and grow is precisely because it has always focused on R&D and quality, and relies on top upstream supply chain resources to continuously empower its product configuration and strength, gained a large number of loyal young user groups, and created the phenomenon-level brand of Thor.
02 Come from young people to young people
Orange, yellow, red... are the colors of young people, so Thor's product genes are injected with such elements from the beginning. Looking at the market, it is difficult for us to see that the products promoted by PC manufacturers are mainly bright and jumping colors. Therefore, Thor's products are focused on the needs of young people from the beginning. In other words, from young people to young people.
The top suppliers in the industry, the top design and R&D teams, high standards and strict quality control... If these are the foundation for the growth of the Thor brand, then "young" is its always flowing "gene" and it is also the reason why it can quickly occupy the young people's market.
Nowadays, it is rare to see this product with bright colors and personality tags in the notebook market.
This young gene started with young users.Since its birth, Thor has paid great attention to interaction with fans. also focuses on fan economy and word-of-mouth marketing routes in its product sales strategy. Therefore, we rarely see Thor's print advertisements, online APP embeddings or pop-up advertisements. On the contrary, Thor pays great attention to the evaluation and suggestions of users on the Internet. "We took the word-of-mouth route from the beginning." Li Yanbing said, "The first fan meeting was held in three months since the establishment of the Thor brand, most of which were young people."
Thor Player League fan party scene
users were accumulated by word of mouth, and the stickiness of fans was also cultivated bit by bit. Almost every important moment of the Thor brand will allow fans to participate and witness. From the launch conference of new products, to the national interactive communication activities and offline technical support, to the "Thor Family Banquet" that regularly invites core fans to participate, go to Sanya, Hainan to dive with fans, go to Beijing to drive an helicopter , go to the Gobi Desert together, carry beer, crayfish and Thor cool ice cream from Qingdao to the national event site... Each link tries to get fans closer to the Thor brand, "We and users are actually like family members, and can talk about everything. Because our Thor brand is what fans have helped us achieve today, we also hope to achieve the wishes of fans as much as possible." Li Yanbing said.
It is worth mentioning that Thor Family Banquet is a dinner party reserved for Thor’s offline fan gathering. Just listening to this name, we can feel the warm side of this event. At the annual family dinner, Thor regards fans as his "family" and invites core fans to attend the meeting. Thor's senior management and R&D personnel participate at the same time.
Now, the Thor brand has accumulated more than ten million fans on the nine major positions, and fan meetings are held regularly across the country. The earliest group of fans, including many moderators of the post bar, even became Thor's employees. Li Yanbing said that Thor provides some positions that are exclusively for fans to go straight to. And within Thor, there is even a special position, namely "Fan Interaction Manager". So it is not difficult to imagine why Thor’s employees understand the needs of young users better.
How did this gene feed back to the Thor brand? You can get a glimpse from some of Thor's series in recent years.
If you ask what is the most popular among young people in Generation Z circles? The national trend is well deserved. The report "Baidu 2021 National Trend Pride Search Big Data" shows that the attention of national Trend has increased by 528% in the past decade. As early as the "first year of the national trend", the Thor brand captured this emerging consumption trend among young people.
At that time, the domestic animation movie " Return of the Great Sage " quickly set off a national trend after its release, while the Thor brand immediately felt the enthusiasm and expectations of young users for this, and quickly launched the customized version of the Great Sage "Wukong Book".
"We have always maintained close contact with young users, so we are very clear about what new needs they have. Then they like national trends, so we will do some national trend products." After contacting and communicating with many young consumers, Li Yanbing observed that young consumers are becoming more and more diversified. "They not only regard computers as tools, but also a display of personal identity. Therefore, our products must not only meet practical needs, but also meet the psychological needs of young people."
Nowadays, Thor's products also have the design aesthetics and quality that surpasses international PC brands
Therefore, with the popularity of national trends and national styles, and ancient cultural and creative products are now setting off another craze. The Thor brand, rooted in user needs, once again keenly gained insight into this and jointly launched the "Tiger General" series with "The World in the Palace", allowing cultural relics such as tiger talismans and inscriptions to appear on Thor products, including notebooks, monitors, desktops, mice, keyboards, etc.
Among them, in order to bring players a more extreme equipment experience, this joint brand also covers the peripheral products - the world-famous "Tiger General" bag in Thunder Palace, which brings the elements of the tiger talisman to the top, and uses the bag culture to collide with traditional culture to create a unique national trend aesthetic style.
But if you want to impress young people, it is not enough to just look good, you also need to have hard-core strength.The so-called hard-core strength complements the strong supply chain mentioned above. As Li Yanbing mentioned, "We are not only making domestic trend products because consumers like them, but also because the product strength of Chinese brands has indeed improved, and the brand has become more and more culturally confident, and there is still a lot of room to explore in the future."
In addition, based on in-depth insight into the needs of young users, young people prefer products with personality and excellent performance. Therefore, Thor has continuously integrated young ideas and needs in development, and has also done many highlights in the industry in terms of products, such as the 16GB memory mentioned above, the full-series Core i7 processor, the full-series products first use FHD full-high-definition screen, and even the industry's first 16.6-inch screen, the industry's first 4K mini LED screen product, etc., which greatly reflect Thor's pious attitude of insight into young people's needs and developing products for young people.
In order to allow more users to experience Thor's products as soon as possible, Thor deploys offline physical stores nationwide, realizing the full process of Thor's products from pre-sales, during-sales and after-sales service. You should know that there are few brands in the PC industry that can provide 365-day × 24-hour telephone support services, and Thor is one of them.
03 Create a Chinese brand and feed back to the industry ecology
It is precisely because of the strong supply chain confidence and youthful courage that Thor, who is determined to be a "Chinese brand", has also tried to feed back to the industry ecology with his own strength, and the future waves drive the industry to change.
If you look back at Thor's years of hard work, you can find many of its "highlight moments" that "before the industry".
When all the high-performance laptops on the market use 4GB of memory, Thor popularized 16GB of memory on its own products; when the laptops on the market still insisted on the 1024×768 screen resolution, Thor switched to the FHD full HD screen; when all the high-performance laptops were pushing the i5 at that time, Thor's products switched to the Core i7 with better performance; when the gaming laptops were either gray or black, they switched to the Core i7. At that time, Thor's high-performance notebooks adopt youthful and energetic orange and yellow full of extreme energy, giving Thor a strong label of its own audience compared to other similar products...
can also see a glimpse from the information on Thor's official website: Over the past 8 years, we have been paying attention and witnessing along the way, Thor has become more skilled and outstanding in product development, and the product difference between Thor and industry giants is narrowing at a visible speed. Thor T-BOOK 14 notebooks are a watershed - facing the industry's notebook brands that are still small-scale transformations by public models, Thor has long since left the early stage of product research and development. With its own R&D investment and the cooperation of the industry's top supply chain, it has achieved repeated leaps in Thor's product design and quality, which is also the core of Thor's ability to continuously win the trust of the young user group.
"Whether it is a small screen or a mini LED technology, we are actually trying to improve the consumer experience, and consumers will force the entire industry to change after having a better experience. Taking mini LED as an example, this technology was rarely used on the PC side before, so the cost was high and the price was high. However, after Thor's first launch, more and more manufacturers also started to do it. When scaled up, the cost was reduced, and consumers can buy a better experience at a lower price." Li Yanbing explained.
And this attitude and belief that feeds back to the industry is the responsibility and responsibility of a Chinese brand. It is worth mentioning that Thor has been included in the "World Brand Lab" list of China's 500 Most Valuable Brands for two consecutive years. In 2022, the brand value was 12.885 billion yuan, an increase of 24.8%, and the ranking rose to 419th. This is obviously an important milestone in the brand building of Thor Technology, and it is also an inevitable result of Thor Technology's adherence to the high-quality development route.
Thor was selected as the "World Brand Lab" list of China's 500 Most Valuable Brands for two consecutive years
So, this young Chinese brand not only released great energy in the Chinese market, showed enough cultural confidence, but also quickly went abroad to let more people witness the "China's strength".
In recent years, Thor's products have also been adjusted to the preferences of overseas users, and have now successfully entered the European and Southeast Asian markets. According to Li Yanbing, "Despite the impact of the epidemic, our overseas sales have made certain progress."
is not difficult to see that from being born for young people to becoming a "new domestic brand" that goes abroad, as a high-performance professional computer hardware equipment manufacturer, Thor Technology has always been based on changes in user consumption habits and industry trends, constantly trying new things and exploring new ways of playing with a young and open mind, and also bravely promotes industry development and helps Chinese manufacturing with a mature and responsible attitude.
It is true that the young Thor Technology still has a long way to go, and we will wait and see what kind of brilliance it can release in the future.
