Designing the Future
February 20, 2010 – 7:30 AMEchelon Holdings – Private Command Room, Jadavpur
The cool hum of the Legendary System Interface filled the room, the air tinted faintly blue by the holographic screens floating in mid-air. The room itself was dim — not out of necessity, but because Aritra thought better in shadows. The glow from the interface highlighted his calm, focused expression, the only indication of the billions of dollars he was about to spend.
This wasn't about choosing a phone or a wearable device. This was about constructing an entire ecosystem from the atoms up. No borrowed technology, no licensed IPs, no dependence on global supply chains. If anyone wanted access to his 5G satellite network, they would need to buy his devices. No exceptions.
The core rule of monopoly wasn't control through price — it was control through necessity.
He leaned back in his chair as the Device Division tab expanded before him. Rows upon rows of component production lines flickered into view, each one categorized by technology, generation, output capacity, and cost.
Component Production Lines – Mobile Devices
Display Production Line Selection Process
The System offered displays ranging from early-2010 OLEDs to 2050 Nano-HoloFlex panels, capable of projecting interactive holograms directly into the air above the screen. Too advanced. Too suspicious.
Instead, he focused on practical future tech — high-resolution Quantum Matrix MicroLED and LTPO AMOLED options. Panels that would be unrivaled in 2010 but wouldn't look like alien technology.
Quantum Matrix MicroLED Production LineCapacity: 500,000 panels per yearPrice: $800 millionPer-unit Production Cost: $12 per displayLifetime Calibration Cost: $1 million every 100,000 panels
LTPO Flex AMOLED Production LineCapacity: 1 million panels per yearPrice: $600 millionPer-unit Production Cost: $8 per displayLifetime Calibration Cost: $500,000 every 200,000 panels
Aritra stared at the specs, fingers steepling again. The MicroLED line offered sharper contrast, lower power consumption, and an insane lifespan — ideal for his ultra-premium flagship phone. For the second-tier flagship and the performance model, LTPO AMOLED would balance quality and cost.
Choice Locked:
Flagship Phone Display: Quantum Matrix MicroLED
Premium & Performance Phone Displays: LTPO Flex AMOLED
Total Cost: $1.4 billion
Processor Fabrication Lines – The Heart of Control
Next came the processors — the single most profitable bottleneck in the industry. With 5G optimization baked directly into the chip architecture, his phones would perform leaps ahead of any competition.
The options ranged from custom-designed AI SoCs to modular processor cores optimized for dynamic power shifting.
NeuralCore Gen 5 Production LineCapacity: 300,000 processors per yearPrice: $950 millionPer-unit Production Cost: $16 per chipYield Efficiency: 98.5% after tuning
NovaDragon Z12 Production LineCapacity: 1.5 million processors per yearPrice: $450 millionPer-unit Production Cost: $12 per chipYield Efficiency: 99% after initial ramp-up
Choice Locked:
Flagship Phone Processor: NeuralCore Gen 5
Premium & Performance Phones: NovaDragon Z12Total Cost: $1.4 billion
Battery Manufacturing – Breaking Power Limits
Aritra scrolled past conventional lithium-ion lines without hesitation. Batteries were often the hidden bottleneck in modern smartphones. He wanted his devices to charge in minutes, last for days, and degrade at half the rate of anything on the market.
NanoFusion Graphene Cell Production LineCapacity: 1 million cells per yearPrice: $350 millionPer-unit Production Cost: $9 per batteryCycle Life: Over 6,000 full cycles with 95% retention
AeroCharge Solid-State LineCapacity: 1.5 million cells per yearPrice: $450 millionPer-unit Production Cost: $8 per batteryCycle Life: 5,000 cycles with 90% retention
Choice Locked:
Flagship Battery: NanoFusion Graphene
Premium & Performance: AeroCharge Solid-State
Total Cost: $800 million
Camera Systems – Capturing Reality Itself
For the camera systems, Aritra knew that marketing would hinge heavily on image quality. Consumers in 2010 still fell for megapixel counts, but he wanted more — real-time scene optimization, low-light brilliance, and AI-driven computational photography.
HyperClair 108MP Quad Array LineCapacity: 500,000 camera arrays per yearPrice: $480 millionPer-unit Production Cost: $15 per camera moduleLens Quality: Zeiss-tier precision glass
NovaVision 64MP Triple Lens LineCapacity: 1 million camera arrays per yearPrice: $320 millionPer-unit Production Cost: $12 per camera module
Choice Locked:
Flagship Camera: HyperClair 108MP
Premium & Performance: NovaVision 64MP
Total Cost: $800 million
Chassis & Frame – The Physical Identity
Finally, the body. Materials mattered — the tactile feel, the weight, the subtle luxury conveyed when someone first held the device. His flagship would be nearly indestructible, while the others retained some compromise for cost-efficiency.
LiquidMetal Composite Chassis LineCapacity: 800,000 units per yearPrice: $420 millionPer-unit Production Cost: $18 per frame
Titanium Alloy Frame LineCapacity: 1 million units per yearPrice: $350 millionPer-unit Production Cost: $14 per frame
Choice Locked:
Flagship Frame: LiquidMetal Composite
Premium & Performance: Titanium Alloy
Total Cost: $770 million
Total Expenditure on Mobile Component Production Lines
Component Total Cost (USD)
Displays $1.4 billion
Processors $1.4 billion
Batteries $800 million
Cameras $800 million
Chassis $770 million
Total$5.17 billion
Wearable Devices – Building the Ecosystem
The same process repeated for the three wearables:
Flagship Smartwatch: QuantumFlex AMOLED Display, NeuralCore Lite SoC, NanoFusion Battery
Premium Fitness Band: LTPO AMOLED Display, NovaDragon Lite SoC, AeroCharge Battery
Performance Budget Band: Standard OLED Display, AthenaCore Lite, Basic Lithium Battery
Aritra invested another $1.2 billion into specialized micro-assembly lines for ultra-compact processors, sensor arrays, and flexible displays for the wearables.
Final Total Investment (Mobile + Wearable Lines)Mobile Production Lines: $5.17 billion
Wearable Production Lines: $1.2 billion
Grand Total: $6.37 billion
Design Lock-In Process – Device Models
As the components locked into place, Aritra opened a secondary interface: Device Design Manager. Here, he would finalize the external design, user ergonomics, and material finishes for the six products.
Flagship Phone: Ultra-thin, 6.8-inch curved-edge display, centered punch-hole camera, liquid metal body.
Premium Phone: 6.5-inch flat OLED, frosted titanium back, triple-camera module.
Performance Phone: 6.1-inch LTPO, dual-camera, rugged plastic-titanium hybrid frame.
Flagship Watch: Circular AMOLED, sapphire glass, titanium casing.
Premium Band: Rectangular LTPO, polycarbonate shell, fitness-focused sensors.
Performance Band: Slim OLED, water-resistant plastic body.
February 22, 2010 – 8:00 AMEchelon Holdings – Newtown Industrial Complex
The towering Nova Manufacturing Complex stood like a monument to precision itself, its sheer scale eclipsing the nearby buildings. Spanning nearly 400 acres, the factory was more than just a production hub — it was a self-contained ecosystem designed to churn out the most advanced consumer devices on the planet, all under Aritra's silent command.
The ten interconnected production halls formed a sprawling web, each one specializing in a different stage of the process — one hall for display fabrication, one for battery assembly, one for precision semiconductor etching, and so on. Every piece of equipment had been carefully installed over the past month, transported directly from his Legendary System Inventory into custom-sealed crates that no customs agent or regulatory official was ever allowed to inspect.
Installation Begins
As Aritra stood in the mezzanine overlooking Hall 3 — the dedicated chip fabrication wing, his mind traced over the total cost.
The EUV Lithography Machine, still pristine in its protective covering, hummed softly as engineers unsealed it under the watchful eye of imported management slaves — men and women who had arrived two days earlier, their skills pre-programmed directly from the System. They knew every wire, every panel, and every protocol necessary to optimize the machine's performance.
No training required. No learning curve. They simply… knew.
Even though these "employees" were technically human, they were functionally organic machinery — tools sharpened for a singular purpose: ensuring Echelon's production line outperformed every facility on the continent.
Across the corridor, in Hall 5, the Quantum Matrix MicroLED Assembly Line was being tested for alignment. Rows of delicate, microscopic pixels aligned themselves under automated arms so precise they could place a human hair across a circuit with nanometer precision.
Cost vs Value Calculation – Internal Report
As the machinery spun up for dry-runs, Aritra's tablet displayed a financial dashboard, breaking down the true cost of each component now that his system-owned machinery had reduced external dependencies to near-zero.
Component Internal Production Cost Estimated Retail Price
Quantum Matrix MicroLED Display $12 per unit $180 - $250
NeuralCore Gen 5 Processor $16 per unit $300 - $350
NanoFusion Battery $9 per unit $120 - $150
HyperClair 108MP Camera $15 per unit $200 - $250
LiquidMetal Chassis $18 per unit $150 - $200
Total Core Component Cost (Flagship Phone) $70
Estimated Retail Price: $1,899 - $2,199
The profit margin was absurd — over 96% per device.
But for Aritra, the money was secondary. The goal was control. When the 5G satellite network launched public trials later this year, only his devices would be able to connect. Governments, corporations, billionaires — they wouldn't have a choice.
They would either buy from Nova Electronics, or they would be left behind in the technological dark ages.
Tightened Security – Sealing the Factory
The Newtown complex operated under an isolation protocol, unlike any standard Indian industrial zone. All employee contracts contained binding confidentiality clauses, overseen not just by legal teams, but by internal surveillance AI.
Every entrance, every piece of equipment, and every truck was tagged, scanned, and monitored. Even authorized employees couldn't access certain production halls unless their work ID matched that day's task rotation — a system Aritra had imported directly from military black sites adapted to corporate production.
No press was allowed near the factory perimeter.
Supplies came from dummy suppliers, routed through shell firms under Echelon Holdings, and no single vendor supplied more than 15% of any raw material — compartmentalization at every level.
Aritra walked the length of Hall 7, where the AeroCharge Solid-State Battery Assembly was preparing for its first production run. Katherine wasn't with him today. She hadn't even been told the full purpose of Newtown, aside from it being a regular "electronics factory."
She'd asked once, during a late-night conversation, why he needed such a huge facility just for "phones." Aritra had smiled — not dismissively, but in the way someone smiles at a child asking why the sky is blue.
Someday, when it no longer mattered, she might know the truth.
For now, secrecy was survival.
Finalization of Device Models – The Creative Process
Later that afternoon, Aritra sat in his personal design studio, a soundproof chamber directly above the design floor. Here, no decisions were made by committees, no focus groups diluted the vision. It was just him — and the raw ambition to create devices that felt like extensions of their owners.
Three holographic models floated before him, representing the three tiers of phones.
1. Nova One Ultima (Flagship)
6.8-inch Quantum Matrix MicroLED
LiquidMetal chassis, seamless design
NeuralCore Gen 5 processor
HyperClair 108MP quad camera
Graphene battery with 72-hour continuous battery life
Retail Price Target: $2,199 USD
2. Nova One Pro (Premium)
6.5-inch LTPO AMOLED
Titanium Alloy frame
NovaDragon Z12 processor
NovaVision 64MP triple camera
AeroCharge battery with 48-hour battery life
Retail Price Target: $1,499 USD
3. Nova One Edge (Performance)
6.1-inch LTPO AMOLED
Plastic-Titanium hybrid frame
NovaDragon Z12 processor
Dual-lens 48MP cameraAero
Charge battery with 36-hour battery life
Retail Price Target: $999 USD
The wearables followed a similar philosophy — blending seamless utility with subtle luxury.
1. Nova Watch Ultima (Flagship Smartwatch)
Circular QuantumFlex AMOLED
Sapphire glass with titanium casing
Full-body health tracking
Real-time 5G Sync with Nova One Ultima
Retail Price Target: $699 USD
2. Nova Band Pro (Premium Fitness Band)
Rectangular LTPO display
Flexible polycarbonate frameMulti-sport tracking + AI health coach
Retail Price Target: $399 USD
3. Nova Band Lite (Entry-Level Band)
Slim OLED displayCore fitness + sleep tracking
Retail Price Target: $249 USD
Total Investment & Rollout Timeline
Aritra reviewed the investment dashboard once more.
CategoryTotal InvestmentComponent Production Lines$6.37 billionInstallation & Security Systems$900 millionDesign & Marketing Preparations$300 millionTotal Factory Investment$7.57 billion
The Newtown factory would begin trial production by March 15, 2010, with commercial rollout synchronized to the public reveal of the satellite-enabled 5G network.
No leaks. No early exposure.
The devices would hit the world like a meteor impact — sudden, inescapable, irreversible.
Aritra tapped his finger against the desk, his gaze lingering on the Ultima's holographic model.
This device wouldn't just be a phone.
It would be the key to controlling who could communicate — and who couldn't.
The world was still laughing at the tower-less 5G network rumor.
Let them laugh.
They wouldn't be laughing when they were standing in line to buy the only devices capable of connecting to it.