Zhou Xin has only two words to describe Bill Gates' confidence, and that is envy.
Zhou Xin, who came from 20 years later, is not that familiar with the case of Microsoft being sued. But this is a case that has attracted all the media attention for several years.
In such an environment, people who don’t understand can become aware. You can have a deeper understanding of this matter just from news reports.
Zhou Xin internally evaluated that if he had done these things, just perjury would have caused him to lose the case and not be able to stand up.
If he did not bring about any butterfly effect, after the District Court of Columbia had issued a verdict, Microsoft successfully overturned the case and escaped the fate of being split up.
"I also believe that Microsoft will get what it wants in this lengthy lawsuit." Zhou Xin said.
Bill Gates changed the topic: "Since you believe so much that Microsoft will win the final victory, then instead of investing in Apple, which cannot see the future, it is better to buy Microsoft stocks.
Microsoft's valuation is currently at an absolute low, and it will return to its peak after the court's ruling. "
Zhou Xin thought to himself, I didn’t say you could win. I just said Microsoft could get what it wanted. It seems Bill misunderstood me.
He heard from the other party's words that Bill Gates has always been a little grudge against Apple, maybe not towards Apple, but towards Jobs.
"I also bought shares of Microsoft, but compared to Apple, Microsoft's market value is too high, and it is unlikely that I would buy a 5% share price.
Apple is different. I only need to spend 300 million US dollars to buy the placard line. Compared with the market value of Microsoft, this amount of money is less than a fraction. Zhou Xin said.
Bill Gates: “Well, I haven’t paid attention to Apple’s market cap in a long time.
you're right. "
“Apple will decline from its peak precisely because of a series of incorrect strategic plans adopted in the 1990s.
My return to Apple is to get Apple back on track. Judging from the results of the past two years, there is no doubt that the route I chose is correct. "Jobs said.
Because Zhou Xin holds more than 10% of Apple shares. For an old company that has been in decline for a long time, this shareholding ratio is already a major shareholder.
It is not the largest shareholder, but it is also an influential shareholder. Apple's shares do not have a structure of different rights for the same shares.
This also means that during the subsequent board change, Zhou Xin will be able to obtain a board member seat and up to 10% of the voting rights.
This is still estimated based on the current shareholding ratio. If Zhou Xin continues to purchase Apple shares, his voting rights will continue to increase.
For Apple's actual managers, Zhou Xin's opinions are an important indicator that must be referred to.
Jobs met Zhou Xin for this purpose. He wanted to know whether Zhou Xin would hinder his strategic planning.
Because he met Bill Gates and Steve Jobs respectively, Zhou Xin could clearly feel the difference between the two.
Bill Gates clearly seems to have reached the peak of his life, and has lost his future goals after resigning from the position of CEO of Microsoft. He looks very peaceful.
Jobs, who was born in the same year as Bill Gates, had piercing eyes. Even when facing Apple's major shareholders, he still appeared to be a bit of a tough business maniac.
The difference between the two lies in their life goals. Bill Gates knew that it would be almost impossible for him to start a business after leaving Microsoft and create a company that surpassed Microsoft.
Jobs, on the other hand, left half his life and returned to the company he was the founder of, but the company still looked half-dead. He hoped to lead Apple back to its original position.
After listening, Zhou Xin nodded and said: "I understand that if any company wants to achieve long-term development, it needs a clear and correct strategy.
I also know something about Apple's past failures, and why Apple has not achieved the same success in the personal PC market in the past ten years.
To put it harshly, it can be described as failure.
There are various opinions in the media. Why users don’t like closed systems? The open source operating system of Windows is suitable for ordinary users.
What's more, the personal pc market continues to shrink, and the general environment is not good.
In my opinion, these are not reasons. Compared with Apple's products in the 1980s, the key is that Apple's products in the 1990s did not have the points to attract users.
Is a closed ecology good? It was successful in the past, why can’t it be done now? How could user preferences change so much in just ten years?
Users used to be able to accept software and hardware bundles, but now they can’t?
The key is that in the past, there were few choices for personal PCs on the market. Apple's software could perfectly meet the needs of some users, which could not be met by other personal PCs equipped with Windows operating systems.
After the 1990s, Windows computers could also do whatever Apple could do, and Apple lost its competitiveness.
The innovations you made in the past two years, attracting users through appearance design, are only temporary solutions. Without innovation from the software level, appearance alone will not be sustainable. "
After Zhou Xin finished speaking, Jobs had a new understanding of Zhou Xin. At least he really understood products. Even if he had never made a personal PC, he could still point out the essence of Apple's past failures.
After leaving Apple to start a new business, Jobs had a clearer understanding of Apple's previous decline, and sometimes it was indeed clear to those who were watching.
He also believes that Apple's failure lies in the increasingly fierce competition in the entire market. As the market competition becomes fierce, the competitiveness of Apple's products does not advance but retreats.
Later generations will think that Apple's board of directors kicked Jobs out, so the relationship between Jobs and Apple's board of directors was very poor.
Yes, the past was bad. Twelve years had passed between the time Jobs returned to Apple and the year he was kicked out.
In the past twelve years, Apple has had more than one change from its backing shareholders to board members.
Since the board of directors in the past two years has invited Jobs back, it shows that they trust Jobs, and that Jobs is willing to come back also shows that the relationship between the two parties is good.
Not to mention, Apple's current strategic plan was formulated by Jobs and the board of directors.
Therefore, Zhou Xin is a variable for Apple, a variable they did not expect.
Jobs knew that Apple couldn't stand the trouble anymore. If Zhou Xin's ideas for Apple's future development were inconsistent with their plans, Apple's development would be seriously hindered.
You must know that Zhou Xin is not just rich, he has a great say in the product field.
Not to mention the board of directors, even Jobs himself must listen carefully to his opinions.
"Newman, you are right, Apple needs further innovation, more innovation.
But relying on personal PCs, it is difficult for us to surpass.
Apple's operating system can be optimized in terms of user experience, and we can polish the details to perfection so that users will pay for Mac OS.
For example, I returned to Apple in 1997 and launched Mac OS 8, which achieved pretty good results.
If I remember correctly, a million units were sold in two weeks.
That's good, but it's not enough.
This kind of experience optimization can only help Apple survive and become one of the surviving technology companies in Silicon Valley.
Apple is no different from computer manufacturers such as Dell and HP that rely on Windows operating systems to survive.
I want to do much more than that. We need to innovate elsewhere and achieve breakthroughs.
We need to find areas that Microsoft currently does not cover and achieve breakthroughs. Only then can we help Apple become a great company again. "
Zhou Xin asked: "So do you have any ideas?"
Jobs said: "Mobile phones, only mobile phones can carry Apple's dream of returning to its original position.
I have been observing the mobile phone industry for a long time, and it is a rapidly developing industry.
It took less than five years to go from being a communication tool for a few people to almost everyone in America having a mobile phone today.
The mobile phone is also a carrier of information, and it is not essentially different from a computer.
Computers are also carriers of information, but compared to the chips on mobile phones, computer chips are much more powerful.
But I believe that with the advancement of technology, the chip performance of mobile phones will become more and more powerful.
And by that time, the mobile phone operating system will become the next explosion point.
What Apple needs to do is to achieve sufficient success in the field of mobile operating systems.
We haven’t yet seen the arrival of a technological inflection point, but I believe that time is getting closer. "
Apple has not yet made a music player, that is, the idea of an iPod.
They didn't come up with the idea until April 2001, then quickly developed the iPod and released it in the fall.
Zhou Xin was surprised by the sharpness of his eyes, and he saw the future of mobile phones only in 2000.
He said: "Yes, I am also optimistic about the mobile phone industry. Do you know matrix?"
Jobs said: "You know, the Matrix is my favorite place to hang out while I'm waiting for my wife to go shopping.
The matrix store has a great sense of design, and staying in it brings me a lot of inspiration.
It would be great if matrix sells coffee, I know that is your company, a great company. If the shareholder behind it is not you, we have all had the idea of acquiring Matrix.
The matrix keyboard is full of design beauty. It is perfect from appearance design to user experience. The only drawback is the price and the technical threshold is too low. Products that copy matrix on the market only cost $100.
This makes it difficult for matrix to be competitive. "
Yes, after the matrix keyboard was released, imitation keyboards began to appear in less than half a year.
The original version costs 500 US dollars, while the replica only costs 100 US dollars. The difference is not very big. Except for belief, few people will spend the extra 400 US dollars.
Of course, there are also users who buy because of Zhou Xin's reputation and Matrix itself. Relying on these users, Matrix barely maintains a balance of payments.
“We expect to launch matrix mobile phone this year, which will be a very different product.
I also believe that mobile phones will be the next important carrier of information interaction. I believe that when the matrix mobile phone comes out, it will bring you some inspiration. "
When a person thinks very much like you, and what you want to do, the other person has done it first, even if you know that the other person is your competitor, you will still appreciate the other person involuntarily.
This is the state of Steve Jobs. He has a strong perfectionism and highly respects the Quora product. In his view, Quora achieves the ultimate balance of business and quality.
Before, he thought that Zhou Xin's insight into products was limited to the Internet level. After chatting today, he realized that Zhou Xin also had a deep understanding of lower-level computer services.
Nowadays, few people can realize that mobile phones will become important information carriers.
Because even Nokia, the well-deserved giant in the current mobile phone field, only wants to make mobile phones with longer battery life, better call quality, and can store more text messages.
Their understanding of mobile phones still remains as a communication tool.
From a communication tool to an information carrier, this is just a simple change in definition, but it can reflect the depth of your knowledge.
Jobs looked particularly interested: “Have you made the prototype yet?
Can you let me see how your prototype is doing? "
From Jobs' demeanor, Zhou Xin vaguely recalled the entangled past between Lei Jun and Meizu founder Huang Zhang.
“The prototype is still being designed because we are considering making a completely different product than before.
So it will take a long time, and mobile phone research and development is a bottomless pit.
The entire matrix has more than 1,000 employees, and it is expected to invest about US$300 million in research and development expenses alone.
Americen's labor is too expensive, and those who work on the operating system are all high-end talents. Suitable developers need to pay a premium to hire them.
Sometimes I envy Apple because it has a large number of experienced engineers who focus on operating systems.
Moreover, it is difficult to define a mobile operating system. We want to make it very different from previous mobile operating systems. It will be more biased towards handheld computers.
So it's very difficult to find the right people. "
Android would not be established until three years later. The operating systems of feature phone brands such as Nokia, Motorola, Siemens, and Ericsson are all embedded.
There are simply no experienced system developers who can meet Zhou Xin's expectations.
Many things require repeated communication to achieve the results Zhou Xin wants.
Zhou Xin had a new understanding of the excess profits brought about by land reclamation.
Opening up wasteland is a particularly difficult task. You have no reference or someone to benchmark against, and you have to start from scratch.
Zhou Xin still has memories of the future and knows exactly what form mobile phones will develop into in the future.
This will be the main competition track for top consumer electronics brands in various countries in the next twenty years. Countless old mobile phone brands will disappear, such as Nokia, Motorola, etc. These well-known mobile phone brands and communication brands in the millennium are all in smartphones. The times are bleak.
Chinese consumer electronics brands began to rise rapidly with the help of smartphones.
Some people would say that chips are all from abroad, and domestic ones are just assembly plants. The problem is that smartphones are precision machines that involve thousands of suppliers, and everyone uses the supplier's technology.
With the same supplier technology, why can domestic mobile phones defeat Nokia and Motorola? To put it bluntly, optimization at the software level is also strength.
A few companies with accumulated technology, such as Apple and Samsung, will have some technical advantages, such as Apple's chips and Samsung's screens.
With future memories, it is still painful to do this now. What Zhou Xin wants to do now is not a smartphone, but at best a transitional product between a feature phone and a smartphone.
Smartphone 0.5.
The biggest difficulty lies in cognition. He knows what he wants to make that users will like, but engineers don't know. They will have their own understanding, their own ideas, and their own experience.
Zhou Xin needs to constantly correct their designs and tell them to follow my ideas.
This is a very painful process.
Fortunately, during the running-in process, after continuous modifications, developers and engineers discovered that Zhou’s new ideas were always better than their own ideas in terms of user experience.
The small differences add up to a huge improvement in the user experience.
Some people may think that Zhou Xin does not need to be so detailed, he only needs to grasp the strategic direction.
Some less critical tasks can be left to others, as long as the strategic direction is grasped. For matrix, it is related to the success or failure of all industrial chains owned by Zhou Xin, and will be a trillion-dollar market.
It doesn’t need to monopolize the entire market, but it’s enough to support Apple’s valuation of over US$3 trillion.
Most successful product managers are extremely detail-oriented and practitioners of perfectionism.
When Zhang Xiaolong was revamping his QQ mailbox, it was a very marginal business within Tencent. In one and a half years, Pony Ma had more than 1,300 emails exchanged with Zhang Xiaolong's team.
Gu Sibin, who used to be in charge of QQ membership business, received an email from Pony Ma just to point out that there was a problem with the spacing between two characters on the web page.
Therefore, when making Matrix's first mobile phone and its pioneering work, Zhou Xin pursued details incomparably. Even while attending an Internet conference in China, he would read and answer emails whenever he had free time.
He wanted every detail to be realized exactly as he intended.
Jobs nodded: “I want to make a unique product.
I don't know quite what you want to make the matrix operating system into, but with Newman's insight and ultimate pursuit of products, I believe it will be a great result.
The more perfect the product, the more painful it will be during the development phase. This is the fate of perfectionists.
I think we have a lot in common. "
Jobs was very envious of Zhou Xin, who could invest US$300 million in R&D alone. Now Apple only has US$200 million in cash on its books.
The first quarter has ended. If previous investment profits are not included, Apple expects that the company's loss will be between 225 and 250 million US dollars at the end of the first quarter. (This data comes from Apple’s announcement on December 5, 2000)
Compared with the wealthy Zhou Xin, Apple under the leadership of Steve Jobs needs to be careful about every money spent.
This is why, when Steve Jobs saw the prospect of mobile phones, he had to build the iPod first.
There is no money to support the research and development of smartphones.
“The matrix keyboard is perfect in detail, but the keyboard only involves hardware.
The hardware makes it easy for you to grasp every detail.
Mobile phones need to consider both hardware and software, as well as the interaction between people and hardware. It is very, very difficult to pursue perfection in the field of mobile phones. "
There's been a lot going on lately, so I'll resume updating when I'm done the day after tomorrow, and make up for what I owed before.
(End of chapter)
