Smart phones and feature phones have very different requirements for human-computer interaction.
Even if Matrix's first product is a transitional product between a feature phone and a smartphone, there will still be a lot of innovation.
Because nowadays, the functions of mobile phone operating systems are separated.
Although there is still a lot of human-computer interaction between current mobile phone hardware and functions, this human-computer interaction is only related to the function itself and has nothing to do with the system.
The system is only the carrier of functions, and the system itself cannot provide added value to functions.
For example, Nokia launched the 3210 mobile phone model that became popular around the world last year. It has built-in currency conversion, radio, and three built-in mini-games.
These functions all exist individually. If I want to go from function A to function B, I can only exit completely and then jump to function B again.
In the era of smart phones, functions have evolved into applications, and there are strong interactions between applications and between applications and systems.
After the user takes a photo, he can jump directly to the WeChat interface, send the photo, receive a link from others on the WeChat interface, or jump to other applications by clicking on the link.
From a system design perspective, there are more points to consider.
Not only must a single function be done well, the interaction between functions and the interaction between functions and systems must also be considered, and space must be reserved for subsequent scalability.
A reserved interface similar to an app store.
Although the storage space of Matrix's first mobile phone is not enough just to install the newly designed reserved applications, these issues still need to be taken into consideration.
As storage increases, the cake of the application market cannot be abandoned no matter what.
Relying on the strength of mobile phones and the quality of users, the profits that Apple tax brings to Apple every year are astronomical.
The profits from the Apple tax account for 30% of Apple’s profits.
The communication between Zhou Xin and Jobs did not reveal any specific information about how the mobile operating system will be implemented.
The communication was conducted purely based on product logic.
In the end, it was Jobs who took the initiative and said: “The R&D investment required for mobile phones is too high, and the manufacturing and sales costs are also too high.
It is difficult for Apple to afford such high expenses now.
We plan to make a music player. The reason why we want to make this product is similar to the logic that matrix’s first product was a keyboard.
The cost of the music player is small, and the small cost means that even if it fails, it will not damage Apple's fundamentals.
And it can give full play to Apple's advantages in industrial design.
When Matrix makes keyboards, its industrial design is at least ten years ahead of other keyboards. Likewise, Apple's products are ten years ahead of other benchmark products in terms of industrial design. "
Jobs was extremely confident, and he was talking about industrial design.
Industrial design is not just about appearance, but also about touch and hardware usage experience.
"The functions of the music player are limited, and it is difficult to make a difference in terms of software. Apple has a huge advantage in appearance.
We have researched this field for a long time and found that the profit margin is very considerable.
Apple needs a product that can bring in a lot of profits to improve Apple's poor financial situation.
I am very optimistic about Apple because I am Apple's CEO. If I were an investor, I would definitely make a cross in my heart when I saw Apple's financial report.
Now investors have another reason to invest in Apple, because Newman is Apple's majority shareholder. "
After listening to what Jobs said, Zhou Xin quickly realized that the product he mentioned was the iPod, a product that helped Apple come back to life.
Zhou Xin also knew that there was a lot of concealment in Jobs' words.
Zhou Xin is very familiar with the history of technology in the past two decades. The success of the iPod and its global popularity are definitely not as simple as industrial design.
If it is just industrial design, it is not difficult to design similar products. Even mobile phones, Xiaomi can borrow a lot of Apple's design language.
Is it possible that if they switch to music players with lower technical content, consumer electronics giants such as Sony and Samsung cannot learn from the design language of the iPod?
Obviously impossible.
The reason why iPod has achieved results that are beyond the reach of other music players is that industrial design is an important factor in its earliest success.
In the next five years, the iPod will become more and more successful and become the absolute number one market share in the field of music players, relying on Apple's transmission technology that far exceeds that of other companies - FireWire.
FireWire's serial bus standard was more than ten times better than the common standard at the time.
Music players already existed in the 1990s. The music players at that time were evaluated by Steve Jobs as: they were all garbage.
The common file transfer standards used by these music players result in it taking up to 5 minutes to transfer a song.
The FireWire standard can transfer an entire CD in only ten seconds.
This gap prevents consumers from choosing products other than iPod, even if their industrial design is similar to iPod.
Waiting is very painful.
It was not until 2009, after Intel launched the USB3.0 standard, that music players that subsequently adopted the USB3.0 standard could catch up with the 2001 iPod in terms of file transfer.
Zhou Xin thought to himself, he had reservations, and the other party also had reservations.
“I also own a semiconductor design company, and we have the best decoding chips on the market.
I think we have the basis for cooperation. "
The decoding chip determines the sound quality of the music player to a large extent.
The technology Zhou Xin obtained from Samsung includes a series of decoding chips.
The technology Samsung chose to transfer only has limited commercial value at this point in 2020, which does not mean that they had no commercial value in 2000.
For example, in the field of music players, by 2020, almost only HiFi players focusing on high-end will be left.
Mid- to low-end products only have a small market in less developed areas.
Samsung has designed a series of decoding chips. For them, these decoding chips are tasteless and it is a pity to discard them.
It was completely different in 2000. Music players were a vast market that had not yet been fully exploited.
Excellent decoding chips have great commercial value.
Zhou Xin plans to cooperate with Apple on decoding chips. After Apple's iPod became a commercial success, he also advertised for Xinxin Semiconductor.
The entire series of decoding chips can be sold to various other manufacturers.
As for why matrix doesn't make a music player, it's because it's not necessary.
Mobile phones are already the ultimate form of entertainment terminals in the next twenty years, and there is no need to take another detour.
The purpose of making a keyboard is to establish a brand image. One of the selling points of matrix mobile phones is the feedback of typing.
As for music players, the selling point of matrix mobile phones is not music, and even Zhou Xin does not plan to have music functions.
The functions to be carried on Matrix mobile phones are relatively complex, and there is no storage space left for music.
In addition, there are currently very few mobile phones with music functions.
Users won't be surprised that their phones don't have music capabilities.
Compared with making his own music player, selling decoding chips to major manufacturers would bring him greater potential value.
In addition, he is already a major shareholder of Apple, and he will benefit from the greater success of the iPod.
Jobs asked: "I've never heard that you have a chip design company in Silicon Valley?
I know you majored in integrated circuits, but you don't seem to have much interest in starting a business in the integrated circuit field. "
Zhou Xin replied: "My chip design company is located in China.
Your expression tells me that you doubt the capabilities of the chips designed by Huaguo Company. "
Jobs explained: "I'm not questioning you, but it seems that China is not included in Apple's supplier list.
They are not developing well in the integrated circuit field because they have no successful cases in the past to prove themselves, so I will be skeptical.
It's like Apple wouldn't have hired me back if I hadn't proven my ability by founding Pixar Studios. "He finally laughed at himself.
Zhou Xin said: “In my chip design company in China, most of the engineers are from Silicon Valley.
Because labor costs in China are low, I plan to train some chip design talents in China.
This can effectively reduce costs.
Our decoding chips are also designed by engineers in Silicon Valley.
I also understand your concerns. I will not force you to choose products from companies under my name just because I am Apple’s major shareholder.
You can test the decoding chip. I also hope that it is because the products of my company are good enough to be recognized. "
After Zhou Xin and Jobs finished chatting, Jobs was very satisfied because the other party's ideas were very similar to his, which determined that Zhou Xin would not become an obstacle to him on the board of directors in the future.
As for the similarities between the mobile phone Zhou Xin wants to make and what he wants to do, it means that Matrix will become Apple's competitor and be ahead of Apple.
Jobs was not worried either, because he could just take a look at the shape of the mobile phone designed by Zhou Xin.
Zhou Xin was famous, and Jobs was looking forward to the electronic products he was going to design.
Those who are ahead have a first-mover advantage. If your product caters to the potential needs of users, you will monopolize the entire market for a period of time.
Because you are the first mover and there are no products competing with you on the market, consumers can only buy your products.
Latecomers have the advantage of being a latecomer, and the latecomer advantage is that they can learn a lot from the advantages of the first movers.
Tencent likes to do this best. It directly draws on the advantages of being a first mover and uses QQ’s traffic and engineering advantages to copy it and then continue to iterate.
Steve Jobs did similar things and was also done similar things.
The earliest graphical operating system was developed by Xerox. Jobs insisted on visiting the graphical operating system developed by Xerox. In exchange for accepting investment from Xerox, Jobs took the main developers of the Mac operating system to visit with him.
After the visit, Apple launched the popular Mac OS, which was also the first graphical operating system.
Later, Microsoft also made a graphical operating system, and Microsoft took advantage of being a latecomer to create a better user experience.
So Steve Jobs experienced both the first-mover advantage and the late-mover advantage.
He feels that it would be good to learn from it after the matrix mobile phone is made. What is needed now is to accumulate strength.
Otherwise, if you want to engage in mobile phone research and development, you still need to raise funds in the secondary market. What if Zhou Xin participates in raising funds and has a higher shareholding ratio?
Just because Jobs admired Zhou Xin didn't mean he wasn't wary of him.
Belonging means competition and cooperation coexist.
After meeting with Jobs, Zhou Xin packaged and sent some technical information on the decoding chip to Guan Jianying who was far away in Shenhai.
He just told the other party that he wanted to make a decoding chip, and then provided some ideas to Guan Jianying.
Zhou Xin could directly provide the other party with a complete set of technical information, but this would be of no help to the company's development or talent cultivation.
Making money is never the goal.
As June draws to a close and the millennium is about halfway over, the impact of the Y2K bug on the Internet is far less severe than the bursting of the Nasdaq bubble.
Before the turn of the millennium, experts and scholars warned people through various channels how much harm the Y2K bug would bring to computer systems.
No expert or scholar can clearly point out that the Millennium Nasdaq bubble will burst.
The entire California Bay Area is about to enter a hot summer, and "Team Tactics" will undoubtedly become the most popular game this summer.
Compared with various stand-alone games, a 20-40 minute 8-player PVP game is particularly exciting.
Later generations of players may be impatient with the 40-minute game length. Game manufacturers who focus on PVP game development also believe that PVP games should speed up the pace and try to control the length of a game within 20 minutes.
In the new millennium, a 40-minute game was obviously an innovation.
In the absence of electronic products like mobile phones that frequently interrupt players' attention, players can immerse themselves in the game world all day long.
"Teamfight Tactics" gives players the illusion that the game itself is helping them balance gaming and life.
In just one month, the number of players in TFT has exceeded 2 million, and the number of global players has exceeded 5 million. This number has shocked the entire gaming industry.
Everyone has never seen the grand occasion of "World of Warcraft" with 13 million people online at the same time.
Compared with console games, online games are still a very marginalized game type.
If "Team Tactics" was not a game led by Zhou Xin, the industry would not even notice this game.
Even with the blessing of Zhou Xin's fame and the craziness of players at the E3 exhibition, game manufacturers are still not so optimistic about the results of "Team Tactics".
The final result surprised everyone.
Because Riot Games is a listed company, it needs to publish its semi-annual report.
Among them, "Teamfight Tactics" was launched on May 15, and its revenue exceeded 10 million US dollars in just 15 days.
The focus of the players is on the game itself, how to match the lineup, which round to start, which bonds have a higher probability of winning, how many points have been climbed on the ladder, and whether the newly released chessboard looks good or not.
What the industry is paying attention to is why TFT is successful, whether online games are the future development direction, and what the advertising effect of Riot Games is as a distribution channel.
Riding on the success of TFT, Riot Games’ advertising unit price not only did not drop, but also increased by 20%.
(End of chapter)
