Although he didn't get what he wanted, Chen Zhiwen's attitude towards computer hardware still made Jobs lower his guard. After some pleasantries, the two left the plane and headed to downtown Los Angeles together, and then separated.
After returning to Apple, Jobs informed Woz and current Apple CEO Mike Markkula of his conversation with Chen Zhiwen.
"Eric has a very good vision. There are too many players in the current personal computer market. If he joins, no matter how capable he is, it will be difficult to grab a certain market. And I have also learned about Midea, a company with technology. I’m still not very good at it. It’s really smart to specialize in the software market.” Mike nodded and said.
"In this way, we don't need to worry. He sells his software and we sell our computers. It's a pity that he refuses to use his software as our exclusive software. Otherwise, it would be better." Jobs said .
"Since Midea can threaten us with a piece of software, it shows that software is also very important. It seems that we also need to invest in this aspect." Mike thought for a while and said, he is working at Apple After the company was founded, he was hired with a high salary. He had worked for IBM for more than ten years before and was quite sensitive to the market.
"The idea is good, but what software should we make?" Jobs said: "In terms of games, Midea basically has a unique monopoly. It used to be arcade machines, and now it is Famicom and handheld consoles. All of us have played it. It is much better than the games on other markets. Now the computer games he has launched are also very successful and very playable. In this field, it is estimated that no one can be their opponent.
Now Eric is preparing to launch a large number of floppy disks for Word and Excel. This road is no longer feasible. Then there can only be innovations in other very practical software, but in what direction, do we know? "
"This... has no direction." Mike said with a slight frown. When those very practical functions in Word and Excel appeared, anyone who saw them would say: It turned out to be such a simple function.
But when it was his turn to innovate and want to create a useful function, he was blind. He couldn't even think of a function, let alone another type of software that was very practical. With the practicality of Word and Excel, Sex, it seems that most companies can satisfy it for their daily work.
Woz said: "This kind of innovation is not technology, but inspiration. I have always admired Eric for this."
"So, instead of thinking about taking the path that others are good at, it is better to take our own path. Hardware is what we at Apple are best at. Even people like Eric know not to start in areas that others are good at." Jobs said: " A piece of software usually only costs tens of dollars, which is a little more than one or two hundred dollars, but our computer costs a few thousand dollars, and the net profit is hundreds or even thousands. If our computer can control half of the market, then in the future We can also make profits from software.”
"That's right, but the premise is to get half of the market. IBM's new computers recently have a great impact on us." Mike said.
Jobs nodded and said, "So, we have to redouble our efforts to develop the next generation of computers."
Mike did not answer any more, and he had nothing to refute. When others launch successful new products, it is basically unrealistic to catch up. And as Jobs said, if they control the hardware market, sooner or later the software will also It belongs to them. After all, software also needs to rely on hardware computers.
"However, Eric's decision to withdraw from Apple always makes me feel bad." Woz added.
"I feel the same way, but since he wants to quit, there's nothing he can do about it." Jobs said with a frown.
"Leave this matter to me. I will contact some investment funds that are willing to take over the deal. If it can be traded directly, the impact on Apple's stock will be reduced a lot." Mike thought for a while and said.
If a major shareholder cashes out in the stock market, it needs to be disclosed in advance, which will definitely cause the stock price to fall, especially if this is a company veteran and a global celebrity. Once this happens, he, the CEO, will definitely be criticized by many shareholders on the board of directors, so it is better to find a buyer for him. This kind of transaction is a voluntary transaction without any restrictions and has a much smaller impact on the stock market.
Chen Zhiwen doesn't know what happened at Apple. Now that he is just preparing to cash out Apple's shares, he basically has nothing to do with the company. However, Apple belongs to Apple and Jobs, who was kicked out by Apple, may still There might be some cooperation.
There is a 26-story building in the suburbs of Los Angeles. On the top of the building, there are five scrawled English letters: Midea, and two Chinese characters: Midea.
This is the headquarters of Midea Group's branch in the United States. In recent years, Midea Group has also made huge fortunes from the United States. Some of these funds have been kept in the United States. In addition to being used for research and development of various technologies, they also buy We bought several small office buildings in Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago to use as our operations and R&D headquarters, which also allowed us to avoid taxes.
Since we are not speculating on real estate, we only aim to make enough money.
On the 26th floor of the top floor, there is an independent single office specially prepared for Chen Zhiwen by Midea's American branch, not only in Los Angeles, but also in other cities.
"Sheng Chen, this is the data of all Midea's businesses in the United States last quarter. Please take a look." Lin Dexiang, the person in charge of the United States, has already prepared relevant information.
"The sales volume of Famicom is 2.1 million units, the game cartridges are 5.6 million units, and the handheld Game Boy sales volume is 7.2 million units. The total turnover is 930 million U.S. dollars and the net profit is 330 million U.S. dollars." Chen Zhiwen did not read too much content in the middle and turned directly to the end. After seeing this number, although I already knew the approximate number in advance, I was still a little shocked.
This is just a quarter's profit. After a year, it exceeds 1 billion. I'm afraid it's easy. But if you think about it, it's normal. Historically, Atari only relied on an Altari2600 home game console and some of its own cards. In 1981, net profit reached US$1 billion.
Nowadays, Midea not only has better red and white consoles, but also has several more exciting games. In addition, it is normal for handheld consoles to surpass Atari in terms of profits.
The gaming industry itself is a hugely profitable industry. Even in the future, even world-class super technology giants, everyone will want to enter the market and get a piece of the pie. This is the case for Weiruan, Tencent, Alibaba (unsuccessful), and Apple (unsuccessful). , now they are in a semi-monopoly position, and handheld consoles are even more monopolistic. At the same time, because of current technology, the game console hardware is also under their control. With so many factors added up, it is normal for profits to be high.
"Yes, and this is just the beginning. The cards of "Tank Battle" have just been launched, and their prices are much more expensive than other cards. Moreover, because they are so playable, they will also boost the sales of a number of red and white machines. Lin Dexiang said happily.
"Okay, then we will continue to promote the expansion of this market. Our goal is to let every American family have our red and white consoles and handheld consoles. After success, we will enter the European market." Chen Zhiwen said confidently.
In the original history of Atari, one of three families owned an Altari 2600, which allowed Atari to earn an astonishing profit of 2 billion US dollars. However, its lifespan was a bit short because there were no exciting game cards and it was arrogant. I felt that I could just deal with consumers casually, which eventually led to the most famous Atari crash in 1983.
But the beauty is no longer the same. The emphasis on games has not stopped. Multiple R&D teams in Hong Kong and the United States have not stopped. Nowadays, in addition to the games provided by Chen Zhiwen, several teams are also constantly selling their own games to the market. game to avoid the emergence of absolute dependence.
In the future, as long as we control this market in the past few years, the profit will be much higher than that of Atari. However, the only factor to be considered is the ZZ factor. But considering that this is just a new game market, there will be no National security issues, coupled with President Reagan's relatively loose economic strategy. At the same time, many of Midea's chips are purchased from the United States and some of the cheaper Japanese chips are abandoned. This is actually a consideration.
"Another point is that our arcade market is sluggish." Lin Dexiang added.
"It's normal. It's expected. If you should be eliminated, you should be eliminated. The market for arcade machines is far inferior to that of the Famicom." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.
Nowadays, due to the emergence of the Famicom and various exciting game cards, the arcade market has inevitably shrunk faster than in the past. Moreover, the profits and turnover of arcade machines are far less than those of the Famicom, and even It's not even comparable to cheaper handheld consoles. An arcade console is considered a success if it can be bought for 50,000 units in the United States, but a handheld console that only sells 1% of the arcade console will sell tens of millions of consoles in its lifetime. Problem, as long as the game is fun enough.
Products that can be sold to all ordinary people will always have the highest profit market and the largest market. For example, the most envied arms sales market, its output value is far less than that of civilian cars, mobile phones, computers, etc.
Moreover, arcade machines will not be completely eliminated. When semiconductors continue to develop and costs are further reduced in the future, the price of arcade machines will become suitable for game arcades. In this way, the potential of the Asian market will explode again.
"As for the personal computer, it was only released in March. In the past two months, we have sold a total of 15,000 units through the platforms of Costco and Best Buy. Judging from the feedback from users, the sales volume has been very high. Well, most people are very satisfied, and now, according to our survey, 20% of new customers are introduced by old customers, and this proportion is growing." Lin Dexiang continued.
"This is very good. Keep working hard. Losing money doesn't matter now. Use the game money to subsidize it first and continue advertising. Personal computers will be a blue ocean market that is bigger than the game console market." Chen Zhiwen nodded.
"Understood." Lin Dexiang said.
"But there is one thing I want to tell you." Chen Zhiwen added: "Word and Excel will launch floppy disks that are compatible with other computers and sold separately. In this way, our computers will lose a big advantage. You must prepare early. "
"Is this to monopolize the software market?" Lin Dexiang asked.
"Yes, in the long run, this is the most cost-effective, and it will break other companies' determination to develop this kind of software." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.
The real ban is actually to launch such products on a large scale and use the first-mover advantage to gain market share, so that even if latecomers have R&D capabilities, it will be useless because the market is gone. In this case, unless there is a revolutionary breakthrough with abnormal advantages, , otherwise there would be no chance.
Later generations of Weiruan used this model to occupy the domestic market. Even if they give you free pirated copies, that's fine, because if they don't give it to you, the country will definitely develop its own system. In the long run, maybe one day it will go abroad. Threaten Weiruan's monopoly position.
"In terms of games, can they be given to us alone?" Lin Dexiang asked.
"I can give you a certain amount of time, but we can't keep it on our own computers all the time. Computers around the world will be customers of all my software." Chen Zhiwen shook his head and said.
The game is indeed exclusive and patentable, and it is difficult for others to copy it, but in terms of profit, it is definitely more cost-effective to sell it in large quantities, especially if it can be sold with the future window, then it will be a safe place for Diaoyutai.
"Okay, I understand." Lin Dexiang suddenly felt a little stressed again. The previous sales of computers were partly due to the company's excellent games and two high-quality office software.
"Actually, if you want to truly gain a foothold in the personal computer market, relying on these software won't work. At best, you can only achieve better sales in the short term. If you want to grow long, you still have to rely on technology." Chen Zhiwen said: "We have gained success in the game market. Although many methods have been used to make profits, a lot of funds will remain in the United States. This money will be given priority to our laboratories in the United States to concentrate on research and development of various technologies. The higher the better."
Although like arcades, Midea adopts the trade model between the United States and Hong Kong using companies in tax havens, allowing a large amount of profits to stay in the accounts of tax havens, but no matter what, after making money from the United States, this is the final market The U.S. government is not a fool. Many restrictions will inevitably lead to a lot of funds remaining in the United States.
If these funds want to slip out legally and have to pay an extra tax, then it is better to put them in the United States and engage in research and development. In today's world, the United States is still the holy land of the birth of global technology. Chen Zhiwen also needs a large number of talents here to realize his own goals. Target.
"Okay, but Mr. Chen, if we develop any new software ourselves and it is easier to use, can we have the right to use it independently and only put it on our computers?" Lin Dexiang said suddenly.
"Yes, I give you this right, but you will still find that this method is difficult to work in the future, unless you also engage in games. However, although others cannot copy games, they can still be developed. Another kind." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.
This right is actually not important. Before Windows dominated the world, some computer companies did the same and made their own software packages, which caused many consumers a headache.
After Windows unified the world, software began to develop in a healthy way. What I need to wait for is for Windows to dominate the world, and even push a little further to make this day come as soon as possible. In this way, when the global market is unified, it is more in line with his launch of countless software for future generations. software or games.
"Thank you Mr. Chen, we have to try it no matter what." Lin Dexiang said with a smile.
(End of chapter)
