Chapter 246 Chance
"In 1996, under the leadership of Gil Amelio, in response to the impact of Windows, Apple was rewriting MacOS."
“When I took over last year, I found that what they wrote was rubbish, so I killed the Mac operating system based on the original ‘classic’ MacOS and asked them to rewrite it based on NeXT’s OPENSTEP.”
"While rewriting the operating system, the company will also launch two new products in the next two years, one of which will be launched this year, which is an integrated iMac targeting the consumer and education markets, and the other is expected to be launched next year. The laptop iBook, of course, both of those products were planned."
After accompanying Kate to the Golden Globe Awards and the "Titanic" celebration banquet, Roland, who was recovering from his fatigue, flew from Los Angeles to San Francisco on the 25th, heading to Apple's Cupertino company.
As the largest shareholder in the company who can only say Yes to Jobs and No to all voices against Jobs, Roland's arrival received a warm welcome from Jobs. After asking about Roland's intentions, he learned that Roland came to thank Pixar for the last time. After sending the merchandise of "Toy Story", Jobs, who knew it in his heart, accompanied Roland around the company.
While introducing the company, because there was no villain Bill Gates, the two chatted directly about the unfinished topic of last year. After knowing that Roland believed that the digital Walkman would be the future of Apple, the two of them stared at Mung Bean , got it right.
It's a pity that Jobs didn't have the idea of leading Apple into this field for a while.
"This potential profit growth point has to wait..."
"The Korean company Sehan will launch a similar product this year. I need to see its effect and market response first, and then formulate a company strategy based on the reality. So... if you want me to take out an MP3 two thousand years ago It’s unrealistic, and before launching the product, I also want to know the attitude of the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), and let other companies hit the Home Recording Act.”
Of course Roland knew about the Sehan company that Jobs mentioned.
Because this is Samsung's industry.
The predecessor of Sehan Group was Synthetic Fiber Company, a subsidiary of Samsung Group. It was spun off by Samsung in 1995. After merger and reorganization in 1996, it became Sehan Group. Its main business is textiles, fiber film, magnetic materials, and R/O reflection. The production of osmotic membranes and water purifiers, as a sideline, is that Samsung has always wanted to compete with Sony's digital technology imaging products.
After the reorganization, Sehan Group, which has its own mission, is frantically developing the world's first MP3 player, MpManF10. The target is Sony's Walkman, but unfortunately, the storage space is only 32M.
Although the age is different, the size of the storage space and the things that can be done are also different.
But this is MP3!
32M MP3 can only play eight songs, who would buy this thing!
So Sehan Group failed.
After learning the lesson, America Diamond launched the world's second MP3 player, the RioPMP300. Although they couldn't break through the technical limitations, they still only have 32M memory, but they support SD cards!
So, MP3 players really became popular.
On Christmas in 1998, the RioPMP300 became the best-selling Christmas gift in America, and 40,000 units were sold within a month; this data panicked the record companies selling CDs. The Recording Industry Association formed by the company sued Diamond, but the court held that this playback device was not illegal, so the Digital Music Copyright Protection Organization came into being. At this time, MP3 really became popular all over the world.
But even so, the portable music market is still dominated by Sony Walkman.
It wasn't until Apple acquired SoundJamMP, created iTunes, acquired PortalPlayer, bought the patent for small hard disks from Toshiba, and joined forces with music giants other than Sony to create the iPod, that Sony's cash cow was stabbed to death. At that time, it was October 2001.
From January 1998 to October 2001, this time span may be too long for others, but for Roland, it is just right, because he does not want Apple to have a fight with Sony before the 'September 11 attacks' superior.
Because he is now Sony's largest shareholder, if Apple and Sony fight in advance, Sony will definitely be alert.
In this way, Roland naturally responded with the highest trust in the face of Jobs' words of holding back.
"It doesn't matter, I won't interfere with the company's operations, you can launch whatever product you want, you can buy whichever company you want, and whoever says 'No' to you, let them go!"
"I believe that Apple will regain its light in your hands. Although Microsoft is now firmly controlling the market share in the field of personal computer operating systems, I believe that Bill Gates must not be able to do you in other fields. Absolutely .”
"If you beat him once, you can win him a second time."
Roland is a layman in the field of science and technology, and the face he shows now is no different from those upstart investors. Except for giving directions, he does nothing else.
But it is this kind of behavior that can beep without knowing anything, but it is very appetizing to Jobs.
What Jobs hated the most was when others dictated his decisions. Shareholders are shareholders. Just read the reports at home. Why do you have to participate in the company’s operations?
Occasional labor pains are inevitable. Since it is an investment, you must be patient.
Of course, it would be even better if you support yourself appropriately.
And Roland is obviously the embodiment of the perfect shareholder in his mind.
Regardless of whether it is his own hobbies or his own profession, after he spends money, he will leave it to the professional.
Stayed in Cupertino for two days, when we left, both sides smiled and hugged.
Compared with those guys who can personally send Roland on the plane, the relationship between Roland and Jobs still needs to be improved, but compared with the first meeting, the relationship between the two parties who have only met twice is still quite fast. .
After leaving Cupertino, Roland and Kate flew to Seattle again.
Judging by the number of shares he holds, Roland is in Microsoft, so he doesn't even rank high.
But behind him, there is someone after all!
Just by swiping his face, he can pry open Bill Gates' office.
With Roland's arrival, the smiling tiger directly chatted with Roland about his large income last year, and after learning that Roland took the money to buy several game studios, the world's richest man Face, smiled happily.
"When we got together last year, you told me that you bought a Scottish game company DMADesign?"
"After I came back, I took a special look at that company. The PC games released in November last year are very strong!"
"The game called "GTA", sold one million copies in just two months?"
"If you leave out the channel commission, this game will at least bring you more than 10 million in revenue?"
Although more than 10 million yuan is nothing in front of Bill Gates, Blizzard Entertainment in the hands of Roland is a company he admires very much. Since its establishment, they have been doing what they want to do. If they continue to develop according to the current momentum , it won't be long before it can catch up with EA and become the largest game company in North America.
Everyone likes to listen to polite words, but unlike those guys who like to brag, what Roland likes to do most is to 'expose' his 'shortcomings', "Yes, the sales of "GTA" are indeed very good .”
“However, since the game was produced, the impact of violence in reality was not considered at all, so after the release, it attracted a lot of criticism, and European countries felt that we were promoting violence.”
"But, isn't this kind of negative news the best advertisement?"
Bill Gates was not fooled, and said with a smile: "Many young people bought games because of these scolding."
As the saying goes, "The mountains and rivers are different, the wind and the moon are in the same sky", the criticisms from all countries are actually the same.
As soon as "GTA" was launched, it was resisted by a group of adults. They felt that this kind of game that promotes violence must be banned.
There is no way, just like when shootings happened frequently, these guys did not choose to ban guns, but chose to ban the sale of shooting games. Game manufacturers will never be able to do military enterprises, so games, a disadvantaged group, have to honestly take the blame Well.
But while taking the blame, hey, "GTA" became popular.
Where the media reaches, is where the game is distributed.
Why?
Because the media is advertising for free!
The reason why "GTA" became popular is because the exciting and violent content is deeply loved by young people.
In addition, because of the more resistance and curiosity, wherever the "GTA" is scolded, "GTA" will be sold there. The more "GTA" is sold there, the stronger the media's scolding, the stronger the media's scolding, "GTA" " will be able to kill the best-selling list more easily.
Although "GTA" is a cancer in the field controlled by traditional media, does it matter?
Even if it is not a cancer, those old men and women will not buy games.
So, their preferences can't affect young people's decisions at all!
It can only stimulate those young people who want to resist and buy these games that they oppose!
So, "GTA" is like Little Ma, the more people scold it, the more money it makes!
After briefly chatting about "GTA", which has not yet logged into America, Bill Gates threw out a new game under Blizzard Entertainment that is about to be released, "I heard that "StarCraft" will be released in March this year?"
"How about it, how much confidence do you have in this game?"
When talking about "StarCraft", Roland smiled, "If we don't break the sales record, then we will fail."
"Wow! Is it breaking the record of "Warcraft"? That is... starting with two million?"
Bill Gates laughed and said, "Your growth rate is much faster than when I sold system copies."
"I heard that you hold annual meetings and game competitions every year?"
"If the sales of these two games are very good, I think you can actually organize players to compete."
"Offline competition?" Roland didn't expect Bill Gates to have studied this kind of thing, "There will be."
Of course there will be offline competitions, and there will be BlizzCon.
As a major producer of IP, Blizzard is a golden mountain, and it would be a waste if it is not used properly.
Roland has already made up his mind. After the filming of "Spider-Man 2 and 3" is finished, he will start thinking about "Warcraft" or "Diablo" animation movies, regardless of "Orcs will never be slaves" 'Grom-Hellscream, or Diablo, the Dreadlord Diablo, who is played by players themselves in each generation, are all subjects that can be written about.
The game CG in this era is not as exquisite as the later generations. When playing the plot, the player can only see a bunch of rough models fighting there, and sometimes there is only a paragraph of text.
Although for many players, this is already a very impressive existence, but for Roland, it is far from enough.
Since it’s Blizzard Studios, it has to look like a studio, right?
Since the game CG cannot be appreciated by players, then we can extract the CG to make a movie and sell it to players!
Because IMax3D technology is immature, the special effects of this era cannot support the entire "World of Warcraft", but it is still conceivable to make a cartoon based on the effects of "Toy Story".
As for Roland, he never thought about cultivating animation talents, even if he had an idea, he couldn't shoot it?
It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter if there is no one in Roland, won't it be over if you outsource it to Pixar?
Anyway, Jobs is not interested in Pixar, so instead of outsourcing to Disney, it is better to do it for him!
One of our own!
It’s not considered poaching at all!
(ω)
After briefly chatting with Bill Gates about the achievements of Blizzard Entertainment, Roland took the initiative to shift the topic to the console that Microsoft was developing. When Bill Gates learned that Roland was very interested in his own console, he wanted to When making the game according to the host system, Lang Youqing concubine's intentional dialogue appeared naturally.
"Are you going to bring "Warcraft" and "Diablo" to our Microsoft home console?"
"No, no, no, due to the difficulty of operation, players will not be used to playing these two games when they log on to the console, and many of the studios I bought are dedicated to console games. If you are willing to give us Provide engineering machines, I think games similar to "GTA" will log into your hosts."
"Will it only log into our console? Or like Spider-Man, exclusively?"
"It depends on the final effect of the machine. If it is very good, I think they will only log in to Microsoft's mainframe."
Neither of them played around the clock, and both of them knew what the other wanted.
When Bill Gates silently listened to Paul Allen providing Roland with a way to make money, Roland was actually tied to Microsoft's chariot by an invisible rope-I will help you make money and watch your development, but you In the end, I went to my competitor?
Aren’t you an old birthday star who hanged himself because you think your life is too long?
In fact, Roland knew very well how ruthless Microsoft was under the leadership of Bill Gates.
Taking the console side for example, Bill Gates almost stabbed Sony to death with a knife.
In 2001, Sony Computer Entertainment teamed up with Toshiba and IBM to start developing the PS3. Among them, the host chip CELL was responsible for IBM. When signing the contract, IBM also deliberately left a back door in the contract, stating that IBM It is possible to use the chip developed by itself for other purposes, and it is not clearly stated that it cannot be used on competitors.
So, the detailed CPU specifications researched by IBM came to Microsoft.
Not only that, the CELL developed by IBM for Sony is a younger brother. In terms of graphics processing, it is more **** than the outsourcing of massage parlors. After seeing the effect, Sony urgently contacted Nvidia to let Lao Huang, who is a superb swordsman, be the PS3 with the CELL architecture. Due to the tight schedule for the development of the display chip for the console, when providing engineering prototypes to game developers, it was a development machine with only a processor and no GPU. As a result, a bunch of PS3 first-time games all died violently.
Of course, if you just look at the surface, it can be said that IBM sold Sony for money, and Microsoft just waved the big stick of money and gave too much, but with David, who is in charge of the chief architecture of XBox360 and PS3 processors- After Hipp resigned from IBM, everything became clear—David Hipp himself admitted that on March 9, 2001, shortly after Sony released the news of cooperating with IBM to develop the CELL chip, Microsoft came to the door. They were commissioned to develop the next generation of host chips, and Steve Ballmer, who was in charge of placing the order, had only one requirement, which was to exceed CELL.
The most terrifying thing is that at that time, Microsoft did not even launch the first-generation host XBox.
Not only that, the antitrust lawsuit that has plagued them for many years has just reached a settlement with the Ministry of Justice.
Microsoft has not yet officially entered the console market, but it has already figured out a way to backstab Sony in the next era.
As long as it can kill its competitors, Microsoft can do anything. Most of the time, it just lacks an opportunity.
On the surface, Bill Gates is harmless to humans and animals.
But in fact, he is just like Jobs said, an old bastard!
Compared with him, Roland is simply a white lotus that emerges from the mud without being stained, clean and ripples without being demonic!
After reaching a verbal agreement, Lao Yinbi, who understands that the content is important but doesn't want to do the content himself, is very happy.
'Casual' revealed a little research and development progress, and Roland, who knew that the XBox could not be launched a year ago, was relieved.
As long as the XBox ships after the 'September11 attacks', everything will be fine.
After confirming that Apple and Microsoft, two companies that cannot be controlled by him at all, but are enough to take advantage of the situation, there is a high probability that there will be no mistakes, Roland's excitement in his heart has increased a lot.
Since the launch time of iPod and XBox are so coincidental after the 'September11attacks', isn't it God bless, give him a chance!
At the same time, he also knew in his heart that with Microsoft and Apple being so powerful, the next thing to do was to win the adaptation and filming copyright of "Black Hawk Down", and then find a way to let Sony produce and distribute it.
Unfortunately, these two most important things, now...
But there is no rush.
Note: ①The world's first MP3 was produced by Samsung. I wrote that Samsung wanted to learn from Sony, catch up with Sony, and surpass Sony. So, like Jobs, it was Sony's top product. Unfortunately, it didn't succeed. The reason for the failure was the same as the 32M The stock is too small, but the bigger reason is that the new product is released in Japan, Sony's basic disk. ②In the era of digital walkman battles, even Nike made this thing. The reason why Sony was defeated by the iPod was that it did not continue to be the leader of the rivers and lakes. In fact, it has nothing to do with Apple, but Sony does not have a fist that matches its ambitions , They want the right to speak in the industry, instead of making MP3, make their own standard ATRAC3, and let others pay for themselves. This kind of behavior made the American giants extremely dissatisfied, so Jobs was able to use the industry monopoly method to destroy Sony without being investigated. . ③In the book "The Race for New Game Consoles", David Shipp, who is the chief architect of the XBox360 and PS3 processors, admitted Microsoft's off-the-shelf tricks, stealing designs, and delaying time. The fact that Microsoft was able to do this unscrupulously was also related to Sony’s DVD and Blu-ray standards at that time. The digital music standard was not established, but the video was controlled by them. If the movie wanted to make a CD, it had to pay Sony. , IBM turned back without even thinking about it, and the media group that owns Hollywood Pictures is not on Sony's side either. ④In reality, the iPod and XBox were indeed released after 9/11. I didn’t change any time, and I was surprised.
(end of this chapter)