Top of the Great Era

Chapter 1872 Soft move
Zhou Shaoning said with a smile: "It's not because of emotion, Apple... I heard some news, there may be something wrong with Apple."

"Jobs?"

Zhou Buqi had heard that Jobs' condition had worsened, and he was even unable to handle some Apple jobs normally.

There have been predictions in the industry that Jobs will soon resign as Apple CEO.

Although he is a competitor, seeing such a great business leader come to an end, he felt a little sad in his heart.Especially now that he is very thin, weighing more than 80 kilograms, he hardly has a human shape, which makes people unbearable to look at him directly.

Zhou Shaoning said: "Jobs...maybe it has something to do with Jobs, but what I'm talking about is not directly related to Jobs. I heard the news from Foxconn."

"Oh?"

Zhou Buqi's eyes lit up.

Zhou Shaoning said: "It is already the end of March. If a new machine is going to be launched after June, then it is time to place an order and hurry up to produce it. After I handed over the order for Aster3 to Foxconn, they said they were willing to spend most of it. production capacity to support us, and our orders gave their factories the opportunity to recruit workers in the spring."

Many of Foxconn's workers are not full-year, but are "part-time".

Because orders are mainly between March and December.

In winter, the market will enter the off-season, and there will not be so many orders to maintain the operation of the huge team of workers. Many workers will return to their hometowns for the winter, and then return to work in the spring.

This is a very critical message!
The iPhone is now Apple's core product, and it is almost impossible to go to Apple to dig out some related business secrets.

However, you can indirectly understand Apple's situation from the level of the industry chain.

It is now late March, and Astar has already started placing orders for the production of mobile phones.

There has been no movement from Apple.

This shows one thing, that is, at Apple's press conference held in Silicon Valley in June, there will be no new version of the iPhone, otherwise it will be too late!
Regardless of whether it is related to Jobs or not, a very clear signal can be obtained from Foxconn at the end of the supply chain.

Zhou Buqi narrowed his eyes, "It seems that there will be no new iPhones released in the summer."

Zhou Shaoning said: "Yes, definitely not. Apple's spring conference is in March, summer conference is in June, and autumn conference is generally in October. That is to say, the new iPhone will not be launched until at least October. .”

"Well, it's very important!"

Zhou Buqi took a deep breath.

Doing business, this market research is really important!

If Zhou Shaoning was careless, ignored the valuable information he got from Foxconn, and then proceeded step by step, as he did in the past few years, and set the release date of Asda's new mobile phone in September, it would be a disaster, and he would crash!

In September, Aster9 went online, and then Apple announced that a new version of the iPhone would be released in October, so consumers are looking forward to it.

Well, a bucket of ice water was poured on Asda's forehead.

However, it is unnecessary to say that Apple is deliberately targeting Asda, as it takes itself too seriously.Apple is now the world's largest technology giant. With Asda's level, it is simply not worthwhile for Apple to adopt such a competitive strategy.

Zhou Buqi asked: "Why is this happening? How did Apple adjust its distribution strategy?"

Zhou Shaoning said: "In my opinion, there are mainly two reasons, one is the product reason, and the other is the market reason. The product reason is...the Apple store has an artificial intelligence product siri, which is quite popular with users. Apple last year Just acquired this company. It should be integrated into the iOS system, which requires more functional adaptations, and it may not be mature yet.”

Zhou Buqi was a little surprised, "Is the iPhone going to be compatible with Siri?"

"Ah."

Zhou Shaoning nodded.

Zhou Buqi was a little anxious, "How about the artificial intelligence of Ziweixing? Have you paid attention to it? This is a very important functional innovation, don't be preempted by Apple!"

Zhou Shaoning said with a smile: "Ziweixing should do better. After Apple acquired Siri last year, I paid attention to this market, and then contacted Shen Xiangyang to make an urgent deployment in this field. In terms of smart effects, Ziweixing Rokid will be much better than Apple's Siri."

"Will it be applied on the new machine?"

"meeting."

"Okay." Zhou Buqi was very happy, "During the press conference, we should focus on demonstrating the voice function of artificial intelligence. This thing will not be much less attractive than fingerprint unlocking."

Zhou Shaoning said: "It's still very rudimentary, mainly based on the technical extension of neural networks and deep learning that were gradually popularized in the field of artificial intelligence last year."

Zhou Buqi didn't care, waved his hand, "Can you speak English?"

Zhou Shaoning said: "Yes, there are mainly two teams now, one is the English team and the other is the Chinese team. You have to ask Shen Xiangyang about the specific situation. I heard that this year will open German, Spanish, French, Japanese, and Korean teams. explore."

Zhou Buqi said with satisfaction: "It's a good start, just develop slowly. Ziweixing's Rokid will definitely perform better than Apple's siri!"

Apple's Siri is the shame of artificial intelligence.

Very badly done.

It is impossible for any company to be proficient in everything. AI is probably Apple's weakest link. For this reason, Apple has successively acquired dozens of AI companies to improve, but the results are very poor.

It is nothing compared to Silicon Valley giants such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook, and it is much worse than domestic technology giants.

Zhoubuqi has already established a layout in this field.

Ziweixing has been laying out the intelligent voice assistant Rokid for four years, from the text intelligence at the beginning, to the voice intelligence since last year, from the Chinese intelligence in China, to the English intelligence overseas.

In this field, Ziweixing is at the forefront of the world and will be much ahead of Apple.

Backed by such an advantage, when Asda launches a new machine, it has the advantage of taking it at hand, and can use Ziweixing's resources to show the superiority of its own products.

If after Apple releases Siri, Asda rushes to build a team to develop a similar intelligent voice assistant team, then the day lily will be cold.

At that time, even if the product is better than siri, it will be meaningless.

Because the user's mind has been occupied by siri.

Just like many voice assistant products appeared in the world later, most of them are better than siri, but when people talk about intelligent voice assistants, the first thing that comes to mind is siri.

It's not that siri is so good, but that siri was released the earliest and best publicized, and it has already occupied users' minds early.

For ordinary people, they have absolutely no judgment on such high-tech products.It's not about technology, it's about marketing.

Marketing is done well, even if the technical content is very low, it is still considered the best technology.Even the obvious IQ tax will make consumers rush to pay for the technology.

At this time, the foresight came into play, and Zhou Buqi said seriously: "The promotion of Rokid is very important. This is not only a product, but also represents the public awareness foundation of Ziweixing and Asda in the field of artificial intelligence! "

Then, he turned around and told his assistant Ning Lu who was with him, "Turn back to Ziweixing, Asda, and Ziweixing Global to hold a meeting together to discuss an overall marketing plan, and we must pay attention to Rokid! "

Zhou Shaoning continued: "The next step is the market level. In the past three years, our products have sold well in the United States, and the important reason is that we chose to launch in the fall."

"Oh? What's the reason?"

"Because of Christmas."

"Christmas……"

Zhou Buqi was a little stunned.

Zhou Shaoning said: "Yes, this stage is close to Black Friday. It is mainly Christmas, and Christmas in the United States has to give gifts. Every Christmas will usher in a shopping frenzy. Mobile phone sales have an obvious market trend. , 3 months is a threshold. Within 3 months, the popularity of new products will be very high. After 3 months, the popularity will drop. So you can see that many mobile phone manufacturers are using machine-sea tactics. At least every 3 months must be guaranteed. Release a new mobile phone every month to maintain market popularity and sales."

Zhou Buqi's heart was half cold, "If the new mobile phone is released in autumn, Christmas will be in two more months, and it will be in the timeline of 3 months. If the new mobile phone is launched in summer, it will be Christmas time. The attractiveness in the market will be greatly reduced, and it will be difficult to produce the feeling of 'surprise' in Christmas gifts."

"Yes, that's the reason." Zhou Shaoning sighed, "After all, Apple has transformed into a mobile phone, and we didn't realize it a few years ago. So in the past few years, we have been cheap. Apple's new phone was released in the summer. Our products Released in the fall. Now that Cook is at the helm of Apple, he has to adjust his marketing strategy and focus on Christmas trends.”

Zhou Bo said in a low voice: "This is not a small blow to Estar."

Zhou Shaoning said: "There is no way to do this. Our products are indeed weaker in terms of competitiveness. We must avoid their edge and stagger the time. Fortunately, the Christmas culture in the Asian market is not so strong, and the impact is limited."

Zhou Buqi has a very clear understanding, "Yes, we should focus on the Asian market and the European market. The United States is Apple's stronghold, and we should retreat as soon as possible."

Zhou Shaoning nodded, "After the 3-month new issue, if you want to maintain the popularity, you need to rely on marketing methods and advertisements to play a role."

Zhou Buqi blinked and said thoughtfully: "It's a soft move to avoid Apple's autumn conference. However, a soft move doesn't mean it will definitely fail. You just need to grasp Apple's weakness to operate. .”

"Oh? What is it?"

"Pretentious!"

(End of this chapter)