Top of the Great Era

Chapter 2870 It’s not business, it’s justice

Zhou Buqi was actually pretending to be stupid.

He is recently preparing to fight Qualcomm, which is an undisputed industry monster. Even if Zhou Buqi is the world's richest man, he still has to take huge risks when making such a decision. Therefore, he has already figured out the basic current situation of this industry.

The "chip + licensing" mandatory bundling agreement issued by Qualcomm to Apple is indeed similar to that of manufacturers such as Samsung, Asda, Xiaomi, and Huawei. In addition to the basic price of the chip, there is also a patent for 5% of the selling price of the mobile phone. Licensing fee.

On the surface, everyone is treated equally.

In fact, different mobile phone manufacturers have different transaction details.

For example, the terms received by Asda are worse than those of Samsung, Huawei, and ZTE, but better than those of Xiaomi, LG, Sony, Ericsson, HTC, and Lenovo.

Apple is undoubtedly the most special one.

Apple's terms must be the best.

This is indeed true.

There is also a compensatory secret clause between Apple and Qualcomm.

In the Steve Jobs era, the iPhone's processor chip was from Samsung, and the baseband chip was from Infineon. If Qualcomm wants to dominate the world and defeat competitors in all industries, it must eat the apple. How to eat it?

Qualcomm's strategy has always been wild.

Playing monopoly is a sideline!

Just like Qualcomm's strategy to defeat Icera, a British software baseband manufacturer, in order to defeat Icera, Qualcomm sold products to communications companies such as Huawei, ZTE, and Vodafone at lower than cost prices. Icera lost its market and was forced to package and sell.

The same goes for Infineon. After Qualcomm’s strategy, Infineon couldn’t survive anymore and packaged it up and sold it to Intel.

In other words, Intel's current mobile phone baseband chip is actually the German Infineon back then.

In order to win over Apple, Qualcomm also gave a huge bargaining chip, promising to give Apple US$10 billion in information "service fees" every year!

The so-called service fee is actually a bonus.

As long as Apple gives up cooperation with Infineon and adopts Qualcomm's chipset solution, Qualcomm can pay Apple US$10 billion every year as a reward.

When Tim Cook took a look, there was such a good thing!

How could you not agree?

Then, the iPhone completely defected to the Qualcomm camp, and Qualcomm dominated the world.

However, after a few years, Apple has become a bit overwhelmed.

At first, Apple was quite happy.

But now iPhone shipments are getting higher and higher. The average selling price of an iPhone is US$500, and a 5% patent fee means US$25.

In the past year, Apple paid $20 billion in patent fees to Qualcomm, which is $10 billion more than the "incentive"!

You know, this is just a royalty.

The cost of purchasing chips is calculated separately and has nothing to do with patent fees. The price of Qualcomm chips is similar to that of other chips, but Qualcomm chips are also bundled with a bunch of expensive patent fees. Cook originally thought that the cooperation with Qualcomm would make a lot of money, and the annual "bonus" of 10 billion US dollars would not be in vain.

Unexpectedly, Apple ended up being deceived and paid an additional US$10 billion to Qualcomm.

This is just the past year.

Now that the development situation of the smartphone industry is so good, iPhone sales will only get higher and higher, which means that Apple will suffer more and more "losses" in the process of cooperation with Qualcomm. Tim Cook has long regretted it and has long been dissatisfied with Qualcomm's excessive behavior.

There is even a rumor in the industry.

Samsung started fighting with Qualcomm in South Korea, and the Korean Fair Trade Commission sued Qualcomm. The reason why Samsung is so courageous is because it has contacted Apple behind the scenes. The two sworn enemies in the mobile phone industry have rarely reached a united front when facing Qualcomm.

So for Tim Cook who came to his door tonight, Zhou Buqi felt like it was pie in the sky.

Zhou Buqi said in a deep voice: "Qualcomm's sales strategy is really too much and has seriously interfered with the healthy development of the mobile phone manufacturing industry."

"I heard that you will take action against Qualcomm?"

Cook's eyes were blazing, as wide as a basketball on the court.

Zhou Buqi sighed, looking embarrassed, "I'm also hesitating. If it were a normal opponent, I would have found a way to fight against it by now. But Qualcomm... you know, Qualcomm has formed a monopoly on the industry. posture. If the cooperative relationship between Asda and Qualcomm is damaged, it will seriously affect Asda’s international competitiveness.”

Tim Cook said with a smile: "This is not a reason. Asda's shipments are so large, I don't believe Qualcomm will give up cooperation with Asda. Qualcomm's management will not be so motivated, otherwise they will not be able to Account to shareholders.”

Cooperation with Asda means profit.

If Qualcomm terminates or reduces its cooperation with Estar because of the bullying and suffering caused by Zhou Buqi, Qualcomm's shareholders will be the first to stand up and oppose it, and will ask the board of directors to fire those incompetent managers who do not consider the interests of the company.

Zhou Buqi hesitated, "It's difficult! This is a troublesome opponent!"

"It's hard for others, but it's also hard for you?" Cook didn't believe it. He said half-jokingly, "You are the richest man in the world. When you encounter such injustice, shouldn't you stand up and uphold justice?"

"What are you talking about?" Zhou Buqi didn't accept this. "Apple is the company with the highest market value in the world and a giant that leads the mobile phone industry. Now there is a cancer that restricts the development of the industry. Shouldn't you stand up? "

Cook was very helpless, "I can't help it, Apple is an American company!"

“What happened to corporate America?”

"If you look at Qualcomm's resume in the past few years, there have been dozens of antitrust lawsuits. Who can really bring Qualcomm down? Whether in North America or the EU, antitrust investigation agencies have nothing to do with Qualcomm. "

"There's nothing I can do." Zhou Buqi remained unmoved.

Cook said amusedly: "Zhou, are you not telling the truth?"

Zhou Buqi pretended to be dumbfounded, "Yeah, what do you mean?"

Cook said seriously: "Asda is a Chinese company. It can accuse Qualcomm of monopoly in China, just like Samsung can accuse Qualcomm in South Korea. This is your advantage."

Zhou Buqi practiced Tai Chi with him, "Apple's business in China is no smaller than Asda's, and Apple can also file an antitrust lawsuit."

Cook turned his head and stared into his eyes, and said bluntly without answering: "I don't believe you can tolerate Qualcomm. The news has been reported. You made a special trip to Intel some time ago. I also got some news. Aisda will follow. It is possible to purchase Intel basebands in large quantities.”

Zhou Buqi said: "Purchasing Intel's baseband will not break up with Qualcomm. Once Qualcomm is sued, it will completely offend Qualcomm. Offending Qualcomm will affect the future cooperation between Asda and Qualcomm. By then Apple You can sit in the middle and enjoy the benefits, and be significantly ahead of Asda in the market competition.”

"Stop joking."

Cook was a little helpless with his gags.

Zhou Buqi said: "Well, let me make a condition, and if you agree, I will rush! If Apple doesn't come forward, I will come out to deal with Qualcomm!"

Cook stared at him, "When?"

Zhou Buqi said: "If we negotiate the terms today, I will return to China to operate tomorrow!"

Cook took a deep breath and asked, "What are the conditions?"

Zhou Buqi said: "Pre-install the four apps Helo, Ucgram, Snapchat, and Yahoo App into the iPhone."

"This is impossible." Cook couldn't help but laugh at his ridiculous suggestion. "Not to mention four models, not one. The iPhone is different from those Android phones. We don't do this kind of business."

Zhou Buqi said: "This is not business, this is justice."

Tim Cook looked at him speechlessly, speechless.

It's just that such a proposal is impossible.

The iPhone will only have a few of its own software pre-installed, and will not provide pre-installed windows for third-party apps.

Zhou Buqi pretended not to be able to tell, "How about it? Is it okay? This is not a business, this is our cooperation for a just cause. I can't take huge risks and rush to the front while you hide behind and do nothing." Bar?"

Cook shook his head, "That's impossible."

Zhou Buqi frowned, a little displeased, "Tim, you seem to lack sincerity."

Cook smiled and said: "I believe that even if I do nothing, you will take action against Qualcomm. The current situation has forced us to do this."

Zhou Buqi glanced at him and said, "Don't you have any sincerity? When you fight against the evil Qualcomm, Apple has been hiding behind it and not showing up?"

"I've already planned it."

"plan?"

Zhou Buqi sneered.

Cook said matter-of-factly: "It's really a plan. Apple is an American company. You can see the general environment in the past few years. Europe and the United States have nothing to do with Qualcomm. I now hope that South Korea and your country will I can give a definite positive result. As long as you give positive feedback, Apple will immediately sue Qualcomm, and I will fight with Qualcomm at all costs in the United States.”

Zhou Buqi believed in such a plan, but showed no disbelief at all, "Don't follow me like this. I only believe in what I see."

Cook sighed and felt helpless, "Pre-installation is impossible."

Zhou Buqi said: "Then what can you give me?"

Cook's expression became complicated. He felt that he had never gotten any benefits from this guy. He said, "Let's do this. In the iPhone store, I will ask them to set up a special recommendation list for these apps from Ziweixing." , will be on the list all year round.”

"What's the point of the unpopular list?"

Zhou Buqi will not be fooled.

There are a lot of lists in the Apple Store, but there are only a few popular lists.

Cook changed the condition, "In the next year, Ziweixing's advertising fees in Apple stores will be reduced by 25%."

"50%!"

Zhou Buqi made his request.

Cook didn’t hesitate, “Okay!”

Zhou Buqi said: "My wife is starting a business to make an e-commerce product. When the time comes, I will ask her to contact you and give you more recommendations in the Apple store. You must help me with this. If you don't agree, she will They don’t even let me sleep.”

Cook laughed and said, "Okay."