Top of the Great Era

Chapter 3022 Headphones

Although they are all Apple products, AppleTV is completely different from iPhone and iPad.

AppleTV is just a marginal product of Apple, with weak market competitiveness, limited stock and incremental sales, so the negotiation power is insufficient. In order to maintain cooperation with Zhou Buqi, it has to make concessions.

Otherwise, the AppleTV product might be eliminated from the market.

  iPhone and iPad are different, they dominate the market!

Especially the iPad, which makes up the vast majority of the tablet market.

The market means status and the right to speak.

It is impossible to make Apple make concessions on the iPhone and iPad, unless one day the iPhone and iPad really reach a near-monopoly position in the market. At that time, there will be administrative intervention, and the administration and law will require Apple to lower its commissions, just like Qualcomm will be sanctioned for charging excessively high patent fees.

But now Apple's products are far from reaching the monopoly level. Competitors such as Samsung, Asda, Microsoft, Huawei, HP, and Sony are all very strong, and users have many choices, not just Apple products.

If there is no monopoly involved, it is difficult for administrative power to intervene.

It would be harder than taking the road to Shu to get Apple to give up its 30% commission solely through market forces.

  Zhou Buqi was just joking, he knew that Cook would not back down on this issue. He took the initiative to express his willingness to reduce the commission on AppleTV, which can be said to have given enough face to Boss Zhou, and that was enough!

Just accept it when you see it!

Now that the business was done, Zhou Buqi couldn't just walk away. He chatted with him without any hurry, "By the way, there is a big news about Apple now!"

“The lawsuit with Qualcomm?”

"No, music."

"Oh."

Cook looked at him warily.

Zhou Buqi said with a sigh, "You're not really going to spend $30 billion to acquire Beats, the headphone company?"

Cook hesitated for a moment, then said, "The case has been settled."

Zhou Buqi curled his lips and said, "My girlfriend also bought a few Beats headphones. I tried them on and they didn't feel good at all! The poor sound quality is not as good as the 10-yuan cheap goods on Taobao. It means they are good at marketing and have made a name for themselves in the film, television and sports industries."

"Brand is vitality." Cook smiled.

Zhou Buqi was very surprised. "Is Beats a bigger brand than Apple? Does Apple need to rely on external brands to make new products?"

Cook couldn't tell him in detail. "It's complicated."

Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "You didn't hear something from somewhere and found out the internal secrets of Estar, did you?"

"Confidential?" Cook was slightly startled. "What secret?"

Zhou Buqi said calmly: "Aishida will make a headphone product next, a headphone product that truly belongs to the mobile Internet."

"I don't know anything about this," Cook said.

"Really?" Zhou Buqi was calling a spade a spade. "To be honest, did you hear that I was going to personally design a mobile headset for Esda as the product director? That's why you were tempted and rushed to buy Beats, a headphone manufacturer, at a high price? A purchase price of 30 billion US dollars... In my opinion, Beats is worth less than 3 million US dollars!"

This is complete bullshit.

He had never had such an idea before.

Because three months ago, I saw widespread reports in the media saying that Apple was going to spend a large amount of money to acquire the trendy headphone manufacturer Beats.

Such news attracted the attention and interest of Boss Zhou.

Even he knows why Beats is worth $30 billion.

What Apple is interested in is not the Beats headphones or the "Beats" brand, but a software product built by Beats with its strong marketing power and brand system - Beats Music.

This is a music streaming product.

Apple has been engaged in music streaming for many years, but has never been very successful and has little presence in the market. There is a huge gap compared to Spotify.

But music is an element that Apple cannot avoid.

This is a continuation from Jobs.

Jobs was a veteran movie and music fan, which made movies, TV and music an important strategic plan and business line for Apple many years ago. He even invited Disney CEO Robert Iger to be a director of Apple.

Movie and TV streaming and music streaming are both part of Apple’s core strategy.

It’s just that movie and TV streaming is too difficult, so I won’t try it for now.

Let’s start with music streaming.

Apple acquired the headphone manufacturer Beats mainly because it had its eyes on the streaming platform Beats Music, and then changed the name of Beats Music to Apple Music!

Let Apple have a truly competitive music streaming platform.

Cook has been criticized by the outside world for his lack of innovation and that Apple has no more exciting new products under his management. Of course, he was not convinced, and after the iPhone and iPad had established themselves in the market, he set his sights on music.

Zhou Buqi naturally had to find a way to intercept it.

He had never thought about becoming a product director at Estar, but in order to stop Apple, he had to step in!

Apple's AirPods will not be released until 2016, so it's still early. In the summer of 2015, Asda will launch a headset that truly belongs to the mobile Internet... and it must be designed to be the same as Apple's AirPods.

If they are different, the interception effect will be greatly reduced.

  Asda launched this kind of headphones to the market a year in advance, and now in 2016, Apple still has the nerve to launch an "exactly the same" mobile phone?

If Apple wants to dig up its grave and produce the exact same headphones in advance, only Boss Zhou can do it personally.

As early as after the Spring Festival in February, ASD established the headphone project department at the instruction of Zhou Buqi.

Just like Zhou Buqi said, the director of the project department is himself!

To this end, during the Spring Festival, he drew more than 20 sketches as the design concept of the new headphones. He would lead the creation of a hardware product from top to bottom.

Now that I've met Cook, I might as well give him some eye drops.

Cook's face changed slightly, and he was very shocked. "You want to be a product manager? You want to design a pair of headphones?"

Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "This is a trade secret."

Cook asked: "When did it happen?"

Zhou Buqi said: "Now, I am the director of this project group. I have formed a team of more than 20 people, mainly to solve the technical problems of connecting headphones and mobile phones. This team is in China. Next, I may acquire a small headphone company in the United States to solve some deep-level technologies in music perception."

Cook took a deep breath and asked, "How long will it take you to get this done?"

"Probably... huh?" Zhou Buqi looked alert, "What do you mean? You don't want to follow the trend, do you?"

"No no!"

Cook was sweating.

I just think this is too much of a coincidence.

That's what he planned.

After acquiring Beats, there were mainly two things.

First, integrate Beats' streaming music business and build up Apple's streaming music business; second, integrate Beats' technical resources and lay the technical foundation for Apple's next Bluetooth headset.

  Unexpectedly, Boss Zhou had already set his eyes on me!

On second thought, it does make sense!

Boss Zhou had already laid the groundwork for the preliminary work of the "mobile Bluetooth headset".

In the global market, the largest music streaming company is Spotify. Zhou Buqi is the largest investor and executive director of the company, with great say. The founding team of Spotify regards him as the godfather.

In the Chinese mainland market, the largest music streaming company is Weidian Music, which is Zhou Buqi's company.

In addition, he also controls Estar, one of the world's top three mobile phone manufacturers.

If you want to make a good mobile Bluetooth headset, you cannot do without these two points.

First, we need a smartphone as a platform to efficiently connect Bluetooth headsets and smartphones.

Second, after the hardware is connected, software services are needed, and a music streaming platform is needed to provide music playback.

  Boss Zhou has already accomplished these two things!

Now, all we need is a groundbreaking Bluetooth headset that can lead the trend and truly belong to the mobile Internet!

Cook was a little flustered.

Somewhat frustrated.

After all the hard work and secret planning, I thought I would have a chance to lead the trend of an era like my predecessor Steve Jobs...but I didn't expect that I would fall behind Boss Zhou so early. The same thing has already been done by others!

Zhou Buqi looked at him strangely, frowned and said, "Why do I feel like something is wrong with you? Are you trying to plagiarize my idea?"

"No, I'm just a little surprised."

Cook maintained a good demeanor and smiled.

But this smile looks uglier than crying.

Zhou Buqi breathed a sigh of relief and said slowly, "I haven't been a product manager for many years. When I first started my business, I participated in the design of Xiaonei.com and Pengyou.com as a product manager, but those were all Internet products. This time is different. This time it's a hardware product, which is also a big challenge for me."

Cook said reluctantly: "You can do it, it's just a pair of headphones."

Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "Apple is an expert in making software and hardware products. If I encounter any troubles in making headphones, can I come and ask you for help?"

“Ahem…” Cook was speechless and could only politely refuse, “After Apple acquired Beats, we are also a competitor in this field.”

Zhou Buqi said, "That makes sense. I hope you won't think I copied the design of Beats headphones. I don't like Beats headphones at all. If I want to make one, it must be a groundbreaking headphone product. Okay, I'll leave now. Today's matter is settled. AppleTV's commission will be halved. Don't forget! Verbal promises must be honored!"

"Of course, 15% commission, it's a deal."

Cook sighed secretly.

Zhou Buqi showed the phone in his hand and said, "I have recorded everything. 15% commission, no regrets!"