Rebirth of the internet boss

Chapter 496

After coming out of the advertising demonstration hall, it was already time for lunch, and Jobs and Cook also came directly to the Apple cafeteria.

Apple Canteen has the same sense of design as its products. They are all very cold and futuristic designs. They use a mixture of long strips of wood and glass to create an open space. The most amazing thing is that there are still Planted trees.

Moreover, the Apple employee restaurant has international dishes, such as buckwheat noodles with garlic and soy sauce beef, ramen burgers with fried eggs and cucumber salad, Spanish seafood and shrimp rice, delicacies from India, gourmet juices...you can choose from a variety of delicacies and combinations, even There is also oyster cod and lobster.

However, Apple does not provide free "lunch" like Google, Facebook and other Silicon Valley companies. Employees have to pay for meals in the cafeteria, including those at the president level.

The reason why Apple did this is that the idea behind it actually originated from Jobs himself. He didn't want employees to take the company's free lunch as a natural benefit, and he could also prevent employees from wasting more food in this way.

Jobs' philosophy is that people don't value free things, "people will value things that cost money more."

Jobs's philosophy is justified. People always take free things for granted and don't know enough about their value.

Conversely, we experience more pleasure when we have to spend our hard-earned money on products, services, etc.

It is estimated that this is also the reason why Apple products are getting more and more expensive.

However, Apple still has other subsidies. In fact, Jobs is not very picky:
For frugal Apple employees, they can get high meal subsidies. Apple employees can choose to deduct lunch consumption in the cafeteria from their wages, which means they can get a nice tax deduction.

Plus, Apple's cafeteria sells high-quality food at very reasonable prices, like these fresh sushi items for just a few dollars.

Also, employees who stay up late and work overtime can also be reimbursed for dinner expenses.

Moreover, Apple employees can eat free apples in the restaurant, which is the only free ingredient in the Apple restaurant, and Apple is really rich in apples!
But there is a sushi restaurant named "Infinite Loop" in the Apple Canteen, which is the most popular and the largest. The sushi chef in the restaurant was poached by Jobs from his favorite restaurant in Japan.

For today's lunch, Jobs still chose an authentic Japanese dish from this sushi restaurant, followed by a vegetable salad and a fruit salad.

Jobs never did his job because of other things. For him, it was both a time and a place to work, including when eating.

At this time, Jobs was also eating, and said to Cook: "Cook, what is the market feedback about our iPhone now?"

A company like Apple will definitely do market research frequently, and sometimes hire a third-party agency to do market research,

For example, in the previous life, Apple specially launched the iPhone in the color of "local tyrant gold", which is the result of good market research. Nothing has changed, but the color has changed, and you will be charged an extra 200 yuan. The key is to explode. earned.

For these basic things, Cook must have opened his mouth. "Now the market feedback of the iPhone is quite good, especially in the hearts of consumers, but the feedback from some media and mobile phone manufacturers is not very good."

What Cook said was very euphemistic. In fact, the first generation of iPhone perfectly reflects why some people like Apple and why some people don't catch a cold.

If you are an enthusiast of computers and electronic equipment, if you look at the configuration and specifications of the first-generation screen, you will definitely think it is a "failure", and many people will think so.

Even compared to other phones on sale at the time, the iPhone was technically unremarkable. It lacked a physical keyboard, which was very popular at the time. Although this shortcoming is not a shortcoming now, there are many other aspects that have suffered. criticize.

The first-generation iPhone, in particular, was expensive at $500, which was too much, and it wasn't fast.

However, the reaction from the outside world has been mixed: some people are very excited about this, discussing the iPhone very enthusiastically, saving Apple millions of dollars in free advertising;
And more people are waiting to see Apple's jokes, not to mention that the iPhone has its own shortcomings and problems, and these problems are all caught up, and many people hope that Apple will screw things up.

In particular, Apple still couldn't get the product within 5 months and 20 days after the conference was held. In the half a year between release and listing, the longer people wait, the iPhone will face more and more problems. critical voice.

Even more interesting, then-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer also publicly mocked Apple's iPhone.

In an interview with USA TODAY, Ballmer said: "The iPhone can't get any convincing market share, there is no chance. We have 96% market share in the computer market, and we are not afraid of Apple's 4%. products that appeal to everyone.”

“这只是一个价值500美元的补贴项目，”他继续说。“也许苹果会赚很多钱。但如果你认真的去看看已经售出的13亿部手机，我更希望我们的软件能在其中占据60%、70%或80%的份额，而苹果的机会只有2%或3%。”

Finally, Ballmer said, "It may be the most expensive mobile phone in the world, but it's really not attractive to business people because it doesn't have a keyboard."

However, this is not the words of Ballmer's family, nor is it that Microsoft, as a competitor, is simply attacking competitors. Even Ballmer himself said that this is not a random conclusion, but a well-thought-out conclusion.

At the same time, many, many people support Ballmer's point of view, and not everyone thinks that the iPhone is worth the wait, at least not for a long time.

Mike Lazaridis, the co-CEO of BlackBerry at the time, was also very concerned about the release of Apple's iPhone. "These people at Apple are really, really good. But it doesn't matter, we won't be affected, because our BlackBerry is the best business phone."

As the "big brother" Nokia and the "second brother" Motorola in the mobile phone industry, because they are too big, they only pay a little attention to the dynamics of Apple mobile phones. The real action depends on the sales of the iPhone after its launch.
However, there is another situation here, that is, Motorola CEO Edward Zander has agreed to meet with Li Feng, but the time for the meeting has not been fixed yet.

And not only do executives at many big tech companies think Apple will screw up, but so does most of the media.

The technology media TechCrunch's statement is very direct, saying that the iPhone will make users "explode",
"Virtual keyboards are no match for traditional physical keys for entering emails and texts. Consumers who buy iPhones spend an extra hour a day checking and checking emails on the road will regret ditching their BlackBerrys. "

The well-known editor-in-chief of All Things D "Dr. Mo" Walter Mossberg also found some real problems, such as the iPhone does not support copy and paste and other small shortcomings, but he predicted that the iPhone will not achieve results.

"The iPhone is beautiful though," he said. "People's expectations for the iPhone are too high, and it can't meet everyone's expectations. And because of network restrictions, the iPhone may not be able to bring a new user experience."

David Pogue of The New York Times criticized the design of its non-replaceable battery and the slow speed of the 3G network,

"As it turns out, a lot of the voices and the criticism were justified. The iPhone was revolutionary, but it also had glaring flaws, but that's what it was. It could do things that a phone had never done before, but even some of the most basic Mobile phone functions, it also does not support."

There are many comments like this.

……

But all these, Jobs did not move at all, he said directly to Cook next to him: "Don't worry about these useless things, Ballmer is just a clown,

Mobile phone manufacturers such as Nokia, Motorola, and BlackBerry are our competitors and will not speak well of us;

And those media, they don't care about this, they need to be the material of the report, so they don't care what to say!

These are a bunch of scum, we don't need to pay attention to them, the only thing we pay attention to is consumers, those who can really buy our mobile phones!Let's do something interesting! "

After saying this, Jobs also finished eating, and then he stood up and walked to the office, and Cook also quickly finished eating, and hurriedly followed.

On the way, Jobs continued, "Apart from this useless information, is there any other important content?"

"Uh... Is this really true? Oh, right! I suddenly heard a news that a company called 'Fengrui' in Huaxia is planning to launch a mobile system, and even plans to set up an open mobile phone alliance or something? Push away based on their The smartphone of the mobile system," Cook said.

"Huaxia? Fengrui? Mobile system? Hehe... A Huaxia company actually wants to enter the operating system! They don't even have a legitimate software company, and they want to enter the operating system. It's so funny. This is the funniest joke I've heard this year." !” Jobs taunted directly.

Jobs had never been to China, and even when he died in his previous life, he had never set foot on the land of China, and his influence on China has always remained in the impression of "backward and pirated".

"Steve, Fengrui is not easy, especially its founder named 'Leo' is a genius, and he is quite popular in Silicon Valley, and has invested in many companies,
Now the most popular Facebook is his main investment, and he has a good relationship with Google. I heard that he has also received strong support from Google when he entered the operating system this time. ’” Cook explained.

"Leo?! Is that the young man who is very popular in the United States now?" Jobs asked.

"Well, this Leo is indeed a genius. He founded a large Internet company in China within a few years from scratch, with a market value of tens of billions of dollars. He is known as the 'Bill Gates' of China." Cook Said.

"Huh! I didn't expect this Leo to have some skills, but isn't he a brat! How about China's 'Bill Gates'! I'm not even afraid of the real Bill Gates, but a fake one!
But what is the situation with Google, how can it support the mobile system of a Chinese company, and Schmidt is obviously our Apple director, how can it do this? asked Jobs.

What is the situation with Google, why is it supporting a Chinese company, Cook is also at a loss.

Seeing this, Jobs directly picked up the phone and called Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google.

As soon as the call was connected, Jobs said straight to the point: "Schmidt, why do I hear that Google supports the mobile system of a sharp Chinese company? What do you mean by Google? Are you planning to enter mobile operations? system?"

Jobs was not afraid of Fengrui, but he was afraid of Google's entry into the mobile system. After all, Google has a strong engineering team, and now it has this strength.

And Eric Schmidt, who was on the other side of the phone, also smiled after listening, and then explained: "Steve, I thought it was a big deal and asked you to call me in person.

In fact, this matter is very simple: this Fengrui is a bit self-indulgent and wants to develop a mobile system, and they also found us Google,

Although I don't want to agree, it's just that the conditions he offered are very tempting, that is, he agrees to sell YouTube to us Google. You also know that the video field is our Google's shortcoming, and we have no way to refuse, so I agreed!
Even in order to acquire YouTube, I promised Fengrui to help them promote the Android mobile system, and I will not develop my own mobile system within three years.

So, Steve, you can rest assured that our Google will compete with your Apple, but as for the market competition of the mobile system in the future, I don't know, that is your business! "

After Schmidt explained, Jobs was relieved. It seemed that Fengrui had done a good job, at least tied down Google. In recent years, Google has been unable to enter the operating system.

Unexpectedly, this Fengrui is quite interesting. Jobs began to be interested in this "Leo", but it was too whimsical and overestimated!It's still a mantis' arm!

In short, all must die!

(End of this chapter)