The Millennium Semiconductor Survival Guide.

Chapter 223 Release of New Generation iPod
Jobs' idea reminded Zhou Xin that later generations of Apple mobile phones were the first to remove the 3.5mm headphone jack. Later, major mobile phone manufacturers followed suit, and most mainstream smartphones gradually removed the headphone jack within those two years.

The disappearance of the headphone jack has led to the mainstream of Bluetooth headsets for mobile phones, and the so-called true wireless TWS headsets have been derived.Except for Sony, whose latest flagship phone will still have a 2023mm headphone jack until 3.5, Sony doesn't seem to be a mainstream smartphone manufacturer.

Zhou Xin also found it very interesting to see the two partners that Xinxin was looking for. One was the first manufacturer to remove the 3.5mm headphone jack, and the other was a manufacturer that insisted on having a headphone jack.Sony Ericsson was later wholly owned by Sony, and later changed its name to Sony, and the original Sony company was renamed Sony Group.

When Zhou Xin stood at the consumer's point of view, he hated the manufacturer's removal of the 3.5mm headphone jack, which caused him a lot of inconvenience, and he needed to buy a special adapter to use wired headphones through his mobile phone.

When he becomes a business manager, he will feel that it is a good idea to remove the headphone jack, which will make consumers have to consider Bluetooth headsets, and the demand for Bluetooth chips will explode.

Zhou Xin's proposal made Jobs think. As a senior practitioner in the consumer electronics industry, Jobs naturally knew that wireless charging technology had matured.

As early as 1978, American inventors began to try to wirelessly charge electric vehicles, and later in 1993, Neon Enterprises developed the first wireless charging system. In 1994, this technology has gradually matured.

The Palm mobile phone was released in 2009. Palm mentioned earlier that American was the first company to develop handheld computers. The Palm released in 2009 was the world's first mobile phone that supports wireless charging.

From a technical point of view, the main problem with wireless charging is that the charging power is too low, which can only reach 5w at the moment.But for the ipod, this is not a problem, because the ipod itself does not have much power, and the charging power of 5w is a bit small, but it is enough.

As for the high cost, this is not a problem for Apple. They already have the ability to sell their products at a high price, so Jobs just thought about Zhou Xin's proposal and thought it could be done.

"Newman, this is a perfect product. The mp3 without any interface is as exquisite as a jewel in your hand. We also launched two new colors, blue and pink, which will make this The ipod shines like a jewel."

After the ipod prototype without any interface was made, Jobs was very excited. This is his ideal product, which is extremely simple.From his personal point of view, Jobs would like only silver this color.

From a commercial point of view, launching more colors will always attract more users to pay.

After Jobs handed the ipod zero to Zhou Xin, Zhou Xin rubbed the entire surface of the ipod zero with his hands, and Jobs said in a regretful tone: "The only problem is that we try to make the Bluetooth headset also have no interface, and it also supports wireless charging. , but in this case, its volume will be slightly larger, which is not so in line with industrial aesthetics.”

"But I think that's enough, Newman, what would you call this generation of iPods?"

When Zhou Xin saw this, he thought of Meizu Zero, a concept phone that Meizu had produced but had no mass production, so he said, "Why don't we call it iPod Zero? Zero means that it has no ports on its body, and it also means the beginning of everything."

Back at the press conference, after the ipod zero was announced, the consumer representatives in the audience cheered, and even beat the beat and shouted the name of Apple.

Jobs was also very proud. He had a premonition that the ipod zero would be the representative work of his Apple career, comparable to the representative work of the Macintosh computer in 1984.

"The last is the price, ipod zero plus headphones, $899, I know this price is a bit high, but ipod zero is equipped with a lot of advanced technology, even if we try our best to control the cost, its price cannot be suppressed.

But don't worry, we will launch ipod2 at the same time, which is an upgrade on the basis of ipod1, and it is also equipped with the Bluetooth technology of Xinxin Technology. The price of ipod2 will be much lower.

Ipod2 is also very good. Although it cannot be compared with ipod zero, it is still a good enough product. It is better than the music players you can see on the market. This is what I think. You can have own opinion. "

After the press conference of Xinxin Technology was held, it quickly caused an uproar in the industry. The members of the Bluetooth Alliance are all large companies, and everyone is aware of the importance of Bluetooth technology. However, it is a Chinese company that took the lead in achieving technological breakthroughs.

The headquarters of Xinxin Technology is in Huaguo. Of course, it is considered a Huaguo enterprise, and the actual controller behind it is also Huaguo.

Moreover, the new generation of Bluetooth technology launched by Xinxin Technology is not leading by a point or two, but in quality. It swept all their previous technologies into the garbage dump.

And the release of ipod zero caused carnival among consumers. The ipod zero prototype was put up in Apple's store on the second day of the press conference.

"Do you know what I thought of when I saw this scene?" An elderly white middle-aged man in the Apple store asked his colleagues.

"What do you remember?"

"About 20 years ago, when Apple released the Macintosh computer, I was just like I am now, watching customers line up in the Apple store before the store opened. I haven't seen such a scene in a long time."

Apple launched two products at the same time, namely ipod zero and ipod2. The cost performance of ipod2 is undoubtedly much higher. It also supports the Bluetooth technology of Xinxin Technology. Compared with ipod1, the price has only increased by 150 US dollars. The US dollar is the price after adding the complimentary Bluetooth headset.

Equivalent to $449, you can buy ipod2 and Bluetooth headset at the same time, which is half the price of ipod zero.

As a mature entrepreneur, Jobs naturally would not put all his chips on the ipod zero, because its price was too expensive. Even for American, Jobs believed that few people could accept this price.

因此ipod zero只备货了10万台，这还是在周新强烈建议下备货了10万台，本来他们只打算备货5万台的。而ipod2足足准备了100万台。

Apple's strategy is that ipod zero makes consumers want to buy, and then the high price discourages them, and then the clerks market ipod2 to consumers.

The placement of Ipod zero is a natural advertisement.

After the opening of Apple's offline stores, as Apple expected, all consumers' attention was focused on the ipod zero.

"How much is the price of ipod zero?" Consumers have a feeling that they can't put it down.

"Hi, ipod zero needs to be purchased with a Bluetooth headset, the price is $899, if you think the price is high, you can take a look at our ipod2, it is also equipped with"

Before the clerk finished speaking, the customer interrupted directly: "It's not high, just help me get one, how do I pay?"

The clerk's expression froze, is it really not high?
"Sorry, there are only prototypes in the store at the moment, and it will take a week to sell them. After a week, you can purchase them at the store or online."

"Can I buy a prototype?" the consumer asked.

The clerk pointed to the crowd outside with a bitter face: "Sorry, I think people outside are waiting to see the ipod zero, if I sell it to you, the people queuing outside should take our store Torn down.

You can look at ipod 2, ipod 2 is now in stock, and you can buy it immediately. "

The consumer left disappointed after seeing it briefly. The ipod2 is very good, but after seeing the ipod zero, he still wants to buy the ipod zero even if it is twice as expensive.

This phenomenon does not only appear in one consumer, but in many consumers.

For Apple fans, they are willing to bear this price. You must know that if there is no Zhou Xin, the price of the first-generation iPod is 399 US dollars. Such a high price can sell more than 30 units, which shows the strength of Apple fans.

The $249 iPod mini sold 6000 million units in two years.

Not to mention the ipod zero launched this time, it not only does not have any interface and adopts the latest Bluetooth technology and wireless charging technology, but also is equipped with a small screen to display song information.

Compared with the first-generation ipod, there are too many iterative upgrades in technology, and this price even feels cheap in the hearts of Apple fans.

They felt that the pricing should be $999 to be reasonable.

Therefore, after the ipod zero was officially released, the stock of 10 units was far from enough, and there were not many units as many as were placed every day, which even led to long queues at Apple's offline stores.

"I want to know that Xinxin Technology is a company of Newman, and matrix is ​​also a company of Newman. Why doesn't Mphone support the latest Bluetooth function?"

"It is understandable that Mphone does not support the latest Bluetooth function, after all, it was a product two years ago, and the latest Bluetooth technology had not been developed two years ago.

What I think is outrageous is that Mphone does not have a decoding chip. Without a decoding chip, you can only use the A1E chip to simulate an audio decoding chip to achieve the purpose of music playback.This is really outrageous. "

The decoding chip mainly converts digital signals into analog signals, without which there is no sound.Fortunately, the function of the chip can be defined, and the mobile phone chip can be used to simulate the decoding chip to achieve the purpose of playing sound.

After the first Mphone Developer Conference, many Internet companies uploaded applications, and some companies found that there was no player on the Mphone, and then they built a player to put it on. The screen cannot play sound.

So they made a lot of attempts to use Mphone's existing chip to simulate the decoding chip to achieve the effect of playing sound.

This player with its own chip simulation function has become the favorite of many users. After all, not everyone is a geek and can solve this problem from a technical level.

But the most painful point is that Mphone does not have a headphone jack, or you can find a company to help you modify it and add a headphone jack. This is designed to move the chip, and not all consumers can accept it.

Or use a Bluetooth headset. Mphone supports Bluetooth function. After the analog decoder chip, you can hear the sound with a Bluetooth headset. vibrato and more.

"The ipod zero is perfect except for the price. I think the price is acceptable in front of this product. I am hesitant to buy the ipod zero. I don't know when the new generation of Mphone will be released.

If the new generation of Mphone is released this year, I will bear with it, because I estimate that the new generation of Mphone will also be equipped with the latest Bluetooth function and support Bluetooth headsets. "

"I also want to know when the new generation of Mphone will be released? Is there anyone on Weibo who participated in this Mphone developer conference, can you tell me the specific situation?"

Not long after Xinxin Technology's conference ended, there was the Mphone Developers Conference. This Mphone Developers Conference was extremely mysterious, and all participants were required to sign an extremely strict non-disclosure agreement.

If leaked Mphone 2 situation need compensation 1000 million dollars.The non-disclosure agreement did not disclose the content of the non-disclosure agreement itself, so the non-disclosure agreement was hyped by the media for a while.

Practitioners and the media who have participated in the Mphone Developers Conference are also showing off in various ways.

Restricted by the confidentiality agreement, everyone's desire to confide in their hearts could not be formed into a complete article and published on paper magazines or blogs.

At this time, places like Weibo and Quora are good places to complain.

"At the Mphone Developers Conference, Newman showed us the prototype of the next generation Mphone. I couldn't believe my eyes. It was even more perfect than ipod zero."

"No, in terms of perfection, the next-generation Mphone and ipod zero should be of the same order of magnitude, but considering that the functions that mobile phones need to support and the complexity of components are far more complex than music players, I think the next-generation Mphone is rare. many."

"I can't sleep, when will the next generation Mphone come out? I can't wait to replace my Mphone."

"It's that kind of product that is different from the current and previous mobile phones. There are too many innovations in it. I would like to tell you, but I can't afford the price."

The editor-in-chief of Silicon Valley Wired magazine couldn't hide his excitement after attending the Mphone Developer Conference, and posted several Weibo posts on Weibo.

Not only him, but everyone who participated in the Mphone Developers Conference said so.

As soon as he said it, he was amazed, incredible, epoch-making, and impatient. Netizens asked him on Weibo, but they couldn't talk about the confidentiality agreement and couldn't afford the price.

The curiosity of the majority of consumers has been hoisted to the extreme, because the ipod zero is already amazing enough, and none of the consumers who have gone to the Apple store to touch the real thing is dissatisfied.

The price may not be so satisfactory.

How perfect is it that the new generation Mphone can rival the ipod zero?

And it's still a mobile phone, it's hard for them to imagine.

"Could it be possible that Mphone doesn't have an interface? Completely rely on wireless charging and Bluetooth function?"

　Probably maybe at night
　　
　
(End of this chapter)