game trailblazer

Chapter 65 IBM's Raid

May 5nd, a very ordinary day, there are still 2 days before the launch of the Kylin Windows 3.0 operating system, and Zhang Lexing stayed in his office as usual, dealing with daily affairs while planning his return to China Development plan.

Suddenly there was some noise outside the door, and soon the indicator light of the intercom phone on the desktop lit up, Zhang Lexing picked up the phone and put it to his ear, and the wronged voice of the secretary came from the receiver: "Mr. Zhang, Baoer Mr. Mo said that you must come in if you have something important to do, but you just said that you have something to deal with and you won't be visiting for a while..."

Zhang Lexing thought to himself: "Ballmer came here in such a hurry. Could it be that something major has happened? The launch of the Kylin Windows operating system will be postponed? Or is there an obstacle in the sales of office software?"

Zhang Lexing was a little strange, so he said into the microphone: "Since there is something urgent, let him in."

Putting down the microphone, before anyone came in, Zhang Lexing quickly cleaned up the scattered papers on the table. After all, some things were not suitable for people to see.While packing up, the door was forcefully opened with a bang, and Ballmer walked in anxiously.

Zhang Lexing quickly put the important pages into the drawer, then got up and said, "Ha, dear Mr. Ballmer, what brought you here?"

"Zhang, we're in big trouble!" Ballmer said excitedly with his hands on the desk.

"What's the trouble? The operating system is going to be delayed?"

"It's not at all. It's the Federal Trade Commission. They don't know what's wrong, and they suddenly thought of investigating us!" Ballmer looked very angry.

"The Federal Trade Commission? What does it have to do with our company?" Zhang Lexing was puzzled.

"The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is a federal agency that enforces various antitrust and consumer protection laws. Simply put, the FTC's job is to prevent behavior that may cause harm to consumers." Ballmer explained.

"Antitrust? I remember that our company has been paying more attention these years. There should be no violation of monopoly." Zhang Lexing was even more puzzled.

Ballmer dragged a chair and sat down and said: "This time the Federal Trade Commission will investigate whether our company has bundled the Kylin operating system with application software for sale."

"This kind of situation should not exist in our company." Zhang Lexing said after thinking for a while.

"Not at all. I suspect that there are other companies behind the scenes." Ballmer was indignant.

"Has there been an investigation? Is there anyone suspected?"

"The investigation has already started, but no clues have been found yet. As for the suspect, we think IBM is more suspicious."

"What is the countermeasure now?"

"We can only actively cooperate with the investigation, and then take appropriate public relations actions to try to end the investigation as soon as possible."

"Well, let's deal with it like this first, and let me know if there are any new changes. Don't worry too much. Have we done it? After the investigation, it will naturally be clear."

……

Subsequent events were uneventful. Although the Federal Trade Commission began to interview employees in some key positions in VS, it had little impact on the company's daily work.Except for the 10% drop in Microsoft's stock price when the news first came out, it did not affect the company's other operations, and Microsoft's stock price gradually began to recover.

On May 5th, there were fifteen days before the launch of the Kylin Windows 7 operating system, and everything seemed to have returned to normal.For the time being, Zhang Lexing can rest assured that he is not nervous about the investigation by the Federal Trade Commission, because Microsoft has encountered similar incidents in its history, and Zhang Lexing believes that people like Ballmer can handle it well.

Just when Zhang Lexing thought that things would calm down like this, an unfavorable news came. IBM suddenly announced that it would launch version 5 of the OS/8 operating system on May 2, which would be the first real 2.0 bit operating system with an object-oriented graphical user interface.At the same time, publicity about IBM's new operating system, such as "an epoch-making operating system" and "a truly user-oriented interface", began to flood the sky, and IBM seemed to have its former glory for a while.

This time the matter was serious. After all, IBM was not just talking like the Federal Trade Commission. The management of VisualSystem company immediately entered a state of emergency.Called by Yang Xinxin, an emergency countermeasure meeting was held in the conference room, and all the management of the company participated in it. At this critical moment, Zhang Lexing was no exception.

Outside the meeting room, Zhang Lexing ran into Yang Xinxin, but unexpectedly there was a smile on her face, and she joked with great interest: "Brother, you can't run away now, at least you have to help the company get rid of this problem." Let’s talk about it in the past.”

Zhang Lexing also knew in his heart that the situation this time was no small matter.The operating system, which was supposed to appear in 92, was launched almost two years earlier, perhaps because VisualSystem has put too much pressure on IBM over the years.Originally according to Zhang Lexing's plan, by the time of 92, an operating system far beyond the version of OS/2 would definitely come out, and then there was no need to worry at all.But now that IBM has done this, VisualSystem is embarrassed.In fact, the soon-to-be-launched Kylin Windows 3.0 system is no worse than IBM's, but after all, both have their own strengths. Now the sales time must be lagging behind. If you can't deal with it well, you will easily lose points in the market.

VisualSystem company meeting room...

After discussing for more than an hour, everyone still failed to come up with a final decision.It seems that the news of IBM's move puts a lot of pressure on everyone, after all, IBM is such a huge existence.During this period, some people even proposed to let KylinWindows3.0 end the test ahead of schedule and launch it earlier to deal with the pressure from IBM.This idea is too stinky, and it was rejected by most people as soon as it was announced. After all, if you really want to do this, it will ruin the company's reputation.

"I think the biggest feature of our operating system compared with IBM's is that it has better compatibility and can run previous software very well. Although we can't launch products immediately, we can pass the good aspects of our operating system first. Through a lot of publicity, users can be indecisive and hinder the speed of IBM's sales growth." Yang Xinxin thought for a long time, and came up with a solution proposal: "Of course, our own operating system will be launched on the original schedule, and at the same time Do a good job of testing to minimize product bugs (errors), and the department in charge of product marketing must make a sales plan in advance and do a good job in the early communication of sales channels.”

……

According to Yang Xinxin's proposal, VisualSystem took action quickly, and a lot of publicity followed IBM.Under the publicity storm, the rapid growth in sales of the OS/2 operating system in the early stage soon reached an inflection point, and a large number of users began to wait and see. On May 5, the KylinWindows22 operating system was launched as scheduled. At the same time, many KylinWindows platform software funded by VisualSystem began to be launched gradually, and the balance began to slowly tilt towards VisualSystem.Soon after, the sales of Kylin Windows 3.0 operating system gradually surpassed that of IBM's OS/3.0, and the market share was still growing rapidly. VisualSystem successfully maintained its dominant position in the operating system market again.However, in the process of this hand-to-hand combat, IBM has successfully obtained a certain market share by virtue of its initial efforts, and still maintains a potential threat, and the struggle between the two powerhouses will continue.

However, this battle for market share has brought some other benefits. The antitrust investigation initiated by the Federal Trade Commission has not been able to obtain strong evidence, and this battle for the operating system market has also brought VisualSystem. It's a good proof, but according to the lengthy investigation procedure, there will definitely be no results in the near future.

The competition in the operating system market is still going on, and both sides are unwilling to give up easily. While doing a good job in the product marketing work in front of them, they are both accumulating strength and looking forward to defeating each other in the next version.

When the operating system was in full swing, Zhang Lexing received a report from Christopher, the new director of the VisualSystem Research Institute. In the report, he said that the current research direction of the research institute was not reasonable and needed to be revised, and put forward his ideas:

"...add a fixed goal 'to support long-term computer science research independent of product cycles'.

Ten research directions for the reclassification:
1. Algorithm and theory
2. Hardware development

3. Human-computer interaction

4. Mechanical learning, adaptation and wisdom

5. Multimedia and video technology

6. Data search, retrieval and knowledge management
7. Data security and encryption technology

8. Social Computing

9. Software Development

10. System, computer system structure, portable system and network

......"

Zhang Lexing carefully studied the plan and had a long talk with Dean Christopher for an afternoon. He felt that the plan was very forward-looking and could bring long-term sustainable development momentum to VisualSystem, and added some of the future that Zhang Lexing knew about. After researching directions (such as: programming and network technology, data-centric computing, etc.), I gladly approved this proposal.

In the following days, on the premise of maintaining the supporting force of the office software project, VisualSystem further strengthened the strength of Joey's operating system business unit, and accelerated the development of the next version of the Kylin Windows 3.1 operating system.Zhang Lexing also often stays in the company to understand the progress of the project, and occasionally gives his own suggestions on the functions of the operating system and the user interface. Get rid of this thorn in the side.

In early July, Zhang Lexing received an overseas call from Duan Yongping from Shenzhen.On the phone, Zhang Lexing learned that the second-generation learning machine has started mass production, and someone even named it Pyramid Learning Machine.After several years of hard work, an upstream and downstream supporting industrial chain that can be used for the production of learning machines has been formed in Shenzhen Industrial Park. Stimulated by low patent fees and high profits for finished products, a learning machine production alliance is gradually forming, among which Many of them are the original game console factories, and they are actually closely related to the domestic public opinion environment.The first batch of learning machines produced has begun to be sent to the whole country, and the product supporting advertisements have also begun to be broadcast on CCTV.In order to get a head start, the factory director, Duan Yongping, came up with a good idea—holding a new product launch conference in the Great Hall of the People, and the release date was scheduled for August 7.Duan Yongping called this time because he wanted to ask Zhang Lexing if he had time to go back. Unfortunately, under the current urgent development situation, it is really inconvenient for Zhang Lexing to leave, so he had to send his blessings over the phone, hoping that the press conference will be held successfully. First shot sold.

On August 8, the new product launch conference of the learning machine was held in the Great Hall of the People as scheduled.With the holding of this press conference and the subsequent fueling of various media, a learning machine craze quickly swept across the country.

(End of this chapter)