Chapter 366: The Apple That Backfired
Ren Zhengfei wrote down everything Wang Haoran said in his notebook with a little shame.
He thought to himself that he should learn from Comrade Haoran in the future, because his thoughts are much more profound than mine.
"Thank you, Mr. Wang, for your advice."
"After listening to what you said, I think my idea is a bit too simple."
Wang Haoran smiled and said, "We must think outside the box when considering issues."
“Only in this way can we grasp the essence amidst the confusion of complex appearances.”
"Have a good talk with the guy from IBM."
"I think it's good to let IBM have a spotlight at Giant Eagle."
Ren Zhengfei nodded and said, "I will complete the task as soon as possible."
"Mr. Wang, I wonder when our country will come up with policies that are consistent with ours?"
"I personally feel that the . dollar may really collapse."
"If we still have a lot of US dollars in our hands, we may suffer huge losses in the future."
Wang Haoran laughed and said, "We basically don't have much US dollars in our hands."
"Although we have not refused to accept US dollars in the past few years."
"But once you receive it, you use it up after you sell it."
“Also, we have been pushing for a currency swap agreement.”
"The bulk transactions with bears are mainly based on the barter model."
"So don't worry about that."
"Besides, if we can really destroy the US dollar system completely, even if we lose tens of billions or even hundreds of billions, that's not a big deal."
Ren Zhengfei nodded and said, "Do you think that the US dollar will completely collapse in a short period of time, and then the US dollar system will completely disintegrate?"
Wang Haoran shook his head and said, "It will take at least three to five years."
"Because the Giant Eagle has created a huge alliance system."
“They have also bought off a lot of politicians among their so-called nominal allies.”
"It is impossible for the giant eagle to willingly withdraw from the stage of history."
"He will struggle desperately."
"It will pull its allies together to make them continue to use the US dollar. At the same time, it will use some shows to stabilize the confidence of countries around the world."
"I estimate that they will take a series of actions in the future."
"The US dollar system can barely last for five years at most."
"And we actually need it to last a few more years."
"If it doesn't last a few more years, or collapses too quickly, it will be disadvantageous to us."
Ren Zhengfei talked with Wang Haoran in his office for more than twenty minutes.
When Ren Zhengfei came out of Wang Haoran's office, he felt as if he had been enlightened.
At noon that day, Mike came to Ren Zhengfei's office with a nervous heart.
Merrick was a little anxious at the moment.
He was scolded by Nelson.
He was also eager to make amends.
He hopes to reach an agreement on cooperation with Pangu Technology as soon as possible.
It would be best if this matter could be settled before the New Year.
Mike also knew that Apple would definitely launch their smartphone in the next two days.
This is definitely a big blow to IBM.
IBM has always been known as the number one technology giant in the world.
But in recent years, Apple has been catching up very quickly.
IBM doesn't want to be overtaken by Apple.
"Hello, Mr. Ren, hello!"
"Thank you for taking the time to meet me." When Mike saw Ren Zhengfei nodding and greeting him, he smiled ingratiatingly.
Ren Zhengfei said, "You're welcome, Mr. Merrick."
"You sit."
After the two sat down, they exchanged a few more pleasantries.
Merick said, "Mr. Ren, I want to know how much it would cost if I asked you to customize a smart phone for IBM?"
Ren Zhengfei smiled faintly and said: "IBM is our old friend."
"We are happy to oblige you."
"You know, Apple spent more than a billion dollars on research for their smartphones."
"But the thing they developed, to be honest, is just a piece of industrial garbage that is neither good-looking nor useful."
"We will build a smartphone specifically for you. We will help you with the CPU, graphics processor, baseband chip, storage chip, radio frequency chip and power management chip. We will also help you build a customized operating system."
“This requires a huge amount of work and huge investment.”
"Now, we only charge you the cost price."
"One hundred million RMB or two hundred tons of gold will do."
Merrick still thought it was a bit expensive.
Today, the international exchange rate of RMB is 1:1 with that of US dollar.
However, on the black market, 1 RMB can be exchanged for US dollars.
"Oh, how long will it take to develop it?" asked Merrick.
Ren Zhengfei smiled and said, "After paying the money, it can be done in a month at most."
"Moreover, we can even help you mass-produce customized mobile phones and export them directly to Giant Eagle as parts. All you need to do is set up a few assembly lines and you can produce your smartphones!"
"We can even customize the final assembly line for you."
"I can assure you that you will definitely put your smartphone on the market before Apple does."
"This way, you can seize the initiative and continue to outperform Apple."
Mike's eyes lit up. What he wanted to accomplish most now was to surpass Apple and be the first to sell smartphones in Giant Eagle's internal market.
this point is very important.
"But what if Apple also wants to cooperate with you?" asked Merrick.
Ren Zhengfei smiled and said, "IBM was the first company to cooperate with us in the era of feature phones and computers."
"So, of course we will lean towards you and take care of you first."
"We'll help you beat Apple."
Merrick nodded repeatedly and said, "Thank you, thank you so much!"
"It can be said that Apple is our biggest competitor."
"If we can beat them, it will be very beneficial for us."
"I'll go back and report to our boss."
“We will strive to sign a cooperation agreement as soon as possible.”
As soon as Mike left, Ren Zhengfei received a call from Apple seeking cooperation.
And it was Wozniak, the vice president of technology, who called personally.
Wozniak hopes that Pangu can help Apple produce key chips such as the A1 processor and GPU developed by them.
Ren Zhengfei told Wozniak that the production line was currently very tight and he was temporarily unable to provide OEM services for him.
Wozniak was disappointed.
He then tentatively asked when Pangu Technology's smartphone would be available on the market.
Ren Zhengfei told the other party that Pangu’s smart phone had actually been put into mass production and was expected to be available for sale around the New Year.
Wozniak immediately felt a sense of urgency.
Now, the world's most advanced chip production lines and the entire industrial chain are all in China.
If Apple wants to produce IP and put it on the market as quickly as possible, then they must cooperate with the companies of the Julong family.
Wozniak thought, at worst he could just look for other partners.
I heard that there are thousands of companies specializing in chip production in Julong.
Even the core technology of chip production is controlled by Pangu Technology.
Other companies in the Dragon family can also help Apple manufacture chips, right?
After discussing with Jobs, Wozniak decided to take a delegation to Julong as soon as possible. He wanted to finalize the foundry and establish a reliable Apple supply chain within a month.
As for Jobs himself, he held an iPhone launch conference at Giant Eagle the next day according to the established plan, promoting it as the world's second smart phone.
Moreover, the performance of the iPhone is comparable to Pangu Technology's smartphones.
The two of them split up.
Just four hours after Pangu Technology released its smartphone, Apple began organizing big Vs to carry out pre-promotion on Weibo.
Apple wrote all the content itself.
Some articles claim that Apple was the earliest developer of smart phones, even earlier than Pangu Technology, and that they have also achieved great success in developing smart phones.
Some articles claimed that Pangu Technology may have used espionage methods to steal Apple's technology.
This type of copy also lists a lot of so-called evidence.
Other copywriting claimed that Apple's iPhone smartphone was originally going to be released earlier than Pangu Technology's smartphone, but Pangu saw that things were not going well and held a new product launch conference first.
At the end of these copywritings, it was mentioned that iPhone would hold a new product launch conference at 10 am the next day.
……
In short, they placed advertisements to more than a hundred big Vs with a large number of fans in Giant Eagle.
They pay quite generously.
A blogger with millions of followers can earn $10,000 by placing a soft advertisement once.
According to Jobs' plan, this time they will cooperate with so many big-V bloggers at once, which will definitely make this wave of Apple's publicity sweep the screen.
By then, huge heat can be accumulated.
Then, Apple can overshadow Pangu Technology.
However, what Jobs didn’t expect was that something went wrong!
The advertising articles of those big Vs who cooperated with Apple were judged as illegal advertisements by Weibo, and then only the big Vs themselves could see them.
The big Vs are also very depressed.
I immediately asked backstage what was going on.
The backstage staff replied: Large companies’ advertising must go through official Weibo channels and are not allowed to conduct transactions with bloggers privately.
Moreover, Apple's promotional model is an illegal operation, attempting to create a hot search for data.
This is absolutely not allowed!
Just like that, Apple originally thought that it could spend a few hundred thousand dollars to create a huge sensation around the world.
As a result, the platform directly passed it.
This made Jobs feel very depressed.
He asked someone to contact Weibo and ask how to place advertisements.
Weibo officials informed us that if you want to place hard ads, you should directly post the advertising content!
Moreover, the prices of advertising vary greatly.
Advertisements can be placed at specific locations by region.
For example, only accurately target a certain city and its surrounding areas.
You can also target a specific country.
It can also be deployed globally.
Today, Weibo has more than two billion users around the world.
If we want to launch it globally and ensure that it reaches every user, it will cost 5 million RMB at a time.
If we only deploy the Giant Eagle here, it will cost 20 million RMB.
When Jobs looked at the offer, his heart was bleeding.
Isn’t this price too high?
That’s much more than the 100 pages of ads on the front page of the New York Times!
What's more, they only accept RMB and not US dollars.
Isn't this embarrassing?
He was reluctant to place this advertisement.
He had no choice but to invite reporters from major media outlets to attend the iPhone's new product launch conference.
At the same time, he asked Weibo how much it would cost to live broadcast a new product launch on Weibo.
The other party asked if they needed traffic injection from Weibo, for example, to directly pin the live broadcast to the top.
If you only build a cap in the Giant Eagle area, it will also cost 20 million RMB.
Jobs asked whether the Pangu Technology press conference was charged in the same way.
The other party replied, of course! Moreover, Pangu Technology directly placed the advertisement in all regions of the world, and the total advertising fee was 5 million, not a penny less.
Jobs was a little helpless.
He had no choice but to cooperate with Giant Eagle's internal TV station and ask them to help him broadcast the new product launch conference live.
The next day, Apple’s new product launch conference was held.
Hundreds of reporters came to the scene.
Apple also followed the rules and gave red envelopes.
Jobs personally took the stage, holding up an iPhone and talking about Apple's technological innovation.
However, he found that although he spoke passionately on the stage, the reaction from the audience was very dull.
There was no enthusiastic response from reporters or Apple's consumer representatives.
He even heard someone mutter: How dare you say this is a revolution in mobile communications?
The iPhone is too crude! Not only is it ugly, but its functions are also rubbish...
Jobs knew that this was because people were comparing the iPhone with Pangu Technology's smartphones.
Compared with the stunning technological display of Pangu smartphones, the iPhone is too mediocre.
Moreover, the touch screen is slow to respond.
No matter how much Jobs shouted at the top of his lungs: "We invested in the research and development of smartphones one step earlier than Pangu Technology!"
"We almost held our new product launch conference before Pangu Technology did."
"Even though our smartphones are a little bit inferior to Pangu Technology's, we are still the second best in the world..."
No one cheered for Jobs.
Just like that, Apple's new product launch conference ended in a lukewarm manner.
After the event, some media only published a small article as a symbolic gesture.
Many of them didn’t even publish their manuscripts.
On the contrary, quite a few articles appeared on Weibo.
Unfortunately, almost all of them are negative.
They are all comparing the iPhone and Pangu Technology's smartphones.
After comparison, the iPhone is despised by almost everyone.
Someone also started a poll on Weibo: If you were asked to buy a newly launched smartphone, would you choose Apple or Pangu Technology?
As a result, 98 percent of people chose Pangu Technology.
This made Jobs very embarrassed.
He originally wanted to make a big splash.
As a result, he lost all face.
This drove Jobs a little crazy.
However, although Jobs was unhappy, IBM was happy.
Nielsen is paying attention to Apple's new product launch.
He was actually worried that Apple would become too popular and eventually surpass IBM.
As a result, Apple originally wanted to use the press conference to show off its products, but ended up losing face.
Nelson looked very happy.
He had received a telephone report from Merrick.
Nelson felt that Pangu Technology was very considerate.
Although it's a bit awkward since they only want RMB.
But the other party's asking price is actually not that high.
Nelson decided to fly to Julong in person to talk to Wang Haoran.
He needs to hurry up and sign the agreement.
At the same time, the Eagle King is also doing its utmost to maintain the global status of the US dollar.
Pangu Technology’s refusal to accept US dollars has a huge chain reaction.
The news spread very quickly, and it became known to the whole world in just one or two days.
(End of this chapter)
Ren Zhengfei wrote down everything Wang Haoran said in his notebook with a little shame.
He thought to himself that he should learn from Comrade Haoran in the future, because his thoughts are much more profound than mine.
"Thank you, Mr. Wang, for your advice."
"After listening to what you said, I think my idea is a bit too simple."
Wang Haoran smiled and said, "We must think outside the box when considering issues."
“Only in this way can we grasp the essence amidst the confusion of complex appearances.”
"Have a good talk with the guy from IBM."
"I think it's good to let IBM have a spotlight at Giant Eagle."
Ren Zhengfei nodded and said, "I will complete the task as soon as possible."
"Mr. Wang, I wonder when our country will come up with policies that are consistent with ours?"
"I personally feel that the . dollar may really collapse."
"If we still have a lot of US dollars in our hands, we may suffer huge losses in the future."
Wang Haoran laughed and said, "We basically don't have much US dollars in our hands."
"Although we have not refused to accept US dollars in the past few years."
"But once you receive it, you use it up after you sell it."
“Also, we have been pushing for a currency swap agreement.”
"The bulk transactions with bears are mainly based on the barter model."
"So don't worry about that."
"Besides, if we can really destroy the US dollar system completely, even if we lose tens of billions or even hundreds of billions, that's not a big deal."
Ren Zhengfei nodded and said, "Do you think that the US dollar will completely collapse in a short period of time, and then the US dollar system will completely disintegrate?"
Wang Haoran shook his head and said, "It will take at least three to five years."
"Because the Giant Eagle has created a huge alliance system."
“They have also bought off a lot of politicians among their so-called nominal allies.”
"It is impossible for the giant eagle to willingly withdraw from the stage of history."
"He will struggle desperately."
"It will pull its allies together to make them continue to use the US dollar. At the same time, it will use some shows to stabilize the confidence of countries around the world."
"I estimate that they will take a series of actions in the future."
"The US dollar system can barely last for five years at most."
"And we actually need it to last a few more years."
"If it doesn't last a few more years, or collapses too quickly, it will be disadvantageous to us."
Ren Zhengfei talked with Wang Haoran in his office for more than twenty minutes.
When Ren Zhengfei came out of Wang Haoran's office, he felt as if he had been enlightened.
At noon that day, Mike came to Ren Zhengfei's office with a nervous heart.
Merrick was a little anxious at the moment.
He was scolded by Nelson.
He was also eager to make amends.
He hopes to reach an agreement on cooperation with Pangu Technology as soon as possible.
It would be best if this matter could be settled before the New Year.
Mike also knew that Apple would definitely launch their smartphone in the next two days.
This is definitely a big blow to IBM.
IBM has always been known as the number one technology giant in the world.
But in recent years, Apple has been catching up very quickly.
IBM doesn't want to be overtaken by Apple.
"Hello, Mr. Ren, hello!"
"Thank you for taking the time to meet me." When Mike saw Ren Zhengfei nodding and greeting him, he smiled ingratiatingly.
Ren Zhengfei said, "You're welcome, Mr. Merrick."
"You sit."
After the two sat down, they exchanged a few more pleasantries.
Merick said, "Mr. Ren, I want to know how much it would cost if I asked you to customize a smart phone for IBM?"
Ren Zhengfei smiled faintly and said: "IBM is our old friend."
"We are happy to oblige you."
"You know, Apple spent more than a billion dollars on research for their smartphones."
"But the thing they developed, to be honest, is just a piece of industrial garbage that is neither good-looking nor useful."
"We will build a smartphone specifically for you. We will help you with the CPU, graphics processor, baseband chip, storage chip, radio frequency chip and power management chip. We will also help you build a customized operating system."
“This requires a huge amount of work and huge investment.”
"Now, we only charge you the cost price."
"One hundred million RMB or two hundred tons of gold will do."
Merrick still thought it was a bit expensive.
Today, the international exchange rate of RMB is 1:1 with that of US dollar.
However, on the black market, 1 RMB can be exchanged for US dollars.
"Oh, how long will it take to develop it?" asked Merrick.
Ren Zhengfei smiled and said, "After paying the money, it can be done in a month at most."
"Moreover, we can even help you mass-produce customized mobile phones and export them directly to Giant Eagle as parts. All you need to do is set up a few assembly lines and you can produce your smartphones!"
"We can even customize the final assembly line for you."
"I can assure you that you will definitely put your smartphone on the market before Apple does."
"This way, you can seize the initiative and continue to outperform Apple."
Mike's eyes lit up. What he wanted to accomplish most now was to surpass Apple and be the first to sell smartphones in Giant Eagle's internal market.
this point is very important.
"But what if Apple also wants to cooperate with you?" asked Merrick.
Ren Zhengfei smiled and said, "IBM was the first company to cooperate with us in the era of feature phones and computers."
"So, of course we will lean towards you and take care of you first."
"We'll help you beat Apple."
Merrick nodded repeatedly and said, "Thank you, thank you so much!"
"It can be said that Apple is our biggest competitor."
"If we can beat them, it will be very beneficial for us."
"I'll go back and report to our boss."
“We will strive to sign a cooperation agreement as soon as possible.”
As soon as Mike left, Ren Zhengfei received a call from Apple seeking cooperation.
And it was Wozniak, the vice president of technology, who called personally.
Wozniak hopes that Pangu can help Apple produce key chips such as the A1 processor and GPU developed by them.
Ren Zhengfei told Wozniak that the production line was currently very tight and he was temporarily unable to provide OEM services for him.
Wozniak was disappointed.
He then tentatively asked when Pangu Technology's smartphone would be available on the market.
Ren Zhengfei told the other party that Pangu’s smart phone had actually been put into mass production and was expected to be available for sale around the New Year.
Wozniak immediately felt a sense of urgency.
Now, the world's most advanced chip production lines and the entire industrial chain are all in China.
If Apple wants to produce IP and put it on the market as quickly as possible, then they must cooperate with the companies of the Julong family.
Wozniak thought, at worst he could just look for other partners.
I heard that there are thousands of companies specializing in chip production in Julong.
Even the core technology of chip production is controlled by Pangu Technology.
Other companies in the Dragon family can also help Apple manufacture chips, right?
After discussing with Jobs, Wozniak decided to take a delegation to Julong as soon as possible. He wanted to finalize the foundry and establish a reliable Apple supply chain within a month.
As for Jobs himself, he held an iPhone launch conference at Giant Eagle the next day according to the established plan, promoting it as the world's second smart phone.
Moreover, the performance of the iPhone is comparable to Pangu Technology's smartphones.
The two of them split up.
Just four hours after Pangu Technology released its smartphone, Apple began organizing big Vs to carry out pre-promotion on Weibo.
Apple wrote all the content itself.
Some articles claim that Apple was the earliest developer of smart phones, even earlier than Pangu Technology, and that they have also achieved great success in developing smart phones.
Some articles claimed that Pangu Technology may have used espionage methods to steal Apple's technology.
This type of copy also lists a lot of so-called evidence.
Other copywriting claimed that Apple's iPhone smartphone was originally going to be released earlier than Pangu Technology's smartphone, but Pangu saw that things were not going well and held a new product launch conference first.
At the end of these copywritings, it was mentioned that iPhone would hold a new product launch conference at 10 am the next day.
……
In short, they placed advertisements to more than a hundred big Vs with a large number of fans in Giant Eagle.
They pay quite generously.
A blogger with millions of followers can earn $10,000 by placing a soft advertisement once.
According to Jobs' plan, this time they will cooperate with so many big-V bloggers at once, which will definitely make this wave of Apple's publicity sweep the screen.
By then, huge heat can be accumulated.
Then, Apple can overshadow Pangu Technology.
However, what Jobs didn’t expect was that something went wrong!
The advertising articles of those big Vs who cooperated with Apple were judged as illegal advertisements by Weibo, and then only the big Vs themselves could see them.
The big Vs are also very depressed.
I immediately asked backstage what was going on.
The backstage staff replied: Large companies’ advertising must go through official Weibo channels and are not allowed to conduct transactions with bloggers privately.
Moreover, Apple's promotional model is an illegal operation, attempting to create a hot search for data.
This is absolutely not allowed!
Just like that, Apple originally thought that it could spend a few hundred thousand dollars to create a huge sensation around the world.
As a result, the platform directly passed it.
This made Jobs feel very depressed.
He asked someone to contact Weibo and ask how to place advertisements.
Weibo officials informed us that if you want to place hard ads, you should directly post the advertising content!
Moreover, the prices of advertising vary greatly.
Advertisements can be placed at specific locations by region.
For example, only accurately target a certain city and its surrounding areas.
You can also target a specific country.
It can also be deployed globally.
Today, Weibo has more than two billion users around the world.
If we want to launch it globally and ensure that it reaches every user, it will cost 5 million RMB at a time.
If we only deploy the Giant Eagle here, it will cost 20 million RMB.
When Jobs looked at the offer, his heart was bleeding.
Isn’t this price too high?
That’s much more than the 100 pages of ads on the front page of the New York Times!
What's more, they only accept RMB and not US dollars.
Isn't this embarrassing?
He was reluctant to place this advertisement.
He had no choice but to invite reporters from major media outlets to attend the iPhone's new product launch conference.
At the same time, he asked Weibo how much it would cost to live broadcast a new product launch on Weibo.
The other party asked if they needed traffic injection from Weibo, for example, to directly pin the live broadcast to the top.
If you only build a cap in the Giant Eagle area, it will also cost 20 million RMB.
Jobs asked whether the Pangu Technology press conference was charged in the same way.
The other party replied, of course! Moreover, Pangu Technology directly placed the advertisement in all regions of the world, and the total advertising fee was 5 million, not a penny less.
Jobs was a little helpless.
He had no choice but to cooperate with Giant Eagle's internal TV station and ask them to help him broadcast the new product launch conference live.
The next day, Apple’s new product launch conference was held.
Hundreds of reporters came to the scene.
Apple also followed the rules and gave red envelopes.
Jobs personally took the stage, holding up an iPhone and talking about Apple's technological innovation.
However, he found that although he spoke passionately on the stage, the reaction from the audience was very dull.
There was no enthusiastic response from reporters or Apple's consumer representatives.
He even heard someone mutter: How dare you say this is a revolution in mobile communications?
The iPhone is too crude! Not only is it ugly, but its functions are also rubbish...
Jobs knew that this was because people were comparing the iPhone with Pangu Technology's smartphones.
Compared with the stunning technological display of Pangu smartphones, the iPhone is too mediocre.
Moreover, the touch screen is slow to respond.
No matter how much Jobs shouted at the top of his lungs: "We invested in the research and development of smartphones one step earlier than Pangu Technology!"
"We almost held our new product launch conference before Pangu Technology did."
"Even though our smartphones are a little bit inferior to Pangu Technology's, we are still the second best in the world..."
No one cheered for Jobs.
Just like that, Apple's new product launch conference ended in a lukewarm manner.
After the event, some media only published a small article as a symbolic gesture.
Many of them didn’t even publish their manuscripts.
On the contrary, quite a few articles appeared on Weibo.
Unfortunately, almost all of them are negative.
They are all comparing the iPhone and Pangu Technology's smartphones.
After comparison, the iPhone is despised by almost everyone.
Someone also started a poll on Weibo: If you were asked to buy a newly launched smartphone, would you choose Apple or Pangu Technology?
As a result, 98 percent of people chose Pangu Technology.
This made Jobs very embarrassed.
He originally wanted to make a big splash.
As a result, he lost all face.
This drove Jobs a little crazy.
However, although Jobs was unhappy, IBM was happy.
Nielsen is paying attention to Apple's new product launch.
He was actually worried that Apple would become too popular and eventually surpass IBM.
As a result, Apple originally wanted to use the press conference to show off its products, but ended up losing face.
Nelson looked very happy.
He had received a telephone report from Merrick.
Nelson felt that Pangu Technology was very considerate.
Although it's a bit awkward since they only want RMB.
But the other party's asking price is actually not that high.
Nelson decided to fly to Julong in person to talk to Wang Haoran.
He needs to hurry up and sign the agreement.
At the same time, the Eagle King is also doing its utmost to maintain the global status of the US dollar.
Pangu Technology’s refusal to accept US dollars has a huge chain reaction.
The news spread very quickly, and it became known to the whole world in just one or two days.
(End of this chapter)
