"OK, anyway, I am waiting for news."
Song Ya hangs up and returns the phone to Hayden.
"Do you want Al to find a way to notify MJ?" Hayden asked.
"No more."
MJ is not in Los Angeles, so I can’t find the opportunity to send Al to Elizabeth Taylor’s house to spread the word last time. The people and friends around MJ, Song Ya feels that only Elizabeth Taylor is reliable and cannot be 100% safe. He will not take risks. , "I can't be distracted anymore, I have my war to fight."
’The Valentine’s Day peak season is approaching, but the Beats has suddenly disappeared in supermarkets and appliance stores such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy. The former CEO of Palm and the current CEO of Beats, Donna Dubinski, accused this at the press conference because some dealers did not comply with the previous contractual agreement between the two parties in the store: strictly maintain the price and give a full line of Beats products in the store. A space for separate display...'
‘Donna Dubinsky said: Until some dealers solve this problem, Beats will not come back. She also assured customers that Beats can be purchased at other distributors, such as Blockbuster and other chain stores, and the supply is still sufficient. ’
This is different from the last time that the six major supermarkets forced the supermarkets to maintain resale prices. Beats' separate actions are not qualified to be defined as monopolistic behavior.
"They plan to take advantage of the lack of supply in the Valentine's Day cycle to take advantage of the hunger marketing. APLUS often does this in the record industry. He is a veteran and smart enough."
In the Apple headquarters conference room, Ron Johnson, who is in charge of the directly-operated stores, frowned after reading the news: "If we don't do anything, then we will see long lines in front of the door..."
"In March, their hard disk supply shortage will ease." Cooke, who is in charge of the supply chain, added.
"Shall we do something? No."
Jobs is the only king in the conference room. He has already firmly controlled the company and the board of directors. Even the shares that he sold to become the CEO before, he also got back 7.5 million in 2011 by giving himself option rewards. The shares, which just expired earlier this year, did not exercise their rights.
He asked and answered, "Is the Beats' response method beautiful? I can barely count it, but I can accept it. When the media began to hype the data of the plunge in the sales of the Beats in February to prove that they have failed in the competition, I would like to see it. The expression when I arrive at APLUS."
The attendees all chuckled, but he was still depressed like an ascetic monk, "Haven't Warner Records agreed to let their copyright library be added to the iTunes Music Store?"
"Yes, Terry Messer, the former co-CEO of Warner, is now the CEO of YAHOO. He really wants to get the Goto search engine from APLUS. There are not many choices on the market now, and there is not much time left for YAHOO."
Now both Apple and Steve Jobs himself acquiesce that the recording industry has returned to the six major eras, but Polygram was replaced by Disney Records. Analysis of the staff responsible for related affairs, "It may also be that Warner Pictures has also placed a heavy bet on Hollywood A+. …"
"Tell Warner Records that we will launch iTunes on time in March. If they have not signed the contract, we will change the logo on the conference from six to five. If they will not hesitate to be discovered by fans at that time Madonna can't be bought in iTunes, and I don't hesitate to sit back and watch the other five major iTunes sales explode...then let them."
"OK."
The subordinates nodded and listened. The boss is planning to compete purely with the senior managers of Warner Records. Those senior managers should not be able to withstand such a large public opinion, performance and other pressures.
"Then we will launch the third-generation iPod on time in April." Jobs added.
"All prices remain the same?"
The relevant pricing and parameters of iTunes and the third-generation iPod are Apple’s internal top trade secrets. Even today’s attendees are not clear about it, and the relevant person in charge can only ask the boss roughly.
"No change, we are destined to change the world, let the Beats eat ashes behind."
Jobs paused and turned to ask Cook: "How long does it take for all of our PC product lines to clear the 3DFX chips?"
"NV and ATI assure me that the production capacity can be filled at any time." Cook reported.
After years of competition, now the top three consumer display chip manufacturers are left with the Big Three. Apple's iMacs use NV chips throughout the entire line, as are high-end notebooks. Some servers and notebooks that do not require high-performance graphics cards use ATI, and only PowerMacintosh professional desktops. And the main rendering server uses 3DFX across the board.
"As soon as possible." Jobs nodded in satisfaction.
"But Beats' new product release cycle happened to be staggered with us for half a year. They have plenty of time and strength to catch up with our progress when the second-generation Beats walkman is launched at the end of this year, and achieve a surpass in some indicators. "
Ron Johnson expressed his concern and proposed: "Or the release date of the iPodmini should be advanced to the end of the year."
"They spread rumors everywhere..." Someone took the opportunity to complain.
"No, our rhythm does not need to dance with the followers, half a year is enough time for users to develop consumption habits."
In February, on the eve of Valentine's Day, I returned to Chicago. Song Ya, who was exhausted from recent high-intensity work, met with Jobs's diehard fan, Roseto, founder of Wired Magazine, in the Highland Park study.
"I heard that some of the 3DFX board members are very dissatisfied with the rapid deterioration of your relationship with Apple, which has caused stock prices to fluctuate?" Roseto asked.
"Because I stepped on Jobs' tail?"
Song Ya smiled confidently: "Hehe, things have happened, we will fight back."
"You are even planning to launch your own online music store." Roseto added.
"How do you know?" Song Ya asked.
"Comeon, APLUS, HandSpring and Beats are digging for related programmers everywhere in Silicon Valley."
"Uh... normal commercial competition, Apple can't monopolize the online sales of the six major songs."
Song Ya had no choice but to answer, "The iTunes Music Store is strictly one of the channel vendors. They cannot prevent other companies from entering this industry. They have been doing this before."
"But there are very few genuine songs on sale. In addition to the Disney series, have you won the other five?"
"Are you a spy sent by Jobs?"
"Haha, of course not."
"You are suspicious..." Song Ya Cairo Seto joked.
"Ha ha!"
Black Pharaoh feels very relaxed, completely self-confident, and faintly domineering as if everything is under control. He boldly joins the competition with Apple's Walkman... This is the business of Walkman! Although the threshold for players in the MP3 era is too low to be compared with the Walkman era when Sony and other electronic giants are fighting, Beats and Apple are both top players. Roseto can clearly feel that the intensity of the struggle will be very short. Time to reach the original level of Sony and Panasonic, Apple and IBM, Apple and Microsoft, Netscape and Microsoft.
Word-of-mouth wars, price wars, legal wars, patent wars, channel wars, supply chain wars, and even national industrial policy, diplomacy, and legislative wars. The impact of those battles has continued to this day and has not dissipated. Roseto doesn't feel that he likes Dongyi hammer for many years. The black pharaoh of the West is capable of the leader of this kind of hierarchical war.