The Industrial Giant Reborn.

Chapter 537: Changes in Apple Company

"Come in, this is the house I bought at the beginning of this year. I haven't had any friends come over yet. Eric, it's rare for you to come over and see how it goes?" Woz said with a smile. He was still very happy about Chen Zhiwen's arrival. Chen Zhiwen was his boss and later his partner, but with Chen Zhiwen's character, he was more like a friend.

"Come." Chen Zhiwen took Liu Xiaoli's hand and walked in.

"Is this your girlfriend?" Woz looked at it and asked again. He originally thought it was just an assistant, or something else, but now it seems to be something more.

"Yes. Just call her Liu." Chen Zhiwen said.

"OK, I'm very happy to meet you, beautiful Miss Liu." Woz said politely.

"Thank you." Liu Xiaoli said politely.

"Woz, you're not young anymore, and you haven't found a girlfriend yet?" Chen Zhiwen said with a smile as he walked away.

He didn't know Woz's marital status in history, but because of his interference, Woz joined Midea's senior management in the United States at a very young age, with an annual salary of hundreds of thousands of dollars, plus housing, luxury cars, etc. Wait, later when Steve Jobs founded Apple, Woz also followed him. After Apple went on the market and developed for a few years, Woz also became a billionaire in U.S. dollars, which is not a lot in the United States. Plus his He is only 34 years old and can be said to be a typical diamond king.

"Haha, you are just like my parents, but I am not in a hurry. In fact, many young and beautiful girls have taken the initiative to find me over the years, but I don't know whether they are for my money or my people, so I have no official partner." Wo. Zi said with a shrug.

".?" Chen Zhiwen was speechless for a while. Are you the only one with a body like yours who can't see the toes of his shoes when he lowers his head?With a beard on your face, if you weren't rich, which young and beautiful girl would be able to set your sights on you?

"Woz, actually, having money is also a part of you. Besides, you earned the money yourself. Isn't it also your advantage?" Chen Zhiwen said helplessly. He doesn't care about ordinary people, but Woz has been his friend for many years. , in the early days, if it had not been for him, the arcade might not have developed, or at least it would have been a few years later. He was of great help to Chen Zhiwen, so I will say a few more words.

"You are right to think so, but I should at least find someone with the same outlook on life." Woz came to the sofa next to the swimming pool, invited Chen Zhiwen and Chen Zhiwen to sit down, and took out a few bottles of beer.

Liu Xiaoli declined, and Chen Zhiwen took it. Although he didn't like drinking very much, beer was okay. He wouldn't drink too much anyway, and it was okay to drink a little occasionally.

"There should be many students at Stanford University who meet this requirement, and it might be suitable for you." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

"Maybe, maybe one day I'll meet true love." Woz took a sip of beer, shrugged and said, "You didn't come to me just to chat, right?"

Chen Zhiwen smiled and said, "Yes, I heard about what happened at Apple. Now that you have left Apple, what do you want to do next, start your own business?"

In the original history, Woz was involved in a plane crash not long after Apple went on the market, which caused him to suffer considerable injuries and even lost his memory. He spent several months in the hospital before recovering. But now, history has changed too much. Well, this didn't happen.

However, some things cannot be changed. For example, some developments within Apple, especially those related to Steve Jobs, are similar to the original history.

When Jobs was young, his personality was still too extreme. In addition, he achieved success at such a young age and became an American entrepreneurial hero. His personality began to rise. Within the company, he interacted with many people, including management, The technical team and even veterans like Wozniak clashed.

This is also the reason why he was kicked out of Apple in the original history, but after all, he is the founder of Apple and a national business icon. The Apple board of directors will not take this step unless it has to, and before taking this step, it has basically tolerated it. Steve Jobs had been with him for a long time, and in the process, many outstanding Apple employees were forced to leave, including Woz.

In fact, within Apple, Woz's identity is not much worse than that of Jobs. But when the contradictions became more and more serious, Woz was a technical person himself, and his endurance was not as good as that of those professional elites. In addition, his personal relationship with Jobs Better, in order to avoid further deterioration, I resigned and left.

Although Chen Zhiwen was in Hong Kong during this period, he was also paying attention to the status of major electronics companies around the world, including Apple. It is inevitable that such a thing would happen, because Steve Jobs is here. No matter how powerful Jobs will be in the future, but now He is still immature and has the ability, but his personality and behavior are poor, and he cannot gather the ability to form a team. This will eventually lead to the decline of Apple in the mid-80s, the embarrassing situation of being kicked out of the company, and even the success of Jobs in the future. , I also want to thank this big failure. After the original King Jobs returned to Apple in the late 90s, although his personality was still not very good, he was at least willing to listen to many people's opinions and became much more polite to others.

Fortunately, he has already sold his shares while taking advantage of the high price of Apple's stock price. What Apple becomes will not affect him.And there is beauty in this life. It is not certain whether Apple can return as the king in a few decades.

"Starting a business? I can't." Woz took another sip of beer and said, "What I'm good at is technology, not creativity. Only people like you, Eric, or Steve Jobs, are suitable for starting a business." Although with Jobs had a lot of conflicts, but Woz had to admit that Jobs had great ideas on many things, but sometimes he was too paranoid and only focused on ideals without considering reality.

"Then since you don't plan to start a business, how about you come back to Midea to help me?" Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

When I asked Woz to go to Apple, I was actually thinking about today. Apple's decline in the 80s was almost inevitable. We could just bring Woz back at that time. The advantage of this was that he used Apple to earn more than With a profit of 10 billion US dollars, Woz has become a billionaire, which is the reward he deserves.

"What should I do in Midea? Or develop games?" Woz put down the bottle and asked.

"No, I hope you can come to Midea and be responsible for several of Midea's next computer projects." Chen Zhiwen said.

In terms of games, Midea has basically matured. Nowadays, Midea's home game consoles and handheld consoles have begun to accept third-party games. With its huge existing user base, low-cost and high-quality production OEM capabilities, and global coverage For most sales channels in economically viable places, any game development company only needs to develop the game and leave everything else to Midea.

Comprehensive hosting, plus a 7% gross profit return, is almost the best gift for all game developers. Anyone with a little brains will not refuse this cooperation.

Although it has given away profits, Midea has further consolidated its dominance in the home game console and handheld market. Others cannot learn even if they want to, because Midea is not unconditional in giving so many benefits to game developers. If it is not exclusive Authorization, then the game developers will not make any money from this cooperation, unless the competitors offer a high price to buy out, but this is obviously impossible. These competitors do not have the financial resources of Midea at all, and even Midea does not dare to adopt the buyout method. not in a discontinuous manner, but in a win-win manner.

In the next ten years, Midea Games will be almost difficult to beat. When computer games and Internet games rise in a dozen years, changes may occur by then, but it is still far away from now, and there is no point in thinking about it.

The monopoly in the gaming field has made Midea one of the world's electronic giants. However, large companies cannot only focus on the present. Chen Zhiwen has also invested in companies such as Weiruan for Midea's future. However, this is just an investment, and its own industry still needs to have Yes, in terms of software, Chen Zhiwen is also taking advantage of his foresight to carry out advance research and development, including three-piece office software Word suite, PS, data processing software, etc. Once these are developed, Midea will have a certain position in the computer age in the future.

But Chen Zhiwen also hopes that Midea can control a certain computer hardware market. Although the profit of hardware is not as good as that of software, it may be able to drive a large number of jobs. At the same time, if it wants to achieve success in the mobile phone or even smartphone market in the future, it will also gain access to the computer hardware market. It helps a lot.

What Woz is best at is the research and development of this type of product. Several of Apple's current computers, whether they are popular or not, are more or less related to Woz.

"Some of the computers I developed at Apple were not so successful." Woz laughed.

"In this world, who can guarantee that the products they make will sell well? It would be good if there is a certain probability. I believe you have this ability, Woz." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

Even as a time traveler like him, he can only judge whether a product can sell well from a large level. And Chen Zhiwen doesn't know what will happen if there are several different versions of the same product now.

This is just like Chen Zhiwen knows that the functions will be popular in the future, but he doesn’t know if what he develops can compete with others. At most, he will have a first-mover advantage. But at present, the computer market is gone. Unless in the future laptop.

"Okay, I'm going back to the United States, but I hope to still work in Los Angeles." Woz nodded and said.

"I'm a little surprised that you agreed so readily." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile. Although Meili is a large company, Woz is now a billionaire. This kind of person will most likely not be willing to work for others.

"I don't have any plans at the moment. I'll just go to Midea first. But if one day I want to leave, don't make love dramas and prevent me from leaving." Woz shrugged and said nonchalantly.

"That's okay, but if you are still responsible for a big project, at least the handover must be almost complete before leaving." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

"No problem. Even if it's Apple's project, I handed it over clearly when I left. Even if they encounter problems now, I will often check on them." Woz said.

"Okay, that's it. In terms of remuneration, I'll give you an annual salary of 500 million US dollars." Chen Zhiwen paused and said, "It's not convenient to use stocks. Currently, Midea has not split shares, but we can take some measures from the project. How about dividend distribution?"

(End of this chapter)