Reborn Russia As An Oligarch

Chapter 1070 Heavyweight Products

In 2006, Apple’s new headquarters building had not yet been included in the plan because the company did not have the “spare money” on hand.

 So, the headquarters is still in that relatively ordinary-looking office building.

 Wang Ye came here once when he invested in Apple a few years ago. This is the second time.

 When he arrived downstairs at the headquarters, it was Cook who came downstairs to greet him.

After shaking hands with Wang Ye warmly, Cook said apologetically: "Qiao went to the press conference to prepare, so he couldn't come to greet you. I will accompany you there later. As you know, He is a perfectionist, and this is the first time our mobile phone will be unveiled, so he has very high requirements for every detail of the conference and has been there for several days..."

Wang Ye smiled and nodded to express his understanding. Gang Leader Qiao is a patient with obsessive-compulsive disorder, a typical paranoid...

He is also a product manager who pursues the ultimate perfection, but it is because of his personality that makes Apple’s products different from other brands.

 Electronic products all have the atmosphere of works of art. To be honest, among so many brands in the world, only Apple has achieved this.

Of course, after his death a few years later, Apple was handed over to Cook, and Apple simply became a money-making machine. It had already made a lot of money relying on Joe's old background.

From a consumer's perspective, Wang Ye doesn't like people like Cook, who are too utilitarian and like to cut leeks...

From now on, Apple users will joke that Apple's memory and hard drives are made of gold. That's because Apple's computers, tablets, and mobile phones have high starting prices, but they are extremely stingy with memory and hard drives.

Even in 2023, memory and hard drives are already at bargain prices, but Apple's new computers still start with 8GB of memory. If you want to upgrade the memory, I'm sorry, I can't upgrade it, so I can only buy the high-end version at the time of purchase. .

 As for Apple's memory and hard drive, the prices are extremely outrageous. For example, upgrading from 8GB to 16GB costs an additional 1,500 yuan!

  Upgrading the solid-state drive from 256G to 512G also costs 1,500 yuan!

This is basically more than five times the price of the top memory and hard drives on the market...

 But you still have to buy it, because Apple integrates the memory and SSD hard drive directly into the chip or motherboard. The purpose is to prevent you from upgrading yourself and can only buy its high-priced memory hard drive!

  Apple users can only pinch their noses and be harvested by Apple. There is no other way. This is a "productivity tool".

 But from the perspective of a major shareholder, Wang Yeke likes professional managers like Cook very much. For no other reason than that, this old man can really make money for the company!

 It was in Cook’s hands that Apple became the first company in the world to have a market capitalization of over one trillion, two trillion, or three trillion!

Oh, the unit is US dollars...

 Thinking about his 16% shareholding, when the company's market value exceeds 3 trillion U.S. dollars in the future, it will be worth nearly 500 billion U.S. dollars. Even Wang Ye is a little excited!

 So, his attitude towards Cook is more enthusiastic...

 …

In fact, there is nothing to visit at Apple’s headquarters. After a brief walk around, Cook took Wang Ye to his office, intending to show Wang Ye the first-generation Apple mobile phone that was about to be released.

Although Wang Ye knew about this project from the very beginning and even gave some opinions on the appearance design of the mobile phone, he has not personally seen the final product of the mobile phone. This project also implements a strict confidentiality system and is not available to the outside world. People know.

It can even be said that the media reporters who came to attend the new product launch conference today did not know that Apple was going to launch a mobile phone product!

They thought there was some new computer model or IPOD to be released, and they didn’t think about mobile phones at all.

Wang Ye looked at the exquisite and compact IPHONE 1 in his hand. It has a metal body, a 3.5" large LCD screen, and only a circular HOME button on the front, making this phone particularly unique.

Of course, in Wang Ye's eyes, this is nothing. After all, he has used too many mobile phones with larger screens and more powerful functions than this one in his previous life.

But the two girls Nalan Yaqi and Nova who came with Wang Ye were shocked by this mobile phone.

This is the first time they have seen such a beautiful mobile phone. Even the Rittal mobile phone they usually use, which is worth tens of thousands of dollars, does not look as good as this mobile phone.

Wang Ye skillfully operated the phone to light up the screen. After entering the system, he took a casual look. After all, this was the first-generation Apple phone, and its functions were still too rudimentary. Maybe the only bright spot was the large 3.5-inch LCD touch screen. , in other aspects it was not much better than Nokia, Samsung, and Motorola at the time.

Moreover, the first generation of Apple mobile phones were not equipped with self-developed chips. Even the system was not called IOS, but iPhoneOS1.0. There was no AppStore, but some simple software, such as browsers, were pre-installed. , mail, music, weather, etc.

 In short, it was not much better than other mobile phone brands in the world at that time.

However, in terms of user experience, it can be said to beat all opponents instantly. After all, it is a large touch screen. You can operate it directly with your fingers on the screen, which will be more intuitive and in line with the user's usage habits.

You need to know that when using a mobile phone with letter buttons, if you want to operate the mobile phone to complete a relatively simple action, the steps are quite cumbersome, and many functions may even be impossible to implement.

For example, you can enlarge a picture on a mobile phone and only display a specific part on the screen. This action is easy to achieve on Apple's newly launched mobile phone. You only need to spread your fingers, and the picture will immediately become larger, and then press Hold the screen to view any position of the enlarged image.

Perhaps this function will be taken for granted by everyone in more than ten years, and they will think it is the most basic function of mobile phones.

  But at the beginning of 2007, those mobile phones on the market could not even think of such a function...

 So many people say that Apple's mobile phone has "reinvented" the mobile phone, which is considered an exaggeration, but it still makes sense.

 …

After playing with it casually, Wang Ye handed the phone to Nova and Nalan Yaqi, who were eager to try it out next to them, and let them play.

Cook saw that Wang Ye was careless throughout the whole process, and thought that he was not optimistic about this mobile phone, so he cautiously asked: "Mr. Mikhail, do you think this mobile phone is not advanced enough? It doesn't look good at its sales volume." ?”

Wang Ye smiled and shook his head: "No, I am very optimistic about the sales of this phone. In my opinion, even if it is only sold in North America this year, the sales of this phone are still expected to reach five million units!" Cook was shocked by the number.

Five million units, what is that concept? Although for the mobile phone giants at that time, such as Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Ericsson and other brands, five million units was simply not worth mentioning, because their sales volume easily reached tens of millions. Even hundreds of millions.

 2006 was the most glorious year for the mobile phone giant Nokia. It sold 350 million mobile phones throughout the year, accounting for 38% of the global mobile phone market. It can be said that it is the best!

Nokia's annual revenue has also reached more than 50 billion euros. At this time, no one will think that this giant will collapse in just a few years and even sell off its mobile business, including Qiao Bangzhu. Neither Cook nor I dared to think so!

 Of course, this does not include Wang Ye...

 However, although the giant Nokia is very powerful, its sales volume still accounts for the largest proportion of low-end mobile phones.

 A simple calculation shows that the annual revenue was 50 billion euros, and 350 million mobile phones were sold. The average price of a mobile phone is only about 150 euros.

 The price of Apple’s mobile phone is much higher than that of Nokia’s, $499, the only price!

  If it can sell five million units throughout the year, as Wang Ye said, the revenue will reach US$2.5 billion, which would be considered a great success.

  After all, this is the first year that Apple’s mobile phone has been launched, and it is only available in North America.

 When it comes to the second year, or when it starts to be released in the global market, won't the sales volume increase exponentially, with sales of 20 million, 50 million, or over 100 million a year...

To be honest, even Cook himself did not dare to imagine that the new mobile phone would sell so many in the first year of its launch.

 According to his and Gang Leader Qiao's predictions, the company had just started to engage in this business. Although he felt that the product was far ahead of its competitors in terms of technology, it had little foundation after all. It had just entered this track, so it was impossible to become popular in the initial stage.

 In the first year, it was only sold in North America. The market capacity is so large, and the production capacity is not too sufficient, so if it sells one million units, it is a great success!

 Even in the best case scenario, it would be around two million, and I would not dare to think of any more.

 But now, Mikhail said five million units, which really shocked Cook.

 …

Seeing Cook's confused look, Wang Ye knew that he couldn't believe it. Maybe even Gang Leader Qiao couldn't believe this number, but he didn't explain much.

  It’s not necessary. Future sales data will prove whether you are right or not.

In addition, the sales volume of five million in the first year is indeed not very high. He remembered that in his previous life, the sales volume of Apple mobile phones in the first year after its launch was indeed not high, it seemed that there were only more than one million.

 But the situation in this life is obviously different.

In the previous life, although Apple also held a press conference in early January 2007, and the new mobile phone was officially unveiled, due to various reasons, the official release was not until half a year later, and the company did not dare to invest too much money in stocking up, and the supply chain did not The integration was completed, so only over one million units were sold.

In this life, with the full support of Wang Ye, the major shareholder, Qiao Gangzhu and Cook are full of confidence and have abundant funds, so the integration of the supply chain has already begun, and sales will start directly tomorrow, which means that the sales period will be directly extended. for half a year.

In this case, Wang Ye believes that hitting sales of five million is not a problem.

 When the production volume increases, Apple will not be limited to the North American market, but will enter the European market and the Asian market with the help of Wang Ye!

 After all, this is Wang Ye's own business, so of course he is willing to provide some help.

 …

 When the time was almost up, Wang Ye and others, led by Cook, went to the new product launch site.

 This conference was held in a theater in downtown San Francisco.

Apple's appeal is not small, and it also spent a lot of money this time, basically inviting all the mainstream media in Europe and the United States, especially technology-related newspapers and magazines, and not one of them was left out!

 Coupled with the spontaneous participation of some die-hard fans, the entire Grand Theater was already full of people and quite lively.

Backstage, Wang Ye finally met Gang Leader Qiao. He still wore his iconic look, a black turtleneck and a pair of jeans.

Seeing Wang Ye, a smile appeared on Gang Leader Qiao's thin face, and he came over and gave Wang Ye a big hug.

He was sincerely grateful to this young major shareholder. After all, when he was in the most difficult time, it was Mikhail who extended a helping hand and spent a large sum of cash to invest in Apple. After becoming a major shareholder, not only did he not only He interfered randomly in the company's internal affairs, and also gave himself great support unconditionally, allowing him to promote the company's development according to his own ideas.

 That’s why today’s new product launch conference was successfully held!

"I have seen the mobile phone. This product will definitely be successful. It can be said that Apple has reinvented the mobile phone. In the future, other mobile phone brands will imitate and follow Apple." Wang Ye smiled and patted Gang Leader Qiao's arm. encourage him.

 He was also feeling sorry in his heart because Gang Leader Qiao only had a few years left...

A few years ago, Gang Leader Qiao had been diagnosed with cancer and had been receiving treatment. However, no matter how much money he had, there was no way to deal with such an incurable disease except to delay it as long as possible.

 Gang leader Qiao also knew it, but he didn’t care much and continued to work and live as usual.

Perhaps for people like him, how long he can live is not important. What is important is whether he can fulfill his dream, leave something in this world, or change something.

Hearing what Wang Ye said, Gang Leader Qiao smiled, "Reinventing the mobile phone? This is a great sentence. I can borrow it for the next press conference."

Wang Ye was stunned for a moment. This sentence seemed to have been said by Gang Leader Qiao himself at the Apple press conference in his previous life. He remembered it, but now he just said it subconsciously.

As a result, he was "borrowed" by Gang Leader Qiao and used it in the press conference, so who is responsible for it...

But none of this matters, because the press conference is about to begin.

 Led by the staff, Wang Ye, Nova, Nalan Yaqi and others came to the front row of the conference hall and sat down. Cook also accompanied them.

Although it hasn't officially started yet, the hall is already buzzing with excitement. Most of the people present are reporters from major media. Everyone is curious about what kind of new products Apple will come out today, and it even made such a big scene. Press conference, this is also very rare.

After all, in the past, even if Apple had any new products, it would not hold such a large-scale press conference. At most, it would only hold a small-scale press conference at the company headquarters.

 It seems that Apple must have some major new products to release this time!

 (End of this chapter)