In the capitalist world, as long as there is money, everything is easy to say!

When Dolucy began to wave the check, all major media platforms in the United States began to flatter Garrett 2000 non-stop: Uncle, come on, be happy......

Overnight, people across the United States seemed to be occupied by Garrett 2000's personal computer called ThinkCenter:

When you wake up in the morning and turn on the TV and watch it while making breakfast, the TV is playing an ad for the ThinkCenter personal computer;

When you open the newspaper of the day while eating breakfast and listening to the advertising content of thinkcenter on TV, you find that there are also thinkcenter advertisements in the newspaper;

When you have breakfast and drive to work, the radio comes out with the same thinkcenter advertisement, when you turn your head to look around when you are stuck in traffic, you find that the body of the bus is Thinkcenter, and the building billboard is also Thinkcenter;

When you finally arrived at the company, you found that the elevator of the office building was also an advertisement for thinkcenter;

When you want to release "memory" halfway through, you find that the bathroom is also a ThinkCenter advertisement;

When you are hungry and call for a pizza, you will be shocked to find that the delivery guy at the pizza shop has not only brought you a pizza, but also a ThinkCenter advertisement has been delivered to you along with the pizza......

............

Almost overnight, people across the United States were brainwashed by thinkcenter, so much so that they couldn't help but think of the Garrett 2000's personal computer called "thinkcenter" when they saw anything: thinkcenter, thinkcenter, thinkcenter......

Also, even in the United States, where the advertising industry is highly developed, no one has ever played this kind of viral advertising, on the one hand, the marketing cost of this kind of advertising is too high, and on the other hand, everyone is also worried that it will backfire so often to let their own advertisements appear in front of the people.

Of course, there is also the most important point: the market for personal computers is too small, unlike the huge $300 billion market for automobiles, and the total market share of personal computers, even with small computers, medium-sized computers, and even supercomputers, is less than $10 billion.

How much market share do you have in a market of less than $10 billion, and how much marketing are you willing to spend on that market share?

Subsequently, some analysts estimated that with Garrett 2000's advertising density, even if they signed a short-term advertising contract with these media for only two weeks, their advertising and marketing expenses would most likely exceed $10 million, and Garrett 2000 would have to sell at least 50,000 ThinkCenter units to recover marketing costs, and if the advertising time lasted for a month, Garrett 2000 would have to pay at least $18 million in marketing expenses......

For big customers, it is also appropriate to give some discounts.

........................

In the face of the overwhelming thinkcenter advertising, IBM finally couldn't sit still, the current "blue giant" is not the "blue giant" that has rapidly expanded by relying on the hot sales of personal computers more than ten years later, Aix called Don Estrich, the chief designer of IBM 5150, to his office, and asked anxiously: "Don, how is 5150?"

"It's still in beta," Don Estridge pushes his glasses, "two new bugs were discovered yesterday......"

"I don't want to hear this!" Ex interrupted Don Estridge with an irritable wave, "I'll just ask you, are there any serious bugs and hardware compatibility problems right now?"

"This ...... I can't answer you until the whole test process is completed," Don Estridge pushed down his glasses and said honestly, "And even if the test process is completed, I can't guarantee that it will be foolproof......"

Even if you know that Don Estridge is telling the truth, because many bugs and hardware compatibility problems cannot be found in the testing stage, because the testing conditions are limited after all, and users may encounter any strange problems in actual use.

But that's not what Ex wanted to hear, he preferred Don Estridge to tell him that 5150 was now ready to be released...... It's just that the ideal is beautiful, and the reality is a bit skinny.

Ex became more and more irritable: "I don't want to hear this, I don't want to listen to this, I only need to answer one question, can 5150 be listed in a week?"

"It's impossible!" Don Estridge replied without thinking: "Sir, if you insist on the early listing of 5150, if there is a large area of problems with the product after the listing, when the board of directors asks, I will truthfully report to the board of directors, it is you who asked for the early listing." ”

Although Don Estridge doesn't know why Ackes is in such a hurry, is it really as everyone discussed, being put under too much pressure by Garrett 2000's thinkcenter, but you want me to help you take the blame?

"Forehead ......"

Hearing Don Estridge's words, Ex was a little dumbfounded. Just like Don Estridge thought, Ackes does have the idea of letting Don Estridge help him take the blame, he plans to let IBM 5150 go on the market in advance, if there is no problem, it is of course the credit of his own CEO, if something goes wrong, he can also throw the pot to Don Estridge, but I didn't expect Don Estridge's reaction to be fierce......

Is!

It was Don Estridge, who was a technician after all, and didn't have so many fancy intestines, hesitated for a moment, and finally said to Aix: "Mr. Ex, there is a question I think I should tell you......"

"You say. ”

Although he was a little annoyed, Don Estridge was not only the chief designer of the 5150, and it was impossible for Ax not to give him any face.

"The operating system on the 5150 is the thing designed by that kid named Bill......"

"What's wrong?"

"The operating system provided by Bill is just a piece of shit!" Don Estridge has endured the operating system called "DOS" provided by Bier Gates for a long time, and at this moment he can't hold back anymore: "Don't talk about the inexplicable crashes, conflicts and bugs of this system, let's just say that at least 70% of the problems in our testing process are due to the problems of this operating system, if we replace the operating system with CP/ M, basically very stable, if you can change the operating system to Garrett 2000 CP/M ......"

Don Estridge knew that the reason why the kid named Bill Gates was able to get the qualification to provide a supporting operating system for the IBM 5150 was because the kid's mother was friends with Mr. Ex, but the problem was that the system called DOS was inevitably too bad, completely rotten, thinking of himself

"I see," before Don Estridge could finish speaking, Ex interrupted him a little impatiently: "Don, I know your concerns, but the company has decided to use Mr. Bill Gates's DOS system, and there are considerations for the company, so you can do your own thing." ”

“......”

Don Estridge paused for a moment and nodded, "Yes, sir." ”

..................

Don Estridge was gone, and Ex tapped lightly on the table, his face cloudy.

At the beginning, he insisted that Bill Gates, who had no experience in operating system development, be the operating system provider of IBM 5150, because he and Bill's mother Mary were friends.

And I have also done an investigation of Bill's ability, although Bill and his friend Paul do not have experience in developing operating systems, but they have not successfully ported basic from the minicomputer to the personal computer before, proving that this kid's ability is still good, just doing a secondary development on the basis of CP/M, it shouldn't be so difficult, right?

But Don Estridge is unlikely to be convinced, since those tests are well documented and documented......

But...... Let's give Mary a call, well, just to be on the safe side.

"Madam Mary, it's me, Ex. ”

"Mr. Ex?" Although Ex's call surprised Mary a little, her reaction was not slow at all, and she smiled: "I haven't been in touch for a while, what's wrong?"

"It's something," Ex nodded, not denying it, "It's about Bill." ”

"What's wrong with Bill, Bill?" said Lady Mary, like all mothers in the world, realizing that Ex's call was related to her son, and her tone suddenly became a little nervous.

"It's not a big deal, you asked me to give Bill a chance before......"

"Yes, yes, Ex, I thank you very much, Bill and I are very grateful to you for giving him this opportunity. ”

"You're welcome, we're friends," said Ex, "but that's not what I'm going to say, Mr. Don Estridge told me the system that Bill had given us...... Well, the performance is terrible, and it's very unstable, you know, the board is very serious about this product......"

"It's all a small problem," Mary interrupted Ackes before he could finish speaking, "it can always be solved, and no one can guarantee that a new product on the market will be perfect except God, as long as we are responsible for the user, and help them improve and upgrade these problems in the future, right?"

"Uh...... This ......"

"Hmm...... By the way, my friend brought me two boxes of cigars, and I'll have them delivered to you later...... These are just some small setbacks and mistakes in the child's growth, and I promise that your child will be treated the same with me in the future. ”

“......”

Ex was still a little dissatisfied with Mary's attitude just now: This product is a product that we IBM has high hopes for in the field of personal computers, such a serious problem, you just took it with such a fluttering sentence?

But Mary's next words made the anger in Ex's heart disappear in an instant, he was reserved for a moment, and finally nodded: "You are right, these are just some small setbacks in the normal process of children, we can and should give them more tolerance." ”