Looking at the stunned Cao Changjiu, Dr. Yu smiled and told about his achievements in the United States in the past few months. After distributor Walker took a fancy to videoform, the two signed a contract that stipulated that Dr. Yu would provide the videoform and subsequent version development, while Walker's PA company would be responsible for copying the floppy disks, printing instructions, advertising and distributing the product to various locations.

At the same time, Dr. Yu received 40% of the retail revenue and 50% of the wholesale revenue, which was reasonable at the time, mainly because sales and promotion were too simple at that time, and if you put it 20 years later, this proportion would be at most 15%.

If Dr. Yu provided a powerful piece of software, then Walker pioneered a new way of selling software.

In '79, there weren't many computer stores selling software at all, and the usual practice was to trade it by mail order. The software vendors in the market didn't even think about sharing profits with the distributors, and Walker thought that these distributors would become more and more important, so he provided them with some attention-grabbing displays, beautiful packaging, and printed manuals.

With the help of these manuals, even a whiteman can use spreadsheet software to the extreme. Electric white. Computers eat for nothing.

While these changes are small and costly, Walker sees this as an opportunity, as he explains: "Most companies are good at software development and don't pay much attention to product inspection, quality assurance, and instruction manuals, and that's our opportunity." ”

As Walker thought, what people want is not great design, sophisticated functionality, but ease of use and consistent quality.

Videoform went public in October '79 at a computer store in Massachusetts, where Dr. Yu personally demonstrated the software's features to users for $100.

It's just that it was sold very slowly in the early days, after all, this is an epoch-making software, and people don't know what this thing is for. But Walker had a solution, he hired salesmen to sell to the big companies, organized free training, and advertised in the major magazines.

All of a sudden, almost everyone knew that there was a software called videoform, which could automatically implement the table function.

Luckily, Apple's marketing director, John Hawkins, bought the videoform for the first time, and the shrewd Lima sensed that this thing was different and had a hunch that it would play a key role in the success of the Apple II.

Hawkins immediately visited Walker and offered to buy VideoForm for $1 million worth of Apple stock. Walker was very impressed by such lucrative conditions, and although he was confident in selling software, he was not happy to get cash.

So Walker and Dr. Yu discussed it and decided to agree to Hawkins' price.

Hawkins, who negotiated the deal, went directly back to Apple's headquarters to report to the boss Scula, but was scolded by the big boss for "$1 million Apple stock to buy such a small software, have you been kicked in the head by a donkey?"

As a result, the acquisition plan fell through, and Walker and Dr. Yu were disappointed. It's just that Apple missed a big piece of the pie, while Dr. Yu and Cao Changjiu made a fortune.

Later, Hawkins was unwilling and wanted to buy Videoform's Apple Ping ** ownership, but because the bid was too low, Walker ignored him.

However, it also broadened Dr. Yu's thinking, and he felt the need to change Cao's long-term plan. For a long time, the treasure was completely pressed on AplleII,And now it seems that although the Apple machine is easy to sell, it is far from monopolizing the market,There are more than a dozen microcomputer brands on the market,Each has good sales performance,It's a pity not to make money from these users。

Sales of Videoform in the first month of its release were dismal, and Walker flew around all day to arrange the promotion of the software. It was also this year that Apple achieved large-scale production, driven by killer hardware soft disk drives, sold nearly $60 million of machines, and became the number one microcomputer.

Apple's products are often snatched up as soon as they hit the shelves, and business is surprisingly good. With Apple's onboard, Walker and Dr. Yu sold their software better and better, and orders flew in like snowflakes, and in just two months, they recouped their costs – mainly advertising and marketing. As for the packaging, that's already insignificant.

The more this is the case, the more anxious Walker and Dr. Yu become, because the videoform version is only available in the long-term Apple version, and the market demand is diverse, and many companies have asked if they can provide other machine versions.

Seeing that the cake was on the table but could not be eaten, it would be a rush to death, so Dr. Yu frequently called for a long time, but he could not be contacted, and Dr. Yu came back in a hurry.

Knowing that he had been to the mainland for a long time, Dr. Yu was naturally full of smoke, and he happened to receive an invitation from the mainland's high-level officials, so he stopped by.

"The software sells very well, but the product is too simple, and you'd better make some other versions. Dr. Yu and Chang Chang whispered.

"How can I have time, now I feel that everything in my head is very important, what do you say. "Long complaining.

"Mr. Yu has any difficulties to say, we will help you solve them. What kind of software are you talking about?" asked Elder D.

Dr. Yu hurriedly replied: "At that time, a component of the computer, without software, the computer was just a pile of scrap metal. Software is like ...... The words in the book, a computer without software is like a book without words. "It's really hard to explain.

"I see, it's all the crystallization of wisdom. Is it possible to understand that it is useless to build a computer by light, it is just hardware, and it needs software to cooperate to use. "Mr. D's mind is still very agile and he understands the function of the software easily.

"Yes, yes, that's it. I have been discussing this matter with a long time, and it may be a little difficult to manufacture in the mainland, with all due respect, the industrial base is not comparable to that of Europe and the United States. However, software relies on wisdom, and China has a lot of talents, so I want to start software research in the mainland and make a profit from exports. ”

"That's no problem, just do everything according to the law. But I wondered, how much technology can be brought in?"

"This ......" Dr. Yu looked embarrassed, how could he introduce any technology, he meant that he wanted to use the power of the mainland to realize the export of software.

"This is just the first step. Cao Changchang vaguely understood what Dr. Yu meant, and seeing that he was so embarrassed, he took over the conversation, "Software we are just a tool for us to accumulate funds, we are not here, to be honest, even if our current software technology is not inferior to foreign countries, at least the software I wrote is the first in foreign countries." ”

D looked at Dr. Yu, and Dr. Yu nodded and acknowledged the long statement.

D Lao smiled: "Then what do you want." ”

"It depends on what Huaxia wants, what you want. For a long time, I felt that my speech was getting smoother and smoother, and Mr. D's kind attitude made him feel that he could speak freely.

"Oh, what do you mean by that?" said Elder D, who was not apprehensive, smiled and motioned for a long time to continue.

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There are more after 12 o'clock.