Li Xuan swept around, the huge exhibition hall was already crowded, and the photography area was already full of all kinds of long guns and short guns, IBM's new product launch conference was more lively than Aikang's new product launch a month ago, this is IBM, the king of the computer industry.

From the introduction of the 370 series of computers in 1970, the blue giant seemed to have lost its way in all its glory. The minicomputer lost to DEC Company, and the word processor lost to Wang An's Company, and the Ministry of Justice kept getting trouble. But even so, who would dare to really underestimate IBM, it just took a nap, and when the lion woke up again, it would immediately show its sharp claws again.

Twenty days ago, the entire press focus on the personal computer industry was on the new 32-bit personal computer from Aikan. Everyone is discussing whether the personal computer is going to go from the 8-bit era to the 16-bit era and directly enter the 32-bit era.

But when the news came that IBM was about to release its first microcomputer product and was ready to enter the personal computer market, all the newspapers changed pages at once. Everyone immediately turned to discussing how the influx of IBM would affect the burgeoning PC market.

The mainstream view of the market has always been that the microcomputer industry will definitely usher in more bloody and fierce competition. This view is so popular that the stock prices of companies such as Apple and Aikang have been fluctuating recently. There is a good thing, the media also went out of their way to interview the management of several leading companies in the microcomputer industry, and all of them answered very calmly and calmly on the surface, and they didn't seem to take IBM too seriously.

Li Xuan's seat was in an inconspicuous place near the corner, and there happened to be two reporters standing in the aisle next to him chatting.

"Hi. Howard, how did you get sent as a sports reporter to cover tech news!"

"Both Tim and Linseken resigned. I was urgently called to fill their vacancy! I looked up some information, and IBM seems to have done a lot of things lately," said the reporter known as Howard.

"The sword of Damocles hanging over IBM's head is gone. Now, of course, we have to do it with our hands! You know, the last decade has been called IBM's Lost Decade, and the new president, Mr. Ober, is said to be determined to rebuild the blue glory!" said another man to Howard with a smile.

"Did you read today's Wall Street Journal?" Howard said with a laugh. Seeing that his companion was a little puzzled, he took out a newspaper from his bag, "Apple bought a full-page advertisement with the headline 'Warm welcome to IBM', I don't know if this is arrogance or weakness!"

"I think it should be a weak heart, Apple has not had any bright looks recently, and now it is the British company Aikang that is in the limelight! Did they react in any way?"

The other took the newspaper that Howard handed her, found the Apple advertising page, and glanced at it casually. The ad ostensibly welcomes IBM's entry into the personal computer industry, but it reads between the lines and reveals a challenging message.

"Before, they were just promoting their new computer step by step, but this morning they suddenly announced that they were going to hold a press conference, probably for IBM! Aikang's US headquarters is in Silicon Valley, and there is no news from there! In fact, the performance of the ABC-3 computer is indeed very good, and our newspaper originally planned to order a batch, but after learning that IBM will soon have a new product on the market. The boss decided to wait and make a choice!" Howard said.

"IBM's news is very tightly blocked, I wonder if their new computer will be more powerful than the ABC-3 computer?

Li Xuan couldn't help but feel a little emotional when he listened to it, the market value of Aikang Company has reached 1.2 billion pounds, equivalent to nearly 2.5 billion US dollars. But when put together with IBM, the public still thinks it's just a small company.

When news broke that IBM's new personal computer was about to hit the market, sales of the ABC-3 computer in the U.S. market were immediately affected. There is a general wait-and-see mentality among potential customers. I'm going to wait for IBM's new computer to hit the market before making a comparative decision.

"Some people say IBM is nothing great. You see, that's Mr. Watt's secretary. When I went to Tangdi's company for an interview before, he was still in charge of reception. The other suddenly pointed to the front row and said with a smile.

Mr. Watt, as the two reporters were talking about, was the president of Tangdy Computer Company, who said in an interview with the New York Post a few days ago, "I don't think IBM has anything remarkable."

Thinking that there might be sharp-eyed reporters who would recognize him, and maybe now they were also arranging him behind his back, Li Xuan suddenly had a look of uncertainty on his face when he thought of this, although this probability was very small.

Li Xuan went to the scene of IBM's new computer press conference today, it was originally a temporary idea, he just wanted to witness the historical moment of the advent of the PC. Now, he is also a little excited, and he walked out of the press conference before it officially began.

Li Xuan did not know whether IBM's PC was released in mid-August in the original trajectory. But at least in this life, there is the pearl of the ABC-3 computer of Aikang, IBM is famous, and the confidentiality of this personal computer product has been very good, so that the outside world is looking forward to IBM's new products.

In fact, IBM's purpose in keeping the secrecy of its entry into the personal computer business is more to avoid the interference of the antitrust investigation of the Ministry of Justice. In order to prevent a worst-case scenario in which the U.S. government could break up IBM, the company's top management had already made internal adjustments to the mainframe business and other businesses several years ago, and had also strengthened internal secrecy.

If there is no ABC-3 computer released by Aikang, all personal computers on the market are still in the era of 8-bit computers, and IBM's PC with 16/8-bit 8088 processor is indeed a very advanced microcomputer product.

But now the new products of Aikang and IBM are only less than a month apart, and they will definitely be used by the industry and consumers as the key objects of comparison.

But as the saying goes, the greater the expectation, the greater the disappointment, if IBM's PC can't beat the ABC-3 computer in terms of performance, the huge expectations it brought to consumers will become a burden, and everyone will only say that IBM has made a failed product.

Thinking of this, the corners of Li Xuan's mouth couldn't help but show a smile, the overall performance of the PC was roughly the same as that of the ABC-2 computer, and it was a lot worse than the latest ABC-3. He didn't know what IBM's top brass thought, and if they were a little more sensible, they should have pushed back the launch of PCs by one to two months, at least until the ABC-3 computer craze had passed.

But now, the PC machine is released on the market immediately after the ABC-3 computer, which is equivalent to sending it to others as a stepping stone. Li Xuan can even imagine what kind of criticism the newspaper will be tomorrow when the mystery of the PC machine is unveiled and its various properties are displayed in front of everyone!

Is IBM too arrogant? Not really, the PC project was made possible by IBM Chairman Frank Carey and new CEO John Ober. Most of the other members of IBM's management board were dismissive of it, and they simply didn't look down on the PC market.

The Management Committee is composed of senior managers within the company and is responsible for making decisions about IBM's strategic planning. As a result, although the PC project was launched, it did not receive much support within IBM. This also leads IBM to seriously study the best time to market for PCs.

At the same time that IBM is holding a personal computer press conference, Aikang is also holding a press conference.

"In order to better promote the development of the personal computer industry, it is convenient for other third-party peripheral equipment companies to better produce compatible products that meet the ABC-3 computer technical specifications. After careful study, Aikang Company decided to fully disclose the technical data of the ABC-3 computer!"

Albert Hawke took the press release and read it out to dozens of reporters who came to the press conference.

Later, Hawker announced one after another that Hitachi, NEC, Mitsubishi, Intel and Mostek, five world-famous memory production companies, as well as Western Digital Jù and Jiexi Technology, two important hard disk manufacturers in the United States, respectively reached a cooperation agreement with Aikang to fully support Aikang's personal computer technical specifications, and will soon be listed compatible memory cards and hard disks that meet the ABC-3 computer circuit interface standard.

In addition, Akon has entered into cooperation agreements with more than 50 other manufacturers of various types of computer hardware equipment, authorizing them to produce compatible products that comply with ABC-3 computer technical specifications.

After IBM announced its entry into the personal computer industry, Aikang has been very calm, but suddenly chose to hold a press conference on the same day that IBM held a new product launch. So before the press conference even started, the reporters were already full of anticipation.

Aikang did not disappoint them, and the explosive news even made them a little overwhelmed for a while. Up to now, no company has ever been willing to disclose the technical information of its computer products, for fear of being plagiarized and targeted by competitors. And now Aikang has actually made all its most advanced personal computer technology information public.

All the media at the scene exploded, but after Albert Hawke read out the press release, he left without giving reporters a chance to ask questions. The reporters were only given a list of publicly available technical information for the ABC-3 computer, including the circuit interfaces of all the components on the computer.

Anyone with a little computer knowledge can immediately understand that other companies can immediately produce compatible accessories as long as they obtain the free authorization of Aikang and design the corresponding interface circuit in accordance with the interface specifications of the ABC-3 computer.

Did Aikang overreact? This is the first feeling in the minds of all reporters! (To be continued......