It's not the first time that Apple's professional managers have done stupid things.

Back in the 80s, when Steve Jobs had just left Apple, the CEO made a compromise to allow Microsoft to use Apple's operating system graphical interface in order to allow Microsoft to continue developing office software for the Mac.

I have to say that from the perspective of future generations, this was a very short-sighted and stupid decision. At that time, Microsoft was not the only one developing office software, and Adobe, which Apple had a stake, was also developing office suites.

But because the two founders of Adobe were close to Jobs at the time, Scully publicly announced that he no longer supported Adobe and moved closer to Microsoft.

If Apple hadn't licensed Microsoft's graphical interface, Microsoft's Windows would never have existed at all, and Apple might still be able to dominate the world of personal computers.

By the nineties, when Scully stepped down, his successor was not much better, and even more degenerate.

During the administration of Michael Pindler, in order to expand the market share, he even began to license MacOS to be installed on other computers, although part of the licensing fees were charged in a short period of time, making the financial statements look better, but at the same time, the emergence of a large number of cheap MacOS compatible machines further squeezed Apple's already small market.

After Amelio succeeded him, instead of reining in this policy, in addition to adding Motorola as a licensing unit, he also prepared to open up MacOS licensing to more companies.

This is the disadvantage of professional managers in charge.

For the sake of short-term performance, ignoring the company's long-term interests, it has dried up and fished, and dragged a hegemonic company in the field of personal computers to the point of imminent closure.

After Andy Rubin joined Matrix, his first task was to obtain the patent rights to use the graphical interface from Apple.

Although the first-generation Apple graphical interface has just passed the patent protection period, companies like Apple apply for a large number of patents every year, and the graphical interface is the top priority, so if you want to make an operating system with a graphical interface, you can't avoid the two mountains of Apple and Microsoft.

Zhang Chen initially only asked Andy Rubin to develop the kernel, and did not involve the graphical interface, which also had this consideration.

In his opinion, after defeating Apple, through the acquisition of Apple, he will be able to master all the graphical interface patents in Apple's hands, which should not be too long.

Therefore, Zhang Chen's current layout of the operating system is only to optimize the kernel with better performance.

Andy Rubin had worked at Apple, and many of Apple's current management were his old colleagues, so it was only fitting that he would try to get a license for Apple's graphical interface.

If Jobs knew that Apple's graphical interface was licensed to him, he would be angry and happy to think about it.

In addition to the development of the prototype, he also had to attend the first plenary meeting of the board of directors held at Starcom's US headquarters on the seventh day of the Lunar New Year.

This time, the board of directors of Starcom was convened at the suggestion of Lu Hongliang, saying that it was to discuss the company's future strategic direction and major issues.

Zhang Chen didn't think much about it, last year, Starcom had just been officially put into production, and now it was the beginning of the year, and it was also the right thing to convene a board of directors, and Zhang Chen also made a proposal to be put forward at this board meeting.

Zhang Chen believes that Starcom has begun to make efforts in the PHS field, and has started pilot operations with Lin'an Telecom, with a monthly rent of 20 cents and two cents per minute.

Almost all the parts of the first batch of PHS mobile devices were imported from Dongying and assembled in China.

The mobile device held by the user was named "PHS", and Wu Ying made a special trip to the hometown of the famous science fiction artist Ye Yonglie for this purpose, and obtained the right to use the name "PHS".

In just one month, more than 2,000 people have handled PHS business in Lin'an Telecom.

In this era, this is already a very incredible achievement, you know, now every month for mobile phone users, the entire Lin'an is slightly higher than this number.

Moreover, because it is not yet officially operated, PHS basically has no publicity, and it relies on the salesperson of the telecommunications bureau to verbally inform users that there is this business now and ask them if they can handle it.

It is conceivable that if the operation of PHS is officially opened, PHS will become popular in China.

Lu Hongliang's home is in the United States, and he and Zhang Chen will go to California, while Wu Ying will fly directly to San Francisco after the New Year in Kyoto.

Two days before the board meeting, Zhang Chen began to choose an advertising agency with Shen Mingjie, and iCom's TV commercials must now be prepared. After the prototype is developed, it will take up to one month for the production model to be finalized.

After the mass production model is finalized, Zhang Chen will put the iCom press conference on the agenda. Zhang Chen hopes to unveil Matrix's commercial for iCom on the day of the press conference.

According to Zhang Chen's plan, the press conference will be held on May 11, and the first shipment of iCom will be scheduled for June 10, with less than four months to go. In other words, iCom must enter the mass production stage by mid-April at the latest.

Nvidia, which has received a $5 million investment, has rented a 0.35 micron lithography machine from intel, and the change of the production process from 0.5 to 0.35 microns has completely solved the bug caused by NVIDIA's original heating problem, and the rest is to continue to optimize the driver and cooperate with the release of iCom to formulate a mass production plan.

And, of course, quality control.

Using the just-launched riva128 graphics card is undoubtedly an adventure, and Zhang Chen doesn't want his iCom to die halfway because of the quality of the graphics card just after it was launched.

Bob Mansfield has set extremely strict quality inspection standards for this purpose, and according to this standard for production, Huang Renxun calculated that the manufacturing cost of each chip will rise by 7 US dollars.

Although it doesn't seem to be much, Zhang Chen promised to purchase 500,000 chips in the first year, and the wool is out of the sheep, and the cost is more, and the corresponding amount of money will be earned back from the customer, and Matrix will spend at least $3.5 million more for this.

Huang Renxun expects that the NV3 chip riva128 will enter the mass production stage in March, with a maximum output of 20,000 pieces in the first month and 35,000 pieces in the second month.

Zhang Chen calculated that if the iCom release can be successful, the current production capacity of the foundry found by Nvidia will only barely meet the needs of Matrix.

Zhang Chen and Huang Renxun had a heated argument, and Huang Renxun completely disagreed with Zhang Chen's request to expand the production scale of NV3. In his opinion, this is too risky, and if the sales of NV3 are not satisfactory, Nvidia will be saddled with huge debts and even bankruptcy.

Zhang Chen had no choice but to reach an agreement with Huang Renxun: if iCom can get more than 20,000 orders within the 20-day pre-sale period after the release, Nvidia must expand its production capacity to more than 50,000 units in the next month, and if Nvidia fails to do so, it will pay Zhang Chen 5% of Nvidia shares.

If iCom fails to get an order for 20,000 units during the pre-sale period, Zhang Chen will pay Huang Renxun 5% of Nvidia's shares.

This is a rudimentary VAM agreement.

(End of chapter)