What really makes Mike Dell feel the crisis is not the big sale of iCom, but the fact that iCom is selling well while maintaining the stability of the supply chain.

Until then, Dell considered its supply chain management system to be the best in the world, and it was.

Purely from the perspective of inventory renewal speed, Dell's average inventory update speed of 10 days is second only to McDonald's among large enterprises.

McDonald's itself is a fast food company, and it's not unusual for inventory to be updated quickly, but as a computer manufacturer, Dell was able to compress the inventory update time to ten days, reflecting the excellence of Dell's supply chain management system.

Now, Matrix has been able to cut inventory refresh time by more than half compared to Dell, which means that Mike Dell's proudest supply chain management system has been successfully surpassed by Matrix.

Mike Dell summarized Dell's core competitiveness is two points: first, direct sales model, and second, excellent zero-inventory supply chain management system.

In particular, the second point, to be precise, the concept of zero inventory was only known to the public after the success of Dell's SCM (Supply Chain Management).

Nearly every business school in the world is looking at how DELL's supply chain management system does just that.

Originally, Mike Dale only focused on Matrix because it was preempting the high-end market that he was also ready to capture, but frankly, he didn't see Matrix as a real competitor.

Having been able to go from a computer reseller to one of the world's largest computer companies in a decade, DELL's success was no fluke.

DELL's current advantages in the PC market are all-round, regardless of the marketing model, market response speed, supply chain management system, operating costs。。。。。。 With a big lead over its competitors in all aspects, and only one step away from IBM in terms of turnover, Mike Dell is very confident that it will overtake IBM to become the dominant player in the entire PC and notebook market within three years.

Now, Matrix, a company that's been around for less than a year, has done what Dell has done in a decade, much to the uneasiness of McDyer.

If Dell is a company with dealers as its main sales channel, it can also suppress Matrix by strictly controlling dealer channels.

However, DELL's main channel is direct sales, and the only thing Mike Dell can do is to start from the upstream of the supply chain and prohibit DELL suppliers from supplying to Matrix at the same time.

The problem is that there is not much overlap between Matrix and DELL's suppliers.

In a mature business society, especially in the field of consumer goods, the role of off-market moves is minimal. It's like IBM can only watch Dell grow bigger, and there is nothing to do. The only way for Mike Dell now is to reorganize DELL's strategy and strengthen its competitiveness.

"I would suggest that a new product line be added for high-end users of home computers, a market that cannot be monopolized by Matrix. Conte Tof, Dell's vice president of operations, tapped on the table, "iCom's core competitive advantage is their display chip called Riva28 in terms of configuration, and we should realize that the era of 3D has arrived." So, I think we should have a strategic partnership with 3DFX. Last month, 3dfx launched the Voodoo rush chip with integrated 2D display commands, and the test performance exceeded that of the Riva128 used by iCom. I believe that if we enter into a full strategic partnership with 3dfx or even acquire them, Matrix's comparative advantage to us will be much diminished. ”

3dfx is currently in full swing, and when it comes to 3 display chips, everyone's first reaction is Voodoo.

Voodoo had a market share of 85% before the launch of riva128. That is, for every 100 computer users who buy a 3D accelerator card, 85 of them buy Voodoo.

No single product from any manufacturer can break this record with Voodoo.

Voodoo is not just a graphics card, it is a faith, a feeling, a sense of superiority that Lao Tzu has already sat in a horse-drawn carriage when you are all wearing bark and lifting sticks.

Can't be stopped by the price of more than $400, either because of the drum of the wallet, or because of the drum of faith.

Mike Dell was noncommittal, "Stella, you go talk to Scott at 3dfx, Debbie, you've made a budget for the acquisition of 3dfx, I'll take a look." ”

"In addition," Mike Dell looked at DELL's management, "I need management to pay more attention to the notebook market, in the year, the target of selling 300,000 notebooks is not enough, I hope to sell at least 350,000 notebooks this year." ”

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"Or with the second version, which looks a little better, by the way, can this curve be bent two more degrees?" Steve Jobs walked barefoot around the design department's office.

"Goto-san, it's really great that you can come and help, without you, the exterior design of the new generation MAC would not have gone so smoothly. Jobs looked at the young designer sitting at the design desk sincerely.

Young Goto Zhenyu had long flowing hair and spoke English with a Toei accent and smiled, "I just did what I was supposed to do, Steve, and it's a pleasure to work with you." ”

Jobs shook his head: "You can join Apple from Sony, it is considered that I owe Ken Taradaki a favor, and after the Mac is launched, I will definitely go to Dongying to apologize in person." ”

Jobs finally recruited Sony's star designer Goto Zhenyu to take charge of the design of the new Mac, Goto Zhenyou, as a rising design star of Sony, made great contributions in the development of PS, and Jobs was able to invite him to Apple, which was in the waning mountains, relying entirely on his outstanding personal charm.

Under the auspices of Goto Yoshisuke, the exterior design of the new Mac went in another aesthetic direction. Instead of a true one-piece design, a lamp-like design was adopted.

Motherboards, optical drives, memory, graphics cards and other accessories are all integrated into a 30 cm diameter semi-circular chassis, and the connection between the chassis and the display is a stainless steel column, and the top of the steel column is an LCD monitor.

Due to the limitations of appearance, Apple can only adopt the LCD panel display that is not yet mature on the new Mac.

Now the performance of LCD panels is too far from traditional CRT displays, Apple has found all display suppliers, and only LG can produce 15-inch LCD panels. However, hard indicators such as refresh rate, color saturation, and response speed are still difficult to meet the requirements of some extreme daily use.

But Jobs can't do anything, he can only fight now, the new Mac determines whether Apple can continue to exist in this world, whether it is the design or the system, it must make the eyes of the long-awaited supporters shine, otherwise, Apple's revival will become a lie.

Fortunately, if you buy a Mac, you generally don't play games much, and if it's just for daily use, the LCD monitor can still meet the requirements.

What bothered Jobs the most was actually the cost.

As a result of the LCD, the cost of a new Mac has skyrocketed, with each computer costing at least $280 higher than expected, and when it comes to the selling price, there could be a difference of more than $400.

No matter how strong the faith of Apple's supporters is, whether they can spend an extra $400 for this belief, Jobs really has no confidence in his heart.

However, the launch time of the new Mac is in May next year, Apple still has enough time to polish this product, and various suppliers also have time to improve their product performance, hoping that all the current defects can be made up by then.

If you don't succeed, you will be benevolent. Now, I have to gamble like this!

"By the way, Steve, what's the name of your new Mac?" asked Jobs curiously.

"Macman, it's called Macman. Jobs replied without hesitation.

The update in the past two days is not strong, don't ask for votes, and resume the double update tomorrow.

Before the iMac was introduced, Jobs wanted to name it Macman, inspired by Sony's alkman Walkman, a name that Jobs didn't initially like.

(End of chapter)