National Day holiday, Hujiang, Apple China headquarters.

A group of C-O's from Greater China have just finished a regular meeting. For these executives, there is no rest on National Day, which is also a very normal work attitude.

The structure of Apple's subsidiaries and branches in Huaxia is very strange.

IT HAS A WHOLLY-OWNED SUBSIDIARY CALLED "APPLE TRADING (HUJIANG) CO., LTD.", BUT THIS COMPANY IS ONLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SALES AND AFTER-SALES OF APPLE'S IPOD/IPHONE/IPAD AND OTHER PHYSICAL HARDWARE GOODS.

But as we all know, Apple's things, you just buy the goods are not the top (if you don't jailbreak), if you want to get the software service of the system, you have to rely on iTunes, App-Store paid services-

It's like buying a PC, if you want to play some uncracked stand-alone games, you have to go to Steam to buy a digital version, or buy a Hong Kong version of the PS4 game console, you have to go to the PS-Store of the Hong Kong server, a reason.

G Fat's Steam does not have a wholly-owned subsidiary directly operating in China, let alone the Hong Kong PS-Store.

IN THE SAME WAY, APPLE'S ITUNES, APP-STORE PAID SERVICES, ALSO RELY ON AN APPLE SUBSIDIARY REGISTERED IN LUXEMBOURG CALLED ITUNES-. TO IMPLEMENT CROSS-BORDER SERVICES.

TRANSLATED INTO HUMAN TERMS, IT IS A CHINESE CONSUMER, WHEN HE BOUGHT AN IPHONE, THE MONEY HE SPENT WENT OUT THROUGH THE CHANNELS OF APPLE HUJIANG, AND THE MONEY HE SPENT ON THE APP-STORE AFTER BUYING THE MOBILE PHONE WAS THROUGH THE ACCOUNT OF ITUNES LUXEMBOURG.

Therefore, Apple needs to have a set of "Greater China" XXX with a more peculiar structure than others. Because this non-statutory organization has to manage the hardware sales and after-sales of a local subsidiary on the one hand. On the other hand, it is necessary to manage the sales of service products of an overseas company.

And if something happens in any of these aspects, the legal subjects who need to respond to the lawsuit and come forward are different.

Apple's management agency in Greater China is not a legal entity that can respond to the lawsuit, and it is only responsible for transferring it to a younger brother with legal personality.

Therefore, this often becomes a revolving ground when the company has legal problems.

……

"Mr. Lamond, please wait. ”

Lamond, Apple's director of brand operations in Greater China, had just left the conference room casually with a refreshing Starbucks when he was stopped by a young man in his thirties behind him.

Maybe it's because Qiao Dog likes to wear polo shirts and jeans and show off his uninhibitedness, so under the influence of its tyrannical dictatorship, today's Apple executives up and down also want to be casual. It has become the norm to wear casual clothes to work and meetings, and to take out Starbucks paper cups of coffee at a reduced price.

A high-level business person like Lamond also wears this when he goes back to the company for internal meetings. Suits and leather shoes only need to be seen when meeting customers and suppliers.

He glanced at the guy who called him and immediately recognized it: the young man was a local employee, named Luca, a native of Hujiang, and the brand operation representative of the ITUNES division — that is, this person was directly employed by Apple's head office and worked in Apple's Greater China region. BUT WHAT HE WANTS TO DEFEND AND REPRESENT IS THE INTERESTS OF ITUNES LUXEMBOURG.

In other words, this Luca is really surnamed Luca, but his real name is not Luca, but when he was in college, he was determined to go to a foreign company to find a job, so he specially changed his name composed of Chinese characters but sounding more foreign.

This name has really been secretly complained by many colleagues: Why don't you be even more shameless? Just change your name to Lucas? Doesn't everyone know that you are determined to be a second devil?

Moreover, in the past two years, because a Sony electronic entertainment company has launched some virtual singer idol software, there are roles such as Hatsune Miku/Tour/Weak Voice, so the meaning of names such as MIKU/LUKA also seems to be scumbag. So this Luka was secretly ridiculed by competitors in the company.

"Oh, it's Luca, what's the matter?" said Mr. Lamond, scratching his nose with the index finger of his hand holding the coffee cup.

"That's right, Mr. Lamond, it may take you a few minutes to coordinate something. Lukka said grovelly, pulling out a briefing,

"You see, this is a new product launched by a local Chinese Internet company called 'Sina', called Sina Weibo, which has just been launched for two or three months. You can roughly understand it as Twitter in the United States.

These are the evidence we have collected of Weibo's recent promotion of some well-known real-name registered user blog posts, and we can see which celebrities they are promoting......"

"Tell the point!" Rammond felt his nose twitch even more itchy, but he was embarrassed to pick his nose in front of his subordinates in public, and he was snorting impatiently.

"Okay, I'll cut a long story short. Luca hurriedly apologized briefly and sped up the process, "Then we found out that there is a real-name verified celebrity named 'Ma Hesha' here, who is a local third-tier showbiz person in China, but her Weibo operation is relatively successful, and she has received more resources, and the latest data is that the number of fans has reached 630,000."

WHAT MAKES US MOST CONCERNED IS THAT ON EVERY BLOG POST SHE SHARES, THERE IS AN OBVIOUS OFFICIAL SOFTWARE WATERMARK, AND THE CONTENT IS TO THE EFFECT THAT 'A CERTAIN YEAR, MONTH AND DAY, RELEASED ON THE IPHONE-3GS PLATFORM'......"

Rammond didn't react, and asked in a daze, "What's wrong with this?"

"Mr. Lamond!" Luca was anxious, "you may have forgotten that Sina Weibo is not an app that has passed the App-Store review! ALTHOUGH THE IPHONE-3GS MOBILE PHONE CAN THEORETICALLY BE SOLD PRIVATELY ON A SMALL SCALE IN CHINA, MAINLAND CONSUMERS SHOULD ONLY BE ABLE TO USE THE HONG KONG VERSION OR OTHER Chinese Traditional CHINESE APPLICATIONS! THIS MISS MA AND YARN OBVIOUSLY 'JAILBREAKED' THE MOBILE PHONE AND INSTALLED THIS SOFTWARE PRIVATELY!"

That's when Lamond came to his senses.

HOWEVER, HE'S A BUSY MAN, AND HE'S NOT JUST AN ITUNES LUXEMBOURG ADVOCATE LIKE LUCA — FOR HIM, HE HAS TO JUGGLE THE INTERESTS OF BOTH THE HARDWARE SALES SUBSIDIARY AND THE CROSS-BORDER APP-STORE COMPANY. The stakes are much greater for localized hardware companies.

So, he obviously doesn't have much interest in spending a lot of money to get ahead of Luka, he has to take care of the big picture.

Unless, for Luka, it doesn't cost any resources.

SO, AFTER A SHORT PERIOD OF THOUGHT, LAMMOND REFUSED: "DON'T YOU WANT TO SAY THAT LET'S GO TO APPLE AND PERSONALLY CONDESCEND TO SUE AN ORDINARY CONSUMER WHO ESCAPED FROM JAILBREAK ON AN IPHONE SHE BOUGHT, RIGHT?

If a large company with a market value of hundreds of billions of dollars sues an ordinary consumer, what can the other party lose? What are the costs of our legal affairs? Even if we win, how much social attention and reputation can the other party gain, and how much hype benefits can we get?

Mr. Lu, I think you have a problem with your brain, and you can't tell the difference between priorities and priorities. IF WE REALLY SUE TODAY, I CAN GUARANTEE THAT TOMORROW COUNTLESS WOULD-BE CELEBRITIES WHO WANT TO ASK FOR HYPE, AND EVEN USUALLY USE ALL KINDS OF SCANDALS TO HYPE, WILL FLOCK TO JAILBREAK AND USE THE CRACKED IPHONE, AND THEN LOOK FORWARD TO OUR APPLE COMPANY TO SUE! AND BECOME FAMOUS!"

After Lamond finished speaking, he finished his coffee in one gulp, threw the cup into the trash can next to him, and wanted to stay out of it.

"Mr. Lamond! this is not as simple as you think!" Lukka ignored the faux pas and tugged at the other party's sleeve, "Please think about it - the company's IPHONE4 is still half a year away." According to the strategy of 'that gentleman', the IPHONE4 Congress will be the first batch of products to attack and open up the situation in the Chinese market, and you will not know how much expectation has been poured into it. ”

Lamond choked slightly, of course he knew that.

In fact, the priority for the whole of Greater China now is to ensure that next year's IPHONE4 can open up the market. The "gentleman" mentioned in Luca's mouth is, of course, Jobs.

In Greater China, if anyone's job causes trouble for next year's IPHONE4 promotion, then the tyrant Steve Jobs will definitely not let him go, even if he oversteps the level and names people, it is very possible.

Anyone who has been in the Apple knows that Steve Jobs himself did not take any system into account at all, and it is a typical personal will that decides everything. If it weren't for COO Cook who was responsible for occasionally slamming the brakes on him, Joe's old thief would probably have been ten times more likely to slap his head.

"Of course I do, but does that have anything to do with what you just said?" Ramond asked Luca in a more patient tone.

Luca hurriedly persuaded: "Of course it has a relationship - Mr. Lamond, you also participated in the negotiations with Huaxia Unicom's CDMA-3G contract machine plan, that is, the 'Wo' plan." The reason why Huaxia Unicom is willing to give subsidies, exchange for low prices, and channel sales IPHONE4 is that the IOS system is closed, and the importance is the mandatory bundling and uninstallability of pre-installed system applications——

WHILE WE DIDN'T ACTUALLY PROMISE THEM TO PRE-INSTALL SOME JUNK APPS THAT HURT YOUR IPHONE, IT'S IMPORTANT TO PROVE THAT WE HAVE THE POWER AND AUTHORITY TO DO SO. This is also the reason why the Android system has been used in the United States for more than half a year, but domestic operators are not interested in HTC's contract plan for the time being.

AND NOW, IF THERE ARE SOME CELEBRITIES WITH PUBLIC INFLUENCE, OPENLY SHOWING OFF THAT THEY CAN USE A CRACKED VERSION OF THE IPHONE, HOW MUCH IMPACT WILL THIS HAVE ON THE CLOSED AUTHORITY OF THE IOS SYSTEM? WOULDN'T THIS AFFECT THE JUDGMENT OF HUAXIA UNICOM'S TOP MANAGEMENT ON US? IF WE IGNORE IT, IN THE END, HUAXIA UNICOM WILL USE THIS REASON TO SAY THINGS, EVEN IF THE COOPERATION CAN STILL BE REACHED, BUT BARGAIN WITH US ON THE SUBSIDY, THE COMPANY'S PROFIT LOSS, IS NOT THIS LEGAL COST CAN BE COMPARED!"

Rammond thought about it for a moment, and sure enough, this is the truth.

This is like Sony's PS game platform, the reason why it can sign so many exclusive masterpieces and make 3A game production companies bow down to their ears, the biggest credibility is not based on "Everyone knows that Sony's PS4 game console is currently impossible to crack, so as long as it is exclusive to PS4, no one in the world can play the pirated version of this game".

The major 3A game manufacturers often take a fancy to this point, so they give Sony's sales platform a large amount of sales revenue as a protection fee, which is much higher than the protection fee given to Steam for PC games.

But if Sony can't prove that it has the authority to "absolutely stifle cracking, and can BAN the machine for flashing", then their right to speak in collecting protection fees will be reduced.

In the mobile phone market of Huaxia Continent, in 09 years, it was the frenzy of pre-installed garbage applications on the operator's contract machine - such as the so-called "mobile reading" bonus in later generations, many of which relied on the contract machine of Huaxia Mobile, and forced to install a bunch of mobile reading applications when leaving the factoryAPP, and it could not be removed.

The profits earned by state-owned enterprises such as China Mobile and China Unicom are also handed over to the state. However, it is entirely possible that the profits from these bundled and pre-installed junk software belong to the personal relations of the executives of these central enterprises. Therefore, if you think about it with your ass, you can also know that the most unbearable thing for those executives of central enterprises is that their pre-installed private goods of related households are unloaded.

If Apple's "absolute ban cracking" is slapped in the face, how big a blow will this be to their negotiations with operators?

Things have risen to this level, and Ramon can no longer afford to stay out of it.