By the time Sid returned to the Four Seasons Hotel in San Francisco, it was already 3 o'clock in the morning.

After convincing Jobs, Jobs pulled Jonathan Yves and Sid to brainstorm and discuss the PC version of iTune and even the inXP version.

Sid didn't get out of the Apple until 2 a.m., and when he got back to the hotel in the car, after getting rid of his assistant, a career woman in a professional suit got up from a couch in the living room as soon as he walked into his presidential suite.

"How?" she asked eagerly.

"It's finally done. Sid nodded wearily.

"Whew——, that's great. The red-haired, middle-aged woman immediately showed a relieved expression.

"I said Joanna, really, do you want to come to work at Fire Lion, I really make me jealous to see you worry so much about that guy Jobs. Sid quipped at the middle-aged professional woman, who was none other than Joanna Hoffman, who had been following Jobs since the old Apple days, and is now Apple's marketing director.

"Don't you have Shirley too? don't think I don't know what she's capable of. Joanna Hoffman didn't take Sid's offer at all, and smiled faintly.

It turned out that it was none other than the woman who was regarded as an absolute confidant by Jobs, and it was precisely because of her as an "internal response" that Sid was able to learn so quickly that Jobs had broken the agreement and privately made a matter of iPod only for Mac machines.

"Seriously, come here yourself, Steve won't find out. Sid quipped, and asked Masashi.

"I hope not. Joanna Hoffman said lightly, "I'm such a double agent, if he knows, will he blame me." ”

"No, he knows you're doing it for his own good. Sid smiled slightly.

"Do you really think so?" Joanna Hoffman couldn't help laughing, "Steve is a lot better now than he used to be, but he's never been a person to laugh at each other. ”

"But we do this for Apple, if the iPod is not compatible with the PC, Apple does not know how many more years it will take. Sid's words made Joanna Hoffman nod slightly in agreement.

Although Steve Jobs has been stubbornly trying to implement a closed IOS system for Apple products, Joanna Hoffman, as a marketing director, knows that today's PC market is not what it was 20 years ago.

PC hardware vendors with a hundred flowers and Microsoft dominate the world are already the trend of the times.

In the first two years, Jobs successively launched the Apple Candy Mac all-in-one and the new Mac laptop, although the sales set a new sales record for Apple and turned the company into a profit.

However, the proportion of Apple computers in the personal computer market is declining.

After the operating system was dominated by in98, PCs and notebooks have grown rapidly from multiple manufacturers (Dell, HP, IBM, Sony, Panasonic, etc.). Not only has it rapidly expanded the cake of the entire market, but it has also made the personal PC using the indos system a consensus of all new and old users.

Or rather, basic common sense.

Under such a general trend, if Apple wants to find a new way, it must abandon the view of the portal, the Mac can't save Apple, the iPod can!

In order for the iPod to become a global product, it must not be bound to the Mac machine, which is destined to be niche, but must be open to the PC and personal computers of the mainstream public.

"Steve just wasn't aware of the old-fashioned rivalry of the '70s and '80s. Sid said lightly, and then he looked at Joanna Hoffman solemnly: "Then, the rest of the matter will be left to you." ”

"Of course. Joanna Hoffman nodded solemnly in agreement.

————————————————————

"Sid, this is Dr. Eric Schmidt. Larry Page was in the reception room at Google's headquarters and introduced Sid.

Sid looked at the middle-aged man with small round glasses in front of him, who was a little chubby, "Hello, Mr. Schmidt, you can call me Sid." ”

"Then you can call me Eric, I have admired Sid for a long time. Eric Schmidt, who was polite, took the initiative to extend his hand to greet Sid.

Eric Schmidt holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Princeton and a master's and doctor's degree in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley. But more importantly, after he graduated, he worked at Sigelows and then at Bell Labs, the latter of which is a name that no one who knows about the electronics industry can say much.

"Do you know everything about Google?" asked Sid, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Schmidt as they sat down.

"Yes, I did. Eric Schmidt nodded, "I've already assessed the current state of Google. ”

"Oh, tell me what you think. Sid smiled for a long time.

Eric Schmidt immediately knew that the next step was the key, and after solving the "crisis" of Apple, Sid received a call from Larry Page again, and as several people had planned before, as Google grows, the matter of hiring professional managers has been put on the agenda.

After Larry Page and Sergey Brin searched and screened with the help of Wells Fargo's connections, Dr. Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Novell, was finally selected.

However, if Eric Schmidt wants to actually take office, he still needs to get Sid's approval, which is also the explicit agreement made by the three of them when Sid took a stake in Google - any major personnel changes need to be signed by the three founders to take effect.

So when he heard Sid's question, Eric Schmidt's brain immediately spun quickly, of course he knew Sid's name in Hollywood, but as a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science, he is best at technical analysis, which is definitely not suitable for a "layman" like Sid.

Too much jerky technical jargon, too much complicated details.

Therefore, communicating in a concise and easy-to-understand way of conversation is obviously the best way to communicate with Sid!

In what seemed like a moment, Eric Schmidt had already turned his brain quickly, and he had found a solution to convince Sid in a very short time.

"Okay, no problem. Eric Schmidt raised his head with a smile and showed his warm smile, "I think the most important thing for Google now is two aspects, one is to improve the technical professionalism of our search engine, so that neither Microsoft nor Yahoo's search engine on the market is far inferior to us." ”

"Hmm. Sid nodded in agreement as he listened, and seeing Sid's expression, Schmidt was a little relieved.