John. Kuqi had been paying attention to the expressions of Tang Huan and the others, and he found that Tang Huan was silent, but Charles. Simeone and the others showed disdain, and even discussed without scruples, "The efficiency of the program that comes with the Lisa computer is so unsatisfactory, so wouldn't it be even more pessimistic to develop programs on its platform." ”

Hearing these harsh words, John. Of course, Kuqi was not very comfortable in his heart, but the other party was targeted, and he had to endure it.

However, John. Kuqi also saw that these subordinates brought by Tang Huan must be engaged in the development of a graphical user interface system.

Although the Lisa computer has obvious shortcomings, most people are amazed when they first see the graphical user interface function of the Lisa computer. Simeone's heads are point-in-cheek.

"The price of this system is not low, and the memory capacity alone has reached 1MB." Tang Huan asked casually.

"The price has been set, $9,995." John. Kutch replied with a little bitterness, feeling that the price of the Lisa computer was not very friendly.

Charles. Simeone said bluntly: "The graphical user interface of the Lisa computer is not indispensable for the enterprise market, they are more concerned about the solution of the whole set of software and hardware systems, to what extent it helps the business, but the Lisa computer is almost a blank slate in this regard, but the interest of individual users in the graphical user interface of the Lisa computer may be greater, but its price of nearly $10,000 is enough to discourage many people." With this money, users might as well buy a Fangyuan laptop, which is really light to carry. And it's functional. ”

Tang Huan waved his hand. Stopped Charles. Simone and others talk about it. To an embarrassed John. "To be fair, the Lisa computer has done a great job as a pioneer in the field of graphical user interfaces, but there are some things that are really underwhelming, such as flexibility," Kutch said. ”

Pointing to the monitor screen, Tang Huan continued: "You should expect the problems of the GUI operating system in terms of operational efficiency, so a solution with a back path should be. Provide a co-existing DOS environment as a buffer against contradictions. ”

"Did Zheru do that?" John, who listened humbly. Kutch couldn't help but ask curiously.

Tang Huan smiled noncommittally, "Also, the hardware architecture of the Lisa computer is not modular enough, and it is not easy to reduce costs." ”

The Lisa computer's two 5.25-inch floppy disk drives, combined with a 12-inch monitor, are spliced on the right, with the main chassis placed above, which looks really compact. However, the structure is indeed not as flexible as the complete separation of the monitor and the host of Fangyuan computer and IBM-PC.

Tang Huan pointed to the two 5.25-inch floppy disk drives of Lisa's computer and shook his head disapplausively. "Apple is still grasping this kind of product to produce its own why bother, and it's not that there are no excellent external suppliers to choose from. I've heard that your floppy drive is having a lot of problems right now. ”

Apple's floppy disk drive series is called AppleFileWare, which has played an important role in Apple's computer breaking out of the market.

Admittedly, the Apple II is excellent, but it is not the only one, it has a large number of competitors of its kind in the market, and it is in a difficult situation in the early days.

Under the urging of Makura, Watts designed an exclusive floppy disk drive for Apple II, DiskII, which was a great success with its excellent features and greatly drove the sales of Apple II.

In this way, the design and manufacture of floppy disk drives by themselves was carried on by Apple as a tradition.

The floppy disk drive designed by the AppleIII project team is called DiskIII; The floppy disk drive designed by the Lisa project team is called Twiggy, which has the same name as Twiggy, a supermodel who was thin and beautiful in the 1960s. As the name suggests, the characteristics of this floppy disk drive can be imagined.

Apple's floppy drive problem is stability, even if you support a larger capacity, but once the file data is lost, it doesn't make sense.

Everything has to be divided into different situations, the current floppy disk drive, Apple does not have to pinch it in its own hands, find a supplier with mature and reliable technology, or further introduce technology production, it is better than its own research and development, Apple is not short of this money, one-time investment is much more cost-effective than this kind of piecemeal loser.

Dizzy John. Kuqi froze and asked Tang Huan with hope, "Will Zheru still develop software for the Lisa computer?" ”

"Absolutely." Tang Huan nodded affirmatively, "But you have to understand that the software development of graphical user interface is much more difficult, especially the interface data of the Lisa computer, we need to master it from scratch, and the development time will be at least more than half a year." ”

"We are mentally prepared for this, as long as Tang agrees to cooperate." John is almost superstitious about the strength of his software development. Kutch hugged his thighs.

Now that Tang Huan has decided to establish a partnership, Charles. Simeone and the others naturally wanted to know more about the inner workings of the Lisa computer.

There are two main user interface modes for Lisa computers – LisaOfficeSystem, which provides users with a complete graphical user interface environment, and Workshop, which is a textbox-based programming environment that resembles a command-line window in Windows in the original space-time.

LisaOfficeSystem also has a name called "7/7" because of the seven applications it contains: LisaWrite, LisaCalc, LisaDraw, LisaGraph, LisaProject, LisaList, and LisaTerminal.

It is not difficult to see from the functions of these word processing, calculators, drawings, etc., that the Lisa project team had an ambitious plan to use all the applications, but now it has woken up. Market demand is not as simple as they think.

After waiting for Apple. Charles. Simeone frowned and said, "I've seen it." The application programming interface of the Lisa computer is not as systematic as our operating system, and it is not friendly at all, and I am afraid that the development time is not easy to control. ”

"It's okay, just study my peers and absorb the lessons learned, my real purpose is to take a fancy to the people in the Lisa project team."

Tang Huan smiled faintly, "It is said that Jobs' MAC will be launched in half a year, even if there is a delay." It won't take more than a year. So, John. Kuchi hurriedly added weight to Lisa, but he couldn't resist the power of Jobs's stumbling block. When the time comes, the Lisa project team will inevitably fall apart. ”

"Lisa is a product developed by Apple with huge resources, and Jobs would be so careless about the overall situation to declare personal vendettas?" Charles. Simeone was a little suspicious.

"Of course not, but secretly give a casual kick, and the Lisa computer will be enough. Me and John. Like Couch, he felt Jobs' hostility towards Lisa's computer. Just wait and see. Tang Huan smiled sarcastically.

……

Soon after Tang Huan arranged the affairs of Lisa's computer, he was arrested by Tripp. Hawkins invited EA to a meeting.

The results of the 1981-1982 financial report have basically come out. The situation is so complicated that it is necessary to discuss how to deal with it carefully.

Zheru's ERP system, of course, will be vigorously applied by its own company. EA's presence around the world. Through floppy disks, modems, telephone networks, communication satellites, etc., they are summarized to the U.S. headquarters step by step, not only annual reports, quarterly reports and other reports, but also faster than peers.

EA's full-year operating income was nearly $4.1 billion, an increase of more than 40 percent over the previous year, and the target was met.

In order of contribution, the business is divided into home video game consoles, arcade machines, PC games, and others.

The ranking is the same as last year, but the growth rate of the home video game console business, which has been hot in North America, has slowed down significantly, which is still the result of the early education function of the game console and the positive stimulation of global promotions in the second half of this year.

"In addition to the feedback from the grassroots, there is also news in the industry that the home video game console market seems to be unable to sell." Tripp. Hawkins said with a complicated expression, "Some people analyze that it is caused by the impact of Commodore and Texas Instruments' cheap personal computers, and some people think that the market may be saturated." ”

Although EA was ready for the Great Recession, Tang Huan had long predicted that the home video game console market in North America would inevitably collapse after a brutal expansion. Hawkins didn't want to really show up, he really couldn't bear to have such a good market.

Tang Huan carefully looked at every piece of data on the report and was relieved to determine that only the home video game console business in North America was in decline.

"No matter how big the cake is, there will be a day when it is finished, so you want to open some of it." Tang Huan casually put down the report and rubbed his eyebrows.

"Last year, we released earnings ahead of other peers, will we do the same this year?" Tripp. Hawkins asked with a wry smile.

"Drag it back as long as possible, and we'd better wait for Warner and Mattel to appear, and then we'll show up." Tang Huan pondered for a moment, "I believe that other companies in the industry must have a worse time, since the market is not good, then the big one among the short ones, who has fallen the least." ”

"It must be interesting." Tripp. Hawkins laughed heartily, "Investors will see that Atari in second place and Mattel in third place are not good, so they will naturally be more lenient with us in first place, and maybe they will have unexpected surprises because they are not as pessimistic as they imagined." ”

"I hope it's an unexpected surprise." Tang Huan nodded, and then changed his words and asked, "What is the current situation of Atari developing the video game "E.T. Aliens"? ”

"I don't know, Atari is strictly guarded, and there is no relevant news coming out." Tripp. Hawkins was asked a little uneasy, "Will this be a variable?" ”

"Then we have to look at Atari's current technical strength." Tang Huan spread his hands, no matter how good the pit people's strategy is, it depends on God's cooperation.

……

The publication of financial reports is a mandatory task for listed companies, and no one can rely on it.

Tang Huan was pondering that the global game center was inevitably moving to Japan, and Mattel took the lead in announcing its own financial report, in which the home video game console business grew at a very unsatisfactory rate.

Mattel, which ranks third in the industry, has a big gap with Atari in second place, let alone compared it to EA, which ranks first.

As a result, Mattel's performance disappointed investors, but the impact was limited.

When Warner released its earnings report, the situation was different, with Atari earning just over $1.3 billion in annual revenue, up more than 40 percent from the previous year.

This result stabbed the hornet's nest, you know, last year Atari was in a high-spirited manner predicting a range of 60 percent, or even higher.

The words are still in my ears, Atari has not completed the task, so Warner's stock price immediately fell.

Seeing that someone had already passed in front of him, EA came up with the financial report in a hurry, which was also an increase of more than 40 percent, which made investors feel a little disappointed, but it was in line with the prediction he made, and he didn't say big things like Atari.

Just when Wall Street was talking about the top three in the home video game console industry, why was it a little sluggish, Atari suddenly had an earthquake, and CEO Ray ? Casa was investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for reasons that on the eve of Warner's earnings report, Ray ? Casa sold 5,000 shares of Warner stock on suspicion of insider trading.

Since he has been targeted by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Ray? Casa had to resign and lose his position as CEO of Atari.

Hearing this news, Tang Huan was greatly different, Lei? Kasana, a senior manager with decades of experience in the workplace, could make such a low-level mistake. Could it be that Atari was too bad for him to lose faith?

To say that Atari's biggest failure this year, there is no one more than the Atari 5200 it launched, in the case of not being compatible with the Atari 2600, the game development progress of the platform is extremely backward, and there is no ace game for the new hardware platform at all, and it was suddenly compared to another game console released at the same time - ColecoVision.

But this is not enough to make a veteran in the workplace so obsessed, Tang Huan, who is very puzzled, has no doubts in his heart.

Thunder? Casa's unexpected fall caused chaos at Warner headquarters in New York, and they hurriedly looked for a new Atari CEO, but for a while, it was not so easy to find the right person.

As a result, Atari, who has no leader, once again dragged down Warner's stock price, and I don't know Steve? Ross thundered like a thunderbolt. (To be continued......)