In '96, under the leadership of Jill Amelio, Apple rewrote MacOS in response to the onslaught of Windows. ”

"When I took over last year, I found that what they wrote was rubbish, so I took the Mac operating system based on the original 'classic' MacOS and asked them to rewrite it based on NeXT's OPENSTEP."

"While rewriting the operating system, the company has two new products to launch in the next two years, one of which will be launched this year, an all-in-one iMac for the consumer and education markets, and the other is the iBook, a laptop that is expected to hit the market next year, of course, both of which are previously planned."

After accompanying Kate to the celebration banquet of the Golden Globe Awards and "Titanic", around the 25th, Roland, who had recovered his strength, flew from Los Angeles to San Francisco and went to Apple in Cupertino.

As the largest shareholder in the company who will only say yes to Jobs and say no to all the voices that oppose Jobs, Roland's arrival received a warm welcome from Jobs.

At the same time as introducing the company, because there was no villain Bill Gates, the two chatted directly about the unfinished topic of last year.

It's a pity that Jobs didn't have the idea of leading Apple into this field for a while.

"This potential profit growth point has to wait and ......"

"Sehan is going to launch a similar product this year, and I need to see how it works and how the market reacts, and then I can develop a corporate strategy based on the reality, so ...... If you want me to come up with an MP3 player 2,000 years ago, that's unrealistic, and I want to know the attitude of the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) before launching the product, and let other companies hit the Home Recording Act. ”

What Jobs said about the Sehan company, of course Roland knows.

Because this is Samsung's industry.

The predecessor of the Sehan Group, is a subsidiary of the Samsung Group, the synthetic fiber company, 95 years by Samsung divested, 96 years after the merger and reorganization, become the Sehan Group, its main business is textiles, fiber film magnetic materials, RO reverse osmosis membrane and water purifier production, the side business is Samsung has always wanted to benchmark Sony's digital technology imaging products.

After the reorganization, the Sehan Group, which has its own mission, is frantically developing the world's first MP3 player, MpManF10, which is aimed at Sony's Walkman, but unfortunately, the storage space is only 32M.

Although the age is different, the size of the storage space and the things that can be done are also different.

But it's MP3!

The MP3 of 32M can only put eight songs, who would buy this thing!

So the Sehan Group failed.

After that, the American Diamond company launched the world's second MP3 player, the RioPMP300, although they can't break through the technical limitations, they still only have 32M memory, but they support SD cards!

As a result, MP3 players are really popular.

On Christmas Day '98, the RioPMP300 became America's best-selling Christmas present, selling 40,000 units within a month; This data made the record companies that sold CDs panic, and the Record Industry Association composed of Warner, Universal, and Sony music companies sued Diamond, but the court held that this kind of playback equipment was not illegal, so the digital music copyright protection organization came into being, and at this time, MP3 was really popular all over the world.

But even so, the portable music market is still the domain of the Sony Walkman.

It wasn't until Apple bought SoundJamMP, created iTunes, acquired PortalPlayer, bought the patent for a small hard drive from Toshiba, and united with music giants other than Sony to create the iPod, that it was already October 01.

The period from January '98 to October '01 may be too long for others, but for Roland, it's just right, because he doesn't want Apple to get involved with Sony before the 'September 11 attacks'.

Because he is now Sony's largest shareholder, if Apple and Sony fight in advance, then Sony will definitely be alert.

In this way, in the face of Jobs's immovable rhetoric, Roland naturally returned the highest trust.

"It doesn't matter, I won't interfere with the company's operations, you can launch whatever product you want, you can buy whichever company you want, whoever says 'No' to you, then let whoever get out!"

"I believe that Apple will be able to regain the light in your hands, although Microsoft now firmly controls the market share in the field of personal computer operating systems, but I believe that in other areas, Bill Gates will definitely not be able to do you, absolutely."

"If you can beat him once, you can beat him a second time."

Roland is a layman in the field of technology, and the face he shows now is no different from those nouveau riche investors, except for pointing fingers at the general direction, he does nothing else.

But it's this kind of behavior that can't do anything but can beep, but it is very much to Jobs's appetite.

What Jobs hates the most is that others point fingers at his decisions, shareholders are shareholders, just look at the statements at home, why do you have to participate in the company's operation?

Occasional labor pains are inevitable, and since it's an investment, you have to be patient.

Of course, it would be better if you supported yourself appropriately.

And Roland is obviously the perfect shareholder incarnation in his mind.

Regardless of whether it is his hobby or his profession, he throws money at it and then hands it over to his profession.

After two days in Cupertino, the two sides laughed and hugged when they left.

Compared with those guys who can personally send Roland on the plane, the relationship between Roland and Jobs needs to be improved, but compared with the first meeting, the relationship between the two parties who have only met twice has improved quite quickly.

After leaving Cupertino, Roland and Kate flew to Seattle.

Judging by the number of shares held, Roland is not ranked in Microsoft.

But behind him, after all, there are people!

Just by brushing his face, he can pry open Bill Gates's office.

With the arrival of Roland, this smiling tiger directly chatted with Roland about last year's large income, and after learning that Roland took that money and acquired several game studios, the world's richest man laughed happily in front of the two.

"When we got together last year, you told me that you bought DMADesign, a Scottish game company?"

"When I came back, I took a special look at the company, and the PC games that were released in November last year were very strong!"

"That game called GTA sold a million copies in just two months?"

"If you throw away the channel commission, this game will bring you at least more than 10 million revenues?"

Although more than 10 million is really nothing in front of Bill Gates, Blizzard Entertainment in Roland's hands is a company he admires very much, since its inception, they have been doing what is popular, if it continues to develop according to the current momentum, it will not be long before it can catch up with EA and become the largest game company in North America.

Politely, everyone likes to listen to it, but unlike those who like to continue to brag, Roland's favorite thing to do is to 'expose' his 'shortcomings', "That's right, GTA's sales are really good." ”

"However, because the game was being made without taking into account the impact of violence in reality, after its release, it attracted a lot of criticism, and European countries felt that we were promoting violence."

"But isn't this kind of negative news the best advertisement?"

Bill Gates was not fooled, and said with a smile: "Many young people buy games because of these scoldings." ”

As the saying goes, 'mountains and rivers are different, wind and moon are the same sky', and the criticism of all countries is actually the same.

When GTA hit the market, it was met with a lot of boycotts from adults who felt that this kind of violent game had to be banned.

There's no way, just like when shootings are frequent, these guys don't choose to ban guns, but choose to ban shooting games, game manufacturers will never be able to do military enterprises, so the vulnerable group of games has to be honestly blamed.

But while taking the blame, eh, "GTA" became popular.

Wherever the media reaches, it is the distribution of games.

Why?

Because the media is advertising for free!

Just like when a young man was watching the news at Station C, he suddenly found that the interviewee's computer desktop turned out to be a kawaii thorny ape, and then, the penguin flock was a bunch of thanksgiving for the safety of a good person's life.

The reason why "GTA" is popular is because the exciting and violent content is loved by young people.

In addition, the more you resist, the more curious you are, where you scold "GTA", "GTA" will be sold, and the more "GTA" is sold, the stronger the media will be, and the stronger the media scolding, the easier it will be for "GTA" to hit the best-selling list.

Although "GTA" is a cancer in the field controlled by traditional media, does it matter?

Even if it weren't a cancer, those old men and old ladies wouldn't buy games.

Therefore, their preferences cannot influence young people's decisions at all!

It can only stimulate those young people who want to rebel and buy these games that they oppose!

As a result, "GTA" is like Little Pony, the more people scold, the more money it makes!

After a brief chat about "GTA", which has not yet logged in America, Bill Gates threw out a new game under Blizzard Entertainment that is about to be launched, "I heard that "StarCraft" will be released in March this year? ”

"Well, how confident do you have in this game?"

When it comes to StarCraft, Roland is full of smiles, "If we don't break the sales record, then we are a failure." ”

"Wow! Is it a record break for Warcraft? That's ...... Starting at two million? ”

Bill Gates laughed and said, "Your growth rate is much faster than when I sold system copies." ”

"I've heard that you hold an annual meeting every year and hold a game competition?"

"If both games are selling really well, I think you can actually organize players to do competitions."

"Offline competitions?" Roland didn't expect Bill Gates to study this kind of thing, "There will be." ”

Of course, there will be offline competitions, and BlizzCon will also exist.

As a major IP producer, Blizzard is a gold mountain, and it would be a waste if you don't make good use of it.

Roland has already thought about it, and after the filming of "Spider-Man 2 and 3" is finished, he will start to think about the animated movie of "Warcraft" or "Diablo", whether it is the "Orcs Never Be Slaves" Grom - Hellroar, or the player fights his own fear demon King Diablo in each generation, they are all objects that can be written about.

The game CG of this era is not as exquisite as that of later generations, and when players are playing the plot, they can only see a bunch of rough modeling fighting there, and sometimes there is only one piece of text.

Although for many players, this is already a very good existence, but for Roland, this is far from enough.

Since it's a Blizzard movie studio, it has to be a bit of a studio, right?

Since the game CG can't be appreciated by players, then we can cut out the CG to make a movie and sell it to players!

Due to the immaturity of IMax3D technology, the special effects of this era cannot support the entire "World of Warcraft", but it can still be imagined to polish and produce according to the effect of "Toy Story" and make a cartoon.

As for Roland, he has never thought about cultivating talents in animation, and even if he has an idea, he can't shoot it?

It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter if Roland doesn't have anyone, isn't it over if you outsource it directly to Pixar?

Anyway, Jobs is not interested in Pixar, so instead of outsourcing Disney, it is better to do it for him!

Your own people!

It's not a digging at all!

("ಡωಡ")

After a brief chat with Bill Gates about Blizzard's entertainment achievements, Roland took the initiative to shift the topic to the console that Microsoft was developing.

"Are you going to bring Warcraft and Diablo to our Microsoft home console?"

"No, no, no, due to the difficulty of operation, these two games will be logged into the console, players will not be used to playing, and the studios I acquired, many of them are specialized in console games, if you are willing to provide us with engineering machines, I think games like "GTA" will be logged into your console."

"Is it just going to log in to our host? Or is it like Spider-Man, exclusive? ”

"It depends on what the machine looks like in the end, and if it's great, I think they'll just log into Microsoft's console."

Neither of them went around the bush, and both knew what the other wanted.

When Bill Gates silently listened to Paul Allen provide Roland with a way to make money, Roland was actually tied to Microsoft's chariot by an invisible rope - I helped you get money and watched you develop, but you ended up running away from my competitors?

Aren't you an old birthday star hanging yourself, don't you have a long life?

In fact, Roland knows very well how ruthless Microsoft is under Bill Gates.

Take the console side as an example, Bill Gates almost stabbed Sony to death with a knife.

In the 01st year, Sony Computer Entertainment teamed up with Toshiba and IBM to start developing PS3, and among them, the chip CELL of the host was responsible for IBM, and when signing the contract, IBM also deliberately left a back door in the contract, stating that IBM can use the chip developed by itself for other purposes, and it is not clearly stated that it cannot be used on competitors.

As a result, the detailed drawings of the CPU specifications studied by IBM came into the hands of Microsoft.

Not only that,IBM to Sony research and development of CELL, that is a younger brother,Graphics processing is more rubbish than the outsourcing of massage parlors,After seeing the effect,Sony urgently contacted NVIDIA,Let Lao Huang, who is superb in knife skills, develop display chips for the PS3 console of CELL architecture,Due to the tight time,When providing engineering prototypes to game developers,It is only a processor,No GPU development machine,So,A bunch of PS3 first games,All died violently。

Of course, if you just look at the surface, it can be said that IBM sold Sony for money, Microsoft just wielded the stick of money, giving really too much, but with the resignation of David Shippe, who is responsible for the chief architecture of XBox360 and PS3 processors, from IBM, everything is revealed - David Shipp himself admitted that on March 9, 01, shortly after Sony released the news of cooperation with IBM to develop CELL chips, Microsoft came to the door and entrusted them to develop the next generation of host chips, And Steve Ballmer, who is in charge of placing the order, has only one request, and that is to surpass CELL.

The most terrifying thing is that at that time, Microsoft did not even launch the first-generation console XBox.

Not only that, but the antitrust lawsuit that has plagued them for many years has just reached a settlement with the Ministry of Justice.

Microsoft has not officially entered the console market, and has already figured out a way to backstab Sony in the next era.

As long as it can kill competitors, Microsoft can do anything, and more often than not, it just lacks an opportunity.

On the surface, Bill Gates is harmless to humans and animals.

But in fact, he is just like Jobs said, an old yin beep!

Compared with him, that Roland is simply a white lotus that comes out of the mud but is not stained, and the water is clear and rippled but not demonic!

After reaching a verbal agreement, the old yin beep, who understands that the content is important, but does not want to do the content himself, is very happy.

'Random' revealed a bit of the development progress, and Roland, who knew that XBox would not be available a year ago, breathed a sigh of relief.

As long as the XBox is released after 'September11attacks', everything will be fine.

After determining that Apple and Microsoft, two companies that cannot be controlled by themselves at all, but are enough to take advantage of the situation, there is a high probability that there will be no mistakes, and the excitement in Roland's heart has strengthened a lot.

Since both the iPod and XBox debuted after the 'September 11attacks' by such coincidence, isn't that God forbid, give him a chance!

At the same time, he also knows in his heart that with Microsoft and Apple both working so hard, the next thing to do is to win the adaptation and filming copyright of "Black Hawk Down", and then find a way to let Sony produce and distribute it.

Unfortunately, these two most important things are now ......

But I couldn't hurry.