Reborn Tech Maniac

Chapter 139 Making Apple a Public Image
"For the IPO, I don't have any ready-made resources to provide support. I'm afraid I can't help you." Tang Huan shook his head, and followed Markkula into the chairman's office.

"Then you are humble. In Silicon Valley, who is more famous than you now? Such a glorious image can just give Apple a public image for publicity." Markkula stared at Tang Huan, "Unless, you Already have enough wealth to look down on Apple."

"Am I the kind of person who gets mad after being proud?" Tang Huan quickly waved his hand to clarify.

Just kidding, according to the historical development, after Apple's listing, the stock price will soar to more than 1983 US dollars in 60, and only a fool would think that there is too much money.

But the problem is that his reputation is earned with real gold coins, and Jobs has always been Apple's public image ambassador. If you don't have the time to play such a thankless trick, it's better to stand behind and learn the experience of operating a company going public.

"Then why do you have to decline?" Markkula asked puzzledly, "you know, you are also a shareholder of Apple."

Tang Huan crossed his legs and pondered for a while, "What Jobs is doing now should be his job. And in my opinion, Jobs' character is just right to restrain those cunning securities dealers."

"Recently, Jobs has put almost all his energy on the Lisa project. It has been like this since he visited PARC last year." Markkula spread his hands helplessly.

Tang Huan couldn't help but feel a little dizzy. In his eyes, the current founders of Apple are too self-centered.

Woz has always been obsessed with perfecting various technical details of the second-generation Apple, especially after Tang Huan added a lot of functions to the second-generation Apple through the expansion card, Woz became more and more unable to extricate himself, a typical pursuit of self-accomplishment. Hackers are like a school, lacking a big picture.

With Woz's current status, he can completely hand over the trivial problems to his subordinates, while he himself will stand at a higher level and lead the research and development of the next generation of products.

Companies like Microsoft and Oracle also consisted of a core duo composed of a technical elite and a marketing genius in the early stages of development, and they have always cooperated tacitly.

But there is an exception to this practice when it comes to Apple.

Jobs, who was drifting away from Woz, imposed his will on the research and development project in order to realize the ambition of products with his own brand, delaying the progress of product research and development.

History is the most ironic. Winners can dress it up arbitrarily, and latecomers can also label it according to their own preferences.

From the advent of the Apple II in 1977 to the release of the Mac in 1984.During this period, Apple only launched two new products: Apple's third-generation machine and Lisa computer, both of which ended in failure, and Jobs interfered with them wantonly.

The chaos he caused made Apple always swing back and forth between disorder and order.

As for Markkula who is sitting opposite, this man who is already very rich, has a lazy temper, is tired of work troubles, and values ​​the enjoyment of personal life quality. He is not enthusiastic about the daily management of the company, otherwise he would not take Scott came and used his hands to restrain Jobs and Woz.

"With all due respect, each company has its own style. Zheru is a pack of wolves with queuing rules, and Apple is a pirate with unbridled publicity. Although the impact of easy changes in public image may not be reflected immediately, it will. It works at the most inconspicuous moment. To be on the safe side, I suggest that Jobs be the master and the assistant, and this is the most appropriate combination.”

Markkula thought about it for a moment, with an expression of appreciation on his face, "Don, you are the most trustworthy. For the enemy, you will suppress the opponent so that he cannot hold his head up; for the partner, you can balance the interests of the other without revealing anything." .Just follow your suggestion, you and Jobs are the public face of Apple’s IPO preparations at the same time.”

Obviously, Markkula also wanted to understand who was responsible for raising the children.As the founder, how could it be possible to hide behind the scenes and let Tang Huan perform in front of the audience.

The root cause was Markkula's laziness at the beginning.

"It should be, after all, everyone is in the same trench." Tang Huan waved his hand with a smile.

"Tang, tell me the truth, what is the prospect of Apple's third-generation phones?" Although there were no outsiders in the office, Markkula, who had changed the subject, unconsciously lowered his voice, "I need an independent It seems that only you can provide a fair assessment. If the project does not go well, it will definitely have a negative impact on this IPO."

Seeing Markkula's sincerity, Tang Huan hesitated and didn't speak immediately.

He and Jobs have gradually formed a tacit understanding, he will not point fingers at Apple, and the other party will not come to philosophize.

But to be honest, Tang Huan didn't like the third-generation Apple machine. Although it can directly handle uppercase and lowercase letters, display more characters on the screen, and has many other functions, Tang Huan has already passed Apple II. Expansion cards realize these features, and there are inevitably suspicions of competition with each other.

For example, in terms of hardware, Apple’s third-generation machine uses the same 8-bit CPO instruction set as Apple II, and then adds various circuits on the motherboard to provide the functions of various expansion cards developed by Zheru for Apple II. , and then target users as business users. The planned price of 3500 US dollars, which is higher than that of the Apple II, is where the profit of the original Zheru expansion card lies.

Whether intentional or unintentional, objectively, this is the posture of grabbing apples and philosophers.

It has to be said that the relationship in the market is too complicated. Even alliance partners still have the problem of competition for dominance.

Although Tang Huan understood these twists and turns, he couldn't condone them.

My brother also has hundreds of brothers who want to eat and drink. Why do you give up the profits? You want to develop a personal computer with a 16-bit CPU architecture and brand-new features. Come and grab food, go dreaming.

In particular, a piece of news recently reported by the team that developed office software for Apple's third-generation machines made Tang Huan even more unbearable.

In order to clarify the grade of the product in the market and ensure profits, some functions compatible with the advanced features of Apple II in the original design of Apple's third-generation machine were artificially restricted, which added a huge workload to Zheru's development.

Of course, under the general trend of the alliance between Apple and Confucianism, these frictions are small conflicts, and there is no need to put them on the table to spoil the interest.But it is impossible for Tang Huan to show enthusiasm for the third generation of Apple phones.

But what Markkula said is also reasonable. The third-generation Apple phone is too ugly to die, and it may really affect the stock listing.

"No product design can be perfect, and Apple's third-generation iPhone is no exception." Tang Huan said slowly, "Compared to the number of circuits on the motherboard, the space of the main chassis is too narrow, and there is no cooling fan installed. , coupled with the use of immature 'fine-line' wiring technology, if the computer runs for a long time, the accumulated heat is likely to cause various troubles."

Tang Huan shrugged, "This problem can now be confirmed through tests. I can't make a judgment on how much impact it will have. So my suggestion is to reserve resources for after-sales service in advance. In case of any problems, Solve it as soon as possible, so as not to affect Apple's credibility."

"Sigh, Jobs is really harmful. At the beginning, he tossed about the Apple III project, and finally let go of it." Markkula sighed helplessly.

Coincidentally, as soon as Markkula finished complaining, the next victim in time and space, Jeff Raskin, who was robbed of the MAC project team by Jobs, came.

Of course, he is still the project leader of the Macintosh.

Ruskin is a wonderful person, with the style of a philosopher, sometimes humorous and naughty, sometimes dull and dull.

After he got tired of teaching in his early years, he rented a hot air balloon, flew over the headmaster's house, and shouted out his decision to resign.

This man has a lot of experience, having studied computer science, taught music and visual arts, managed a chamber opera house and organized street theater.

In 1976, Jobs was looking for someone to write an operating manual for the Apple II, and contacted Ruskin, who at the time already owned a small consulting firm.

After coming to Jobs' garage and seeing Woz working hard on the workbench, Raskin was persuaded by Jobs to accept the job of writing the operating manual for them for $50.

Later, Ruskin became a full-time manager of Apple's publishing department and became a member of Apple.

When Raskin completed his doctoral dissertation at the University of California, San Diego in 1967, he proposed that computers should have a graphical interface instead of a text-based interface. This is why he repeatedly suggested that Jobs visit PARC.

Building an inexpensive $1000 computer for the masses was a dream of Raskin's, and he convinced Markkula in 1979 to become head of the MAC project.

But Ruskin is not as good as Tang Huan. Currently, there are only four people in this R&D team, and its company status and R&D progress can be imagined.

Every time R&D resources were exhausted and the project team was in danger of disbanding, Raskin would run to Markkula to play pity, and Markkula would show kindness.

This time, this old man came here with the same purpose, and Markkula also gave his support in the same way.

Tang Huan could see that Markkula, who had worked at Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel, still attached great importance to technology research and development.Of course, it is not ruled out that he has a fluke in his heart, hoping that this small project team can escape Jobs' eyes and finally succeed, thus providing multiple support points for Apple's performance.

Ruskin left contentedly, and the Apple director Robert ran over again, and said to Tang Huan with a false smile on his face: "Recently, I am developing more game support for the Apple II platform, and you are an expert in this field." , make an appointment, give me some pointers?"

Asking you uncle, I want to make money by playing games. Tang Huan really wanted to pick up the coffee cup in front of him and smash it at it, but he suddenly had an idea, and then he said with a smile on his face, "The third-generation Apple machine that is about to be developed, but just In terms of hardware features, it is better than Apple II, why do you always stare at the old platform?"

(End of this chapter)