Reborn Tech Maniac

Chapter 525 Advertising Wonderful Products Flashy

"It's okay, I didn't brand Fangyuan Computer Company as the new 'Big Brother'." Tang Huan, muttering to himself, shrugged.

As Jobs's speech pushed the atmosphere to a climax, the audience turned from whispers to enthusiastic applause, and began to cheer and shout wildly in response. At this time, the commercial "1984" appeared on the screen.

After the broadcast, the audience stood up and cheered thunderously.

It must be pointed out that many latecomers do not know or understand that the computer industry revolution triggered by personal computers represents the spirit of an era.

For many young people, especially the counterculture, computers are tools of Orwellian government and big business to depersonalize people.

However, in the late 1970s, the personal computer, which emerged in response to the trend and was in the ascendant, was regarded as a tool that could release personal energy.

The ad captures precisely this mindset, casting the Macintosh as a fighter for personal freedom -- only Apple can stand up to the evil corporations' attempts to rule the world and exercise total mind control. It is the cool, rebellious, and heroic company that can stop it.

Jobs hoped that the commercial could be a thunderbolt during the product release process, and it could cooperate with the display of the characteristics he gave to MAC, that is, revolutionary and surprising, and then stop and watch without thinking.

Obviously, the commercial "1984" fulfilled this task perfectly.

In much anticipation, Jobs walked across the darkened stage to a small table with a cloth bag on it.

"Now, I'm going to show you the Macintosh computer in person. What you see on the big screen next is all realized by the things in this bag." Jobs took out the computer, keyboard, Mouse, expertly assembled.

To yet another round of applause from the audience, Jobs took out a new 3.5-inch floppy disk from his shirt pocket, the standard storage device for the Mac, which currently doesn't support hard drives.

Images from the Macintosh screen were projected onto the big screen as the theme song from Chariots of Fire, the hugely successful 1981 film, began to play.

While Andy Hertzfeld, the principal software architect of the Mac — a remarkable feat accomplished by Andy Hertzfeld — wrote a music player program that allowed the Mac to play the Chariots of Fire theme song in two days. , but Jobs felt that the effect was very bad after hearing it, so he decided to use recordings instead.

Jobs, who looked calm and composed on the outside, was actually very nervous inside. For a moment, he even held his breath because last night's demonstration never worked.

But now, with all the demos running flawlessly, Jobs was right, and luck embraced him for a moment.

"MAC" scrolled horizontally on the screen, and then the words "Awesome" appeared below, as if slowly written by hand.

Then, a series of screenshots began to appear in rapid succession: Bill Atkinson - Bill Atkinson's graphics package QuickDraw, different fonts, documents, charts, drawings, chess games, spreadsheets, and a rendering of Jobs - the picture A Macintosh computer appeared in his mind.

After the demonstration, Jobs secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and said with a relaxed smile: "Recently, we have talked a lot about the Macintosh. But today, for the first time in history, I will let the Macintosh Tower speaks for himself."

At this point, Jobs retreated to the table contentedly, clicked the mouse, and the MAC immediately made a low voice, "Hi, I'm Macintosh. It feels so good to come out of the bag."

This is another point of Jobs’ pride in the creativity of the press conference. He had seen Tang Huan’s Fangyuan laptop designed for Stephen Hawking, and was impressed by the text electronic voice generator in it, so he decided to use it as part of the demonstration .

As for MAC's lines, it was written by Chiat/Day advertising agency copywriter Steve Hayden.

The less than perfect part of this session is that when the audience applauds and cheers, MAC pauses unintelligently and continues his rapid monologue, "I'm not used to public speaking, but I want to share with you the first time I met IBM. When I was on a mainframe, don’t trust a computer that you can’t move.”

Under the cheers, Macintosh, who only knew to follow the procedure all the way, was almost drowned out in the last few words he said.

"Obviously, I can talk. But right now, I want to sit and listen. Next, let me be very proud to call out a man who is like my father -- Steve Jobs."

With his lips tightly pressed, Jobs nodded slowly, with an uncontrollable smile blooming on his face until he cried with joy.

The auditorium was noisy, people jumped up and down, waved their fists frantically, and gave applause that lasted for nearly 5 minutes.

Undoubtedly, the MAC conference was very successful, and Jobs used it to realize his long-cherished wish for many years-to equate his name with a "perfect" product just like Apple II was branded with Woz's brand.

But that's all. After all, Jobs regarded Apple's corporate resources as the paint on the canvas of his dreams, and he couldn't get rid of the flashy nature.

Because its customers are targeting the home, education and creative professional markets, MAC has become outdated in terms of specifications due to repeated delays in its research and development cycle.

The Macintosh released by Jobs was finally called "Macintosh 128K" in the original time and space, because its main memory capacity is 128 KB, while the current mainstream 16-bit personal computers basically have a memory capacity of 256 KB or more .

Other hardware configurations of the MAC include: Motorola microprocessor MC8 running at 68000 MHz, 64 KB read-only memory, 400-inch floppy disk drive with a capacity of 3.5 KB, keyboard, one-button mouse, and 9-inch black and white CRT monitor.

The pre-installed operating system is System Software. Mac OS, which was originally famous in time and space, will not be officially renamed until the System 7.5.1 version.

Jobs's aversion to fans in cooling systems was once again reflected in the MAC, which only had a passive cooling design.

In order to popularize his favorite work to millions of households, Jobs made the price of MAC for 1995 US dollars, but this time John Sculley did not stand on his side, but insisted on raising it to 2495 US dollars.

But anyway, the graphical user interface system that can be achieved for only $2500 is really eye-catching.

However, Apple will soon learn the troubles caused by the flashiness of the MAC.

Compared with the previously released Lisa computer, which is priced at US$9995, the functions of MAC are not weakened a little bit, the most notable point is that it does not support multitasking.

System 1.0 is a single-tasking operating system, which means that users can only run one application at the same time, which is a bit weird for a graphical user interface system.

On this brand-new software platform, there is no third-party software to support it, except for some programs represented by Apple's own graphic software package QuickDraw.Microsoft once again habitually bounced tickets, and did not come up with supporting office software in time.

In addition, because Apple's floppy disk drive system "Twiggy" proved to be unreliable, Sony's 3.5-inch floppy disk drive system was adopted instead, with a capacity of only 400 KB. Some are stretched.

Correspondingly, System 1.0 uses a flat file system called MFS, and the support for subfolders is not perfect.

Of course, these shortcomings can be summed up as "customer targeting at home", but the profit source of today's computer industry mainly depends on commercial use.

Besides, compared to the price of up to 2495 US dollars, there are still a lot of cheap solutions to choose from for family PC needs.

Moreover, after the user buys back the MAC, it is basically impossible to upgrade it. This is a highly closed system, which just violates the free hacker spirit and runs counter to the non-mainstream personal image that Jobs has always flaunted.

Calculated in this way, the remaining advantages of MAC that can surpass its peers seem to be only the beautiful and ergonomic industrial design.

……

"How was the MAC press conference?" Jobs asked proudly while sending a MAC as a gift.

"It's very exciting, I'm too late." Tang Huan took the MAC box, looked at the attached signature with satisfaction, and complimented it casually.

Jobs laughed heartily, "From now on, the pattern of the personal computer market will not be limited to the competition between Fangyuan PC and IBM-PC. MAC will become the most important force in determining the future direction."

Seeing that Jobs really took his kind words seriously, Tang Huan couldn't help smiling.He really can't use "dystopia" as an unconventional and sensational publicity stunt like the other party, but it's not because of his own lack of ability, but because this thing involves ideology, and there is really no need to actively provoke it.

You know, because of being suspected of being a communist, the author of "Nineteen Eighty-Four", George Orwell, has been closely monitored by the British MI1929 and the Special Section of the Metropolitan Police Service since 1950 and has continued By [-] he died.

"Steve, have you done market research to understand the details of the current personal computer industry?" Tang Huan glanced at the gift and asked with kindness.

"Did Alexander Graham Bell do any market research before inventing the telephone?" Jobs sneered.

"Well, if I didn't say anything just now, you can take care of yourself." Tang Huan waved his hand, turned around, got in the car and left.

……

Although the contact time was short, Tang Huan's strength, reputation, personal charm, and communication skills were reliable guarantees. Jack Trammell believed in him, so he quickly sat down with Warner boss Steve Ross. Went to the negotiating table to discuss purchasing Atari.

Seeing that a reliable buyer finally came, Steve Ross almost burst into tears.

As the matchmaker of this deal, Tang Huan presented the authorization of the second-generation Fangyuan PC compatible machine and the entry qualification of the developer of the second-generation Xiaobawang game console.

Jack Tramel and Steve Ross bargained with each other, and initially reached a framework, that is, Jack Tramel's Tramel Technology Company, with a price of 2 million, to acquire Atari, Inc.'s personal computer and Home video game console business, and can continue to use the name of Atari, the establishment of Atari Corporation - Atari Corporation, Warner holds 4000% of its shares.

Tang Huan couldn't wait for the moment when the negotiations between Jack Trammell and Steve Ross were over, and he had to hurry back to Xiangjiang.

Therefore, Tang Huan invited Jack Trammell to come over alone and have an in-depth communication on the personal computer business based on the previous consensus.

Objectively speaking, Jack Trammell played a role that cannot be ignored in the development of the personal computer industry, and his own experience is quite legendary.

In 1928, Jack Trammell was born in a Jewish family in Poland.

In September 1939, after Germany invaded Poland.Jack Trammell's family was sent to the Lodz Ghetto, the second largest Jewish ghetto in Europe during World War II.

Due to the outstanding productivity of the Lodz Ghetto, which gathered 40000 Jews from Germany and Central Europe, it still existed until August 1944,
Jack Trammell, who was only in his teens at the time, worked in a garment factory there.

At the end of the war, the Lodz Jewish Quarter became the last settlement in Poland to be liquidated. The Germans transported the remaining Jews to Auschwitz concentration camp and Chelmnow extermination camp. Schwieting concentration camp.

German SS officer and "physician" of Auschwitz concentration camp, Joseph Mengele, known as "Angel of Death", screened Jack Trammel and his father and transferred them to Hanover, Germany. Ahlem slave labor camp.

The final result was that Jack Trammell's mother narrowly escaped death in Auschwitz, and his father was unfortunately killed.

Jack Trammell believes his father was injected with gasoline.

Fortunately, Jack Trammell survived until the moment he was rescued by the No.80 Fourth Infantry Division of the United States, and still kept the photos as a historical witness.

In 1947, Jack Trammell immigrated to the United States and soon joined the U.S. Army.

There, he learned how to repair office equipment, including typewriters.This gave it the foundation to start a career after retiring from the army and influence the development of the personal computer industry.

(End of this chapter)