The Millennium Semiconductor Survival Guide

"Forgive me as an old man, I love to miss the past when I get older. To be honest, Mphone technology is not a new product. In the past two decades, I have seen the prototype of Mphone functions in different electronic products.

Like the touch screen, when Apple first launched the Newton handheld computer, John Sculley was hosting the Newton handheld computer conference. He was as confident as you at the conference, thinking that this is a product that will change the world.

Although Apple has not fallen to the point where it can only rely on music players to maintain the company's operations, they had a very glorious period of time in the 1980s, precisely because of Apple's strong admiration for personal handheld computers and Newton handheld computers. High expectations led everyone to follow suit and make handheld computers.

At that time, they already had touch screens, handwriting input, supported many Apple computer-compatible text formats, and could edit text, tables and even pictures on them.

It's a pity that Newton, let alone changing the world as Sculley's press conference claimed, was even hastily cut off because of poor sales. "

Bill Gates fell into memories under the scorching sun. Memories can let the old people taste the taste of their youth. "I remember very clearly that Sculley and Jobs parted ways, and they had a huge disagreement about the future of Apple."

As a post-90s generation, Zhou Xin actually doesn’t know much about this period of history. He only has a vague impression of Sculley: “Bill, I remember that Jobs invited Sculley to come to Apple as CEO?

I still remember that when Jobs invited Sculley, who was the president of Pepsi at the time, he said: Do you want to continue selling sugar water for the rest of your life, or change the world with me? "

After Apple reached its peak, it became a legend in the industry. Zhou Xin was very impressed. He also used a similar metaphor when inviting some state-owned enterprise experts.

Bill laughed, surprised that a young man like Zhou Xin knew this meme: "It seems that you really know Apple very well, I thought young people like you didn't know this anymore.

Yes, Jobs and Sculley jointly created the success of the Macintosh computer in 1984. If you are a major shareholder of Apple, you should have seen Jobs and know how stubborn he is.

After the success of the first-generation Macintosh, Jobs quickly fell into inflation and misjudged the real needs of consumers. The subsequent launch of the Macintosh computer was unsuccessful but brought a huge deficit to Apple.

Sculley wanted to restore Apple's image in the minds of consumers, and really change the world like Jobs did when he persuaded him to come to Apple, so he launched Newton. "

Zhou Xin actually knows Newton very well, because NewPay acquired Confinity, and the earliest application scenario of Confinity was the Newton handheld computer.

He talked with Peter Thiel a lot about Confinity. Peter said that the reason why he would do electronic payment is that they have a patent on the encrypted transmission of infrared signals, and the earliest handheld computers that supported infrared signal transmission were only Newton.

It was only later that other handheld computers also supported infrared functions.

Zhou Xin said: "Speaking of this, I actually watched the video of Apple's knowledge navigator in 1987 before. Do you have a laptop here?"

Bill Gates called the servant to bring the laptop, and Zhou Xin searched for this video on Apple's official website: "In fact, this video already has the prototype of a smartphone."

Bill Gates and Zhou Xin sat in front of the computer and watched the video quietly together.

Released in 1987, the video, titled "Apple Knowledge Navigator Video," was made for Sculley's keynote address at the 1987 Higher Education Conference.

The general content is that a university professor returns home, and then makes a video call with his colleagues through something like a tablet computer. During the video call, they can use the screen to share data and share the latest achievements in scientific research.

After watching the video, Zhou Xin said: "WeChat's video call function is actually a bit like this. With the development of communication technology in the future, maybe we can directly transmit 3D images of people in the future."

Bill Gates nodded: "But Sculley is still not as good as you, Sculley's thinking is still too shallow, he only thinks about what he can do and what he wants to do.

But I didn't expect to use more power to join in the construction of the ecology.

The content he showed is only a part of the many functions of Mphone. This part does not have much imagination. It is just an extension of the personal computer on the mobile side. He did not expect that the mobile chip will be powerful enough to provide developers with a sufficient platform for them to play their own role. ingenuity. "

When Sculley was working on Newton, the biggest limitation came from the chip. They asked Bell Telephone Company to design a mobile processor called Hobbit, but there was a big flaw, that is, the performance was not high.

To meet Apple's vision for the Newton would require three Hobbit chips, and the minimum price would have to be $6,000 to break even, which was $6,000 in the late 1980s.

Obviously the market cannot accept this pricing and this product.

Zhou Xin said: "My idea is based on the foundation of predecessors, Microsoft's past success has given me a lot of inspiration.

Only enough openness can get enough support, and then the whole ecology can be improved.

If Microsoft is as closed as Apple, it may not be Microsoft that is successful in the operating system now. So I was thinking whether to open Mphone's operating system to other mobile phone manufacturers. "

After hearing so much from Bill Gates, Zhou Xin guessed that the other party was here for Matrix, but he didn't know exactly what kind of cooperation Bill Gates wanted to achieve.

In Matrix’s first round of financing, in order to show that Bill Gates was acting as a middleman, Zhou Xin gave the Melinda Gates Foundation about 4% of the investment share.

Bill Gates secretly thought it was bad, because in order to win the mobile operating system market share, Microsoft can only compete for the market of small and medium mobile phone manufacturers.

Compared with MOS, Microsoft's mobile operating system has no intuitive advantages, but MOS has already proved itself on smartphones.

Large giants build their own operating systems, and the market of small and medium-sized mobile phone manufacturers is squeezed by MOS. Microsoft is facing a huge crisis in the new battlefield.

Bill Gates tentatively said: "The operating system is one of the biggest advantages of Mphone compared with other mobile phones. If the MOS is opened to other mobile phone manufacturers, then the advantages of Mphone will be indirectly weakened."

Zhou Xin thought, I will definitely not open MOS to other mobile phone manufacturers, this is just a little pressure on you.

In Zhou Xin's strategic plan, an open source mobile phone operating system similar to Android will be launched, but not now, but will be launched together with the subsequent smartphone chips to be launched by Xinxin.

It is equivalent to giving Huaguo mobile phone manufacturers a complete set of solutions from mobile phone chips to operating systems. The integrated mobile phone chips in the traditional mobile phone era have already laid a good foundation for cooperation with domestic manufacturers.

In the next cooperation, we will continue this kind of cooperation, and Zhou Xin will use Xiaomi's extreme cost performance to force domestic mobile phone manufacturers to go abroad.

Zhou Xin said: "Whether to open MOS to other mobile phones is essentially a trade-off, whether the software ecology is more important or the hardware is more important.

The success of Microsoft tells me that the software ecosystem is more important. If MOS can become Microsoft in the smartphone field, then Matrix will become a company no less than Microsoft. "

This is the way of thinking in the personal PC era. Obviously, Bill Gates also has this way of thinking. After listening to it, he realized that Matrix and Microsoft will be direct competitors. He asked:

"Newman, have you ever thought about merging with Microsoft, Matrix and Microsoft merging, after the merger we will unify the operating system market in the personal PC and smartphone fields.

The market value of Microsoft is US$100 billion. If Matrix goes public, Wall Street will value Matrix at around US$100 billion. If we combine the two, the valuation must be multiplied by at least four.

It has a stronger effect than one plus one, just like after the merger of Google and Baidu, their market value is much higher than the sum of the valuations of these two companies alone.

This is the capital market's optimism about the combination of strong forces.

What I just said is only good in the capital market, and there are also a lot of good things in technology. The technical advantages accumulated by Microsoft on the mobile operating system and the technical advantages accumulated on mobile computers will become the technical advantages of Matrix.

More importantly, if you accept this proposal, Microsoft will let you be the CEO. If you want, I can also give up the position of chairman of the board of directors. You will become the helm of Microsoft with as much power as I did before. "

Bill Gates offered a lot of chips. To be honest, Zhou Xin was a little moved. He has feelings for Matrix, and Matrix is ​​also very important in his career map.

But this kind of important depends on whether the bargaining chip is high enough. In Zhou Xin's view, his career in Silicon Valley can be sold, because sooner or later he will not be able to keep it.

As long as the other party can guarantee that after the merger of Microsoft and Matrix, the supplier of Mphone will remain the same, and the chips will still be purchased from Xinxin instead of designing chips by itself, or purchasing chips from Intel, Zhou Xin can accept it.

"It's a tempting idea, isn't it?" Zhou Xin said temptingly, but his expression was very calm. In his heart, Microsoft's president is not a very good position. He doesn't have the energy and time to take charge of Microsoft's ship. giant ship.

Bill Gates also saw this: "Newman, you don't seem to be excited at all. If I were your age, the president of IBM told me that IBM's CEO will let you be the CEO, as long as you are willing to put Microsoft sold it to me.

I sure can't help the smile on my lips. "

Zhou Xin explained: "This is just a private communication between the two of us here, and it is still a thousand miles away from becoming a reality."

Bill Gates said: "As long as you agree, I will take care of everything else. You have to believe that Microsoft's board of directors and investors will only vote for Newman as Microsoft CEO, and no one will vote against it.

The news of Newman's appointment as Microsoft's CEO alone was enough to send Microsoft's stock up 50 percent on the Nasdaq, let alone news of the merger between Microsoft and Matrix. "

Zhou Xin shook his head: "Bill, the biggest problem in this matter comes from the supervision, are you sure the supervision is willing to see the merger of Microsoft and Matrix?

Microsoft has always been the focus of antitrust attention, and the merger of Microsoft and Matrix is ​​almost impossible to pass regulatory approval. "

It is a well-established fact that regulation does not welcome Microsoft. Even though Bill Gates makes a large amount of political donations to the Donkey Party and the Elephant Party every year, this dislike has not changed in the slightest.

More importantly, Microsoft is not only disliked by supervision, but also by public opinion, at least public opinion is quite disliked by Microsoft.

Even with the efforts of all parties, the merger has not been obstructed by the regulatory authorities, it will be suspended due to the pressure of public opinion.

This is very likely to become a reality.

And not only American doesn't want to see Microsoft, but European countries don't want to see it even more. Microsoft has grabbed a lot of benefits in the EU countries, but it hasn't brought many jobs and taxes.

Although the same is true for Matrix, Mphone as a physical product can collect more taxes. More importantly, Mphone is an electronic product, and suppliers come from all over the world, which is completely different from Microsoft's products.

Therefore, if the merger with Microsoft is just a one-off deal, it is cost-effective, but if it is regarded as a long-term transaction, the disadvantages will far outweigh the advantages.

Zhou Xin could figure this out with a little thought, but he didn't reject Bill Gates directly, but said: "This matter is too big, I need time to think about it.

For Microsoft, it is also necessary to seek regulatory approval.

After the regulatory approval, we will talk about the follow-up details. "

Bill Gates thought to himself, as long as the other party does not directly reject it, it means that there is a chance. As for supervision, it can be achieved through operation.

When Zhou Xin was still on vacation in Bill Gates' villa, Bill Gates had mobilized his energy to inquire about it at the same time.

In the mobile Internet era, the speed of message transmission is much faster than before.

In the past, all kinds of well-informed people lacked a channel for information exposure, but now it is different. Weibo gives these people a chance to show their talents:

"The latest news is that Microsoft is seeking the possibility of merging with Matrix, which is likely to become the largest commercial merger since the 21st century."

This news came from a well-informed person inside Microsoft. The news of Microsoft's several major mergers and acquisitions before came from him.

"What? Did I hear you right? Please tell me downstairs that today is not April Fool's Day"

"Although Newman and Bill Gates seem to have a good relationship, this personal relationship is not enough to facilitate such a big deal."

"Don't, I don't want to change my phone"

"Plus, if Microsoft buys Matrix, I'll have to stop using the Mphone even though it's as good as it gets."

"Can you stop making jokes on April Fool's Day, where did Microsoft get the cash to buy Mphone? Now is not the Nasdaq bubble, the capital market will infinitely support this large-scale commercial merger"

"If Matrix is ​​acquired, Microsoft's shareholders may really agree, even if they take half of the shares to raise funds, they are willing."