Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 207: Hard (Happy Chinese Valentine's Day)

Ethan clearly remembered that when Steve Jobs wanted to sell the first generation of Apple computers, he wanted to use a low-price sales strategy to invade the personal computer market. At that time, Jobs regarded cheap chips as a killer, thinking that cheap chips could lower the production cost of personal computers and give them more price advantages.

There was actually nothing wrong with what Jobs thought back then. When products in an industry are similar and most consumers cannot distinguish the quality of the products, low price is what they prefer most.

However, this sales strategy only existed for one year. When Apple was officially established and started selling the iPhone II to the public, the price that exceeded four digits was definitely the ceiling in the consumer field.

The reason for setting a sky-high price is that Apple has something that ordinary computers don't have -

It can meet people's needs.

At the beginning, all computer manufacturers were at the same starting line. Even though the Altair 8800, the first commercial personal computer in history, was a bit ahead of the times, the gap between them was not big. All manufacturers only knew how to make personal computers, but did not know how to make ordinary people accept it.

But when Ethan Jones ignited America with Pac-Man and repeatedly stated in public that his game was made with Apple computers, and Steve Wozniak was also very supportive and selflessly sent his modified 6502 assembly language to the whole country...

world--

It changed!
Before, ordinary people had no idea what computers could bring to them.

Now, everyone knows that Apple computers can make games!

In the past, ordinary people had no idea why they needed to buy a computer that cost several hundred dollars.

Now, everyone knows that Apple computers have pointed out a smooth road for them!
When the concept of making money by making games emerged, people's demand for computers also emerged.

While Steve Jobs cleverly added a joystick to the new generation of Apple, and Steve Wozniak wrote the code for Snake...

The act of feeding food to consumers’ mouths and giving them happiness just by swallowing made Apple sell like hot cakes!

Although this behavior of first creating demand for consumers and then making a fortune from the demand is very common in business, how to accurately find the needs of consumers is the pain point of the entire process.

In the computer industry, software that can change human life is the basis for people to embrace computers. If this fact were put in a few decades later, anyone with a little knowledge would be able to say it. But in this era without information explosion, there may be people who have this idea, but their thinking will definitely not be as clear as Ethan's. This is not only because Ethan has memories of his past life, but also because the things that change human life have just appeared.

Playing with the Disk II, which was officially launched a month ago, this five and a quarter floppy disk drive made Ethan feel a lot of emotions. After coming to this world, the first thought that came to his mind was to make a special operating system, but because the technology did not allow it and the environment did not meet the standards, he gave up. The second idea was to make a computer, but when Evelyn said she couldn't do it, the project was aborted.

Ethan thought that he would work hard in the field of electronic games, which cannot be monopolized, but he didn't expect that after a long journey, he would have the computer industry that belonged to the wave of the times, the chip industry, and the storage industry. And now...

Have those guys on Wall Street already banded together and gone bankrupt?

Row!
Let’s see which one is more powerful, financial colonization or technological colonization!

When there were not enough people around, it became inevitable to recruit talents. As for why he did not look for technical help in Stanford, but chose Bill Gates?

Well, this——

"William, Paul, welcome to Palo Alto. I'm glad to see you."

Three days later, on August 2, 1978, Ethan Jones met Bill Gates and Paul Allen, who were brought by Steve Ballmer, at the headquarters of Destiny Game.

Bill Gates, who was the same age as him, joyfully stretched out his right hand and shook hands with Ethan. His freckled face was filled with an excitement that was difficult to conceal.

Next to him, Paul Allen, who had a beard like Steve Wozniak, was a little reserved. While shaking hands with Ethan, he nodded slightly.

Ethan patted his shoulder with his left hand because of his tech geeky demeanor. After a brief introduction, the group went into the reception room on the top floor. Although Ethan had asked Steve Ballmer to convey his investment intentions and delegation ideas to the two when he invited them, he started talking about other things after they sat down.

"William, I heard your father is a lawyer?"

Ethan crossed his legs, leaned back on the sofa, and looked at Bill Gates with a smile on his face.

"Yes, my father is a lawyer. He graduated from the University of Washington and has a master's degree in law." Bill Gates talked about his family background very frankly. "Now he is a partner in a law firm and also the president of the Seattle, King County and Washington State Bar Associations."

The unreserved narration made Ethan smile and nod.

Then he asked, "Your mother is a director of the First Interstate Bank in Washington State?"

"I heard that Mrs. Graham and your mother have a very good relationship?"

"Uh..." This question made Bill Gates stretch his voice. After a few seconds of pause, he shook his head and said, "Ethan? Can I call you that?"

"of course."

"Okay, Ethan." Bill Gates smiled at Ethan and said, "My mother is indeed a director of First Interstate Bank in Washington State, and she is also a good friend of Mrs. Graham, the chairman of The Washington Post, but these descriptions are not enough to fully describe her."

At this point, he paused, as if he was organizing his thoughts, but more like looking for the starting point of the story, "My mother's grandfather was once the president of the National City Bank of Seattle and served as a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, so this also led to my grandfather, my mother's father, successfully inheriting these bank-related resources."

"When these resources were passed to my mother, the position of director of First Intercontinental Bank of Washington was just one of her many identities. In addition to this, she was also a member of the United Way of America, and a director of the University of Washington, Bell Company, General Property Insurance and other companies..."

“Clap, clap, clap—” Ethan laughed and clapped his hands.

Although Bill Gates used a very calm tone when telling Ethan about his family background, the tone of voice that sounded like he was reading out the names of dishes made Ethan want to hit someone.

That's right!

The reason why Ethan chose Bill Gates is because this guy has a strong background!
Looking for an ordinary person to draw tomorrow when the enemies standing opposite him now are Morgan Guaranty Company, Ford Family Foundation, and Carnegie Pension Fund?
Do not make jokes……

Even if normal people have the courage to fight against these big families, they do not have the ability to overcome the difficulties. This ability does not refer to knowledge and skills, but to the fact that no one can protect them from the wind and rain.

In his previous life, Ethan knew that starting a business was difficult.

And in this life...

Forget it, let’s not talk about it anymore.

After listening to Bill Gates' story, Ethan turned his attention to Paul Allen.

Whether in his past life memories or in the current information search, Paul Allen is a technology geek who loves technology. His parents are library staff at the University of Washington. Their income is indeed more than that of ordinary people, but at most they are middle class.

Not to mention Bill Gates, even Steve Wozniak can't compare to him.

Of course, Ethan would not discriminate against him for this.

After all, in terms of his background, he was only slightly better than Steve Jobs.

Perhaps because the background briefing brought the two sides closer, after just a short chat, the atmosphere in the reception room suddenly became much more casual. At this time, Ethan also brought up business.

"I believe Steve has informed you of my thoughts."

"So...are you willing to accept my investment?"

Ethan smiled at the two of them.

His question also made Bill Gates and Paul Allen look at each other. Then, Paul Allen spoke, "Ethan, thank you for your attention to us. To be honest, when Steve told us that you wanted to invest in us, we were very surprised."

"Because you are probably the person who has made the most headlines in our country's major media in the past few years. Your games have brought happiness to countless people, and your investment has made Apple a huge success, so when we learned that you were interested in us, we were very excited."

“But at the same time, we are also confused. We don’t know why you should invest in us.”

"We also use Apple products, and we ask ourselves that we can't make better products than Apple. Steve Wozniak is definitely a genius. We admire his creativity in the field of electronic engineering. At the same time, the code he wrote is also very powerful."

"With him here, what Apple actually needs is some technical personnel who can complete hard tasks, and William and I's work...may not be suitable for Apple?"

At this point, Paul Allen paused.

He turned his head and glanced at his companion. Bill Gates nodded in agreement with the carefully worded words.

But the clear logic and the neither humble nor arrogant words and actions surprised Ethan a little.

Because in his memory, Bill Gates is the real helmsman of Microsoft and the tyrant of the software empire, while Paul Allen is the engine of this aircraft carrier, providing power for its voyage.

But now...

Paul Allen negotiates?

Very interesting!

The reversed character setting made Ethan smile.

Keeping the oddity in mind, he then asked, "What do you think I want you to write? A BASIC interpreter? Or an assembly language interpreter for the 6502?"

"Uh... yes and no?" Paul Allen smiled and said with a twinkle in his eyes: "If you had found us before June, we would have thought that you wanted us to write a language interpreter for Apple, but now, I think you may need DOS?"

In the Internet age, major encyclopedias' introduction to DOS specifically refers to the operating system developed by Microsoft for IBM personal computers, but in today's era, this thing means exactly what it says, and is the abbreviation of Disk Operating System.

The history of this can be traced back to 1965, when IBM launched a disk-based operating system, and its characteristic was that it required a disk drive.

The reason why Paul Allen said that if Ethan had approached him before June, they would have thought that Ethan wanted an assembly language interpreter was because the Apple II at that time did not have a disk drive, but when Apple launched the Disk II... everything fell into place.

In the eyes of Paul Allen and Bill Gates, what Ethan wanted was a system.

Because Apple had launched Apple DOS at the same time as the Disk II a month earlier, and that system was… just so-so. Shortly after its release, a display error appeared in the code, which forced Apple to re-release a fixed version within the last month and allow people who had previously purchased the Disk II to send the machine back to have their staff repair it for free.

Not only that, according to their understanding, APPLE DOS was not written by Steve Wozniak. Due to the hardware development, Steve Wozniak had no time to write the system, so they outsourced this work.

And when Apple DOS itself was an outsourced product...

It would only be natural to find another team to outsource the next version, right?
They can take this job, but what if they give up their company shares in order to do so?
this……

To be honest, they find it a little hard to accept.

Ethan nodded his head at the tentative words. "Okay, I understand what you mean."

He waved his hand and said, "Because William is here, you will not lack cooperation."

"Don't even mention Apple, you can even get orders from IBM."

"So you are not willing to give up your shares for an Apple project."

"I can understand."

The blunt words made the two people present feel a little embarrassed.

Steve Ballmer, who had been sitting nearby and listening, pursed his lips and said nothing.

He could understand his friend's thoughts, but he knew even more that his boss was not someone to be trifled with!
While he was thinking about how to remind his friend, Ethan had already stood up.

He pulled out the whiteboard he had prepared long ago, picked up a marker, and smiled at the three people in the audience like a teacher in class, saying, "Your guesses are very clear, but the problem is, what I want you to write is not DOS. I am not interested in that thing, and I have not studied it."

"I called you here this time because I hope you can develop something for me that can bring convenience to the public. And my inspiration... comes from life."

"Usually, the things I come into contact with most at work are reports, all kinds of reports, some on production, some on operations, some on finance, and some on investment..."

"Although the data displayed in these reports are very intuitive and allow me to understand the company's operating status at a glance, it is very troublesome to fill it out, and it often gives me a headache."

As he spoke, Ethan raised his right hand and drew a table on the whiteboard.

Then he wrote down a few random numbers.

After finishing, he wrote the formulas where the summary was needed, and when he was halfway through, he seemed to find that he had made a mistake, so he raised his hand to erase it and rewrite it.

When the new formula appeared, the black background in the original frame made the three people present frown.

They felt as if they had discovered something.

But unfortunately, Ethan did not give them a chance to speak.

After finishing the example, he said:

"Steve should know one thing. Last year, when Rockefeller wanted to invest in Apple, Steve Jobs asked the accountant to work overtime for several days before producing the financial statements for that year for me."

"I know that preparing financial statements is a very painful process because it involves a lot of calculations. Although many calculations are the simplest addition and subtraction, when there are more numbers and columns, the repetition and precision involved will give people a headache."

"So, at that time, I was wondering if there was a magical piece of paper in this world."

"There will be various tables built into this paper. When people input real-life data according to the meaning of each table, the results they want will appear in the column at the bottom."

“As I searched around, it occurred to me that computers might be able to do this.”

"Because the fundamental meaning of his existence is calculation."

“Before, people couldn’t envision this kind of thing because computers were too expensive.”

"But when the personal computer industry emerged, when most people could afford a computer that cost a few hundred dollars, the convenience brought by technology was born, right?"

"I don't know if you can do this, but I know..."

"You're very interested in it, aren't you?"

When Ethan covered the marker and looked at the three people, his stunned expressions made him laugh.

That's right!

He never thought about building any system from the beginning!
In other words, the operating system can change the landscape of the computer industry, but it cannot have a huge impact on the current status of the computer industry in a short period of time!
Because no matter how good a system is, it needs an ecosystem!
And when the idea of ​​demand changing the world has been firmly grasped by Ethan...

Spreadsheet is the software he wants to make most now!
Because all companies will want this thing;

Because all schools will buy this thing;

Because this thing can make complicated calculations simple;
Because this thing can fundamentally bring convenience to people.

And when huge market demand is created by them...

Wall Street wants to seize the market with hardware?

Ah--

The idea is beautiful.

But unfortunately...

You won’t have a chance to think about it anymore!
Note: ① Paul Allen was not the gentle and refined person described in the news reports. He was the one who helped Bill Gates start the business, and even the system sold to IBM was found and purchased by him. He just looked kind. ② In reality, it was the spreadsheet that changed Apple's destiny. VisiCalc seemed to have sold one million copies, with revenue exceeding one billion US dollars in the 1980s.

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(End of this chapter)