giants of the era

Chapter 121 Things are tricky! (seeking subscription)
(Updated more than 1 words today, changing to 2k would be five chapters)

A few days later, Apple sued the "anti-Walkman alliance" headed by Warner Music.

As soon as the news spread, it immediately caused media reports, and the exposure rate of Walkman increased greatly!

Li Zetian suddenly felt that the value of this lawsuit would not only frustrate the opponent's spirit, but also increase Walkman's popularity!

The lawsuit quickly aroused discussion among the American people.

However, public opinion is basically one-sided in support of Apple!

"The record company is so domineering that it actually issued a banning order! This is a typical monopoly, and the American people firmly resist it!"

"The record company is too shameless, relying on its own power to forcibly interfere and threaten other weak companies, Apple has done a good job, it is to sue them, justice and fairness!!!"

"Support Apple!"

"..."

In this lawsuit, Apple clearly belongs to the weak, and it is human nature to sympathize with the weak.What's more, Apple has a reason this time!In addition, many people hope that the record company can release tape music, and when the time comes to buy a Walkman, there will be good songs to listen to.

This lawsuit is getting bigger and bigger, and Li Zetian has now regarded this lawsuit as a kind of alternative publicity for Walkman, and told the company's legal department to toss hard, the bigger the noise, the better.At the same time pretend to be pitiful and play a weak person.

Warner Records saw that Apple often vomited bitterness in front of the media, but they kept walking with Walkman, and quickly guessed its intentions.However, there is no way to take it.

The CEO of Warner Music Corporation gritted his teeth and said: "Fuck, Apple is using this lawsuit to hype Walkman, it's so shameless!!!"

The boss of EMI Records smiled lightly and said, "Calm down, don't worry! No matter how much Apple hypes up, we insist on boycotting the Walkman and not releasing music tapes, it will have nothing to do with us."

The CEO of Universal Records added: "Yes, as long as our alliance doesn't break down, even if we lose the lawsuit, it won't be a big deal. Let's delay it for a year and a half. I think Walkman can still be released as scheduled?"

"..."

On March 3st, Apple held a product conference and officially released the Walkman.

In fact, it doesn’t matter whether the product launch event is held or not. Many people know Walkman from TV.

However, this form still has to go.

On this day, the press conference was crowded with people and it was very lively.

Tian Shuai mainly did two things on the stage. The first thing was to announce that at 4 o'clock in the morning on April 1st, the Walkman tape player would be first launched in the United States; the second thing was to announce the price of Walkman and related products: Walkman tape The Walkman is $8 a piece, and a gift of Apple's official earphones - Monster earphones, two Duracell 299 batteries and two music tapes, users can choose two music tapes.Users can purchase additional music tapes for $5 each.

Although US$299 is not cheap for the spending power of Americans, it is definitely not expensive. The monthly salary of most ordinary Americans exceeds US$[-].

On April 4st, a long queue of tens of meters lined up at the entrance of the Apple flagship store, and the scene was very spectacular.

However, people in the surrounding shops are used to it.

The same is true for Apple's last release of Apple-ll, but today's team seems to be longer than last time.

Of course, it is not difficult to understand, there are many people who like to listen to music, and the price of Walkman is much cheaper than Apple-ll, most people can afford it.

At the end of the day, the people in the Apple flagship store were so busy that they never took a break.Less than 4 hours after opening, the inventory was sold out, and someone hurriedly brought a truck from the warehouse.

At 12 o'clock in the morning, Li Zetian asked people to count the sales volume.

Apple has now developed to fourteen flagship stores. The Walkman in the flagship store alone has sold 11 units, with a revenue of more than 3189 million US dollars, and sold 44 tapes.In cities where there is no flagship store, Apple still chooses to cooperate with other retailers. According to the sales data from them, the sales volume of Walkman reached 25 units, and 121 million tapes were sold.

Of course, the sales on the first day are always the hottest, and then they start to drop sharply.

On the eighth day, Walkman sales exceeded 100 million units.

At this time, the problem came out.

Users want to be able to listen to more songs with the Walkman, but so far, Apple has failed to reach an agreement with record labels.Those record companies that cooperate with Apple, their songs are so-so, and users don't like to listen to them.

Not long after, there were complaints!

Many people complained when they came to the door of the Apple flagship store.

"Fuck, I regret buying the Walkman now, there's nothing I want to hear, it's all rubbish!"

"Oh, I regret it too! It's been so long, and Apple hasn't released any other songs, and I'm fucking sick of them!"

"Apple is still in a lawsuit with the record company, but even if it wins, it's useless. The record company doesn't make music tapes, and Apple can't do anything about it. I suddenly discovered that I seemed to have bought a useless thing. ..."

"Damn, I want to return the product!"

"Yes, return it!!!"

"If you don't return the product, you will smash Apple's flagship store!!!"

"..."

A group of people rushed into Apple's flagship store and made a fuss, demanding to return the product. The scene was uncontrollable for a while, and the police had to be called to stabilize the situation.

After that, Apple's flagship store chose to close and suspend business.

Apple.

Li Zetian's face was gloomy. He knew that Apple had encountered the greatest difficulty in history.

"Mr. Li, something is wrong. It stands to reason that even if users are dissatisfied with the Walkman, they wouldn't make such a fuss." Shuai Tian frowned. "In my opinion, someone may be behind this incident. ..."

Li Zetian nodded slowly, and said thoughtfully: "The black hand behind it is probably related to the record company!"

"I suspect it's the same! However," Tian Shuai paused at this point.

"But what?"

"However, all of Apple's competitors have this possibility, including IBM, DEC, Hewlett-Packard, Commodore and other companies... As long as Apple is knocked down this time, it will be difficult to get up. In addition, Mr. Thomas Rockefeller Also a possibility……"

Li Zetian's eyes flashed brightly, and he said, "You mean that Thomas Rockefeller deliberately suppressed Apple, and then took the opportunity to buy Apple at a low price?"

"Isn't it impossible?" Tian Shuai nodded and said.

Li Zetian frowned into the word "Chuan", and he suddenly felt that things were getting more and more difficult, and the pressure on his body was getting bigger and bigger.

"No matter who the opponent is, we should solve the immediate problem as soon as possible!" Li Zetian said in a deep voice, "Tian Shuai, what can you do?"

Tian Shuai thought for a while, then shook his head and sighed, "If only we had dozens of classic songs..."

The speaker has no intention, the listener has the heart.

Li Zetian immediately made up his mind that at worst he would plagiarize the songs from his previous life.However, this idea was just ignited, and it was quickly extinguished by Li Zetian. Let alone whether it is possible to have dozens of classic songs in a short period of time, he said that he suddenly took out so many classic songs. Doesn't it arouse suspicion?It's just too exaggerated!
"Think about it again, there must be a way!" Li Zetian said to him, but also to himself.

……

Because of the return incident, Apple's reputation and image have been hit hard.

Not only Walkman sales are stagnant, but even Apple-ll personal computers have been seriously affected!

That night, Li Zetian analyzed his financial resources and said to himself: "If you have money, then buy a large record company and destroy the 'Anti-Walkman Alliance'. No matter how strong a fortress is, you can break it from the inside!"

However, Li Zetian found that he did not have enough funds at all.

Apple’s brutal expansion, the establishment of Seagate Technology, investment in movies, construction of headquarters, expansion of flagship stores, Mac project, Walkman project, headset project, Apple-lll project, etc., its own funds are tight, and it still owes several banks Tens of millions of dollars in loans.

Microsoft has some money, but not much. In order to allow Microsoft to develop rapidly and stably, it is natural that they can’t spend much, and Microsoft is facing many challenges at the moment. For example, VisiCalc and SuperCalc have appeared on the market. ,, Multiplan and other electronic forms, due to their low prices, quickly took away Microsoft's market share.Bill Gates has asked Li Zetian for instructions that he needs to fight a price war with these competitors, reduce the price of the Excel spreadsheet to $50 a copy, and kill them!Li Zetian nodded and agreed, Excel must occupy the dominant position in the market!So mobilizing money from Microsoft is not very good.Now that the release of Apple's Walkman is imminent, otherwise, he must be very concerned about the battle between Excel and other spreadsheets.

So now only Sunbird Company is left. Indeed, the game company is currently the most profitable company under Li Zetian's name.However, the golden age for game companies to make real money has not yet come, and Sunbird cannot make much money.

Game-Watch is one of Sunbird's more profitable products. However, what makes Li Zetian depressed is that the global plagiarism is too exaggerated. Many game companies have also developed their own Game-Watch, resulting in a sharp decline in the market's profits, and The Sunbird company is still busy with a lawsuit with them, that is a depressing one!
In addition, Atari's second-generation home game console, the 2600, required a lot of research and development funds.

"The market capitalization of the world's largest record companies is more than several billion dollars. It is wishful thinking to acquire them now!"

Li Zetian shook his head, the mountain-like pressure still enveloped him...

(End of this chapter)