The world is in trouble

Chapter 274 This is insane! Breaking the North American record!
Hsinchu, Taiwan, TSMC Science Park.

At this time, TSMC was already very powerful, but its status was not as dominant as it would be more than a decade later.

“Our X1 chip is the most advanced and the earliest…” Richie Templeton began to ramble on after meeting Lin Xiao.

“TSMC’s 45nm process is not mature yet, but we just went for it.”

“They all say we’re crazy, we’re crazier than Apple, we’re crazier than Qualcomm.”

Lin Xiao was particularly able to understand the other party's emotional excitement, which was like the first round of victory after a high-stakes gamble for Texas Instruments.

Historically, Texas Instruments was a king in the 2G era, but it fell far behind in the 3G era and the smartphone era, and has never caught up since.

Of course, there are reasons for this being realized too late, and reasons for past inertia.

At first, I didn't realize it, thinking there was still time. But when I suddenly woke up, it was too late.

It feels like sleeping in late in the morning. You set many alarms, turn them off one after another, thinking you'll just sleep for five more minutes, but on the last one, you end up sleeping for more than an hour and are late for work.

Falling behind even once leads to further setbacks.

It was really because of Lin Xiao that they provided specific goals and directions, and they also gave a lot of money.

This gave Texas Instruments sufficient motivation and incentive to enter the research and development of smartphone chips well ahead of schedule.

Of course, the most crucial point is that the chips it produces will sell without any worries, because Lin Xiao will directly purchase five or six million of them.

Therefore, to some extent, the emergence of this chip saved Texas Instruments from its decline!

"Thank you, Lin!"

"You used the gentlest method, the gentlest whip, to wake us up."

“When this thing came out, I had a feeling that the world was about to change. If it weren’t for you, we would still be stuck in our past glory, unable to break free.” Richie took out his iPhone from his pocket.

Lin Xiao also took one out.

However, the sales of the first-generation iPhone were only so-so, in the millions.

When the iPhone 3G comes out next year, sales will immediately exceed ten million units.

"Lin, when will our cell phones be ready?" Richie asked.

Has it become our mobile phone by now?
Lin Xiao sighed, unable to give a specific time either.

Successful tape-out is the most crucial step, but various extreme tests still need to be conducted. Furthermore, TSMC's 45nm process technology is not yet fully mature and still needs to ramp up production.

So, I really don't know.

However, Lin Xiao will definitely take a batch of chips with him this time to conduct supporting tests, application development, and structural design for the X Research Institute.

Texas Instruments will also take a batch.

Richie, holding the iPhone in his hand, said, "Lin, this phone has only sold a little over a million units so far. Although Apple has experienced several years of downturn, it is still a global giant. How many units can our phone sell?"

If we only look at the sales figures of the first-generation iPhone, we would be extremely pessimistic about the sales of Lin Xiao Quantum Phone.

The first-generation iPhone only sold so few units, yet your quantum phone has ordered five or six million.
Because his requirements were too high, all the parts had to be custom-made by the supplier, so they basically couldn't be returned once they were produced.

So, it was truly a high-stakes gamble.

“The Chinese market is your domain,” Richie said. “But in the American market, we have a lot of influence and connections. I will do everything I can to help you expand into the American market.”

“In the past, Texas Instruments was the king.”

"So in the future, Texas Instruments can still be the king."

................................................

About ten days later!

Inside the X Research Institute in China.

The real prototype is out.

It's still ugly, but it's for running applications, so I just hand-wrote it. So what if it's ugly?

But the specifications are the same.

Sharp has released some samples of its 480P screens.

"Holy shit, holy shit... this screen is awesome, so clear."

"It's so smooth..."

"This chip is amazing. Texas Instruments truly deserves its reputation as the former king of mobile phone chips; their expertise is still very strong."

"The heat dissipation is also excellent, awesome, awesome..."

"The power consumption is top-notch too."

Because there's a row of verification machines lying in front of us, all of which are made by hand.

It had Qualcomm chips, MediaTek chips, and the finished first-generation iPhone.

Heat dissipation and power consumption are certainly challenging aspects of design, but manufacturing process is also very important, especially in terms of power consumption.

While TSMC's 45nm process wasn't mature yet, Lin Xiao's X1 chip had already jumped straight to the top.

TSMC was quick to agree. "My process isn't mature yet, and you're giving me real money to practice on?" They couldn't be happier.

We'll use your chip to refine its performance and improve the yield rate.

Keep in mind that HTC's first Android phone next year, and Apple's second-generation phone, haven't even caught up with the 45-nanometer process yet.

They are more stable and not as aggressive as Lin Xiao.

Lin Xiao compared the iPhone with the prototype. This screen is a generation ahead, it really is a generation ahead.

Whether it's the color or the level of detail, it's more than just slightly better.

Of course, from a modern perspective, 480P resolution is definitely not high-definition enough. And early Android phones had a major flaw: their UIs and icons were designed with excessive ornamentation, pursuing a so-called three-dimensional effect and even including shadow effects.

As we all know, the more varied and colorful the colors, the less clear the image becomes.

Of course, these Android phones all followed Apple's lead. Another point is that Android's open-source nature has allowed many companies to be more creative when designing app icons, resulting in a wide variety of styles and making the designs even more chaotic.

After several years of detours, most Android manufacturers finally settled on the principle that UI design should be as flat as possible, especially the drawing of app icons, and that too many colors should be used to maintain consistency with the UI.

This pure, flat design, which minimizes the number of color blocks displayed per unit area, greatly enhances the sense of high definition.

So my first impression of this prototype was, wow, it's freaking high definition.

It's clearer than the iPhone, and it's worlds apart from other Nokia and Motorola phones.

Just looking at the screen alone, it's far superior.

Lin Xiao then used this prototype to play Temple Run and Plants vs. Zombies.

It's much smoother than before, and the frame rate is much higher.

Plants vs. Zombies still experiences frame drops and stuttering during the final few big scenes.

After playing Temple Run for about twenty minutes, noticeable frame drops also appeared.

The previous prototype was unplayable, but this prototype is at least playable.

But that's alright, now Fantasy Game Studio can focus on targeted optimization. Because the main specifications of this prototype are already very similar to the production version.

With hundreds of people at Fantasy Studio, targeted optimization, and so much time to spare, there's no reason why they can't do it well.

Huang Haiquan, the head of Fantasy Studio, came to Lin Xiao.

"Boss, I have an idea."

Lin Xiao: "Go ahead."

Huang Haiquan: "I've looked at the games on the iPhone, and I only have one feeling: garbage!"

"We have more than 20 games, but none of them are masterpieces or showcases of technical prowess."

Lin Xiao: "You want to make a racing masterpiece?"

Huang Haiquan was taken aback. Boss is really awesome. I haven't even said anything yet, and you already know what I'm going to say.

Actually, there are already racing games and motorcycle games.

"Go on," Lin Xiao said, not daring to interrupt his subordinate's desire to perform, as that would only lead to frustration.

Huang Haiquan: "Current handheld game consoles all have one drawback: they are all small games and lack large games with computer-like graphics."

"PC-like games fall into three categories: adventure, shooting, and racing."

"Of these three, racing games are best suited for mobile phones, even better than computers with keyboards and mice. Moreover, racing games can achieve the ultimate in graphics, giving them a pseudo-masterpiece feel."

“Other games are very complex and require excellent modeling and texturing to be realistic. However, racing games, whether it’s mountains, forests, or skyscrapers, are not explorable or interactive; they are just visual effects, so you can just pile on textures.”

That's the truth. Lin Xiao had been using smartphones and playing games on them for a long time. He found that the difference in graphics between mobile phones and computers was huge for other games, but the difference in graphics between racing games was the smallest.

Even in the early days, those racing games were made to be very realistic, giving people the feeling that a computer game masterpiece had been ported to a mobile phone.

“Okay, let’s do it then,” Lin Xiao said.

Huang Haiquan: "What would be a suitable size for the game?"

Early mobile phone storage was very limited and couldn't hold large games.

Lin Xiao thought for a moment: "Around 300MB."

"We don't need too many levels, just a few classic scenes will suffice. We'll try to make the graphics as good as possible with the existing hardware."

Huang Haiquan: "I understand!"

That's the beauty of owning a powerful gaming group.

Because these games are basically not meant to make money; they are purely for enriching the ecosystem.

With two cash cows, "Zhu Xian" and "Dungeon Fighter Online," Lightning Games now has more than enough to support all its teams.

"Boss, what should we make for our next big online game?" Huang Haiquan asked.

This question stumped Lin Xiao.

There are many online games that can make money, such as Fantasy Westward Journey, Tian Long Ba Bu, JX3, Audition Online, and so on.

However, Lin Xiao didn't want to touch any of these things.

Let's make League of Legends!

After League of Legends, I started making PUBG.

Furthermore, in League of Legends, the connection between mobile and PC is directly achieved.

Of course, the specific heroic figures can be discussed and newly created.

The focus of Lightning Games will remain on single-player games, as these represent the most advanced productivity in gaming.

"League of Legends," Lin Xiao said.

Spend money on in-game purchases on the left, and explore the ultimate gaming experience on the right.

..........................................

Next, Lin Xiao immediately went to negotiate with various industry giants.

The process went very smoothly with Alibaba, as they are a strategic ally and readily agreed to develop an application specifically for Lin Xiao's mobile phone system.

Taobao and Alipay are two major apps.

However, the Alipay app currently offers relatively limited services, and many users are still somewhat wary of money-related matters.

Mr. Cai simply joked, "JD.com has been developing very rapidly lately."

Because it had enough money and developed a logistics strategy early on, JD.com achieved success earlier than ever before.

However, Alibaba's hostility towards it is not very strong at the moment. Both are e-commerce companies, but the overlap between their business models is not very strong at present.

Moreover, both sides are busy expanding their territories, which are completely untapped markets with no end in sight. There is no need for conflict in the short term.

The real conflict occurred on Lingxi Island, which did not exist historically.

Because of Wu Lingxi, it was renamed directly to Yigou.

then……

It's barely surviving now; Liao Feng is in jail, while JD.com is developing rapidly, directly targeting its weak points.

Lingxi Island does not have a dedicated logistics system; it relies entirely on physical store staff, the postal service, and some courier services for delivery.

Its delivery speed has always been slow. It was fine that it had no competitors, but now that JD.com has risen, its market share has begun to shrink rapidly.

What a pity.

If Liao Feng focuses on Lingxi Island and doesn't try to steal Renren.com, relying entirely on Lingxi Island's franchise store system and gradually developing into large-scale warehousing and logistics, there is enormous potential for growth.

Moreover, he initially combined online and offline methods, which unknowingly put him ahead for many years.

Even more than a decade later, JD.com only began to integrate online and offline channels.

Unfortunately, it came to nothing. Liao Feng was too greedy. Seeing the potential of Renren.com, he abandoned Lingxi Island and came to steal it.

As a result, Renren.com went out of business, and Lingxi Island also went out of business.

The next focus is on Tencent; we need to find a way to get them to develop QQ for Lin Xiao's phone.

But... things didn't go smoothly.

The relationship between Lightning Group and Tencent is actually reasonably good; neither side has broken their tacit understanding.

Especially in instant messaging, Lightning Group has been very restrained. YY Voice has exploded in users, but it is still basically set up for game command.

However, a new conflict arose between the two sides, still involving Dungeon Fighter Online.

DNF was developed in South Korea, and Tencent wants to distribute it.

As it turns out, Lightning Group's "Dungeon Fighter Online" has been out for quite some time, and the two games look very similar.

They're currently engaged in a fierce war of words.

As a result, Lightning Group provided an immense amount of evidence, completely proving that Dungeon Fighter Online came earlier and was the original.

The Korean game "DNF" is the real blatant plagiarism.

Then, NEOPLE from South Korea lost.

However, Dungeon Fighter Online was so incredibly successful that its online player count kept skyrocketing.

Therefore, South Korea decided to continue development, making slight modifications, and keeping it the same.

Tencent, on the other hand, still needs to act as an agent.

Therefore, a real conflict arose between the two sides.

Lin Xiao didn't insist; if they didn't want to develop it, then they didn't have to.

After all, QQ wasn't initially available on iPhone; it was only released on iPhone next year.

Once mobile phone sales explode, it will naturally be developed.

Next, Liu Zuohu, on behalf of Lin Xiao, went to see Chen Yizhou, Sina, and others.

We wanted them to develop mobile versions of Renren and Sina Blog. However, they refused.

Tencent hasn't explicitly rejected it yet; they've just said they need time and a meeting to discuss it.

Renren.com and Sina Blog directly refused.

Lin Xiao personally visited Mr. Chen, the head of Microsoft China, to inquire whether he would be willing to develop a dedicated MSN for Lin Xiao's mobile phone system.

He knew, of course, that Mr. Chen couldn't make the decision on this matter; he needed to report back to Microsoft headquarters.

After Lin Xiao left, General Manager Chen called Steve, the head of headquarters, to report.

“The Chinese are full of naivety and childishness,” Steve sneered. “It was probably back in the days of Plants vs. Zombies that they had enough courage to make such a request to us.”

When Plants vs. Zombies was released, Lightning Corporation was a very, very small company.

Microsoft, of course, is not stingy with its high-handed favors, but now Lin Xiao's side is also going to make a mobile operating system and compete with Microsoft.

Then let me show you what the arrogance of an international giant is like.

However, Lin Xiao didn't expect Microsoft to agree at all, but he still had to ask.

The future will also have one more story.

How did MSN die?

How did Microsoft fall from grace?
Aren't these all source materials? They can be discussed at length.

Next, we need to talk to various website giants and get them to develop 3G versions of their websites specifically for mobile phones.

Sina is once again being perfunctory.

On the contrary, Mr. Zhang from Sohu agreed quite readily.

After Renren.com was sold to Microsoft, it became completely unrelated to Sohu, and Sohu and Lightning Group no longer had any conflict of interest.

Mr. Zhang, the current CEO, clearly senses that Sohu is about to be left behind by the times and is now going all out to develop online games. "Tian Long Ba Bu" was launched in April this year and has performed quite well.

Moreover, Mr. Zhang's thinking has undergone some changes.

Sometimes dejected, sometimes proactive.

....................................

Xia Xi came to Ning City once again.

"Should we release WeChat along with the quantum phone?"

WeChat is the most important product of Lightning Group, without exception.

Moreover, they are extremely ambitious.

We need not only the domestic market, but also the international market.

Therefore, in Lin Xiao's plan, WeChat is equivalent to the historical combination of WeChat, WhatsApp, and Messenger (Facebook).

Because Facebook in East Asia, the United States, and China already have a huge number of users.

This is a purely social networking site.

This version of WeChat and above will have a very high starting point, with complete data integration.

Even Facebook friend relationships can be directly transferred over.

Tencent's WeChat wasn't launched until 2011, while Lightning Group's version was released much earlier.

But does being early necessarily mean you'll win?

That's not necessarily true. Fetion was launched in 2007 and had hundreds of millions of users at its peak.

However, this thing doesn't have much of a social aspect; it defines itself as a free SMS sending software, with too few and too weak features.

It can hardly be considered a true social interaction software.

MiTalk, on the other hand, is a true instant messaging and social networking software.

The key point is that it was launched several months earlier than WeChat, but it still lost to WeChat.

The reasons are more complex; MiTalk isn't as purely free as WeChat. Even a simple "unread" or "read" status reflects the product's inherent characteristics.

Moreover, MiTalk lacks a social user base and its strategic focus on social interaction is far from sufficient.

But Lin Xiao's situation was completely different.

With a sufficiently strong social user base, control over the system and hardware, and the most perfect product attributes.

The key question is when it will be launched.

“No, don’t launch it alongside the quantum phone,” Lin Xiao said. “We’ll launch it when our phone sales are high enough and our operating system is powerful enough.”

"If we launch WeChat and quantum phones together, we'll completely eliminate QQ. At that point, QQ will be available on Google's Android and iOS, but not on our platform, which will put us in a passive position."

This year, because the product hasn't been released yet, quantum technology and Google are coexisting peacefully.

Next year, there will definitely be huge conflicts and major wars.

Because the first phone to run on the Android system, the HTC G1, will be released next year.

This is a crucial battle.

But it doesn't matter, Lin Xiao is completely unknown to the other party.

For Lin Xiao, the HTC G1, and even the first-generation Android system, were completely known and transparent.

I know what kind of screen you want to use, what kind of CPU you want, and what kind of system you want.

Full map revealed!

I've been targeting you from the start, with a comprehensive advantage and a dimensional reduction attack. How are you going to fight back?
If it weren't for this reason, why would Lin Xiao be burdened with a debt of nearly one billion US dollars, and that's just a dollar loan?

Domestic RMB loans are also astronomical figures.

In fact, Zhijiang has invested an unknown amount of money in this endeavor.

Lin Xiao did the math: assuming sales volume is 500 million units and the average selling price is 3399.

He will still lose money.

His cost is much higher than Apple's.

But at this point, who cares about losing money?

What they are fighting for is the right to speak, the industry standards, and the power over the entire market.

"Lightning Map must be launched alongside the quantum phone. It's a killer app that can't be missing!" Lin Xiao: "Unfortunately, we naturally lag behind Google in this area."

Google Maps was launched in February 2005.

Lightning Maps was launched in June, after Lin Xiao left Lightning Group, and was added to Facebook's applications.

After two years of investment and development, it is undoubtedly a leader in the domestic market.

However, it lags far behind Google internationally, even in East Asia, where Facebook and Facebook in the United States have already caught up.

..........................................

For more than a month, Lin Xiao traveled all over the country.

Meanwhile, in the United States, Sony Classics launched a massive advertising campaign for "The Hunger Games".

In 2012, Lionsgate spent $5000 million on advertising.

In this world, Sony invested $6000 million in 2007, making the promotional campaign even more impressive.

Several major television networks across the United States broadcast trailers for "The Hunger Games" almost daily in a brainwashing manner.

The promotional campaign was even more intense on Facebook and YouTube.

Because Facebook is also one of the producers.

Although 20 months have passed since Facebook's national talent show.

But high school and college students across the United States still vividly remember the grand occasion back then.

Moreover, the female lead in "The Hunger Games" was chosen by them by vote, and the passion they had on that day is still fresh in their minds.

This vigorous promotional campaign continued until the day of the film's release.

According to Lin Xiao's strategy, the majority of the publicity budget should be allocated to North America, because the global film market is currently heavily reliant on North America.

If a film is a box office hit in North America, it will be a hit in many markets around the world, and you won't even need to spend much money on advertising.

At this point, there were still about six months left before Lin Xiao was supposed to repay the loan.

In the domestic market, Flash Entertainment simply continued its usual promotional efforts, without the same fanfare as with "Doomsday Journey".

They didn't even use five satellite TV stations to jointly broadcast the message.

Since this is a purely foreign language film, it would be inappropriate for Lightning Entertainment to use a large number of television stations for promotion.

However, in recent years, Lightning Entertainment's films have been so successful in China that major cinema chains have instinctively given them more screen time.

7月13日，《饥饿游戏》正式在全世界主要市场上映。（从7月9日，改到13日了。）
Producer Susan Collins was so nervous she could hardly breathe.

During the preview screening, almost everyone felt that the film was of mediocre quality. Furthermore, she instinctively felt the film was childish, largely due to her experience working in children's theater.

Sony Classics, Columbia Pictures, and even professional film critics all share this opinion: this film is mediocre.

but……

When it was released.

Theaters across North America were packed with people.

A huge number of teenage boys and girls flocked to the cinema.

This completely stunned the people at Columbia and Sony Classics.

Is this movie really that good?
Are all the high school and college students from across America here?

This movie might be a box office smash!
........................

next day!

Several key executives are waiting for the data submitted by the cinema chain.

Everyone is anxiously awaiting the first day's box office figures.

Even Wu Lingxi was somewhat uneasy.

Because Lin Xiao has been in a slump for two whole years since the scandal broke.

The failure of "Breaking Bad" in particular gave people the feeling that his myth had come to an end.

Most importantly, the loan repayment deadline is fast approaching, and the amount is over 900 million US dollars.

Breaking Bad fizzled out.

If The Hunger Games flops again, it will be a huge problem.

Sony Classics' Tom Bernard said, "Now we probably know that this movie will do very well at the box office because theaters are reporting very high audience numbers."

"The key question is, how many exactly?"

"Amy, what's your guess? How much will our box office be on opening day?"

Amy Pascal: "Doomsday Journey's opening day box office was around a few million dollars, right?"

Producer and co-author Susan Collins: "If we could get $25 million, that would be a glorious victory, the biggest victory of my career."

Tom Bernard: "If the opening day box office reaches $25 million, that will be Sony Classics' best result this year."

Why isn't Lin with us in the US?

"He suggested that I pay for all the advertising expenses."

At this time, although US box office statistics were earlier and more professional than those in China, they were still not available in real time.

It wasn't until the afternoon that it happened.

The accountant received the relevant data from various cinema chains, and then a cold sweat broke out on his forehead.

I can't believe my eyes when I see this number.

too crazy.

He didn't even dare to report it, but instead did the calculations again and again.

The result is always this number.

He still couldn't believe it, so he called several major cinema chains to inquire whether there were any errors in the relevant data.

"You should recalculate your data; this data is astonishing."

"I simply cannot submit it like this."

"Please calculate it again and then hand it to me."

A few hours later, he recalculated the relevant data.

It's still the same number.

"My God, am I going crazy? Or is the world going crazy?"

"$6900 million!"

"Even if this is the opening weekend box office data, it is already amazing enough, and it is actually the opening day box office data."

Historically, its opening day box office was $6825 million.

In this world, the number of viewers is even greater due to the larger promotional campaign and the fact that it was a nationwide talent show.

However, because the ticket price was slightly lower, the opening day box office only saw an increase of a few hundred thousand dollars.

But... it's already terrifying.

Historically, it broke the opening day box office record of $6717 million set by The Dark Knight.

"Ring ring..." Sony's classic Tom Bernard came to urge me again.

"It's already been delayed for several hours, is it really that difficult to get this data?"

The staff member said, trembling, "Tom, the first-day box office results are in."

"How much?" Tom asked anxiously.

Staff member: "$6900 million."

"What the fuck?" Tom Bernard suddenly let out a bizarre scream.

$6900 million? !

No matter how many times he guessed, even a hundred times, he wouldn't dare guess that number.

This...this has broken the record for the highest-grossing opening day in North American film history!
....................................

Note: Last day! The dreaded double monthly pass bonus! If you have any monthly passes, could you please lend me a hand? Thank you, thank you!
(End of this chapter)