Chapter 274: Crazy! Breaking the North American Record!
TSMC Science Park in Hsinchu, Taiwan.
TSMC was already very powerful at that time, but its status was not as awesome as it would be a decade later.
"Our x1 chip is the most advanced and the earliest..." Richie Templeton started chattering after seeing Lin Xiao.
"TSMC's 45nm process was really not mature yet, but we just rushed into it head-on."
"They all say we are crazy, we are crazier than Apple, we are crazier than Qualcomm."
Lin Xiao could especially understand the other party's excitement. For Texas Instruments, this was the first taste of victory after the big gamble.
Historically, Texas Instruments was the king in the 2G era, but fell far behind in the 3G and smartphone era, and has never caught up since.
This is of course due to belated realization and previous inertia.
I didn’t think much of it at first, thinking there was still time. But when I suddenly woke up, it was already too late.
This feeling is like sleeping in the morning. I have set many alarms, and I turn off them one by one, thinking I can sleep for another five minutes. But the last time, I slept for more than an hour and was late for work.
One step behind, every step is wasted.
It was really because of Lin Xiao that he gave specific goals, specific directions, and also gave a lot of money.
This will give Texas Instruments enough power and motivation to enter the research and development of smartphone chips long in advance.
Of course, the most important thing is that the chips it produces will never have trouble selling, because Lin Xiao will directly purchase five or six million pieces.
So, to some extent, the emergence of this chip saved Texas Instruments from its declining fate!
"Thank you, Lin!"
"You used the most gentle method, the most gentle whip, to wake us up."
"When this thing came out, I also had a vague feeling that the world was going to change. If it weren't for you, we would still be indulged in the glory of the past, unable to extricate ourselves." Richie took out the iPhone from his pocket.
Lin Xiao also took out one.
However, the sales of the first generation iPhone were just so-so, in the low millions.
When the iPhone 3G came out the next year, sales exceeded 10 million units.
"Lin, when will our cell phones be available?" Richie asked.
At this time, has it become our mobile phone? Lin Xiao held his forehead, he couldn't give a specific time.
The successful tape-out is the most critical step, but various extreme tests are still needed. In addition, TSMC's 45NM process technology is not yet fully mature and needs to be ramped up for mass production.
So, I really don’t know.
However, Lin Xiao will definitely take a batch of chips away this time to provide supporting testing, application development, structural design, etc. to the X Research Institute.
Texas Instruments will also take away a batch.
Richie held the iPhone in his hand and said, "Lin, the sales of this phone have only been over one million so far. Although Apple has experienced a slump for several years, it is still a world giant after all. How many sales can our phones have?"
If we only look at the sales of the first-generation IPHONE, we will be infinitely pessimistic about the sales of Lin Xiao's quantum mobile phone.
The first generation of iPhone only sold so few units, but you actually ordered five or six million units of your quantum phone? Because his requirements are too high. These accessories must be customized by suppliers, so basically they cannot be returned after they are produced.
So, it’s really a fucking gamble.
"The Chinese market is yours," Richie said. "But we have a great influence in the American market, and we also have a lot of connections. I will do my best to help you expand the American market."
“In the previous era, Texas Instruments was king.”
"Then in the future, Texas Instruments can still be the king."
…………………………………………
Ten days later!
In the X Research Institute in China.
The real prototype is out.
Although it is still ugly, this is for running applications. It is made by hand, so it is a little ugly.
But the specs are the same.
Sharp has produced some samples of its 480P screen.
"Fuck, fuck... this screen is so cool, so clear."
“So smooth…”
"This chip is awesome. Texas Instruments is worthy of being the former king of mobile phone chips. It has a very strong foundation."
"The heat dissipation is also very good, awesome, awesome..."
"This power consumption is also first-class."
Because there is a row of verification machines in front, all of which were made by hand.
There are Qualcomm chips, MediaTek chips, and the finished first-generation iPhone.
Heat dissipation and power consumption are of course a test of the design, but the process technology is also very important, especially power consumption.
TSMC's 45nm process is not yet mature, so Lin Xiao's X1 chip has directly reached the peak.
TSMC also hit it off immediately. I don't even have a mature process yet, but you're just giving me real money to practice with? I couldn't ask for more.
We will use your chip to improve its maturity and yield.
You know, HTC's first Android phone next year and Apple's second-generation phone next year have not yet caught up with the 45-nanometer process.
He is more stable and not as radical as Lin Xiao.
Lin Xiao compared the iPhone with the prototype. The screen was one generation ahead. It was really one generation ahead.
Whether in terms of color or fineness, it is more than slightly better.
Of course, from the perspective of later generations, 480P resolution is definitely not high-definition enough. However, there is a big problem with early Android phones, that is, the UI and icons are designed in a fancy way, pursuing the so-called three-dimensional effect, and even have special shadow effects.
As we all know, the more complex and gaudy the colors are, the less clear they appear.
Of course, these Android phones also learned from Apple. Another point is that Android is open source, which leads many companies to let loose when designing APP icons, making them more diverse and messy.
After taking several years of detours, most Android manufacturers finally decided that UI design should be as flat as possible, especially the drawing of APP icons. Don't use too many colors and try to keep them consistent with the UI.
This pure, flat design, which displays as few color blocks as possible per unit area, will greatly enhance the sense of high definition.
So the first feeling I had when I got hold of this prototype was that it was really fucking high definition.
It has higher resolution than iPhone, and compared to other Nokia and Motorola phones, it is really worlds apart.
Just watching it on this screen alone, it's so much better.
Lin Xiao used this prototype to play Temple Run and Plants vs. Zombies.
It is really much smoother than before, and the frame rate is much higher.
Plants vs. Zombies still has frame drops and lags during the last few big scenes.
After playing Temple Run for more than 20 minutes, there were obvious frame drops.
The previous prototype was not playable, but this prototype is at least playable.
But it’s okay, Fantasy Game Studio can then optimize it in a targeted manner, because the main configuration of this prototype is not much different from that of the mass-produced machine.
Fantasy Studios has hundreds of people, targeted optimization, and so much time, there is no reason why it can't be done well.
Huang Haiquan, the boss of Fantasy Studio, came to Lin Xiao.
"Boss, I have an idea."
Lin Xiao: “You say.”
Huang Haiquan: "I watched the iPhone games and I only had one feeling: rubbish!"
"We have more than 20 games, but none of them are masterpieces or showstopping games."
Lin Xiao: "You want to make a racing game?"
Huang Haiquan was stunned. Boss, you are really awesome. You know what I am going to say before I even say it.
Actually, there are already racing games, and there are also motorcycle games.
"You continue." Lin Xiao stopped talking. He couldn't interrupt his subordinates' desire to perform, as that would make them feel frustrated.
Huang Haiquan: "Today's handheld game consoles all have one shortcoming, which is that they only have small games, and lack large games with computer-like graphics."
"And the big PC-like games are divided into three categories: adventure, shooting, and racing."
"Among the three, racing games are the most suitable for mobile phones, and are even more suitable for control than computer keyboard and mouse. Moreover, racing games can achieve the ultimate graphics, and have a pseudo-masterpiece feel."
"Other games are very complex and require good modeling and textures to be realistic. However, in racing games, whether it is mountains, forests, or tall buildings, they are not explorable or interactive. They are just visual effects, so you can pile up textures as much as you can."
This is the fact. Lin Xiao has been using smartphones and playing games on them for a long time. He found that there is a huge difference in the picture quality of other games between mobile phones and computers, but the difference in picture quality of racing games is the smallest.
Even at a very early stage, those racing games were made very realistically, giving people the feeling of a computer game masterpiece being moved to a mobile phone.
"Okay, let's do it." Lin Xiao said.
Huang Haiquan: "So what is the appropriate size for the game?"
The storage capacity of early mobile phones was very precious and could not accommodate such large games.
Lin Xiao thought for a while: "About 300MB."
“You don’t need to have too many levels. A few classic scenes are enough. Try to make the graphics as good as possible with the existing hardware configuration.”
Huang Haiquan: “I understand!”
That's the beauty of owning a strong gaming group.
Because, basically, don't expect to make money from these games, they are just there to enrich the ecosystem.
Now Lightning Games has two cash cows, "Zhu Xian" and "Dungeon Fighter", which are enough to support all the teams and more than enough.
"Boss, what should we do for our next online game?" Huang Haiquan asked.
This question stumped Lin Xiao.
There are many online games that can make money, such as Fantasy Westward Journey, Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, Jian Wang 3, Audition, etc.
However, Lin Xiao didn't want to touch any of these.
Let’s do League of Legends!
After League of Legends, I played PUBG.
Moreover, in League of Legends, the connection between mobile phones and PC is directly completed.
Of course, the specific heroes can be discussed and created.
Lightning Games' future focus will still be on stand-alone games, which represent the most advanced productivity in gaming.
"League of Legends." Lin Xiao said.
Spend money on the left and explore the ultimate game on the right.
……………………………………
Next, Lin Xiao went on to negotiate with major giants without stopping.
Things went very smoothly with Alibaba. After all, they were a strategic ally. They agreed right away to develop an application specifically for Lin Xiao's mobile phone system.
Taobao and Alipay are two major apps.
However, the service content of the Alipay app is still relatively bland, and many users are still a little wary of money.
Mr. Cai just joked: "JD.com has been developing very rapidly recently."
Because it had enough money and had developed a logistics strategy early on, JD.com achieved success earlier than in history.
It’s just that Alibaba is not very hostile towards it now. Although they are both e-commerce companies, the overlap in their current tracks is not very strong.
Moreover, both sides are busy scrambling to grab land. It is a completely blue ocean market, and there is no need to occupy all the unknown markets. There is no need for conflict in the short term.
The real conflict is about Lingxi Island, which did not exist in history.
Because of Wu Lingxi, it was directly changed to Yiguo.
Then……
It is now on its last legs. Liao Feng has gone to jail, while JD.com is developing rapidly and is heading straight for its waistline.
Lingxi Island does not have a dedicated logistics system and relies entirely on physical store staff, postal services, and departmental express delivery.
Its delivery speed has always been slow, and it would have been fine if it had no competitors. But now that JD.com has emerged, its market share has begun to shrink rapidly.
What a pity.
If Liao Feng focuses on Lingxi Island, he should not come to compete with Renren.com. He can completely rely on Lingxi Island's store system and gradually develop into large-scale warehousing and logistics. There is huge room for development.
Moreover, he combined online and offline operations from the very beginning, and unknowingly he was ahead by many years.
It was not until more than ten years later that JD.com began to integrate online and offline operations.
Unfortunately, there was no result. Liao Feng was too greedy. Seeing that Renren had a future, he gave up Lingxi Island and ran over to grab it.
As a result, Renren was finished, and Lingxi Island was finished too.
The next focus will be Tencent, trying to find a way to get them to develop QQ for Lin Xiao’s mobile phone.
But...it didn't go well.
The relationship between Lightning Group and Tencent is actually just okay, and neither side has broken the tacit understanding.
Especially in instant messaging, Lightning Group is very restrained. YY Voice has an explosive number of users now, but it is still basically set up for game command.
But the two sides have a new conflict, still Dungeon Fighter.
DNF was developed in South Korea, and Tencent wants to be its agent.
As a result, Lightning Group's "Dungeon Fighter" has been out for a long time, and the two games look very similar.
They are engaged in a fierce war of words.
As a result, Lightning Group provided countless pieces of evidence to fully prove that "Dungeon Fighter" was earlier and it was the original version.
South Korea's "DNF" is a shameless plagiarism.
Then, South Korea's NEOPLE lost.
However, Dungeon Fighter is so damn successful that the number of online users has been skyrocketing.
Therefore, South Korea decided to continue with the development and make some minor changes.
As for Tencent, it still needs to act as an agent.
Therefore, there was an actual conflict between the two sides.
Lin Xiao did not force it. If he didn't want to develop it, then he wouldn't develop it.
After all, QQ was not available on iPhone at the beginning, but waited until next year to be available on iPhone.
Once the sales of mobile phones explode, it will be developed naturally.
Next, Liu Zuohu went to see Chen Yizhou, Sina, etc. on behalf of Lin Xiao.
I want the other party to develop mobile versions of Renren and Sina Blog.
As a result, the other party refused.
Tencent has not explicitly refused, they just said it takes time and needs to hold a meeting to discuss.
But Renren and Sina Blog directly refused.
Lin Xiao personally visited Mr. Chen, the boss of Microsoft China, and asked if he was willing to develop a dedicated MSN for Lin Xiao's mobile phone system?
Of course he knew that Mr. Chen definitely could not make the decision on this matter, and he needed to report to Microsoft headquarters.
After Lin Xiao left, Mr. Chen called Steve, the boss at the headquarters, to report.
"The Chinese are full of naivety and childishness." Steve sneered, "Perhaps it was the time when Plants vs. Zombies gave him enough courage to make such a request to us."
When Plants vs. Zombies was released, Lightning Group was still a very, very small company.
Microsoft certainly did not hesitate to show its superior favor, and now Lin Xiao is also going to develop a mobile phone system to compete with Microsoft.
Let me give you an idea of the arrogance of international giants.
However, Lin Xiao didn't expect Microsoft to agree at all, but he still had to ask.
There will be one more story in the future.
How did MSN die?
How did Microsoft fall? Isn't this all material? We can talk about it at length.
Next, we will talk to various website giants and ask them to develop 3G versions of the web pages specifically for mobile phones.
Sina once again gave a perfunctory response.
On the contrary, Mr. Zhang from Sohu agreed happily.
After Renren was sold to Microsoft, it had no relationship with Sohu at all, and there was no conflict of interest between Sohu and Lightning Group.
Now, Mr. Zhang has clearly felt that Sohu is about to be left behind by the times, and is devoting all his efforts to developing online games. "Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils" was launched in April this year and achieved good results.
Moreover, Mr. Zhang has also undergone some changes in his thinking.
Sometimes depressed, sometimes positive and enterprising.
………………………………
Xia Xi came to Ning City again.
“WeChat, do you want to release it together with the quantum phone?”
WeChat is the most important product of Lightning Group, no doubt about it.
And the ambition is very big.
Not only domestic markets, but also foreign markets.
Therefore, in Lin Xiao’s plan, WeChat is equivalent to WeChat + WhatsApp + Messenger (Facebook) in history.
Because East Asian Facebook, American Facebook, and domestic Facebook already have a huge number of users.
This is a purely social networking site in itself.
With this version of WeChat and above, you will have a very high starting point, and the data will be fully connected.
Even the friend relationships on Facebook can be directly transplanted.
Historically, Tencent’s WeChat was not launched until 2011, but Lightning Group’s was launched much earlier.
But does being early mean winning?
That’s not necessarily true. Mobile Fetion was launched in 2007 and had hundreds of millions of users at its peak.
However, this thing does not have many social attributes and defines itself as a free SMS sending software with too few functions and is too weak.
It can't be considered a real social interaction software.
MiTalk is a real instant messaging and social software.
The key point is that it was launched several months earlier than WeChat, but still lost to WeChat.
The reason is even more complicated. MiTalk is not as pure and free as WeChat. The unread and read status alone reflect the product attributes.
Moreover, MiTalk lacks a social user base, and its strategic emphasis is far from enough.
But Lin Xiao’s situation is completely different.
A sufficiently strong social user base, mastery of the system and hardware, and the most perfect product attributes.
The key is when it is launched.
“No, don’t launch it together with the quantum phone.” Lin Xiao said, “Wait until our phone sales are high enough and our phone system is strong enough before launching it.”
"If WeChat and quantum phones are launched together, QQ will be completely eliminated. By then, QQ will be available on Google's Android and iOS, but not on ours, which will put us in a passive position."
This year, because the product has not yet come out, Quantum Technology and Google are still at peace.
By next year, there will definitely be huge conflicts and wars.
Because next year the first Android phone will be released, the HTC G1.
This is a crucial battle.
But it doesn’t matter, Lin Xiao is completely unknown to the other party.
But HTC G1 and even the first generation of Android system were completely known and transparent to Lin Xiao.
I know what screen you want to use, what CPU you want, and what your system is like.
Full map open!
I've been targeting you from the beginning, with all-round leadership and dimensionality reduction attacks, how can you fight back? If it weren't for this reason, why would Lin Xiao be burdened with a huge debt of nearly one billion US dollars, and this is just a US dollar loan.
Domestic RMB loans are also astronomical figures.
Zhijiang even didn't know how much money he had invested in this business.
Lin Xiao did some calculations, assuming the sales volume was 5 million units and the average selling price was 3,399.
He will still lose money.
His costs are much higher than Apple's.
But at this time, who would care about losing money?
What is being fought for is the right to speak, the industry standards, and the entire market power.
"Lightning Map must be launched together with quantum mobile phones. This is a killer application and cannot be missing!" Lin Xiao: "Unfortunately, we are naturally far behind Google in this regard."
Google Maps was launched in February 2005.
The Lightning Map was launched in June, after Lin Xiao left the Lightning Group, and was added to the Facebook application.
After two years of investment and development, it has undoubtedly become the leader in the country.
However, there is a huge gap between it and Google internationally, even Facebook in East Asia and Facebook in the United States have already followed suit.
……………………………………
For more than a month, Lin Xiao has been traveling around the country.
At the same time in the United States, Sony Classics began its massive promotion of "The Hunger Games".
In 2012, Lionsgate invested $50 million in publicity.
In this world, Sony invested $60 million in 2007, so the publicity was even more astonishing.
Several major TV stations across the United States play the trailer of "The Hunger Games" almost every day in a brainwashing manner.
The promotion on Facebook and YouTube is even more vigorous.
Because Facebook is also one of the producers.
Although it has been 20 months since Facebook's national draft.
But high school and college students across the United States still clearly remember the grand occasion of that year.
Moreover, the heroine of "The Hunger Games" was chosen by them one by one, and the passion they put in that day is still fresh in their memory.
This intensive publicity campaign continued until the day of the film's release.
According to Lin Xiao's strategy, most of the publicity expenses should be put in North America, because many film markets around the world are currently looking highly towards North America.
As long as the movie explodes at the North American box office, it will explode in many markets around the world, without even having to spend too much money on publicity.
At this time, there are still more than six months before Lin Xiao repays the loan.
In the domestic market, Lightning Entertainment is just promoting as usual, no longer promoting "The Last Days".
There was even no mobilization of the five satellite TV stations to jointly advertise the event.
After all, this is a purely foreign language film, and it would be incorrect for Lightning Group to use a large number of television stations to promote it.
However, in recent years, Lightning Entertainment’s movies have been so successful in China that major theaters have instinctively scheduled more screenings for them.
On July 13, The Hunger Games was officially released in major markets around the world. (It was changed from July 9 to July 13.) Producer Susan Collins was so nervous that she couldn't breathe.
Because at the preview, almost everyone felt that the film was of average quality. And she instinctively felt that the film was childish, largely because she had always been involved in children's dramas.
Sony Classics, Columbia, and even professional film critics all agree that this movie is just average.
but……
When it was released.
Theaters across North America were packed with people.
A large number of young men and women flocked to the cinema.
It directly shocked the people at Columbia and Sony Classics.
Is this... is this movie that good? Are all the high school and college students from all over the United States here?
The box office of this movie might be a big hit? ……………………
The next day!
Several core senior executives are waiting for data to be submitted by the theaters.
Everyone is anxiously waiting for the first day box office data.
Even Wu Lingxi felt a little uneasy.
Because Lin Xiao has been in a state of depression for two years since the scandal broke out.
Especially the failure of "Breaking Bad" in ratings, it feels as if his myth has come to an end.
The most important thing is that the time to repay the loan is getting closer, and the amount is more than 900 million US dollars.
Breaking Bad is a dud.
If "The Hunger Games" fails again, it will be a huge trouble.
Tom Bernard of Sony Pictures Classics said: "We now know that the film will do well at the box office because the theaters are reporting that the audiences are very large."
“The key is, how many will there be?”
"Amy, guess what our first-day box office will be?"
Amy Pascal: "I think the first day box office of The Last Days was several million dollars?"
Susan Collins, producer and co-author of the aid: "If I could get $25 million, it would be a brilliant victory, the biggest victory of my career."
Tom Bernard: "If it reaches $25 million on the first day, it will be the best performance of the year for Sony Classics."
“Why doesn’t Lin stay with us in America?”
"He suggested that I pay for all the publicity costs."
At this time, although the box office statistics of American theaters are earlier and more professional than those of China, they are still not real-time.
Until the afternoon.
The accountant received the relevant data from various cinema chains and suddenly broke out in a cold sweat.
I looked at this number in disbelief.
That's crazy.
He didn't even dare to report it, but instead calculated it over and over again.
The result is this number.
He still couldn't believe it, so he called several important theaters to ask if there were any errors in the relevant data.
"Please recalculate your data. This data is shocking."
"I just can't report it like this."
"Please calculate it again and give it to me."
A few hours later, he calculated the relevant data again.
It's still the same number.
"Oh my god, am I crazy? Or is this world crazy?"
"69 million dollars!"
"Even if this was the opening weekend box office data, it would have been amazing enough, but it was actually the opening day box office data."
Historically, its first-day box office was 68.25 million US dollars.
In this world, due to the bigger publicity and the fact that it is an American talent show, more people watch the movie.
It’s just that because the ticket price was slightly lower, the first-day box office only increased by a few hundred thousand dollars.
But...it's already scary.
Historically, it broke the first-day box office record of $67.17 million set by "The Dark Knight".
"Ding-ling-ling..." Tom Bernard from Sony Classics came over to urge again.
"It's been delayed for several hours. Is it so difficult to get the data?"
The staff member trembled and said, "Tom, the first day box office is out."
"How much?" asked Tom anxiously.
Staff: “US$69 million.”
"What the fuck?" Tom Bernard suddenly let out a weird scream.
$69 million?!
No matter how many times he guessed, he would not dare to guess this number.
This… this broke the first-day box office record in North American film history! ………………………………
Note: On the last day, the terrible double monthly tickets, if you have monthly tickets, can you lend me a hand? Thank you, thank you! (End of this chapter)
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