Chapter 458 Plan A
The last time Barron came to the United States, he also participated in the development of Android's mobile operating system, the Android system, through Ivanta.
Based on his experience as a senior Android user in his previous life, he gave a lot of inspiration to the mobile phone system that had not yet taken shape.
After that, with the help of the ideas he provided, as well as some specific function implementations and control methods, the development speed of the Android system suddenly accelerated a lot.
And during this period of time, Barron has not stopped paying attention to the development of the Android company's system - after all, the Android system is too important for the future layout of his industry in the smartphone era.
Although through various investment companies, Barron currently holds more than 30% of Apple's shares - initially, he held a total of 30% of Apple's shares in the names of DS Capital and Rich23 Capital.
After that, DS Capital's private equity funds, including Mars Fund, also increased their holdings of some Apple shares, and now their total holdings are close to 40%.
But in the final analysis, he can only disperse these shares, but cannot really control Apple. At most, he can exert some influence.
To be precise, if it were Apple before the emergence of the IPhone, Barron would still be able to try to control or even acquire it. But in the future, the Apple company will be in a dominant position in the field of smartphones through the IPhone, and for a long time, it will almost become the dominant position in smartphones. It is difficult for Barron to get involved with the synonymous company Apple. Otherwise, if he is labeled as a "threat to national security", he will not be able to live with it.
And even the current Android company, Barron's acquired it through IC Capital, an "American company" registered in the name of Ivanta. Don't look at the fact that Britain and the United States are very close allies, but in this critical situation field, the other party will still not allow it to be controlled too much.
The current Android system development in Silicon Valley not only includes employees of the Android company, but also technicians sent by Honor Electronics to carry out "Plan A".
After Global Industrial Investment Fund acquired HTC and reorganized it into Honor Electronics, Honor Electronics became the first member of the Android Alliance and will be deeply involved in the research and development of the Android system, hoping to be able to develop it in the shortest possible time. Within, the finalization and production of the first smartphone equipped with Android system was completed.
The so-called "Plan A" is the research and development plan for the Android system and smartphones equipped with the Android system. In the research and development of the Android system, employees of the Android company need to determine what kind of mobile phone can realize their ideas and carry out the development of the Android system. Control, and then the staff of Honor Electronics will implement such a control method.
Including touch screen control, whether a home button is needed, gravity sensing and other functions, various tests are required.
However, in this process, Honor Electronics personnel will not be exposed to too much content of the Android system. At most, they can know how this system is operated - obviously, this is an Android system without physical Keyboard, a full touch-screen mobile phone operated through a virtual keyboard, is epoch-making at the moment.
According to the plan, the Android company needs to complete the first version of the Android system that can be used before July 1 this year, and then based on this, create the first smartphone prototype equipped with the Android system and start preparations for supply chain and production.
Apple will launch IPhone 1 early next year, and after that, Android companies will also grandly launch their Android system and the first smartphone equipped with Android system.
Barron’s preparations for this do not stop there. The Digital Future Investment Company under Caesar Fund recently acquired Halfbrick Studio, an Australian game studio.
Many people may not have heard of this game studio. Halfbrick Studio was founded in 2001. Before that, it was engaged in the production of outsourced mobile games.
However, in 2010 in the original time and space, the company was in trouble. Unless the sales of the game exceeded 300,000, it would be in danger of going bankrupt...
At that time, the company's senior designer Luke Muscat led his small team, and the three of them spent six weeks creating a game that was not well received at the beginning.
When the game hit the Apple App Store in April 2010, the entire company was stunned by its performance.
This game, suitable for all ages, easy to operate and full of fun, exceeded 1 million downloads within 3 months, and exceeded 200 million two years after its release.
Many people should have played that game, it's called "Fruit Ninja".
It can be said that "Fruit Ninja" was completely born for the touch screen. It perfectly combines the main difference between smartphones and current feature phones - the touch screen - with its game content, even at an international level such as WCG. "Fruit Ninja" was also included as an entry in the e-sports competition, which shows its great influence at that time.
Anyway, in his previous life, this game was the first game Barron played after using a smartphone, so it left a deep impression on him.
The most important thing is that the valuable thing about this game is its creativity. The difficulty of game production is not high.
Therefore, it is very suitable to be installed in Android-based smartphones to attract users and let them experience the difference between the control of smartphones and feature phones.
Because it is currently just a small game studio that mainly does outsourcing business, the acquisition price of Halfbrick Studio is not high. Digital Future Investment Company only spent less than US$1 million to acquire the company.
This can be regarded as his first layout in the mobile device gaming industry. The scale of the future gaming industry will be huge and will exceed the scale of entertainment industries such as sports and film and television. Therefore, the layout in this field can already be launched. .
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While in Silicon Valley, Ivanta also took the time to come over and spend time with Barron.
It can be said that after she made a series of acquisitions as the CEO of IC Capital, the eldest lady from the TP family has become more and more famous in the United States.
If her previous popularity was mainly due to her background and beauty, then her "talent" in business investment is now increasingly recognized, especially in these highly exposed Internet technologies. The company's investment also made her one of the most eye-catching second-generation wealthy people.
During this period, Ivanta represented IC Capital and had just completed its Series B capital injection into YouTube.
In YouTube’s angel round of financing, IC Capital invested US$1 million and took a 30% stake in the startup.
After April last year, YouTube finally began to transform from its original dating website into a website that provides users with video sharing.
Although this transformation seems to be relatively successful, due to the need to provide users with a large amount of storage space, the operating expenses required by YouTube have increased sharply. Even if it is used sparingly, the initial funds will be quickly consumed. .
Under such circumstances, YouTube conducted two rounds of financing in October last year and at the beginning of this year.
Because the cooperation with IC Capital has been very pleasant, Ivanta listened to Barron’s opinions, respected the ideas of YouTube’s founding team, and never interfered with their development plans for the website. Therefore, both financings were funded by IC Capital. conduct.
So far, IC Capital has invested a total of US$8 million in two installments, holding 49.6% of YouTube shares.
