Chapter 629 The Lame Giant

If you ask what the hottest news in the high-tech field is in early 2011, everyone will tell you that Leaf Technology has launched the strongest and most powerful attack on the Microsoft Empire.

First of all, Leaf Technology's ultrabook has finally been launched, and in the early pre-sale, it has obtained a hot pre-sale order of 100,000 units. Once it was launched, it gave a shot in the arm to the sluggish PC market. Moreover, the price of Leaf Technology's ultrabook is not cheap, ranging from US$999 to US$1,699 depending on the configuration, which can be regarded as a luxury.

According to statistics from the famous market research company IDC, less than a month after Leaf Technology launched the ultrabook, it has sold 400,000 units in North America. With the launch of the ultrabook in Europe, Asia and other regions, the sales volume in the first quarter of 2011 will have the opportunity to exceed 1.5 million. This is definitely a rare good news for the PC market where sales continue to decline.

According to IDC's comments, one of the important reasons why Leaf Technology's ultrabook is selling so well is the continuation of the craze created by mobile phones in the past to tablet computers. After all, Leaf Technology announced that this ultrabook using the Android system can share and use Android system applications through the Android store.

Another important aspect is that this ultrabook itself has a very attractive appearance design, as well as a convenient control system and powerful computer performance. Although the price is still high, it continues Leaf Technology's consistent reputation and brand effect, making users still highly recommend this product.

IDC analysts also said in an interview with the media that the birth of the ultrabook represents a disagreement between the alliance between Microsoft and Intel, and with the hot sales of ultrabooks, the differences between Intel and Microsoft will become greater and greater.

"In the past, Intel and Microsoft could only depend on each other, but with the birth of tablet computers, the traditional notebook and netbook PC market has been greatly impacted, and sales have declined significantly. Intel also complained about Microsoft's lack of innovation, so when Leaf Technology proposed to develop the concept of ultrabooks, the two sides almost hit it off."

"For a long time, the biggest disagreement between Microsoft and Leaf Technology, or the biggest difference in the concepts of the two sides, has always been that in terms of hardware, Microsoft has always insisted on OEM, that is, authorization, and Microsoft itself almost never touches those hardware, but Leaf Technology insists on joint research and development of software and hardware, and both software and hardware are well developed."

"In terms of concept, Microsoft used to regard laptops as a mobile extension of PC computers. Naturally, after the rise of smartphones and tablets, Microsoft also regarded these two markets as extensions of PCs, so what they think about is how to shrink everything on the computer to mobile phones and tablets."

"Leaf Technology's philosophy The concept is obviously different. After the hot sales of smartphones, they have been brewing cross-border. They have always believed that smartphones are only a part of the smart ecosystem, and tablets are another part of the smart ecosystem. Similarly, now they have set their offensive targets on the traditional PC market, so there is the concept of two-in-one ultrabooks. "

"And an important issue that must be clearly recognized by Microsoft management is that in the past few years, Leaf Technology has a very clear goal, that is, to transform from a content user to a content creator, and the entire Android system and smart ecosystem are developing and setting goals around this link. "

The famous analyst of IDC also said that Microsoft has no effective way to defend against Leaf Technology's attack. The only thing they can do now is actually very little, that is, to improve and launch an innovative operating system as soon as possible, or a mobile phone smart operating system, but whether they can resist the impact of Leaf Technology is still an unknown.

Not only ultrabooks, at the launch conference in January, Leaf Technology also officially launched its own smart TV box, which is a smart TV box with an Android system specially customized for TVs and can be used on any TV. The main control system includes both traditional remote control and control modes mixed with the Beyond Somatosensory Control Technology.

The TV box has received great praise in terms of human-computer interaction and control experience, especially the Beyond Somatosensory Control Technology, which is considered to have greatly surpassed the somatosensory technology previously launched by Microsoft. At the same time, it can be connected to mobile phones, tablets and ultrabooks via WIFI, and can run games and applications in the Android store.

Not only that, Leaf Technology has also specially launched a batch of somatosensory games for TV boxes. Some small games are developed by Leaf Technology itself, but most of them were previously released to developers for development and launched on the market at the same time.

The launch of the smart TV box is also seen as another strong impact on Microsoft's home console business. After all, Leaf Technology has an absolute advantage in content, and the human-computer interaction and control experience are quite excellent, but it is relatively poor in the field of games. After all, Microsoft and Nintendo have been developing in this area for many years.

But games are obviously not the biggest selling point of the Zeus TV box. Its biggest selling point lies in its upgradeability. According to Leaf Technology's plan, it will launch and develop more smart home products in the future, and further tap the potential of TV boxes.

With the strong launch of new mobile phones, new tablets, ultrabooks, TV boxes and other businesses, Leaf Technology became the most watched high-tech company in the world in January 2011. Their every move has attracted worldwide attention. Attention, and with the hot sales of many products, Leaf Technology's cash reserves are also increasing. Many analysts believe that Leaf Technology will complete this long-awaited acquisition of Motorola.

But there is also relatively unfavorable news that Google has repeatedly expressed interest in Motorola's mobile phone business.

But just when Motorola's market value was soaring because it was caught in the rush of major technology giants, Nokia, the Finnish mobile phone industry giant, released its financial statements for the fourth quarter of 2010. The latter announced that it would The company lost 1.2 billion euros in the fourth quarter.

As soon as this news was published, Nokia's market value immediately fell sharply, falling directly below the bottleneck of tens of billions of euros. It also shocked everyone in the world who paid attention to the high-tech field, and even issued statements one after another. Even Nokia They all began to scream and scream uncontrollably.

In an interview with reporters at the press conference, Nokia Chairman Risto Sielasma said that the loss was due to the company's restructuring of its business, especially the acquisition of some map businesses, which resulted in a total loss of one billion euros. , causing the company to suffer such huge losses.

As for the news in the market that Nokia will spend a lot of money to buy out the shares of the joint venture with Siemens, Risto Sielasma also gave a positive answer, saying that the two parties are still negotiating and nothing can be announced to the public yet. news, but has undoubtedly given a positive answer to this news.

As a result, Nokia's market value will definitely decline in the long run, because according to this report, Nokia's smartphone system does not make much money at all. Although the company has huge cash flow, it will not be profitable in the short term. As for bankruptcy, the business has undoubtedly fallen into a quagmire and it is difficult to make a breakthrough.

Therefore, Nokia's stock price plummeted after the press conference, falling below tens of billions. At the same time, its long-term development prospects have become very bleak. Many professionals even expressed disapproval of Nokia's announcement that it would launch an Android mobile phone system in the second quarter. Everyone predicted that this was a last resort move for Nokia to redeem itself.

After Samsung, HTC and even many Chinese mobile phone brands have tasted great benefits from the Android system and developed rapidly, Nokia has only entered this market now, which is obviously a bit late.

Of course, among the analyzes of many professionals, there are occasionally one or two comments that believe that whether it is business restructuring, buying out Siemens' shares, or further acquiring and improving the map business, although in the short term, Nokia's The financial statements will certainly be ugly, but Nokia's assets will be of higher quality in the long run.

Some top international financial reporting experts have even predicted that in the first quarter of 2011, after Nokia acquired Siemens' business, its financial statement losses will continue to exceed 1 billion. Even if Nokia is true, as outsiders say, it will lay off 20% of the world's employees. Employees, that is, more than 70,000 employees, will save one billion euros in expenses, but the losses will be huge.

"What is the reason that made Nokia make such a major decision?"

Top financial reporting gurus, and even some of the world's top investors have smelled some clues, that is, Nokia is using this self-inflicted approach to attract acquirers!

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"Nokia is very sincere this time. Their negotiating team is personally led by John Ollila, including Chairman Risto Sielasma, CEO Kallasvuo, Chief Lawyer Louis Pentland and Chief Financial Officer. , all participated in this negotiation in Finland.”

In the small town of Totteridge in north London, at Ye Qiu's home, Eliza Moon, Sandberg, and others who participated in this trip to Finland, Ye Zi Technology's negotiation team met in Ye Qiu's study because it was a matter of concern. It is confidential, so there are not many people involved in the negotiations this time. Leaf Technology has only four people, while Nokia has seven people.

For Leaf Technology, Nokia's willingness to negotiate is a good start in itself, and according to Eliza Moon, this was a text message sent to her by John Ollila himself, which prompted this of negotiations.

However, this is an acquisition involving more than 10 billion euros. It will also be the largest acquisition carried out by Ye Ye Technology since its establishment. It is bound to set off huge waves around the world, so it cannot be done in a short time. Finish.

"We don't need to be too hasty in our current negotiations!" Eliza Moon was analyzing the current situation with Ye Qiu. "There are differences within Microsoft. Bill Gates doesn't want the company to involve too much hardware. Ballmer wants to acquire a company with hardware capabilities, such as Motorola or Nokia. The two sides have great differences and there is no sign of reconciliation for the time being.”

This has always been a big weakness of Microsoft. They are really bad at hardware. It can even be said that almost all of their digital products have never been successful. This makes Microsoft look like a lame giant.

"Apple has no intention of making such a major acquisition. They are still focusing on developing their own mobile phone and tablet business, and they can't spend so much money to acquire Motorola or Nokia. On the contrary, they are with Google. Motorola is very close."

Of course, Leaf Technology is also very close to Motorola, but the real target is Nokia.

In Ye Qiu's view, with the huge patent from Nortel Networks and the huge patent system held by Ye Zi Technology itself, the mobile phones and tablets launched by Apple, Microsoft and Google are equivalent to helping Ye Ye Technology makes money because it needs to obtain patent authorization. Of course, the cost is relatively reasonable.

This is especially true for Samsung, HTC and other companies. In addition to earning licensing fees from them, Yee Technology also has the Android store installed on mobile phones. Now the money earned by the Android store for Yee Technology every year is more than enough to acquire a Nokia. , relying on the entire huge global market.

If Leaf Technology can win over Motorola or Nokia, the dominance of Android will be as stable as a mountain. Other competitors, at least in the short term, do not expect to be able to impact Leaf Technology's leading position.

"Nokia has given the green light to acquisitions, but there is a big gap between us in terms of valuation. They believe that the current market value of Nokia is seriously underestimated, whether it is the mobile phone business or the map business!" Eliza Moon's words shocked many people present. Everyone laughed.

When Nokia acquired Navteq, an American digital mapping technology company, it spent US$8 billion, which is a little less than Nokia's current market value. Therefore, if it wants to acquire Nokia, it is absolutely impossible to do it according to the current market value, even if John O. Lila would never agree to do this if she was stupid.

The map business is a very huge market, but it is also very difficult to enter this field. Google spent tens of thousands of hours manually developing Google Maps, and a lot of the data comes from Nokia. As you can imagine, How much human and financial resources Google has invested in this.

Thinking about it from another angle, many people think that Google Maps is now free, and Google has always advertised as open source, but the so-called open source is just a business gimmick. Google has now carried out software development for the map business. Restrictions, that is, anyone who wants to develop software and applications based on Google Maps needs Google's consent.

This is a precursor to charges!

Of course, Google may not charge ordinary users, but it will definitely charge other enterprise users, and the fee will definitely not be low. Therefore, whether Yee Technology is starting from the field of smartphones or considering future smart cars, it needs to have Have your own map business instead of being beholden to Google.

This is why Ye Qiu values ​​Nokia rather than Motorola!

“After consultation and consideration, we decided to use Nokia’s maps in the next generation of Zeus phones, tablets and ultrabooks. Nokia will also put the map APP on the Android store. In addition, they will also launch the Android system. Mobile, I think this is good for us and can help us better transfer users from the original Symbian to Android.”

Eliza Moon's idea was affirmed by Ye Qiu.

Look at it this way, the Android system is very profitable now, but if you look at it in terms of market share, Symbian is the well-deserved leader. Therefore, regardless of whether it can acquire Nokia in the future, it is very necessary to open the Android system to Nokia. , it is also a very good decision for Android.

If all Symbian users can be transferred to Android, the Android system's share of smartphone systems will exceed 90%.

"Look for another opportunity to talk to them. Not only the mobile phone business, but also the huge patents and talent team in Nokia's hands, as well as their map business, I want to win!" After a pause, Ye Qiu said again: "I I met with BMW CEO Norbert Reithofer in London not long ago and we talked a lot.”

BMW is now the car sponsor of Tottenham Hotspur. This German company has received huge benefits from this sponsorship, especially in the Asian market, the growth rate is very amazing, all thanks to Ye Qiuhe Tottenham Hotspur has strong appeal and market influence in Asia.

“He hopes to further cooperate with us, such as using lighthouse technology in their 4S stores, and then launching APP applications through tablets, TV boxes, or even directly in our Android store to serve their users and provide This time they will purchase 3,000 tablets and will also order our ultrabooks.”

This is another major achievement after Volkswagen purchased 5,000 tablet computers and invited Yezi Technology to design the lighthouse technology solution for their 4S flagship store. The amount involved is not very high, but the problem is, this is Ye Zi Technology has made a free publicity, and the customer base will be endless in the future.

Moreover, both BMW and Volkswagen will cooperate with Leaf Technology in the field of smart cars. They have achieved good results so far and are expected to be launched on the market in the near future.

Interestingly, after the news that Ye Qiu had asked Leaf Technology to develop a super-large LCD screen was announced by the media, it immediately attracted many interested companies around the world. They were all paying attention to the development progress and effects of this set of equipment. It is expected that when this set of the world's largest LCD TV is unveiled at Stratford Stadium, it will bring a lot of orders to Leaf Technology.

Among them is BMW.

This is indeed something Ye Qiu had never thought of, and the interest of customers has also made Leaf Technology's research and development more active.

The good news that came one after another undoubtedly diluted Ye Qiu's depression caused by three consecutive draws in the league, especially the team's entry into the final of the League Cup, which made Ye Qiu feel satisfied with the performance of this group of young players.

But on January 29th, before the team was about to usher in the fourth round of the FA Cup and challenge Fulham away, Ye Qiu began to receive unfavorable news one after another. Not only that, Yaya Toure also knocked on the door of Ye Qiu's office on the afternoon of the 29th.