The Godfather of Greenery

Chapter 629 The Lame Giant
If you want to ask what is the hottest news in the high-tech field at the beginning of 2011, everyone will definitely tell you that Leaf Technology has launched the most powerful attack on the Microsoft empire.

First of all, on ultrabooks, Leaf Technology’s ultrabooks are finally on the market, and in the early pre-sales, they have obtained a hot pre-sale order of 999 units. Once they are launched, they have entered a record for the sluggish PC market. It is a booster, and the price of Leaf Technology’s ultrabook is not cheap, ranging from $1699 to $[-] according to the configuration, which can be described as a luxury.

According to statistics from the famous market research company IDC, Leaf Technology has sold 40 ultrabooks in North America in less than a month since they were launched. Sales will have a chance to break through 2011 million, which is definitely good news for the PC market where sales continue to decline and slump.

According to IDC's comments, one of the most important reasons why Leaf Technology's ultrabooks are so hot is that it is a continuation of the madness from mobile phones to tablet computers in the past. Ultrabooks can share and use Android apps 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 strong computer performance. Although the price is still high, it continues the Leaf Technology The consistent word-of-mouth and brand effect make users still highly recommend this product.

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

"In the past, Intel and Microsoft could only rely on each other, but with the birth of tablet PCs, the PC market for traditional notebooks and netbooks has been greatly impacted, and sales have declined significantly. Intel is also critical of Microsoft's lack of innovation capabilities. So when Leaf Technology proposed the concept of developing ultrabooks, the two parties almost hit it off."

"For a long time, the biggest difference between Microsoft and Leaf Technology, or the biggest difference between the two philosophies, in terms of hardware, Microsoft has always insisted on OEM, that is, authorization. Microsoft itself almost never touches those hardware, but Leaf Technology insists on Software and hardware are jointly developed, and both hands are grasped together, and both software and hardware are developing very well.”

"In terms of concepts, Microsoft used to regard laptops as a mobile extension of PCs. Naturally, after the rise of smartphones and tablets, Microsoft also regarded these two markets as extensions of PCs. So all they thought about was how to shrink everything that was on a computer to a phone and a tablet."

"The concept of Leaf Technology is obviously different. After the popularity 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. components, too, and now they are targeting the traditional PC market, so there is the Ultrabook [-]-in-[-] concept.”

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

The well-known analyst of IDC also said that Microsoft has no effective defense against Leaf Technology’s attack. The only thing they can do now is to improve and launch an innovative operating system as soon as possible. , or a mobile phone smart operating system, but whether it can withstand the impact of Leaf Technology is still unknown.

Not just ultrabooks, at the press conference in January, Leaf Technology also officially launched its own smart TV box, which is an Android system specially customized for TVs, which can be used on any TV. For smart TV boxes, the main control system includes both traditional remote control and control modes that incorporate beyond-motion control technology.

The TV box has received great acclaim in terms of human-computer interaction and control experience, especially beyond the somatosensory control technology, which is considered to have greatly surpassed the somatosensory technology introduced by Microsoft before. At the same time, it can communicate with mobile phones and tablets through WIFI. Connect with Ultrabook, and run games and apps from Android store at the same time.

Not only that, Leaf Technology has also specially launched a batch of somatosensory games for TV boxes. Some small games were developed by Leaf Technology itself, but most of them were released to developers before and released to 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 terms of content, and the human-computer interaction and control experience are quite good, but in The game field is relatively poor, after all, Microsoft and Nintendo have developed in this area for many years.

But the game is obviously not the biggest selling point of the Zeus TV Box. Its biggest selling point is the upgradeability. According to the plan of Leaf Technology, more smart home products will be launched and developed in the future, and the potential of the TV box will be further tapped.

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, and their every move was watched by the whole world. Pay 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 the 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 was caught in the vortex of major technology giants rushing to buy it, and its market value soared, Nokia, the mobile phone industry giant from Finland, released its financial statement for the fourth quarter of 2010. The company lost 2010 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. They all began to cry and cry uncontrollably.

In an interview with reporters at the press conference, Nokia's Chairman Risto Silasma 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 , resulting in such a huge loss for the company.

As for the news in the market that Nokia will pay a lot of money to buy out the shares of the joint venture company with Siemens, Risto Silasma also gave a positive answer, saying that the two parties are still negotiating, and there is nothing to announce for the time being. news, but no doubt has given a positive answer to this message.

In this way, Nokia's market value will definitely go downhill in the long run, because according to this report, Nokia's smartphone system has not made much money at all. As for bankruptcy, the business is undoubtedly in the quagmire, and it is difficult to break through.

Therefore, Nokia's stock price fell sharply after the press conference, falling below [-] billion. At the same time, the long-term development prospects have become very bleak. All have predicted that this is a last resort move of Nokia's self-salvation.

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

Of course, among the analysis of many professionals, occasionally there will be one or two comments and analyzes 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 in the long run, Nokia's assets will be of higher quality.

Even some top international financial reporting gurus have predicted that in the first quarter of 2011, after Nokia acquired the Siemens business, the loss in the financial statements will continue to exceed one billion, and even if Nokia does cut off 20% of the global business as the outside world said, Employees, that is, more than 7 employees, will save one billion euros in expenses, but the losses will be huge.

"What is the reason for Nokia to make such a major decision?"

The top financial report masters, and even some of the world's top investors have smelled some clues, that is, Nokia is using this self-destructive approach to attract acquirers!
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"Nokia is very sincere this time. Their negotiating team is led by John Ollila, chairman Risto Silasma, CEO Kallasvender, chief lawyer Louis Pentland, and chief financial officer. , all participated in the negotiations in Finland this time.”

In the small town of Tottridge, north of London, at Ye Qiu’s home, Eliza Moon, Sandberg and others participated in the Finnish trip. The negotiation team of Leaf Technology held a meeting in Ye Qiu’s study, because Confidential, so this time the number of people involved in the negotiation is not many, there are only four people from Leaf Technology, and seven people from Nokia.

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

However, this is an acquisition involving more than [-] billion euros, and it will also be the largest acquisition that Leaf Technology has made so far since its establishment. It is bound to set off huge waves all over the world, so it is impossible to Finish.

"We don't need to be too anxious about 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 parties have great differences, and there is no sign of reconciliation for the time being."

This is also a big weakness of Microsoft all the time. They are really bad in terms of hardware. It can even be said that almost all of their digital products have never succeeded, which makes Microsoft look like a lame giant.

"Apple has no intention of making such a major acquisition. They are more focused on developing their own mobile phone and tablet business, and they can't spend so much money to buy Motorola or Nokia. Instead, Google, they and Motorola came 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 patents of Nortel Networks and the huge patent system held by Leaf Technology itself, the mobile phones and tablets launched by Apple, Microsoft and Google are tantamount to helping Leaf Technology makes money because it needs to obtain patent authorization. Of course, the fee is quite reasonable.

This is especially true for companies such as Samsung and HTC. In addition to earning licensing fees from them, Leaf Technology also has an Android store for mobile phones. Now the Android store makes money for Leaf Technology every year, which is more than enough to buy a Nokia. , relying on the entire huge global market.

If Leaf Technology wins any of Motorola or Nokia, the dominance of the Android system will be as stable as Mount Tai. Other competitors should not expect to be able to impact Leaf Technology's leading position at least in a short period of time.

"Nokia gave the green light to the acquisition, but the valuation is far behind us. 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 made many people present Everyone laughed.

When Nokia acquired Navteq, an American digital map technology company, it spent 80 billion US dollars, which is a little less than the current market value of Nokia. Therefore, if you want to acquire Nokia, it is absolutely impossible to proceed according to the current market value, even if John Ollie Even a fool would not agree to do this.

The map business is a very huge market, but it is also very difficult to enter this field. Google has spent tens of thousands of hours of manual development of Google Maps, and a lot of data comes from Nokia. It is conceivable that How much human and financial resources Google has invested in this.

Looking at it from another angle, many people think that Google Maps is free now, and Google has always advertised open source, but the so-called open source is nothing more than a commercial 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 to get Google's consent.

This is a precursor to charges!

Of course, Google may not charge ordinary users, but it will definitely charge other corporate users, and the fee is definitely not low. Therefore, Leaf Technology needs to have Own map business, not beholden to Google.

This is why Ye Qiu values ​​Nokia instead of Motorola!

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

Eliza Munn's idea was affirmed by Ye Qiu.

Look at it this way, the Android system is very profitable now, but in terms of market share, Symbian is a well-deserved leader, so no matter whether it can acquire Nokia in the future, it is very necessary to open the Android system to Nokia , is also a very good decision for Android.

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

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

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

"He hopes to further cooperate with us, such as adopting lighthouse technology in their 4S stores, and then launch APP applications through tablets, TV boxes, or even directly in our Android store, so as to serve their users and serve their customers. Therefore, they will purchase [-] tablet computers in a unified manner, and will also order our ultrabooks next."

This is another major achievement after VW uniformly purchased 4 tablet computers and invited Leaf Technology to design a lighthouse technology solution for their [-]S flagship store. The amount involved is not very high, but the problem is that this Leaf Technology has made a free publicity, and the source of customers will continue to flow in the future.

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

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

Among them is BMW.

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

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

But on January 29th, the team was about to usher in the fourth round of the FA Cup. Before the away game against Fulham, Ye Qiu began to receive unfavorable news one after another. Not only that, Yaya Toure also On the afternoon of the 29th, there was a knock on Ye Qiu's office door.

(End of this chapter)