At the same time...
At Apple in Cupertino, California, Steve was quietly staring at the suddenly trending topics on his computer screen.
And under every one of those trending topics, countless people were discussing them.
Especially the images and discussions related to the phone. Each comment felt like it was stabbing straight into his heart.
Sitting on the sofa not far in front of him were the company's core executives. Now that Pioneer Technology had fired the first shot in the smartphone industry, Apple's upper management could no longer sit still.
"What do you all think about this?"
"Does this thing still have any meaning anymore?"
Steve looked up at the head of R&D and the research team in front of him. While casually tapping the finished electronic device in his hand, one that had just been brought out of the lab, he asked the question.
Watching Steve tap that product in his hand, the head of the R&D department looked pained.
After all, even so, this was still the very first music player they had successfully developed.
But if all the claims Pioneer Technology was making about its release were true, then there really was no comparison between the two.
"Hard to say, sir. That brand-new touchscreen phone... frankly, the whole thing sounds too unbelievable."
"It's like going to sleep one night and waking up the next day to find someone telling me we've entered the interstellar age. Unless they have alien technology, then honestly, all of this is just too hard to believe."
At that moment, the head of the research team was the first to speak.
Because this was simply too much like black technology. 4G communications, combined with that unbelievable screen with no buttons at all, everything about it felt like it had come straight out of a science fiction movie.
"Honestly, I agree with Vidal's view. If they announced just one of those technologies by itself, I might believe it. But putting all of them together into one tiny phone? Sorry, but in my opinion, the technical difficulty behind all of that would put it at least decades ahead of the world's current technology, so I just don't think it's possible."
"Maybe Pioneer Technology is just using this as some kind of fundraising trick. Raise money in advance and run off with it? To be honest, I could write a huge pile of promotional copy like that with my eyes closed."
"I agree too. It's not like things like this have never happened before."
"That said, would anyone really be willing to pay first? Trust me, if I tried something like that, even my grandma would crawl out of her grave just to slap me."
...
As everyone voiced their opinions one after another, Steve could tell that nobody in the room really believed it.
Truthfully, he did not want to believe it either. After all, they had just invested hundreds of millions of dollars to develop a music player that only had 5 GB of storage.
And the phone the other side was advertising had more memory in a single category than they had in total, even if you only counted part of it.
It was like trying to swat a mosquito with anti-aircraft artillery. One side already seemed to have entered the interstellar age of technology, while the other was still banging rocks together.
But no matter how much he did not want to believe it, when Steve looked out the window and saw Baymax, the private health consultant installed downstairs for employee safety, he quietly pulled his gaze back.
If Pioneer Technology could already mass-produce and openly sell that kind of black-tech robot without seeming at all worried that others might steal it or reverse-engineer it, then by comparison, a single phone suddenly did not feel quite so shocking anymore.
"Our problem now is what to do next."
"Do we give up and refocus, stick to making computers, or keep going and fight Pioneer Technology head-on?"
After pulling back his gaze, Steve looked at the group in front of him and asked.
To be honest, their computers were doing well. Even many government agencies and businesses were buying them, and with their constant marketing and promotion, words like premium, reliable, secure, and refined had gradually become firmly attached to their computers.
And precisely because they had already established themselves in the computer industry, they wanted to move into audio devices, namely MP3 players. Their next plan had been to decide, based on market feedback, whether to fully enter the smartphone industry as well.
But now, just as everything was beginning, that monster called Pioneer Technology had appeared and strangled it all in the cradle.
"Steve, here's what I think. Even if Pioneer Technology's claims are all fake..."
"If they turn out to be true, then unless we can keep pouring our profits into production and R&D for the next twenty years, that might be the only way we could catch up to... the products they're releasing right now."
"We're just too weak right now."
At that moment, one of the executives also voiced his opinion.
Although they were already considered a rising star in the tech industry, at this point they were still only a company with a market value in the tens of billions. Compared with a flagship company like Pioneer Technology, whose valuation had already reached into the hundreds of billions, the gap was simply too large.
Leaving aside the nearly impossible technological gulf, they could not even compete in a straight money-burning contest.
The only real way to break through would be to find another path and pivot to another opportunity.
"What if we try working with Pioneer Technology instead? What about becoming one of their distributors?"
At that moment, a manager from the publicity department hesitated for a moment before offering his own view.
Then, after seeing everyone looking at him in confusion, the man quickly continued, "Since based on the information currently available, it's not hard to see that their promotional claims this time are very likely real, and our product line overlaps with theirs..."
"Then why don't we just switch directly into distribution and sales?"
"After all, if their phones really are as powerful as advertised, then they'll definitely take the high-end route, basically the same route as our computers."
"If that's the case, cooperation between our two companies would be a win-win."
"First, we already have the channels in place. Nearly all the customers who buy our computers are the exact type who could also buy their phones, and as a channel partner we could sell them perfectly."
"Second, if we obtain distribution rights, then we can observe their smartphones up close, which would let us build valuable experience in case we decide to go down this road ourselves in the future."
"You could say that a giant already stands on the road ahead of us, while right now we're still just a baby learning how to walk."
"And what we need to do during this time is grow as much as possible and learn the giant's knowledge."
After the man finished speaking, everyone in the room fell into thought.
After all, the technology gap between the two sides was just too great. Setting aside the fact that their company was still only getting started, even if that were not the case, if they insisted on charging straight into a collision under these circumstances, there would only be one outcome: disaster.
(End of Chapter)
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