Chapter 25 Section 2 NeXT Counterattack

There is a strange man with extraordinary talent who became famous when he was young. He used his sword to the end of the world when he was a teenager. He visited famous teachers and practiced Zen. At the age of 21, he started a gang and established a sect.However, he insisted on his talents and went his own way. At the age of 30, he was betrayed by the elders and deacons in his gang.This person is not Qiao Feng, the leader of the Beggar Gang, but Steve Jobs, the leader of the Fruit Gang. When a hero who once became famous was betrayed and abandoned by someone he trusted, what did he want to do most?

People with different personalities and experiences may have different choices. In the world of martial arts, after Qiao Feng was abandoned by the beggar gang, he had nothing but heroic courage and peerless martial arts, but he was trapped in the dilemma of national hatred and family feud. In the end, he chose to fight and kill in Juxian Village, in order to win Vent the anger in my heart. In the IT world, after being abandoned by Markkula and Sculley, Jobs had no lofty ambition to change the world, but watched the Apple kingdom he created drift away from his ideal.Will Jobs of the Fruit Gang choose the most extreme means of revenge like Qiao Feng of the Beggar Gang?

Revenge, yes, of course Jobs wanted revenge!However, Jobs' way of revenge is not the way of fighting and killing like a green forest hero.Get up wherever you fall.Since Apple can't lead the product team according to its own vision, and can't control the company's direction according to its own wishes, then start from scratch and recreate a shocking computer product.Let those who don't trust me and don't understand me see whether I, Jobs, have leadership skills and whether I can win thousands of miles on the battlefield of computer research and development! We must develop a computer that is better than Lisa, better than Macintosh, and better than all personal computers in the world. This is the bottom line Jobs set for himself.Of course, Jobs was not delusional. He already had a prototype of a plan for future computers in his mind.

It's a long story. After the release of the Macintosh in 1984, Apple launched extensive cooperation projects with American universities, allowing teachers and students of universities to use the best discounts to buy cheap Macintosh computers.In order to publicize and promote university cooperation projects, Jobs often visited major universities as the chairman of the board of directors and the spokesperson of the company, and thus became friends with many university professors. In March 1984, at the luncheon hosted by Stanford University to welcome French President Mitterrand to visit Silicon Valley, Jobs met a Stanford University biochemistry professor Paul Berg (Paul Berg).In the field of biochemistry, Berg's name carries considerable weight. In 1980, Berg won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his outstanding contribution to the recombinant DNA molecule.

Berger told Jobs that he was often plagued by poor computer performance while teaching.The computers at that time had small memory, slow running speed, and low image resolution, and none of them could simulate and demonstrate the structure and changes of DNA molecules well.But if it is not simulated in the computer, it will be too expensive to rely entirely on biochemical experiments.Berg has been looking for a high-performance computer that can help with research and teaching. Berger said to Jobs: "This ideal computer should preferably have 3 M (1 million) indicators. That is to say, it must have a memory of 1 million bytes, a display of 1 million pixels, and an operation of 1 million times per second. B."

Jobs was moved by this ideal "3M computer".He believed that if a future-proof computer could be developed for education, it would rival the revolutions of the Apple II and Macintosh. In the autumn of 1985, Jobs, who was expelled from the Macintosh team, was still holding a false job at Apple, so he chatted with engineers about his ideas and discussed how to design a "3M computer" that met Berger's requirements.A small number of engineers were persuaded by Jobs. They believed that Jobs was planning a greater cause than creating Apple back then. In September, when Jobs submitted his resignation letter to the board of directors, six other employees resigned on the same day. They all wanted to create a new world with Jobs.

Jobs said to Apple's board of directors: "I will create a new computer company that will not compete directly with Apple. Moreover, after the successful development of new technologies, I can consider transferring or licensing these technologies to Apple. In order to better To start the business of the new company, I thought, I need to take a few employees away from Apple." Markkula and Sculley quit.Just leave, why do you want to poach people?Markkula angrily said to Jobs: "You have no right to do this. These engineers all grew up at Apple. If you want to start a business, why don't you build your own team?"

Jobs shrugged his shoulders with an innocent look: "Hey, don't be impulsive. They all left voluntarily, didn't they? Besides, those people are just some low-level engineers. Taking them away will not do anything to Apple. What an impact." At first, Jobs named his new company Next, noting that this was a different capitalization from the later NeXT.The implication couldn't be more obvious: Jobs wants to build the next generation of computers, surpass all previous products, and prove that he is the undisputed leader in the field of personal computers. The new computers are designed to be powerful enough to run applications as complex as teaching DNA simulations and cheap enough for most college students to buy one for their dorm room.

When Jobs was planning the product and strategic direction of the new company, Apple formally sued Jobs and Next on the grounds that Jobs used improper means to take talents, ideas and know-how from Apple.It's embarrassing enough for founders to be sued by the company they started. However, Jobs did not flinch. He told the media: "It is unbelievable that a large company with more than 4,300 people and sales of more than 2 billion US dollars should worry about a small company with only 6 employees. This lawsuit is really ridiculous." Apple sued Next, somewhat angry with Jobs.Soon, even Markkula and Sculley realized that the most vulnerable person in this lawsuit was Apple itself.Righteous or not, it is embarrassing for a company to sue its founder.After much consideration, Apple withdrew its appeal before the trial.

In 1986, Jobs asked the famous logo designer Paul Rand (Paul Rand) to do the corporate identity design for Next.Rand was already 71 years old at the time, and he was the absolute biggest name in the American logo design circle. The logos of IBM, UPS, Westinghouse Electric and other big companies were all made by him.In order to invite Rand, Jobs spent a lot of money of 100,000 US dollars. Rand's creation is a mysterious black cube with the words NeXT written on its surface in colorful letters.According to Rand's suggestion, Jobs changed the company's name from the previous Next to the more personal and recognizable NeXT.

In February 1986, Jobs sold all his Apple shares, and only kept a symbolic share in order to receive the company's annual report.The money from the stock sale provided sufficient financial guarantees for the start of NeXT. In the summer, Jobs wavered again in terms of target product positioning.He found it difficult to find a balance between powerful performance and low price.The original idea of ​​an inexpensive, high-performance educational computer simply didn't work.Two-phase balance, Jobs would rather give up the cheap price.Because his goal is to prove his ability to foresee and create the future, he would not choose the path of developing low-end compatible machines anyway. In this way, the reorientated NeXT will become a high-performance workstation-class computer that competes with high-performance workstations from companies such as Sun.Although the first target market is still colleges and universities, the price will move closer to workstation-class computers. Another important product decision was that NeXT would build both computers and software, rather than outsourcing an operating system.This decision was mainly because Jobs dug up the operating system development expert Avi Tefanian from Carnegie Mellon. NeXT's operating system, NeXTSTEP, was developed by Tevanian, while the hardware team for NeXT computers was headed by Rich Page.Page followed Jobs to NeXT from Apple's Lisa team, and was one of the six people who resigned at the same time as Jobs. In 1987, NeXT invested and established its first factory in Fremont, California, with an annual production capacity of 150,000 computers.This year, businessman Ross Perot (Ross Perot) found Jobs, hoping to invest in NeXT.I don't know if anyone else remembers this funny Perot? In 1992, it was this Perot who recommended himself and paid for the US presidential election, competing with Clinton and Bush, and it was a joke for a while. Perot took the initiative to call Jobs to invest in NeXT.Interestingly speaking, when meeting with Perot at NeXT headquarters, Jobs suddenly lost his temper with an employee next to him and spoke rudely.The seasoned and tactful Perot did not show embarrassment, but persuaded Jobs: "I am at your age, and I have the same temper. But later, I learned that motivation is more effective than scolding. Come on, Steve, leave him alone." , let's continue talking." In the end, Perot injected $20 million in exchange for 16% of the company's shares.In fact, Jobs has been careful to control the inflow of external capital and keep his shares from being diluted too much, so as not to repeat the mistake of being deprived of power by the board of directors at Apple. Jobs originally told the media that NeXT would be available for sale in 1987.But it was delayed until October 12, 1988, when Jobs showed the prototype of the NeXT computer to the media.Some reporters speculated whether NeXT would be as popular as the Apple II in those years.But more journalists expressed cautious skepticism about NeXT's future.After the prototype was exhibited, the development progress continued to be delayed, and the release time was repeatedly postponed. Anxious reporters asked Jobs face to face: "How long will the release of NeXT be delayed?" Jobs looked disdainful: "Late? No, not behind, but ahead. NeXT is 5 years ahead of this era!" Finally, in 1989, NeXT began to sell directly to colleges and universities in the form of campus agreements.No matter how enthusiastic the media is about NeXT, the sales of NeXT are not as good as Jobs estimated.In fact, the reason is very simple. The retail price of NeXT is set at 6,500 US dollars. Although it is not high compared with competitors' workstations, how can ordinary colleges and universities afford it?This price is also far from the computer that college students bought and put in the dormitory. Although the sales are not very good, it is worth mentioning that one of the few users is a genius. The father of the web, Tim Berners-Lee, used a NeXT computer to build the world's first web server at CERN.This should be one of the most memorable events in the history of NeXT. Relying on the popularity of the media and his eloquence, in 1989, Jobs persuaded Canon to inject 100 million US dollars, accounting for 16.67% of the company's shares.Now, Jobs doesn't have to worry about funding for the time being.