Chapter 27 The fourth quarter on the verge of collapse

There is always a gap between ideals and reality. The more anxious you are to prove yourself and return to the top in a short time, the easier it is to fall and bleed. Jobs' unique strategic vision can often predict the industry trend in the next few years, which is Jobs' wealth.But being able to see the future trend does not mean that you have the conditions and ability to grasp the future.As soon as Jobs came up, he positioned NeXT as an alien technology that was five years ahead of the industry, but he didn't seriously consider whether the industry level at that time allowed him to produce a useful alien computer at a low enough price, and he rarely cared about it. factors of external competition.

In fact, the 11 years of NeXT from 1985 to 1996 were the critical 11 years when the personal computer industry was reshuffled through technological upgrading while developing in large quantities.A large number of computer companies have risen and fallen quickly. The PC and its compatibles not only cornered the market, but quietly stole Apple's groundbreaking work on the graphical user interface.The Windows operating system, which appeared later than Apple's Macintosh system, became stronger from version 3.0. When Microsoft released Windows95, the PC alliance formed by IBM, Intel and Microsoft had no rivals in the market and only wanted one defeat.

Apple in the same period was many times larger than NeXT, and it was unable to compete directly with the PC camp.After Jobs left, Sculley made every effort to promote Apple's transformation. Although it also achieved good sales performance, it was more like a flashback. In 1993, as Apple's performance slid to the bottom again, Sculley, who had surpassed Jobs in the power struggle, also resigned from Apple sadly. Against such a background, Jobs' NeXT, like Apple, chose a road of no return that was incompatible with IBM PC and limited to specific markets such as education, but was limited by technical limitations and kept high prices.

Moreover, not only was there a problem with positioning, but in terms of research and development, although Jobs gathered a group of technical experts, the progress of NeXT was delayed again and again.The release of computer hardware was delayed from the expected spring of 1987 to October 1988, and the operating system NeXTSTEP was not actually available until September 1989. There was a running joke about NeXT's delays. In October 1986, one year after the establishment of NeXT, media reporters were all guessing what drug Jobs was selling in his gourd.A veteran computer salesman named Todd Rulon-Miller came to Deer Creek Road to apply for a job at NeXT.

In the conference room, Miller saw a rectangular object covered by a curtain. He guessed that maybe the legendary NeXT computer was under the curtain.At this time, Jobs almost jumped into the office.He first talked with Miller about the grand blueprint of NeXT for half an hour.Miller was infected.Then, Jobs pretended to be mysterious and said: "Well? Would you like to see what's under this curtain?" Jobs pulled the opening cloth, and Miller saw a black rectangular iron box.The rectangular front also has strange bevels. "Is this a NeXT computer?" Miller asked curiously.

"No, this is the main case of a NeXT computer. But isn't this a beautiful main case? Look, how avant-garde the design of the bevel is." Miller choked up speechlessly facing the dark iron box in front of him.It turns out that NeXT only tossed out one chassis in a year.Even so, Miller was impressed by Jobs' appeal and joined NeXT. After NeXT was released, according to Jobs' original vision, NeXT was mainly sold in universities through university cooperation projects.Because NeXT is priced too high, ordinary colleges and universities often cannot afford enough funds.Jobs often sent NeXT computers to campuses through substantial discounts or even gifts.

Later, examples of freebies became so numerous that NeXT's own salespeople often made jokes like this: "Question: What do we mean when we often talk about helping colleges and universities?" "Answer: We donate for free as soon as colleges and universities extend their arms." The sales in the education market were sluggish, and Jobs had to change his mind. In March 1989, NeXT signed an agreement with Businessland to sell NeXT computers on behalf of the chain retail stores in Businessland.This strategy was also unsuccessful, and the chain could only sell a few hundred computers in a year.Well, NeXT was not designed as a personal computer for ordinary consumers. How could it be sold in retail stores?

The quality of NeXT computers was also an issue.The future technology that Jobs said was "five years ahead" has become a joke in the hands of real users.As mentioned earlier, after Kai-fu Lee's speech recognition system was ported to NeXT, it suffered from poor performance.Almost all users complain that NeXT performance is not as good as Sun's workstations, that early NeXT products do not have color output, that the configuration of the disk drive is too low, and so on.Jobs and his NeXT team continued to improve the product, but they couldn't always meet the "five years ahead" standard.

In 1989, when the sales of NeXT were not smooth, Jobs, with his excellent eloquence, actually persuaded Bill Lowe, the father of IBM's PC, to convince him that NeXTSTEP was more suitable for IBM's high-end computers than Windows.Coincidentally, IBM at the time had hidden concerns about Microsoft's monopoly on the operating system, and Windows itself was far from mature.At Bill Lowe's suggestion, IBM sent a large technical team to NeXT to investigate the operating system. At that time, IBM prepared a 100-page contract for Jobs, trying to use $60 million to obtain the exclusive right to use the NeXTSTEP system.Jobs brushed aside the 100-page contract and said haughtily:

"Please re-draw a contract of less than 10 pages. I don't have time to read such a long clause. Moreover, I will never license the system exclusively to IBM. Our own computers will continue to use NeXTSTEP, and other computer companies are also Talk to us about cooperation." Indeed, Compaq and Dell approached Jobs for the NeXTSTEP system.But they, like IBM, did not want their own computers to use NeXTSTEP and face competition from NeXT.They planned to pay more money in exchange for NeXT to stop producing its own brand of computer hardware. Should it only sell software like Microsoft?Should a computer manufacturer be exclusively authorized to use its own operating system?This sparked heated debate within NeXT.Employees disagreed, but no matter how many differences there were, Jobs couldn't be affected.Jobs was very clear in his mind that his dream was to build a complete computer that could change the world, not invisible and intangible software code.

Design and manufacture complete computer products, try to control all aspects of software and hardware, and try to maintain an independent and closed industrial chain. This is a basic idea that Jobs has always insisted on since he created the Apple II and Macintosh.In the era when IBM PC built an ecosystem of PC-compatible machines with open ideas and thus monopolized the market, Jobs' ideas were incompatible with the prevailing trend of the industry. A small player like NeXT really can't challenge IBM on this kind of thing. Jobs, who insisted on controlling everything, lost the best time to cooperate with IBM.Some people say that if Jobs and IBM joined forces, perhaps there would be no Microsoft or Windows today.But everything has two sides.If Jobs had given up his pursuit of designing independent and complete products since then, there would probably not have been iPods, iPhones, and iPads that were perfectly integrated from hardware to software, let alone the relatively closed ones built by Apple itself. Industrial models such as the iTunes music library and the App Store are easier to make money. NeXT is constantly improving and releasing new products. In 1990, the next-generation NeXT computer, the NeXTcube, was released, a cute cube measuring about a foot on a side. The sales of NeXTcube did not go much better, but this cube-shaped computer design really revealed the kind of domineering industrial design that Qiao Gangzhu later returned to.Just look at the later Mac mini computer.This simple shape based on geometric shapes is definitely in the same line. The high-end computer announced at the same time as the NeXTcube was the NeXTstation workstation.When releasing the NeXTstation, Jobs, who is good at marketing, played another trick.At that time, the NeXTstation computer was used to show the movie on the big screen on the stage of the press conference.Back then, no desktop computer was powerful enough to play movies.All audiences were shocked.What they didn't know was that Jobs was just playing a trick, and the movie was played from a separate projector instead of the NeXTstation. New products can't reproduce the glory of Apple in any case. In 1992, NeXT sold 20,000 computers, generating $140 million in sales.This result is already the best result in the history of NeXT, but it is still insignificant compared with the competition.Sales revenue is far from making up for the shortfall in production costs and R&D investment, and the losses are getting bigger and bigger. NeXT had more than 700 employees at the time, and its monthly expenses were very high.The company's cash became tense day by day, and Jobs was very anxious.Canon was as anxious as Jobs. Seeing that the US$100 million he had invested might lose all his money, Canon had to invest an additional US$30 million.But the result is that the more you invest, the more you lose, and Canon as a whole has become a trapped sufferer, and there is still unspeakable suffering. The helpless Jobs had to accept the harsh reality that he refused to believe after hitting the wall repeatedly: NeXT's hardware products were not competitive at all, and there were still many buyers for software products represented by the NeXTSTEP operating system.If we insist on the ideal of making both hardware and software, within a few months, the potentially profitable software department will be dragged to death. In February 1993, after only selling about 50,000 computers, Jobs decided to give up the hardware business and focus on software development and sales. NeXT Computer Company also officially changed its name to NeXT Software Company. On February 8, news that NeXT was closing factories, destroying hardware, and laying off workers on a large scale was first reported by InfoWorld and quickly picked up by other newspapers.Public opinion was in an uproar. On February 10, Jobs had to hold a press conference to confirm the rumor to the media. NeXT's computer factory was directly transferred to Canon, more than 300 people in the hardware R&D department were laid off, and a large number of office supplies in the office were sold off.Looking at the messy office, Jobs couldn't bear such a blow.He simply doesn't go to work very much, and only spends a lot of time at home with his 2-year-old son. The pain of closing NeXT's hardware division was almost as painful as Jobs' feeling when he was abandoned by Apple.This blow was too great, and the setbacks in entrepreneurship were secondary. The ideal that Jobs had always insisted on was hit in the head was the most painful thing for him.Jobs wanted to build a future-oriented computer, and his idea of ​​integrating the best hardware and software to change the world has never changed.If I knew I was going to give up the hardware business, why did I insist on negotiating with IBM back then? The reporter of "Information World" asked Jobs to talk about the transformation of NeXT.Jobs agreed.When reporters found Jobs in a large, empty conference room, he was sprawled on a table with his head buried in his arms.Rubbing his temples with his fingers, Jobs told reporters: "I don't want to be interviewed." After giving up the loss-making hardware business, NeXT’s cost was greatly reduced. Only relying on software sales, NeXT actually turned losses into profits in 1993, and made a profit of 1.03 million US dollars for the first time.But this little profit is not enough to give employees enough confidence.The successive departure of key employees has become Jobs' biggest headache.In fact, in 1990, seeing the company's business sluggish, many executives had already chosen to leave.By April 1993, the six veterans of Apple who followed Jobs to NeXT to start a business had all left. In 1995, NeXT tried unsuccessfully to go public. In April 1991, "Forbes" magazine once commented: "NeXT's disappointing ending shows that no matter how great a prophet Steve Jobs is, as a manager, he is really not good enough." This evaluation may be too harsh for Jobs.At that time, although Jobs was in his 30s and married and had children, he was still as naive as a child in management.Perhaps, it is not that Jobs' management is not smart, but that he has not really matured, at least, he has not experienced enough hardships.