Chapter 39 Chapter 5 The Clone Wars

When Apple's share of the personal computer market hit rock bottom, a reporter asked Jobs, "What do you think of Apple's less than 8% market share?" Jobs said: "Our market share is higher than that of BMW or Mercedes-Benz in the auto industry. No one will question BMW and Mercedes-Benz because they have a low share. In fact, BMW and Mercedes-Benz are both desirable products and brands. .” Yes, even if it falls to the bottom, Apple still has valuable wealth that other companies do not have-a high-end brand that symbolizes future technology and fashion concepts, as well as countless loyal fans who love this brand.

Prestige signboards are the most valuable, and everything else is just a cloud. But in the previous few years, the Apple brand was fading.Because of product quality problems, the value of the Apple brand in the hearts of users has been greatly reduced. In addition, there is one thing that will affect the Apple brand the most.Before Jobs returned, Apple officially authorized some manufacturers to produce Macintosh clones starting in 1995.This move has in fact hurt Apple's brand image. At the beginning, when IBM launched the PC, because it was far behind Apple in technology, it used cloning machines or compatible machines to carry out wolf pack tactics.Because IBM released the standard, and Microsoft used a relatively cheap operating system to fuel the flames, the threshold for producing computers was greatly reduced.Numerous manufacturers took the opportunity to participate, a large number of PC compatible machines flooded into the market, and application software on the PC also emerged in an endless stream. In the end, the two trump cards of low price and rich application software pushed Apple to a dead end.

So, what about the Apple camp?Why doesn't Apple take the path of compatible machines? In fact, since the birth of Apple, the illegal cloning of Apple computers has never stopped. There are countless clones of Apple II in the world, including the CEC-I Chinese learning machine that Chinese people are familiar with. As soon as the Macintosh came out, it was targeted by clone computer vendors.Since 1986, various types of illegal cloning machines have appeared in Europe and America. The initial cloning was very difficult. The cloning manufacturer actually bought an original Macintosh, changed the shell and added accessories, and then sold it at a high price-this is actually not cloning, but "modification".Soon, a Brazilian company named Unitron successfully cracked the Macintosh hardware design and motherboard control program, and for the first time illegally cloned a fully compatible Macintosh computer.Apple had to turn to the U.S. government to ban the company from selling the clones through commercial sanctions.

There were threats from wolves from the PC camp before, and guerrilla tactics from illegal clone machine manufacturers later. Apple executives had to sit down and seriously study the issue of legally authorized clone machine production. In 1985, Sculley organized the company's top management to discuss this matter, but at the meeting, almost everyone had an opinion.After rounds of bickering, no decision was made. Even Apple's competitors are aware of the business opportunity of Apple clones.Bill Gates was keenly aware that because the Macintosh was several "light years" ahead of the PC, it might not be a good thing for Microsoft to bet only on IBM.

On June 25, 1985, Bill Gates sent a secret memo to Sculley and Cassie. This memo, which was considered top secret at the time, later became one of the most valuable files in the history of personal computer development. In the three-page document titled "About Apple's Licensing of Mac Technology," Gates said the Mac had created a revolutionary technology platform that now needed to be transformed into a technology standard that could be replicated by other manufacturers.Gates particularly emphasized that no one can monopolize the market without relying on cooperative manufacturers. The IBM PC has established PC standards and fostered a huge market for PC compatibles.Gates hopes that Apple can follow in IBM's footsteps.The memo also mentioned that as long as Apple opens up the Macintosh technology architecture, a large number of companies, including Microsoft, are willing to participate.The end of the memo says:

“The irony is that IBM, not Apple, is currently recognized as a technology innovator. Licensing other companies to develop computers compatible with the Mac standard helps to enhance Apple’s image as an innovator. do not dominate technological innovation, they are afraid to go too far in the direction of innovation and deviate from standard technology.” Gates' proposal caused an uproar within Apple.Sculley welcomed it, but the Macintosh development team led by Cassie resolutely resisted. They believed that Macintosh was a leading technology, and opening it up to others meant losing its leading edge.

Apple people live in their own dreams. They would rather give up cooperation and the market for innovation.When this group of people has a god-like leader, they will be extremely happy, otherwise, this group of people may only be able to live in a utopia, watching the market share being carved up by PCs. Lost the opportunity to cooperate with Microsoft. In the following years, Apple kept arguing, repeating, and meeting, but it just couldn't make a decision on whether to authorize the production of clone machines.Executives, including Sculley, were undecided and unwilling to stand up and fight against the crowd. 10 years passed by like this.

A vice president at the time later sighed: "I will never understand why no one stood up and said: 'I am the leader, and things should be done this way. Thank you for participating in the discussion, but if anyone doesn't want to do it, then Ask him to leave.'” It wasn't until 1995, when Apple's market share fell to the lowest point, that Spindler, who was in a hurry, made a decision to start authorizing some manufacturers to produce Mac clones and charging licensing fees. However, it was too late. In fact, as long as the decision is made early, the road of cloning machines does not matter whether it is good or bad.To go or not to go is just a different style of strategy.

If Apple had been focusing on low-end clones since 1985, it might be the Mac, not the PC, that dominates desktop computing today.But that also necessarily means that Apple will give up its extraordinary features such as elegant design, high-end brand, and loyal fans, and reduce its image to a successful technology company that is not cool at all. On the contrary, if Apple firmly maintains its image as a future technology leader and does not make any compromises on the issue of cloning machines, then Apple Computer will at least have a large number of loyal "fruit fans" among the high-end crowd, and it will become the BMW and Apple of the computer industry. Mercedes Benz.

But Apple has missed the best time in 10 years of noise. In 1995, Windows95 has declared the victory of the PC camp.At this time, it has really become a dream for Apple to rely on cloning machines to conquer the world. Originally, Spindler hoped to introduce a large number of cheap Macintosh compatible computers into the market through cloning machine authorization, and then, like the IBM PC back then, attract more software developers with a larger market size, forming a virtuous circle.Backfired, the cloning machine manufacturer's calculations were very clear. Since the PC camp is strong, it is simply an impossible task to produce cheap computers to snatch the PC territory.Instead of this, it is better to produce some high-end Macintosh, which in turn cannibalize Apple's own poor market.

Ever since, instead of expanding the Macintosh's market share, the authorization of the clone machine has caused Apple's own revenue to drop sharply.The most terrible thing is that the quality and design of the cloning machines are uneven, which actually damages Apple's brand image, and even the hearts of those loyal "fruit fans" are also hurt. In order to stop the bleeding and rebuild the brand image, the returned Joe Gang decided decisively to terminate the authorization of cloning Mac machines. Jobs never liked the cloning project, he felt that the cloners were "parasites".Jobs later commented: "The goal of the compatible machine may not be a big problem in itself, but the timing and planning are all wrong." Terminating the cloning program is not as simple as it sounds.Apple already has agreements with legitimate clone makers, and terminating the program would be a breach of trust in the business world. Gangzhu Qiao is Gangzhu Qiao, and he found a solution all at once.He found that the agreement signed by Apple and the clone machine manufacturer has a clause that is beneficial to Apple, that is, the authorization of the operating system states that it is the seventh version of Mac OS.Based on this clause, Apple notified the cloning machine manufacturers that the ongoing licensing plan for cloning machines remains unchanged, but Apple's future operating systems will no longer be authorized for use by cloning machine manufacturers. Therefore, when Apple released Mac OS 8 in the summer of 1997, clone manufacturers had to end the game on their own because they could only produce clones based on the previous version of the operating system. Finally, the interference of the cloning plan was eliminated, and Apple returned to the right track of high-end brands, closed ecological chain, future technology, perfect design, and excellent quality. .