A few days later, Apple sued the "anti-Walkman coalition" led by Warner Records.
As soon as the news spread, media coverage was immediately aroused, and the Walkman's exposure was greatly increased!
Li Zetian suddenly felt that the value of this lawsuit would not only dampen the opponent's spirit, but also increase Walkman's popularity!
The lawsuit quickly aroused discussion among the American public.
However, public opinion is basically one-sided in support of Apple!
"The record company is too domineering, and actually issued a ban! This is a typical monopoly, and the American people firmly resist!"
"The record company is too shameless. Relying on its own strength to interfere and threaten other weak companies, Apple has done a good job. It is to sue them and achieve justice and fairness!!!"
"Support Apple!"
"… "
In this lawsuit, Apple clearly belongs to the weak, and it is human nature to sympathize with the weak. What's more, Apple is still making sense this time! In addition, many people hope that record companies will release tape music, and then buy a Walkman and listen to good songs.
This lawsuit is getting bigger and bigger, and there is a lot of uproar. Li Zetian has now regarded this lawsuit as a kind of alternative propaganda for Walkman, and told the company's legal department to toss it hard. The bigger the momentum, the better. At the same time, pretend to be pitiful and play a weak role.
Warners Records saw that Apple often spit out bitterness in front of the media, but Walkman quickly guessed its intentions. However, there is no way to get it.
The CEO of Warner Records gritted his teeth and said, "Fuck, Apple used this lawsuit to hype Walkman, which is too shameless!!!"
The boss of EMI Records smiled lightly and said, "Calm down, don't worry! Even if Apple hype it up, we insist on boycotting Walkman and don't release music tapes, it can't do anything about us."
Universal Music CEO added: "Yes, as long as our alliance doesn't break down, even if we lose the lawsuit, it's not a big deal. Let's drag it out for a year and a half, I think Walkman can be released as scheduled?"
"… "
On March 31, Apple held a product conference and officially released the Walkman.
In fact, this product launch is not the same, many people know the Walkman from TV.
However, this situation still has to go.
On this day, the press conference was crowded and very lively.
Tian Shuai mainly did two things on stage. The first thing was to announce that at 8 am on April 1st, the Walkman tape player would be launched in the United States first; An official Apple headset - the Magic Headphones, in addition to two AAA batteries and two music tapes, users can choose two music tapes. Users can buy more music tapes for $10 each.
Although $299 is not cheap for the spending power of Americans, it is definitely not expensive. The monthly salary of the vast majority of ordinary Americans exceeds one thousand dollars.
On April 1, a long queue of dozens of meters lined the door of Apple's flagship store, and the scene was spectacular.
However, the people around the shops are used to it.
The same is true for Apple's last release of the Apple-ll, except that today's queue seems to be a bit longer than last time.
However, it is not difficult to understand, there are many people who like to listen to music, and the price of Walkman is much cheaper than Apple-ll, and most people can afford it.
On this day, the people in the Apple flagship store were so busy that they never rested.
One morning, the stock was sold out, and a truckload of goods was rushed over from the warehouse.
At 12 o'clock in the morning, Li Zetian asked people to count the number of sales.
Apple has now grown to 14 flagship stores. The Walkman in the flagship store alone has sold 110,000 units, earning more than $31.89 million, and sold 440,000 tapes. In cities without flagship stores, Apple chose to cooperate with other retailers. According to their sales data, the number of Walkmans sold reached 25 units and 1.21 million tapes were sold.
Of course, the first day of sales has always been the hottest, after which it began to plummet.
On the eighth day, Walkman sales exceeded 1 million units.
At this time, the problem came out.
Users want to be able to listen to more songs with the Walkman, but so far, Apple has been unable to reach a deal with the record company. Those record companies that cooperate with Apple, their company's songs are average, and users don't like to listen to them.
Not long after, there were complaints!
Many people came to the door of the Apple flagship store and complained.
"Fuck, I regret buying the Walkman now, I don't have any songs I want to listen to, it's all garbage!"
"Alas, I regret it too! It's been so long, and Apple hasn't released other songs, and I'm sick of listening to these songs!"
"Apple is still fighting the record company, but it's useless even if it wins, the record company doesn't make music tapes, and Apple can't do anything about it. I suddenly realized that I seem to have bought a useless thing …”
"Damn, I want to return it!"
"Yes, return it!!!"
"If you don't return it, you will smash Apple's flagship store!!!"
"… "
A group of people rushed into Apple's flagship store to make a fuss and demanded returns. The scene was once uncontrollable, and they had to call the police to stabilize the situation.
After that, the Apple flagship store chose to close its doors and suspend business.
Apple Inc.
Li Zetian's face was gloomy, he knew that Apple had encountered the greatest difficulty ever.
"Mr. Li, something is wrong. It stands to reason that even if the user is not satisfied with the Walkman, it will not be so violent," Tian Shuai frowned, "In my opinion, there may be someone behind this incident. …”
Li Zetian nodded slowly, and said thoughtfully: "80% of the black hands behind it are related to the record company!"
"I suspect the same! But," Tian Shuai said, pausing.
"But what?"
"However, all of Apple's competitors have this possibility, including IBM, DEC, Hewlett-Packard, Commoda and other companies... As long as Apple is defeated this time, it will be difficult to get up. In addition, Mr. Thomas Rockefeller also has possible… "
Li Zetian's eyes flashed a little, and he said, "You mean that Thomas Rockefeller deliberately suppressed Apple, and then took the opportunity to buy Apple at a low price?"
"Isn't this possible?" Tian Shuai nodded and said.
Li Zetian's brows wrinkled into a word "Chuan", he suddenly felt that things were getting more and more difficult, and the pressure on his body was getting bigger and bigger.
"No matter who the opponent is, we should solve the current problem as soon as possible!" Li Zetian said solemnly, "Tian Shuai, is there anything you can do?"
Tian Shuai thought for a while, then shook his head and sighed, "If only we had dozens of classic songs..."
The speaker has no intention, the listener has the heart.
Li Zetian suddenly came to his mind, and it was a big deal that he stole songs from his previous life. However, this idea was just ignited, and it was quickly extinguished by Li Zetian. Not to mention whether it is possible to have dozens of classic songs in a short period of time, he said that he suddenly came up with so many classic songs. Does it not arouse suspicion? It's just too exaggerated!
"Think about it again, there will definitely be a way!" Li Zetian said to him, but also to himself.
…
Because of the return time, Apple's credibility and image took a big hit.
Not only the Walkman sales were stagnant, but Apple-ll personal computers were also severely affected!
That night, Li Zetian analyzed his financial resources and said to himself: "If you have money, then buy a large record and destroy the 'Anti-Walkman Alliance'. No matter how strong the fortress is, it can be broken from the inside!"
However, Li Zetian found that he did not have enough funds now.
Apple's savage expansion, establishing Seagate technology companies, investing in movies, building headquarters, expanding flagship stores, n projects, earphone projects, Apple-lll projects, etc., is tight on its own funds, and now still owes tens of millions to several banks dollar loan.
Microsoft has a bit of money, but not much. In order to allow Microsoft to develop rapidly and steadily, it is natural that it can't give out too much. Moreover, Microsoft is facing many challenges at the moment. For example, VisiCalc and SuperCalc have appeared on the market. , , n and other spreadsheets, due to their low prices, quickly took away Microsoft's market share. Bill Gates has already asked Li Zetian for a price war with these competitors, reducing the price of Excel spreadsheets to $50 a copy, and killing them! Li Zetian nodded in agreement, Excel must dominate the market! So, mobilizing money from Microsoft is not very good. Now that Apple's Walkman is coming out, he must be very focused on the Excel vs. other spreadsheet wars right now.
So now the only company left is Sunbird. Indeed, the game company is currently the most profitable company under the name of Li Zetian. However, the golden age of real moneymaking for game companies has yet to come, and Sunbird can't make much money either.
Game-Watch is one of Sunbird's more profitable products, but what makes Li Zetian depressed is that the wind of plagiarism in the world is too exaggerated. Many game companies have also developed their own Game-Watch, resulting in huge profits in this market. The decline, and the Sunbird Company is still busy with a lawsuit with them, that is a depressing!
In addition, Atari's second-generation home game console 2600 requires a lot of research and development funds.
"The market value of the world's largest record companies is billions of dollars, and it's just wishful thinking to buy them now!"
Li Zetian shook his head, the mountain-like pressure still enveloped him...