20863 Stevens Boulevard, Cupertino, California.
This is a small building with an area of 1858 square meters. It has open offices and closed offices inside, and has its own kitchen.
This is today’s Apple headquarters.
Since 1976, Jobs and Wozniak founded Apple in a garage, but the garage was never a long-term solution. In 1977, Jobs and others moved into 20863 Stevens Avenue in Cupertino The small building is Apple’s first real office.
To this day, Steve Jobs and others still work in this small building.
It was here that the famous Apple II was born, which became the first personal computer in human history.
The Apple II also had a structure for outputting monophonic sound for the first time, making personal computers no longer dumb.
Before the emergence of Oracle computers, the Apple II computer was the most popular computer in Silicon Valley and even in the United States. It was through this year from 1977 to 1978 that Apple made its mark. , famous throughout the beautiful country.
However, with the emergence of Oracle computers, the sales of Apple II dropped rapidly. Today, only with the advantage of low price, it can still sell some sales every month.
But compared to the year it was first born, its popularity is not as popular as before.
Before Oracle came along, Apple stood out from other technology companies because of its innovation.
Nowadays, many of the innovations they can come up with have been used by Oracle computers first. Coupled with the backward technology, if Apple does not change the status quo, then it may be like many Silicon Valley startups. Soon disappeared into history.
There are countless start-ups like Apple in Silicon Valley, but there are very few companies that can successfully break through and make profits, and even fewer that can develop and stabilize.
This is a rough world. If you fall behind a little, you will be eliminated soon.
At this time, in this small building at 20863 Stevens Avenue in Cupertino, Steve Jobs, Steve Gary Wozniak and Mike Marku The three of them sat in a small conference room and discussed the future of Apple.
Jobs has been back from Xiangjiang for some time. After returning from Xiangjiang, he got the technology and chip product purchase rights. He did not rush to recruit people to develop a new generation of computer products. Instead, he took the company's marketing department employees to A survey lasting more than ten days was conducted in San Francisco, Los Angeles and other places.
If you want to stand out again, you must understand what kind of products customers want, rather than blindly do research and development.
Innovation and developing new products that are not available on the market is the way Apple wants to go!
After more than ten days of research, Jobs returned to the company with his team.
"Wozniak and Mr. Markkula, these are the results of my research over the past ten days. After this research, I have found many new directions for research and development, more than technology. , we may not have an advantage, but now we are not much different in technology, so if we want to achieve last year's results, we must develop new products of our own, just like Apple II, which gave us human history Next, I hope we can create more firsts, Wozniak, it’s up to you to lead the team to do this,” Jobs said after distributing some research materials. Said deeply.
During his stay in Hong Kong, he visited Oracle Computer Company, Tianqiong Semiconductor Company and other places, and truly realized the gap between Apple and them. Of course, the current Apple company is just a small company, and of course it cannot be compared with such a huge company.
But others have only developed in a short period of time. Since others can do it, Jobs feels that they can do it as a matter of course.
Neither Steve Gary Wozniak nor Mike Markkula made a sound, but quietly looked at the information in front of them.
Whether it is Steve Gary Wozniak or Mike Markkula, they naturally hope that Apple can develop.
Mike Markkula, in particular, has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in Apple. If Apple cannot develop, his investments will be frozen.
When Markkula invested, Jobs laughed at him that the money was probably gone.
Unexpectedly, the Apple II became very popular after it was released.
This also gave all three of them hope.
Both Steve Jobs and Steve Gary Wozniak are still young, but Mike Markkula is no longer young. He has invested all his money in Apple. , is optimistic about Jobs and Wozniak. If Apple fails, it can be said that Mike Markkula will have almost nothing.
Because of this, Markkula was the one present who wanted to stand up the most.
As for Jobs and Wozniak, at their age, even if they fail, they still have a chance to make a comeback.
Nonetheless, all three still hope that Apple can develop.
“I will lead the team to develop Apple III and do my best to develop a unique and popular product. However, Steve Jobs, you need to contact Oracle Computer engineers as soon as possible and ask them to come over. Help us, we alone, even if we are creative, cannot develop new products in a short time, we don’t have much money in our account, and we can’t survive for too long.” Steve Gary Wozniak. He stood up and said solemnly.
In the contract signed by Jobs and Oracle Computer, there was another condition that was beneficial to them, that is, Oracle Computer Company must unconditionally send a top engineer to guide them for a period of six months. This was specially approved by Sioux City of.
With Apple's current strength, it is simply impossible to poach a top engineer.
So, although Oracle Computer took 30% of Apple's shares, it actually paid a lot.
“I will take care of this matter and try to get them to send someone to help us within a week. As long as our product is developed and approved by Mr. Su Cheng, our product will be on the shelves. Oracle Brand Experience Store, everyone knows the sales capabilities of Oracle Brand Experience Store. As long as it is put on the shelves, our sales will at least be guaranteed, so everything depends on you." Wozniak patted it. The shoulder of my friend said in a deep voice.
“Jobs, when you say that, I’m under a lot of pressure!” Wozniak said helplessly. (End of this chapter)