No one knew what grudge Li Mu had against Apple. In the eyes of the entire internet industry, Li Mu's actions of besieging Apple were incomprehensible. Apple itself was a company that focused on hardware and supplemented by software. Makino Technology was a company that focused almost purely on software, and the gap between the two was huge. If one were to sort out the important competitors of Makino Technology fairly and objectively, Apple would not even be in the top five. It was more reasonable for Makino Technology to go all out against Google than against Apple.
However, Li Mu just wouldn't let go of Apple.
It was like a boxing champion didn't compete with other boxing opponents, but went to pick a basketball player from a university and beat him up. It was incomprehensible.
Jobs was also puzzled. In his eyes, even if iTunes and the online music market were more promising, it was only for Apple. Anything that Makino Technology did would make more money than that. Plants vs. Zombies Online's revenue generating ability had far exceeded iTunes, and even exceeded iTunes + iPod. Why did Li Mu still insist on going all out against him?
Jobs didn't understand, and Li Mu wouldn't tell him.
As an ordinary user, Li Mu respected the changes that Apple brought to the world. But as someone who was reborn, Apple had to die.
There would be iPhones, iPads, and IOS, but these products would no longer belong to Apple in this life. They would belong to Li Mu and Makino Technology. They would belong to the internet industry in Hua Xia, and they would become the super name card of the internet industry in Hua Xia.
So Jobs didn't know that this young man in Hua Xia was not going to destroy Apple today, but Apple in the future.
In Li Mu's world, a company as powerful as the future Apple would not be allowed to exist.
Li Mu's total annihilation soon paid off. The news that Makino Technology and Sennheiser were working together to develop MX858-Mango quickly spread among music lovers around the world after the news was leaked.
Then, on Sunday, Makino Technology released a pre-sale advertisement for Mango-ME2 to the world through YY. Since then, Mango-ME2 was finally exposed online.
The new version of Mango-ME2 was ahead of the iPod 3 in terms of industrial design. It looked more modern and perfect than the iPod, and the manufacturing process was no worse than the iPod.
Mango-ME2 was divided into a 128 MB flash memory version, a 256 MB flash memory version, and a 5 GB, 10 GB, and 30 GB hard disk version. There were a total of five versions. The corresponding prices of the five versions were: 468, 568, 2288, 2888, and 3888 RMB. Whether it was the flash memory version or the hard disk version, the price was far lower than the iPod and similar competitors on the market.
Fighting a price war had always been Mango-ME's strength. Back then, with the first generation of Mango-ME, Li Mu had exhausted most MP3 manufacturers. He relied on Mango-ME to quickly popularize Taobao shopping and Taobao's seckill event, paving the way for the subsequent large-scale shopping festival.
In the development of Taobao, Mango-ME could be said to have worked hard.
Now, the new generation of Mango-ME2 began a new round of devastating attacks on all MP3 player manufacturers around the world, including Apple.
Once the Mango-ME2's design and price were announced, it caused a huge shock in the music player industry. Many business partners wailed after seeing the design and price. When they saw the second piece of news, they even had the heart to die.
After announcing the price of the various versions of the Mango-ME2, Makino Technology announced that all models of the Mango-ME2 would be released with the MX858-MANGO headphones, and users would only need to pay an additional 20 USD for the headphones …
The headphones sold for more than 60 USD on the market, but after being co-branded with Mango, they only needed to add 20 USD. This made consumers feel that Makino Technology was simply the most conscientious company in the world, and it also made merchants feel that Makino Technology was simply the scariest devil in the world.
Makino Technology's strategy was like a nuclear annihilation in the MP3 industry. In the eyes of the merchants, Makino Technology used its ability and reserves to drop nuclear weapons on the entire MP3 industry, and then use the nuclear winter to kill everyone, and then rule the world.
However, no one could do anything about it.
When Li Mu first sold Mango-ME at a lower price than cost, the merchants had already encountered the same thing. At that time, they could not do anything, and they still could not do anything about it now.
Even Steve Jobs, who in the eyes of future generations, could not do anything about it at this moment.
Could they pin their hopes on the US government's anti-dumping policy? The possibility was basically negligible. Makino Technology was only involved in the sale of iPods, not iPhones. Its volume and magnitude were far from reaching the level where the US government would impose targeted sanctions. Even if the US government increased anti-dumping duties on Mango-ME2, it would be useless. With such a price gap, smuggled goods would be everywhere in the US.
It may not be that easy to smuggle cars and arms into the US, but it was easy to smuggle small, pollution-free electronic products. The price gap between a Mango-ME2 with no anti-dumping duties and an anti-dumping duty was bound to be more than one hundred dollars. The profit of smuggling a Mango-ME2 would be higher than the profit of smuggling a bag of marijuana. At that time, it was possible that every American who went abroad would bring back one or even several Mango-ME2s. The smuggling groups from Mexico and Canada to the US would certainly not let go of such a profitable product.
At that time, although the price of the Mango-ME2 exported by Makino Technology to the US market would increase due to anti-dumping duties, it did not matter. As long as Makino Technology made a commitment in the US market, Mango-ME2 purchased in any country and region could be jointly insured in the US. The smuggled Mango-ME2 would be even more unscrupulous.
In short, the price of Mango-ME2 was not very useful for Apple to rely on the US government for help.
If Jobs was angry and puzzled when he heard about the cooperation between Makino Technology and Sennheiser, now he even had the intention to kill.
Jobs's feelings for Apple were strong and intense, far beyond the reach of an ordinary corporate CEO. In his eyes, Apple was more important than anything else. And now, Li Mu had shown the butcher's knife to his life's work!
Jobs, who was full of hatred, called the Makino Technology public relations office and asked to speak to Li Mu. When Li Ziwei received the news, she instinctively felt that Li Mu would not respond to her, but her professionalism drove her to Li Mu's office and reported the matter to Li Mu.
To Li Ziwei's surprise, Li Mu not only did not refuse, but smiled excitedly and said, "Okay, put him on the phone."
Li Ziwei asked with a surprised expression, "You really want to talk to him?"
Li Mu nodded and said with a smile, "Yes, why not?"
Li Ziwei said, "I'm afraid he will get hot-headed and attack you personally on the phone …"
"No, no." Li Mu laughed and said, "Even if it's a personal attack, I don't care. Put him on, I want to hear how he wants to scold me."
Seeing Li Mu's serious expression, Li Ziwei nodded and said, "I have just asked the public relations department to tell him to call back later. Since you are sure you want to talk to him, I will ask the public relations department to call him back, and then put the phone through to your office."
Li Mu waved his hand and said, "No, you ask the public relations department to call him first and tell him that I agree to talk to him, and then ask him to call back. Do you understand?"
Li Ziwei said helplessly, "Okay, I will arrange it now."
It was past one o 'clock in the morning in the United States, and Jobs was sitting in his home, feeling indignant. He did not know if Li Mu would be willing to talk to him, but he had a strong resentment in his heart, and he was eager to find an outlet to vent it.
When he received a call from Hua Xia, Jobs was shocked. He picked up the phone and asked, "Who is this?!"
The other party said, "Hello, Mr. Jobs, I am the head of the public relations department of Makino Technology. I am calling to reply that our Li Zong has agreed to talk to you."
Jobs immediately said, "Okay, then put the phone through to him quickly!"
"Sorry, Mr. Jobs." The other party said, "Our Li Zong has agreed to talk to you. You can call back later, and I will put you through to Li Zong's office."
Jobs asked angrily, "Can't you just put the phone through to his office?"
The head of public relations said, "Then wouldn't it be our Li Zong who called you? Mr. Jobs, I want to make it clear to you that our Li Zong did not want to call you. "
Jobs was so angry that he wanted to smash the phone.
But after a while, he came back to his senses. He hung up the phone and cursed, "Son-of-bitch". Then, he picked up the phone and dialed it back.
"Hello, this is the public relations department of Makino Technology. What can I do for you?"
When Jobs heard the voice of the public relations person, he suppressed his anger and said, "This is Steve Jobs from Apple in the United States. I would like to speak to your chairman, Li Mu."
"Okay, Mr. Jobs, please hold on. I will put you through."
After a few beeps, Li Mu's voice came through the phone. Jobs had seen several videos of Li Mu's speeches and recognized Li Mu's voice. He immediately rebuked him angrily, "Li, what you are doing is against professional ethics and unscrupulous! You can't use this kind of unfair competition to suppress a great company like Apple! This is ridiculous! "
Li Mu laughed and said, "Mr. Jobs, why do you say that?"
"YYtunes and Mango-ME2 are all aimed at the Apple industry chain. Aren't you targeting Apple specifically?"
Li Mu laughed and said, "Mr. Jobs, Makino Technology has its own strategic plan. When we implement this strategic plan, it is likely to overlap with certain lines of certain companies. This can't be helped. There is no industry in the world that is unique. If you can make music software, online music stores, and music players, why can't Makino Technology do the same? Your iTunes is not the first music software, nor is it really the first online music store. Your iPod is not the first music player. I would like to ask you, did the boss of the first music player company call to complain about you? Did Bill Gates call to complain that you targeted Microsoft Windows because you developed Mac OS? "
Jobs did not know how to answer for a moment.
Li Mu was right. Most companies' main business was not original. In this case, as long as there was no actual infringement, no one had the right to accuse the other. To be precise, although Li Mu's actions made him hate him, Li Mu did not infringe Apple's rights in any way. So, Jobs's accusation could only be emotional and could not constitute any actual reason.
Jobs could only say angrily, "Your Mango-ME2 pricing is too vicious. It violates normal business ethics! It violates the anti-dumping act! "
Li Mu laughed and said, "Calm down. Whether Mango-ME2 violates the anti-dumping act or not is not up to you to decide. When it goes on the market and declares for export to the US, the US Department of Commerce will naturally make a judgment. I believe the US government will make a fair and just decision."
Li Mu was not afraid of any anti-dumping. If the US really imposed anti-dumping duties on this product, he could directly sell it to Mexico and Canada at a lower price. There were many ways to fight a price war with Apple. It would not be a problem for the US government to deal with it.
What's more, Li Mu thought that it was unlikely that Mango-ME2 would be subject to anti-dumping duties. On the one hand, the player market was not big, and it was only a drop in the bucket. On the other hand, Makino Technology's YY and YY were the most popular products in the world, and the most influential online media in the world. The US government would not go against Makino Technology for no reason. The new election was about to begin. At this time, all the forces were trying to win over Makino Technology. Who would go against Makino Technology for Apple?
What's more, Apple was not the Apple with a market capitalization of $890 billion. Its market capitalization was less than $89 billion. It had fallen sharply for two consecutive days on Thursday and Friday. Now that Makino Technology had announced the price of Mango-ME2, Apple's stock price would continue to fall during the day, which was Monday morning.
Jobs also knew Li Mu's cards. He knew that anti-dumping duties would not mean much to him.
Anti-dumping duties had a good effect on low-priced, low-end products, large products, and high-volume products. Low-priced, low-end products such as clothing, shoes, hats, and small handicrafts had very low profit margins, and the possibility of smuggling was almost non-existent. If anti-dumping duties were increased, the price would inevitably rise.
Large-volume products such as automobiles were difficult to smuggle, and the coverage of anti-dumping duties was also very good. Hua Xia had always imposed a certain anti-dumping duty on imported cars.
Increasing anti-dumping duties on high-volume products was also very effective. After all, the market demand was huge, and smuggling could not solve the market demand. For example, Apple phones seemed to be cheaper than in the mainland, whether it was bought from Hong Kong or Europe or the United States. The influx of such phones was indeed large, but no matter how large it was, it could not reach the scale of tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of units. Therefore, most products had to enter the market through normal channels.
However, the sales of music players, especially high-end music players like the iPod, were much lower than that of mobile phones even in the United States. Although it was the lifeblood of Apple, it did not account for a large proportion of the overall electronic hardware market.
Jobs, who was furious, could only say to Li Mu, "Li, your targeted actions not only violate basic business ethics and human morality, but also bring great harm to a great company! I hope you can turn back from the wrong path and stop going further and further down the wrong path! "
Li Mu was not angry at all. He smiled and said, "Mr. Jobs, I am not targeting anyone …"
Speaking of this, Li Mu smiled faintly and said, "I'm just-rich!"
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