Because of this mentality of the consumers, Apple's temporary rescue strategy brought about an extremely awkward situation for itself:
All users who met the 15-day subsidy policy had to return the iPods!
Users who did not meet the 15-day subsidy policy, let alone the 14-day refund policy, came to protest and asked Apple to return the iPods or give them subsidies …
Apple's hastily released rescue strategy did not expect such an awkward situation to occur. They calculated the global sales of the iPod 3 in the past 15 days from a so-called gentleman's point of view. In the past 15 days, the global sales of the iPod 3 were about 200,000 units. The US accounted for more than half of the sales, which was about 130,000 units.
In their opinion, there were no more than 200,000 iPod 3s in the world that met the subsidy requirements. With a subsidy of 50 US dollars per unit, it would be a total of 10 million US dollars. Spending 10 million US dollars would allow Apple to highlight its sense of responsibility in front of the public. It was a worthwhile transaction.
After all, not many companies would offer price protection to users who had already purchased a product when the price of a product suddenly dropped …
Apple originally planned to spend 10 million US dollars to enhance its sense of responsibility in front of consumers, but they made a huge mistake. Consumers were far from being as "gentlemanly" as they thought!
Currently, Apple had received 80,000 units that met the requirements for return. The remaining tens of thousands of units would probably arrive in the stores for return within the next two days. There were probably very few users who would not choose to return the iPods within the reasonable return period.
In addition, more than 400,000 consumers who had purchased the iPod 3 for more than 15 days rushed to the distributors and made two angry demands. Either they give them 10% compensation, or they ask them to return the iPods!
Of course, these users were more eager to return the iPods because they wanted to wait for the Mango-ME2 to hit the market.
Currently, Apple's subsidy policy was useless to consumers who had purchased the iPods within 15 days. Hundreds of thousands of refunds were undoubtedly adding insult to injury to Apple's already plummeting market value. This meant that not only would they have to cut off future profits, but they would also have to spit out the profits they had swallowed and add hundreds of thousands of units to their inventory. The overall loss was very large.
This stupid strategy had attracted a large number of complaints from users. This will affect Apple's distributors and reputation. If Apple does not compensate these users and does not allow them to return their products, Apple will have to pay tens of millions of USD. If Apple does not compensate these users, all Apple's offline stores will close down, and Apple's reputation among the consumers will drop.
This meant that Apple had shot itself in the foot! If he knew this was going to happen, he wouldn't have introduced the rescue strategy. That way, Apple would only have to face reasonable refunds. But now …
The board was on the verge of storming out, and Jobs was livid and speechless.
The chairman of the board of directors only said one sentence after a long time, "Steve, you have to take full responsibility for your stupid behavior!"
Jobs had expected this, so he nodded and said, "I formally tender my resignation as CEO to the board of directors."
Pressure from competitors, from the capital market, from the consumer level, and from the internal board of directors. Jobs felt like he was in a drop of water 500 meters deep. The enormous pressure was everywhere, and he was on the verge of collapse.
No matter how strong a person is, there is a limit to what he can bear.
In his previous life, Jobs did not reach this limit, so even if he was silently frustrated, he was able to move forward and create a huge market for Apple. But in this life, Li Mu accurately grasped his weakness, and then launched a precise and fierce attack. Within a few days, Jobs' will had collapsed.
Before this catastrophe, Jobs thought that he was omnipotent and that no difficulty could stop him. But after this catastrophe, he finally understood that his strength was far from being able to look down on everything. When absolute power crushed him, he was like a small boat in a tsunami, and he would capsize in an instant.
No one could solve the current crisis of Apple. Apple's R&D departments were all super gold-devouring monsters. Their revenue lines had basically collapsed, and now they were even starting to bite back. The collapse of the stock price would trigger a series of falls. When everyone no longer had any hope in Apple and frantically dumped Apple's share price, Apple's market value would continue to shrink, shrink, shrink, and shrink. In the end, the share price would fall below the net asset value and become a broken stock.
At that time, Apple's market value would probably only be a few hundred million USD. The company's capital chain would be broken, and if they wanted to liquidate it, they could only sell their net asset value. They might sell Mac OS to Microsoft, or sell it to a subsidiary that Microsoft controlled through overseas connections. At that time, Microsoft would completely cripple Mac OS and turn it into a human swine on its last breath. Because as long as Mac OS was still breathing, Microsoft Windows would have enough reason and basis to avoid anti-monopoly punishment.
Perhaps the iPod and iTunes divisions would also be split up and sold. But who would they sell to? In front of Makino Technology's Manbo-ME2 and YYtunes, no one would want this mess. Perhaps selling to Makino Technology was the last option. As long as the price was right, Makino Technology should be willing to buy this almost dead competitor, and then tear it apart with their own hands. This kind of thing was not uncommon in the field of capital.
As for Apple's other technology patents, they might be sold to other companies, or they might continue to be retained. At that time, Apple's board of directors might conduct large-scale layoffs on Apple, keep the patents, and rely on patent licensing fees to survive in the future.
However, no matter what they did, one thing was inevitable. All those who invested in Apple would lose everything. Of course, it was a bit of an exaggeration to say that they lost everything. Basically, it was like investing a thousand pounds of wheat seeds in preparation for the next year's harvest. In the end, natural disasters and man-made disasters came. A thousand pounds of seeds were invested, and in the end, only two pounds of wheat came back …
After Jobs tendered his resignation, he stood up dispiritedly and said to the board members and the company executives, "Everyone, I want some time alone. I'll go back first. If the board of directors has any decisions, please let me know in time."
The chairman of the board did not expect Jobs to quit so quickly. He was furious and said, "Jobs! The board of directors will certainly consider your resignation very seriously, but now is a critical moment of our life and death. You must work with us to find a way to save the company, not leave now! That is an extreme lack of professionalism! "
Jobs looked at his angry eyes and asked, "How?"
That one word caused everyone to fall into silence.
Yes, how to save it? How to save it? Li Mu had triggered a series of chain reactions. The heavily-loaded Apple truck was on a long downhill road with no end. Not only was the entire vehicle seriously overloaded, but the engine was also broken, the fuel tank was empty, and the tires were so worn out that they were about to burst. Even the braking system had been completely destroyed. Everyone was sitting in the car, and there were only two things they could do: either jump out of the car, or wait for the car to completely collapse.
Save it? No way …
The chairman was speechless at Jobs's one-word question. Jobs waited for him for thirty seconds. During that time, the chairman's expression changed from anger to frustration to bewilderment and helplessness. Jobs knew that he could not answer his question.
So Jobs left. Before he left, he said to everyone, "If you have any decisions, call me."
With that, Jobs left Apple, leaving a stooped and defeated figure.
Everyone knew that Jobs had completely given up …
A man who had never given a give-up finally gave a give-up …
Apple's board of directors and executives knew that he was not wrong. No one at Apple had made a mistake in this matter. It was just that the opponent was too strong. Whether you made a mistake or not, you could not change the outcome …
Resistance was no longer possible. What to do was the only question that Apple needed to consider …
Apple's shareholders were still waiting for Apple to launch an announcement that would bring confidence to the market. Unfortunately, Apple seemed to have fallen silent all of a sudden. All the Apple executives did not accept any interviews, nor did they announce anything to the outside world. It seemed that they had all given up.
The news media and social media were not willing to let Apple off the hook.
The news reported that outside Apple stores all over the country, users were swarming in to return their iPhones, and the scene was extremely chaotic.
Consumers were angry and tough. Staff were humble and helpless.
Reporters interviewed customers who had used their products more than fifteen days ago, but still asked for a refund or a subsidy.
Their words seemed unreasonable, but on a certain level, they were understandable.
They said that they had spent hundreds of dollars on such a product. A few hundred dollars was not a small amount for the average American. In the end, Apple suddenly lowered the price, and there was such a strong competitor in the market. No one could accept this, right?
They also asked the reporters why the Mango-ME2 was better than the iPod 3 in all aspects, but the price was so much lower than the iPod 3. Didn't this show that Apple had made a huge profit from the iPod 3? Did the relevant departments investigate whether the price of the iPod 3 was too high, and whether there was any deception?
Many Apple stores, as well as Apple distributors, could not close until nine o 'clock in the evening, because they could not provide a reasonable solution to the customers.
At this time, social media was also full of criticism of Apple.
Users were angrily protesting against Apple's irresponsible practices. They were angrily protesting that Apple had made a lot of profits from the iPod, but was unwilling to take responsibility for its customers at this time.
Netizens were also making their own speculations about the future of Apple. 99% of netizens thought that Apple would soon die.
Of course, Zhao Kang's Internet Water Army was adding fuel to the fire.
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