Jobs's face changed, but he still acquiesced in Liu Meng's approach, and the negotiations in the past half a month have made him very angry, if it weren't for his feelings for Apple, he would have wanted to pick on him a long time ago.

"In this way, there is a big benefit, after the completion of the restructuring of Apple, it is equivalent to an opportunity to promote the iPhone for free, if the public relations and publicity are done well, it can completely transform a crisis into a huge effect, and the litigation fee is regarded as the advertising fee, for marketing, I still know a little bit and can provide some experience. Since the big sales of electric cars in the past, Liu Meng boasts that he is very good at sales.

Jobs thought for a moment, nodded helplessly, and had to agree with Liu Meng's opinion.

After talking about business, both of them let go of their minds, for Jobs, they admired this young man very much in their hearts, whether it was technical, vision, or strategy, they were a strong opponent, and for Liu Meng, Jobs has always been an indelible idol in his heart, with the same idea, after putting down business things, the two began to chat like old friends.

"Mr. Jobs, how did you come up with the idea of turning on your iPhone?" asked Liu Meng.

By 2005, iPod sales had skyrocketed, with 20 million units sold that year, a staggering number of four times the number sold in 2004. The iPod is becoming more and more important to Apple's revenue, accounting for 45% of that year's revenue. At the same time, the iPod also drove the sales of Mac series products, creating a fashionable corporate image for Apple. And that's where I'm worried. Jobs was clearly happy to talk about it.

"I was always worried about what was going to get us into trouble, and then I came to the only conclusion that the device that could steal our jobs had to be mobile phones. I explained to the board that mobile phones are starting to be equipped with cameras, and the digital camera market is shrinking dramatically. The same can happen with iPods if phone manufacturers start building music players into their phones. Everyone carries their mobile phones with them, so there's no need to buy an iPod. ”

Liu Meng couldn't help but admire: "You have a very far-sighted vision and extreme reason, and when the shape is good, you don't think about winning and losing first, which is not something ordinary people can do, but I heard that you didn't plan for Apple to develop its own mobile phones at first." ”

Jobs laughed, "I used to admit to Gates' face that I was not good at working together, and at this moment, my first strategy is to work with another company." Zander, the new CEO of Motorola, and I were friends, so I started talking about partnering with Motorola's best-selling phone, the Razr series. This series of phones is equipped with a camera, and we are ready to collaborate with an iPod built into it. The Motorola ROKR phone was born. However, this series of phones does not have the glamorous minimalist style of the iPod, nor the convenient ultra-thin form factor of the Blade series. It has an ugly appearance, is difficult to download, and can only hold nearly a hundred songs. It's a typical product of gossip and discussion, and it's the opposite of the way I like to work. The hardware, software, and content of the RAZR series are not controlled by the same company, but are cobbled together by Motorola, Apple and wireless carrier Zingler. ”

On the cover of its November 2005 issue, Wired magazine mocked us, saying, "You call this the phone of the future?"

"When I saw the phone and the reports, I was furious, and I dare say it was the first time I had that much fire. At an iPod product review conference, I said to everyone: I'm fed up dealing with stupid companies like Motorola, we'll do it ourselves. ”

"I noticed the oddities of the phones on the market, they all sucked, just like the previous portable music players. We'd sit together and talk about how much we hate our phones, they're so complicated, and there are features that no one can figure out, including the address book. It's as chaotic as Byzantium. ”

Jobs gestured and said, "At that time, Riley, the lawyer, was sitting in the conference room examining legal issues, and I was bored with it, so I picked up Riley's mobile phone, went through all kinds of defects, and pointed out that this was completely brain-dead design." Then, I and my team were very excited because we saw the prospect of building a phone that we wanted to use. That's the best motivation. ”

"Another driver is the potential market. In 2005, more than 825 million mobile phones were sold worldwide, from elementary school students to elderly grandmothers. Since most phones suck, there will be a market for a high-quality and trendy phone, just like it was in the portable music player market before. At first, I gave the project to the team that developed the AirPort wireless base station, thinking that the phone would be a wireless product. But I quickly realized that it was actually a consumer electronic device, like an iPod, and reassigned the project to Fadel and his team. ”

Jobs talked about his most proud work, the iPhone couldn't stop talking, so that Liu Meng couldn't interject, but fortunately he said it was very interesting, Liu Meng listened to it with relish, Jobs waved his arms exaggeratedly and said: "We originally envisioned a mobile phone based on the iPod, allowing users to use the scroll wheel to select the functions of the mobile phone, and enter numbers without a keyboard." But such a design is not natural. There are a lot of problems with using the scroll wheel, especially when dialing up numbers. ”

"It's convenient to use the scroll wheel to navigate through the address book, but it's inconvenient to type something. The team has been trying to convince itself that people's calls are mainly to people who are already stored in the address book, but I know that this is not going to work. At the time, Apple had another project underway: secretly building a tablet. In 2005, after the project team communicated with each other, the concept of the tablet was integrated into the mobile phone project. Speaking of tablets, there's another interesting thing. ”

"I have a friend whose husband was an engineer at Microsoft and was working on a tablet. The engineer threw a dinner party on his 50th birthday and invited me and Gates to attend. As you know, it was Apple and Microsoft that were in a patent infringement lawsuit, and I went a little reluctantly, but the end result was that I was friendly to Gates that night, but not to the birthday boy. ”

The engineer kept revealing the Microsoft tablet, and Gates was annoyed. I was annoyed even more, Gates was worried about triggering consequences that he didn't want to see, and his fears came true. This guy pestered me about how Microsoft's tablet software would revolutionize the world, obsolete all laptops, and Apple should use the Microsoft software he developed. But he designed this product completely wrong. It's because it comes with a stylus, and as long as there is a stylus, the product is useless. He told me about this stuff nearly ten times at the dinner party, and I was so annoyed that when I got home I said, "Fuck it, let me tell him what a real tablet should look like." ”

Steve Jobs is known as the king of creativity, and it's simply intolerable to tolerate a stinky fart in front of him showing how he is changing the world.

"The next day, as soon as I came to the company, I gathered my team and said: I want to make a tablet, not a keyboard and a pen. The ability for users to touch the screen input with their fingers means that the tablet's screen needs to use a technology similar to 'multi-touch' to be able to process multiple inputs at the same time. I asked the team: Can you make a multi-touch, responsive sample for me?"

"It took the team about six months to make a rough but workable prototype. I gave the prototype to another user interface designer at Apple, and a month later, the designer proposed adding a scrolling feature that would allow users to swipe the screen to move an image just like they would move a photo in real life. I liked the idea. ”

Jobs glanced at Liu Meng when he said this, and said meaningfully: "Professor Liu Meng, do you know why I want to compromise with you? It is because you monopolize multi-touch technology, and you have applied for hundreds of patents to protect this technology, forming a tight technical fortress, if the iPhone does not have multi-touch technology, it is a crab that has lost its pliers, and has been reduced to a mediocre product, which is simply choking my throat." ”

Liu Meng smiled and nodded, not commenting.

"Actually, we developed multi-touch technology much earlier, when Ivor's design team was already working on multi-touch input technology for Apple's MacBook Pro's trackpad, and they tried to move it to computer screens," Jobs said regretfully. They also demonstrated the technology on the wall with a projector. However, he was too cautious to show it to me immediately. Since the team was working on this technology in his spare time, it was because he didn't want to discourage everyone, because he was afraid that I would say: this is a pile of shit. It is because of these ridiculous concerns that we missed the opportunity and did not apply for patent technology protection in time. ”

It's no wonder that Jobs was indignant, he was so annoyed, Liu Meng smiled and said: "Mr. Jobs, hindsight is not your style, or continue to introduce me to the development of the iPhone." ”

Jobs continued, "So Ivor chose to present the team's ideas to me privately in his conference room. I loved the technology, this is the future, and I immediately realized that I could solve problems with the interface of my phone. Since the mobile phone project was more important, we put the development of the tablet on hold for a moment and used the multi-touch interface on a phone-sized screen. If it works on a mobile phone, then I know we can go back to using this technology on a tablet. ”

"I summoned Fader, Rubinstein, and Schiller to a secret meeting in the design department, where Ivor's multi-touch technology was demonstrated. Fadell exclaimed, 'Wow,' everyone loves this technology, but it's not sure if it's going to be possible on mobile devices." We decided to divide into two groups: one group developed a roller phone, codenamed P1, and the other group developed a multi-touch screen phone, codenamed P2. ”

"After six months of working on the Wheels P1 and Multi-Touch P2 projects, I summoned the inner circle to my conference room for a final decision. Fadell has been working a scroll wheel model, but he admits that the team hasn't figured out an easy way to dial the dial. Multi-touch solutions are riskier because it's uncertain if they can be engineered, but they're also more exciting and promising. We all know that, that's what we want to do, I point to the touchscreen. Jobs said and swiped his finger and continued, "So, let's make it happen." That's when I take the company a shot, the risk is high, but if it succeeds, the reward is high. ”

"Given the popularity of BlackBerrys, several team members advocated for keyboards, but I rejected the idea. Physical keyboards take up screen space and aren't as flexible and adaptable as touchscreen keyboards. A physical keyboard may seem like a simple solution, but there are limitations, and if we can put the keyboard on the screen with software, you can imagine how much innovation we can make on top of that. Take a gamble and we'll find a way to do it. ”

Jobs and Liu Meng's casual chats are so incendiary, Liu Meng thinks that his speech skills are not as good as Jobs's, there is no doubt that he is a very charismatic person, Liu Meng is just a good listener, did not interrupt Jobs at all.

"Finally, the product came out, and if you want to dial a number, the screen will show a numeric keypad, and if you want to write something, you can bring up a typing keyboard. Each specific activity has a corresponding button to meet the needs, but when the user is watching the video, these keyboards disappear. Software replaces hardware, making the interface smooth and flexible. I spent half a year helping to perfect the screen. It was the most complex pleasure I've ever had, like being part of a variation on Sergeant Pepper. ”

"Many of the features that seem simple now are the result of creative brainstorming at the time. For example, if the mobile phone team is worried that the phone will play music or dial in the pocket and accidentally touch it, they will think about how to solve the problem. I hate switching switches in my heart, and I think it's 'unpretty'. The solution is 'Slide On', a simple and fun slider on the screen to activate a dormant machine. Another breakthrough is that when a user makes a call, the sensor is able to make a judgment and not assume that the fingers are operating, thus avoiding the problem of the ear accidentally activating certain functions. ”

"One meeting after another, I was involved in every detail, and the team members managed to come up with ways to simplify other complicated features of the phone. We've added a large bar where users can choose to put a call on hold or have a conference call, found an easy way to browse email, and created an icon that scrolls horizontally so that users can choose to launch different applications. These improvements make the phone much easier to use, as users can intuitively operate on the screen without the need for a physical keyboard. ”

The more Jobs said, the more excited he became, "We made the iPhone flawless step by step." ”R1152