It wasn't difficult for William White to judge that Motorola's research and development direction had shifted. In fact, this had created quite a stir in the IT industry.
Unless necessary, American companies rarely engaged in price wars. On the surface, this was to ensure profits, but the real situation was quite different.
Companies may come and go, but the financial oligarchs remain constant -- this was the state of the American economy. Since everyone is backed by conglomerates, there's room for mutually beneficial exchanges, leaving no need for cutthroat competition.
Of course, if Intel was unwilling to abandon low-end products, then there's nothing more to say; they would have to compete head-on.
Regardless of William White's motives, Intel could only show their gratitude. It was better for everyone to work independently rather than pile onto desktop processors.
Motorola and Ricoh certainly didn't mind. In fact, they quite favored this change. What good is a high price for desktop processors if there's no volume to back it up?
Both being manufacturing enterprises, they clearly understood the advantages of mass production. A single order was worth millions of CPUs, which was undoubtedly delightful.
Even if the 6800 had superior performance, it was as William White opined -- IBM wouldn't use it, and neither would other compatible machines.
The money earned from this CPU could only be described as laughable.
Putting aside the CPU dilemma, the Japanese were amazed as soon as they got their hands on the PSP. Naturally, they implemented William White's requests to the letter.
Frankly, demanding high-quality mono sound was asking for the impossible.
However, after using Japanese components, there was indeed some enhancement. Anyway, William White found it acceptable.
It's really hard to understand how these folks manage to achieve this with the same technology. Of course, you could say Europeans are capable too, and I won't deny it; European audio and headphones are indeed better.
But the price?
Adding an extra zero at the end was the least you could expect.
In that case, how was William White supposed to sell his game console? It wasn't worth inviting trouble.
Anyway, this situation led to a consensus within Legendary World to continue placing orders with the Japanese, as no one else could do the job.
As for game cartridges, sigh, it's heartbreaking to think about it; they've already gone as far as creating 108-in-1 cartridges. How could you stand to make a profit?
If it weren't for this bizarre situation, orders for his game console would've been in the millions per batch, and ten million wouldn't have been a big deal. In reality, even with the presence of these bootlegs, the eventual sales figures remained significant, with conservative estimates reaching over a hundred million.
Of course, one couldn't say so now, or they would be seen as eccentric. Better to pretend and let the outside world misjudge.
If it suddenly sold out quickly, they'd just say that the folks had won the gamble, and that was that.
"Boss, the Japanese are asking if we will grant production licenses."
"Yeah, same strategy as with the TV game consoles. Go ahead and talk it out." After some time, William White made the above decision. He had no other choice -- before imitation products emerged, he had to maximize this platform's value.
...
For William White, making this decision took less than a minute. His shareholders, however, couldn't agree with how such a crucial decision was made without board approval.
No need for that.
Despite being diluted, he still held more than half of the stocks. Changing this situation would take years.
The reason?
Simple -- he wasn't short on cash and had no intention to sell shares. In fact, many of the stocks were actually under the names of fund companies.
Oh well, it was one of those laughable charity funds.
William White had two kinds of charitable funds. One was genuine donations publicly announced each quarter, while the other was so-called family funds which, frankly speaking, were for tax avoidance. One shouldn't take issue with this, as the wealthy class operated like this.
...
The Japanese of this era were really quite driven. They stopped hesitating this time, with production capacity vastly exceeding actual order demand.
They were determined not to repeat the mistakes made with television game consoles. They knew their brand had just hit the market.
Had they been bolder at that time, they could've earned way more money. Although things were going well now, there was still a tinge of regret.
"So soon? The Japanese are crazy?"
"Yes, boss. They are indeed a bit crazy."
"Darn it, we need to increase orders by five million before Christmas. Hmph, if the Japanese have the confidence, why should we lack it?"
With William White's decision, everyone was in a frenzy. Wall Street stopped commenting, realizing they might have misjudged again.
Thinking about buying low? Forget it. Years later, people would say, "There was once a good stock right before me, but I didn't cherish it. In the end, I jumped into the sea."
...
Since production plans were set, marketing strategies were next. He had plenty of media platforms at his disposal, and shows like American Idol were excellent.
"Barry, has Mercedes-Benz decided yet? If they don't, we won't negotiate further."
"Boss, I was just about to report; they've decided to take the naming rights for 12.5 million."
"Alright, then. If they hadn't decided, we could've advertised with PSP."
"Heh, they've made their decision, and they seem to be interested in long-term cooperation."
"Ha, wishful thinking. It'll cost more next year, but they sure do have the money."
Mercedes-Benz knew there was no chance of declining viewership; the preliminary contests already had over twenty million viewers. Imagine the finals!
Moreover, the announcement that the champion would appear at the New Year's Eve party boosted registration and viewership.
Advertisers couldn't afford to wait any longer; the exposure from this channel was too good. However, these bastards really went overboard; they saw the setup for the finals hall.
Damn, it was packed with ad slots!
To sell ads like that, William White was unique. Yet, the fact that it was popular left them speechless.
From their viewpoint, if the host's chair wasn't made of leather, then it was darn well made of gold.
A group of advertisers fully admitted defeat -- no wonder William White was America's richest. His money-making methods were outrageously ruthless.
Coldly observing, the financial oligarchs suddenly noticed they had seriously underestimated the value of television networks.
Leaving aside the influence, the sheer commercial value alone was impressive.
Unfortunately, it's not just NBC -- every television network's valuation was rising. Price was no longer the issue; no one was willing to sell.
*****
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