101: Cook: I'm a pro at harvesting韭菜 (a metaphor for exploiting people).

USA time, October 18, 2013.

At the Fruit Headquarters in California, Cooker was currently reading the latest email sent by the Apple China department.

“Knock, knock, knock... ”

“Come in.”

The person who entered was precisely Michelson, who had flown from China to the USA Headquarters. After getting off the plane this morning, he immediately rushed to the Fruit Headquarters.

“Mr. Cooker, please take a look at this.”

Michelson handed a document to Cooker and then took out a little star that had already been disassembled into parts.

Cooker took the document and began examining the contents.

Yangtze River Battery?

42% increase in capacity for the same volume?

“Oh my god!”

“Has this thing been confirmed?” Cooker asked Michelson in surprise.

“The patent department has also confirmed it. Red Star's latest Kunpeng mobile phone uses this battery, and based on my usage over the past few days, the performance is excellent,” Michelson said.

“Is classmate xiao xing truly capable of anthropomorphic intelligence, as you stated in your email?”

“Yes, BOSS. Our researchers in China have subjected it to thousands of simulation tests. Currently, Red Star's Voice Assistant Speaker can indeed be called a Rudimentary AI based on its performance in intelligence and emotional expression.”

Cooker tapped lightly on the table. When he received the email from Michelson Abbott, Cooker's initial reaction was the same as his: he simply couldn't believe a Chinese private enterprise could produce such a product.

But the test results in the email attachment showed that this little star was truly more than just a simple voice assistant.

Behind it was indeed the support of a professional Large Language Model!

“I will have our professional researchers conduct further tests. Now, let's talk about the Yangtze River Battery.”

Cooker was not fond of the Chinese term Yangtze River; it was a bit awkward. In his opinion, calling it the Yangtze River Battery was inferior to calling it Apple Battery.

“Are you saying that Red Star is willing to supply the Yangtze River Battery to Fruit, but their current production capacity is insufficient, and they need us to help them expand their factory, is that right?”

Cooker said with a tone of displeasure.

“Yes, BOSS. Currently, the production capacity of the Yangtze River Battery is very low, and the main selling points of Red Star's phone products are the large battery and fast charging, so...”

Cooker waved his hand at him, indicating that he didn't need to say any more.

Fruit pays the full amount for a batch of orders upfront, and then Red Star delivers them after the factory expansion is complete and capacity is available. This Red Star certainly knows how to play the game.

Michelson Abbott also wore a bitter expression. Meeting with Chen Chen on the 16th, he hadn't expected Chen Chen to demand that Fruit pay for the orders first, using that money to expand the factory before supplying Fruit.

He immediately said that was impossible, but Chen Chen simply spread his hands and stated that only by doing so would he allow Yangtze River New Energy Company to join Fruit's supply chain; otherwise, the discussion was off.

As the Vice President of Apple China, how could Michelson Abbott tolerate such disrespect? Everywhere he went, suppliers were flattering him, hoping to enter Fruit's supply chain.

Everyone else considered it an honor to be on Fruit's supplier list, but Red Star was different—it demanded payment upfront, saying, "If you want me in, pay first."

“Abbott, leave the documents here and you may leave first.”

Cooker said to Michelson Abbott after considering the matter.

“Understood, BOSS.” After saying that, Michelson Abbott left Cooker's office.

Cooker then called Fruit's Chief Operating Officer on the phone.

“Cooker, what do you need me for?” Cooker Neal asked upon entering Cooker's office.

“Take a look at this first. These documents were just delivered by Abbott from China.”

Cooker pushed the documents toward Cooker Neal.

“My God, China actually mass-produced high-density batteries? And a Voice Assistant Speaker?”

Cooker Neal exclaimed in surprise after reading the documents Cooker handed over.

“Abbott discussed supplying this battery to Fruit with Chen Chen, the head of Red Star, but Red Star requires us to pay first to help them expand production capacity.”

“Do you have any thoughts?”

Unlike Steve Jobs' philosophy of pursuing ultimate industrial design, Cooker was definitely a shrewd businessman. In his view, nothing—not even ultimate industrial design—was more appealing than crisp green US dollars.

As a professional at ripping people off, Cooker had an idea immediately after seeing the performance parameters of the Yangtze River Battery and classmate xiao xing.

Cooker Neal was a capable assistant who had followed Cooker for many years. After Cooker took the helm of Fruit, his status naturally rose, and he transformed into Fruit's COO, or Chief Operating Officer.

Naturally, no one understood better than him that Cooker was a genuine merchant focused entirely on profit margins. Just by looking at Cooker's expression, he could roughly guess his thoughts.

“Mr. Cooker, I think we should launch a Long-Endurance Version based on the Fruit 5s, equipped with Red Star's Yangtze River Battery. Hmm... I believe users would accept a price increase of over 100 US dollars.”

“We could call it the Fruit 5s Plus.”

Cooker Neal said to Cooker.

Cooker nodded. Replacing the battery with a larger capacity one and raising the price by 20% perfectly aligned with his philosophy.

To get the latest Fruit 5s Plus for just over 100 US dollars more—Cooker felt he was being too benevolent.

“Your idea is great, but I think calling it the Fruit 5s Max would better suit our positioning.”

Cooker said to him with a smile.

“As you wish, BOSS.”

“Regarding Smart Speakers, as far as I know, only Amazon is currently planning to launch one. Since Red Star's speaker has high market acceptance, we can seize the opportunity to launch our own Fruit Smart Speaker or a Siri Speaker Version.”

“In my opinion, Red Star's speaker is industrial garbage, with a strong Chinese design aesthetic.”

“We'll use the world's best acoustic unit, the most premium design, plus Siri. I think selling it for 500 US dollars would be fine.”

“No, no, no!”

Cooker shook his finger, interrupting Cooker Neal.

How could 500 US dollars be worthy of Fruit's status? Such a premium product should be priced at least between 800 and 1000 US dollars.

Cooker received news that the Smart Speaker Amazon was about to launch would be priced at over 700 US dollars. How could Fruit be cheaper than Amazon?

“500 US dollars is too cheap. You can prepare a proposal. If we do this, Fruit must do it best. The true value of a Fruit product is 800 US dollars or more.”

“Mr. Cooker, I understand. I will go arrange it immediately,” Cooker Neal replied.

“Send someone from Headquarters to contact Red Star as soon as possible to get samples of the Yangtze River Battery for testing. If there are no issues, we can prepay a sum to Red Star for expansion, provided I secure their output for the next two years.”

“BOSS, what if we buy the patent from them?”