210: Chapter 210 The End of the Steve Jobs Era

"The doctor told me that my body can no longer support another surgery."

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"If I force it, the most likely outcome is that I will collapse on the operating table."

"So I want to see for myself who this person who has disrupted the industry is." Steve Jobs smiled.

"Now I know."

A look of shock appeared on Cook's face. He knew Steve Jobs was in poor health and that the organ rejection was very obvious, but he hadn't expected that he could no longer withstand another surgery.

Steve Jobs' doctors were the best in the world, and there were even many donors. His desire for life had reached the extreme, and he had already undergone many surgeries.

Now... to hear this from him, it seemed there was truly no way to turn things around.

"After I die, you must remember one thing."

"Do not start a price war with Transsion. They are better than us at cost control, better than Samsung, better than anyone."

"Price wars will only lead us to decline."

"Then what should we fight? Especially in the Chinese market, it's been two generations already, and we can't keep underperforming like this."

"The future is an ecosystem war." A glimmer of spirit finally flashed in Steve Jobs' eyes. "Apple's biggest advantage is not hardware; it is iOS, it is our App Store, and it is those developers."

"No matter how strong Transsion is, as long as they are based on open-source Android, they cannot create iOS. If we hold onto this, we hold onto our bottom line."

"Starting from the next generation, abandon the market below 5000 yuan and go all out."

Cook nodded. The system was a moat, but it was definitely not the biggest moat.

He had to go to the Chinese market for a field investigation to see the expectations Apple fans had for Apple phones.

Of course, he had also heard about the price issue. Some users in China held huge expectations for foreign products, along with a very perfect filter; they could accept some products that were not quite perfect.

"There is one more thing." Steve Jobs leaned back against the head of the bed. "The boss of Transsion, Shen Fei, I had people investigate his layout in the United States and some of his background."

"What did you find?" Cook was slightly excited. With Steve Jobs making a move, the information found would certainly be more than what he had, and perhaps it could play an important role for him.

At this moment, his heart was full of anticipation.

But at the critical moment, Steve Jobs started coughing again. The equipment nearby was also sounding frantic alarms!

The doctors waiting next door rushed in. Seeing the data, they realized something was wrong and quickly said to Cook:

"Mr. Cook, please step out first. Mr. Steve Jobs' condition is not quite right. Please... we will do our best..."

The doctors were also starting the corresponding equipment, and Cook was thus driven out of the ward.

But in the hallway, he kept thinking about the question Steve Jobs had raised at the end. What exactly had Steve Jobs investigated?

How many engineers had they poached in the United States, and what other departments were conducting research and development?

Without this answer, he really felt very insecure, but this emergency rescue lasted for more than two full hours and was slow to end.

Cook was also called back. Returning to his office, another piece of bad news was placed on his desk.

"Mr. Cook, regarding the supply chain, we have encountered a big problem..." Jeff Williams said, "After the earthquake in Japan, there is a global shortage of semiconductors, and everyone is scrambling for production capacity."

"Just now, Hynix announced another 20% reduction in production, and the recovery date is to be determined."

The supply chain problem made Cook anxious once again. He remembered that Transsion had a large amount of flash memory and RAM in its hands, and they had been shipping in reverse during the shortage market, earning quite a lot of money.

"At least over 1 billion USD... Does this mean that Transsion has already overcome storage technology..."

"Then the gap between them will get bigger and bigger."

Jeff Williams continued anxiously: "The entire market is hyping this up. Our suppliers, having persisted for so long, have also issued us an ultimatum: a 100% price increase, or they will terminate the supply contract."

After speaking, he slumped into his chair. He was truly out of options.

It had been half a year, and reconstruction work had started in Japan, but who could have imagined that the price of storage would still keep rising.

"Could it be that now that there were no infrastructure costs, they wanted to harvest leeks from us."

At this moment, he suddenly felt that Transsion was indeed far-sighted; they had just sent them several boxes of paper cranes. Even now, he still remembered the moment the Japanese opened the safe...

At this moment, he also felt a bit regretful. Why did Apple donate those supplies? It would have been better to just donate paper cranes. Next time there is such a problem, they must keep up.

At this moment, Shen Fei still did not know that his "unintentional act" had created a flourishing era, and had also been cursed by the Japanese for a long time.

"Compromise! Sign the order. Next week I will go to China. By then, our sales will have a certain increase, and we can't do it without inventory."

Jeff Williams nodded. With Cook's instruction, that would be fine.

...

At this moment, Steve Jobs, who had just been resuscitated, was also muttering words that Cook did not hear.

He had indeed investigated Shen Fei, using all the connections he could use. The result was very terrifying.

Those mysterious technologies—he could not find any useful information about their sources at all.

The only thing that could be found was that they had made a lot of money during the financial crisis and used it to acquire many companies in the United States, filling in many gaps.

Even this information was obtained under the blockade of relevant departments. He dared not imagine how many good things Transsion had taken away from the United States during this economic crisis.

Just like how the United States also used this economic crisis to take away many things from other countries...

As for other backgrounds, it was very clean! So clean that it frightened him. A rich second generation with no real ability, taking over temporarily, and achieving this level in just a few short years.

He simply could not believe it. Either he was a genius, or he possessed things that Apple did not know about.

...

One day later, Apple Inc. officially released a brief statement.

"Steve Jobs is on temporary leave due to health issues. CEO Tim Cook will preside over the company's daily work here."

No one knew what Steve Jobs had said in the ward that night. After the announcement was released, Cook went to the hospital again.

He wanted to know what the investigation results on Shen Fei were. Helplessly, there were never any suitable conditions, and after waiting for a few hours, Cook could only return empty-handed.

...

Meanwhile, in Yangcheng, after seeing the report, Huang Tianya also came to Shen Fei's office for the first time.

The office was already full. Chen Hai, Li Qing, Wang Hua, Manager Chen, Wang Mengyang...

"General Manager Shen, Apple Inc. has temporarily changed its leadership, and the first market Cook wants to investigate after officially taking over is the Chinese market. It has already gone crazy on the internet." Li Qing said.

The news of Apple Inc. investigating the Chinese market immediately made everyone worried. After all, this was a signal that they would definitely change their market positioning, and the subsequent competition would definitely intensify significantly.

"Steve Jobs is going to be gone, and the early era of the Smartphone is also going to end."

"What?" Shen Fei's light sentence immediately shocked everyone present.