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Chapter 1154: Chapter 1012 Sirius System
While Tang Qing was demonstrating the mobile phone to his second uncle and others,
United States.
New York.
ERV Headquarters.
ERV had emerged financially powerful.
By the end of last month, they had acquired the headquarters of a bankrupt technology company in the suburbs of New York. The property was large with distinctive architectural design, completed in the middle of this year; sadly, it went cheaply to ERV.
At this moment,
the atmosphere in the conference room was a bit tense.
Three days ago,
ERV had sent an Email to Google,
inviting them to take part in the Mobile Terminal Operating System Open Software Alliance founded by ERV, which was scheduled to be initiated by Google next November, but ERV had started it a year earlier.
Last year,
Google acquired Android.
They were preparing to develop a mobile operating system.
It wasn’t due to their far-sighted vision, but based on Moore’s Law, they simply knew that in the future, small, high-performance mobile devices would become popular, and naturally, these devices would need operating systems.
In the realm of PC operating systems, Microsoft dominated alone.
Google then sought to create a mainstream non-PC operating system in this emerging industry.
They were now intensely involved in research and development.
Unexpectedly,
ERV pulled such a move, clearly intending to disrupt Android’s rhythm.
Facing Eric’s discontent,
the Fighter calmly reasoned,
"Mr. Eric, I invited you here to cooperate, not to question me. In the field of technology, those who excel are teachers. There’s no rule saying that if you do something, I can’t do it too, wouldn’t you agree?"
"..."
Eric, of course, knew this reasoning.
But having someone get ahead of him and planning to eat up his market was quite unsettling.
"May I know your progress?" asked Eric.
"Of course, no problem, here is our progress report."
The Fighter handed over a document, and Eric Schmidt carefully examined it, finding that whether it was system architecture, application management, or various solutions, all were nearly perfected.
Many aspects were progressing much faster than the current Android research and development.
Considering ERV’s capabilities,
there was no need for them to falsify anything.
"What do you wish to do?" Eric put down the document.
The Fighter stated, "We’re planning to invite Google to join our ’Sirius System’, abandon the development of the Android system, and together set the industry standards to complement each other and seize market shares."
"Currently, there are too many operating systems available, and there will be even more in the future. Microsoft, Apple, Nokia, Motorola, Samsung... any manufacturer will definitely develop their own mobile operating systems."
"Our aim at ERV is to make ’Sirius’ the only dominant player."
Lastly, the Fighter set the target for ’Sirius’.
Sirius.
The brightest star in the night sky.
This was also Tang Qing’s expectation: in a sky full of stars, to be the brightest, making other stars so irrelevant that people wouldn’t even be interested in learning their names. Regarding the invitation to Google, he primarily wanted to leverage their influence.
Otherwise.
Whether Android lived or died,
Tang Qing had little interest in collaborating with Google.
"..."
Eric didn’t respond immediately; these were significant concerns. After a long thought, he asked, "How are you so sure your system will have an advantage and can become the only dominant player? Don’t forget, nobody likes being restricted."
The Fighter immediately responded, "Smaller space requirements, strong compatibility, security, stability, high execution efficiency of programs, high chip utilization rate, and most importantly—we will be open source and free."
The previous points were theoretical.
The last two,
they were the fundamental reasons for Android being dominant alone.
"What? You’re going open source?" Eric was shocked, and it was even free. This would hardly earn any money. When designing Android initially, Eric had never considered making it open source, let alone free.
"Yes, nothing sells better than things that are free. Once we go open source, we naturally have an advantage. Being free makes us unstoppable; as long as we ensure compatibility and scalability, we fear nobody," the Fighter said with a smile.
It was also Apple’s remarkable emergence
that forced Google to abandon these interests.
At this moment.
Eric was truly frightened by the "madness" of the person in front of him.
"What are your plans?"
"We collaborate on research and development. I heard that Apple is about to release a smart phone; you know about that, right?" Fighter brought up another matter.
"I know," Eric nodded.
Fighter said, "After its release, I plan to invite major mobile phone manufacturers, chip manufacturers, operators, and others to jointly promote our product. I think on this issue, there’s no need for us to be at loggerheads."
Hands crossed.
Eric furrowed his brow.
The person in front of him was right.
It was not wise to be at loggerheads with ERV. Even if he disagreed, they would do it anyway—open source, free, and thus, there would be no room for charging in the entire market.
Unless it was mandatory to carry, like an Apple phone.
As for Android.
It could only be used by his own company, becoming a niche system.
"I’ll go back and think about it," Eric looked up.
"Good, I hope you decide quickly; otherwise, once we’ve completed all the architecture and details, Android will have no value at all, and then don’t say I’m solely profit-driven," Fighter reminded him.
"Good,"
Eric felt a sudden tightness in his heart.
He walked out of ERV.
Eric immediately made a call to request a Board of Directors meeting. This important matter, nearly crippling their highly anticipated Android, had to be reported to the Board.
...
"...That’s the situation. ERV wants to invite us to join their Sirius System," Eric detailed the conversation he had with Fighter as well as the document he had seen.
"Eric, what do you think?" the Chairman asked.
Eric quickly responded, "I think it’s worth considering. We develop operating systems for our own phones, and it would be great if it was widely accepted, but if it becomes a niche system, it wouldn’t make much sense."
"Open source, free, when has ERV been so generous?" In their minds, ERV was a company very good at calculating and making money; a free system was truly strange.
Eric continued, "He said it’s to capture market share."
"Can ERV’s ’Sirius’ surpass our ’Android’?" the Vice Chairman inquired.
Eric replied, "I believe it can. ERV has been a company with strong technical strength from the start, with remarkable achievements in the field of optimization algorithms, and they have a keen vision, control over the upstream ARM company for microprocessors, and mature software development experience."
"All in all, our chances with Android are very low."
"..." Eric’s assessment was very fair.
Google prided itself on being powerful.
But it was not invincible; ERV’s technical strength had been recognized by the industry. Some even speculated that ERV was most likely to compete with Microsoft in software technology.
Because now, the complexity of "Warfire" was not much different from that of operating systems.
Half an hour later.
After a heated discussion.
Google’s Board of Directors unanimously passed a resolution to merge the Android project into the Sirius project, aiming to gain a bit more "ownership." Although it was free and open source, the implicit financial benefits brought by industry standards were not insignificant.
In the end.
Eric sighed.
The enemy was too strong and too ruthless.
...
The next day.
Morning.
Google and ERV signed an agreement.
Both parties agreed to establish "Sirius System Company," led by ERV, with Google’s Android team fully joining to co-develop the mobile operating system, aiming to quickly produce the first version.
By then.
They would invite other major companies to join this open system alliance.
First, they prepared to secure their territory.
Meanwhile.
There was also progress from Qualcomm.
Qualcomm spent five hundred million dollars to buy exclusive rights to the chip, and for every chip produced, they had to pay a patent fee of $4.30 to Fighter’s controlled company, as the chip used many new "implementation methods."
At the same time.
Qualcomm and Fighter’s company also established a strategic partnership, with Qualcomm investing one billion seven hundred million dollars for a twenty percent stake in the company, collaboratively developing the next generation of chips.
Qualcomm was full of confidence.
Ready to use this opportunity to completely consolidate its status as a microprocessor supremo.
Thus.
Tang Qing’s smartphone layout entered a new phase.
From the very upstream architecture ARM of microprocessors, to the next-generation mobile chips, from operating systems, to various components, it paved the way for the ’legitimate emergence’ of the phone.
