The entire alliance members present at the meeting were dumbfounded upon seeing the announcement. The Jiangnan Group had truly baffled them.
They had just painstakingly used almost all their connections to facilitate this investigation, only for the Jiangnan Group to announce, "We don't need your investigation. We're not selling anymore." How could anyone, not even the Americans, accuse something that wasn't being sold of monopolizing the market?
It was akin to a mob boss hoarding a large batch of pagers, planning to strike it rich, only to emerge from prison to find pagers obsolete.
Seeing the tense silence, Mr. Bob decided to lighten the mood. He chuckled and said, "Everyone, no need to be upset. Isn't this a good thing? Our original goal was just to get the Jiangnan Group to pay a fine and give up some market share. Now, they're not selling Tianzhou at all. Isn't this good news falling from the sky?"
"We've exceeded our expected goals!"
While these words from the Qualcomm executive sounded reasonable, and the facts seemed to support them, the expressions of others in the conference room were exceptionally indifferent. Their gazes were fixed on the announcement from the Jiangnan Group. The representative from Microsoft sighed and said, "Do you really think the Jiangnan Group isn't selling Tianzhou terminals anymore?"
"No, first of all, they stated that they are only not selling the ordinary version. The luxury version priced at $999 and the ultimate luxury version priced at $99,999 are still available for sale."
"This means that the Jiangnan Group has only abandoned the low-end and mid-range markets. They haven't given up on the high-end and luxury markets at all. They are directly elevating their brand status, only focusing on the high-end, not playing in the mid-to-low-end markets with us anymore. They look down on us and want to step on our necks!" the Apple executive said coldly, his words filled with anger.
After all, for a company like Apple, which had always held a high position in terms of brand, when had they ever allowed others to step on their necks?
"That's not entirely true. The high-end and luxury consumer markets are very small, with less than 1% of consumers being able to afford these two tiers. The most important market is still the mid-to-low-end market. The Jiangnan Group is voluntarily ceding these two markets, which is still a good thing for all of us!" Mr. Bob said, still confused.
Although he was in the conference room, he was not a member of the alliance and did not understand the nuances and market dynamics of terminals. Therefore, he was completely bewildered.
"Mr. Bob, haven't you seen that in this announcement, the Jiangnan Group indeed stated that they would no longer sell low-end and mid-range Tianzhou terminals? But in the very next moment, they explicitly stated in the announcement that all parts of the Tianzhou terminal can be sold separately."
"This means that the Jiangnan Group can license out all the technologies used in their Tianzhou terminals, sell their Tianzhou terminal chips, various product parts, and most importantly, their Tianzhou operating system, along with their Tianzhou Mall and various terminal applications, all to other terminal manufacturers." the Google executive said.
"Of course, I saw that. So what? They're selling, but does that mean others will definitely buy?" Mr. Bob scoffed.
"Nonsense, of course, they will buy. Why does the Tianzhou terminal almost monopolize the entire European market, while the combined sales of all other terminals are less than a fraction of theirs?"
"It's because the Tianzhou terminal currently possesses the richest application ecosystem in the entire terminal market. Their Tianzhou Mall currently has over a million different applications. Although more than 75% of these are applications produced in a streamlined manner for stock trading, even if only 25% remain, that's still 250,000 applications!"
"Especially the Jiangnan Group's WeChat, which is a flagship product. It currently holds absolute dominance in the terminal field, to the point that many people have completely moved their lives and work onto WeChat. If your terminal doesn't have WeChat, you're very likely to be disconnected from the entire social network of society," the Microsoft executive sighed.
"That's right. Since things have come to this, there's no harm in telling you. Originally, to counter WeChat, we had prepared an additional plan. We intended to use this EU investigation to force the Jiangnan Group to open up a third-party version of WeChat, allowing WeChat to be installed on our own terminal systems."
"We even felt that the EU investigation alone might not be enough and had already begun pushing for investigations in the United States to threaten them. But now, the Jiangnan Group has directly removed the restrictions, licensing out the entire app store. Our plan is no longer necessary."
"Isn't that even better? Since the Jiangnan Group says they can license it out directly, then we can get the WeChat license for free. What's the big deal about that!" Mr. Bob said blankly. He really couldn't understand why everyone in the room looked so glum when it was clearly good news.
"Good my ass!" The Microsoft executive directly cursed. "The Jiangnan Group's WeChat is an application that runs under a quintillion system. This damn thing can't even be ported into a binary application. It's even less likely to be installed on our WP system. No matter how much they license out, we can't use any of it!"
As soon as this was said, Mr. Bob finally understood why no one in the conference room was speaking. This move was simply too ruthless.
The Jiangnan Group directly stating that they could license out their various Tianzhou-related products, or sell parts directly, meant that they were still selling Tianzhou terminals, just not as a whole unit anymore, leaving the assembly work to other companies.
At the same time, it was imaginable that because the Tianzhou terminal had previously held an absolute dominant position in the market, and almost 80% of terminal applications were developed around the quintillion computer system.
Once the Jiangnan Group withdrew from the terminal market, all other companies would flood into the market. Furthermore, to most quickly take over the market left by the Jiangnan Group, they would have no choice but to, and inevitably would, choose to purchase the various technologies licensed by the Jiangnan Group, the manufactured parts, and most importantly, inherit the quintillion computer system.
In essence, they would shop around in the Jiangnan Group's store, buying various parts, assembling them, putting on a new casing, sticking on their own brand, and thus turning them into their own new generation of terminals.
Because these terminals inherited the technology and system of the Tianzhou terminal, they could seamlessly replace the current mainstream Tianzhou terminals. Users would undoubtedly choose to purchase these companies' products.
This was like a whale fall. The Tianzhou terminal, this giant whale, had self-destructed, and its remains would nourish countless newly born small whales.
But the problem was, most of those present would not get a single benefit from this whale fall.
The Tianzhou terminal was developed based on quintillion chips and a quintillion system. Therefore, Microsoft was destined to be unable to accept it. They would absolutely not change their terminal system, which was almost equivalent to suicide.
This was why the Microsoft executive had the most intense reaction, as this outcome was the most unacceptable to them.
Next was Intel. Intel manufactured chips, and the chips for the Tianzhou terminal had only one supplier: the Jiangnan Group. Other chip manufacturers couldn't even figure out how to manufacture quintillion chips, so Intel could not benefit from this whale fall either.
Qualcomm's situation was slightly better. Although Qualcomm also sold chips, their chips were mainly for communication, specifically 3G communication technology. If they were willing to change their stance and join the Jiangnan Group's camp, obtaining relevant technology licenses from the Jiangnan Group.
Then they could design Qualcomm-branded quintillion 3G chips based on quintillion chips and invite the Jiangnan Group to be the manufacturer. After all, in terms of communication chips, the Jiangnan Group was also manufacturing for Huawei. Since they were both manufacturers, could Qualcomm afford to ignore the small Huawei?
Apple and Google's situations were similar. They both had room to switch allegiances. As long as their terminals gave up their own systems and chips and instead purchased chips and systems from the Jiangnan Group, perhaps Apple and Google could turn around and become the two most successful terminal companies globally after the Tianzhou terminal.
But if that were to happen, the small alliance in this conference room would completely collapse.
After all, this alliance was formed based on each company bringing out its core technologies. If Google and Apple betrayed Intel and Microsoft, the alliance would likely immediately descend into war.
"Gentlemen, a significant change has occurred. We must return to our companies and await the board's corresponding response. We will take our leave now!" the Google representative said immediately and prepared to leave.
The Apple representative hesitated for a moment before also standing up. Qualcomm looked around and finally prepared to leave with them.
"Gentlemen, things haven't reached the worst stage yet. We can still find a way," the Intel executive tried hard to maintain the fragile alliance. "We might still have a way, as long as the Jiangnan Group can retract its decision..."
"Sir, there's no need to say such things. We forced them to break up earlier. Now that they have truly broken up, do we have to force them back together?" the Apple executive said with a wry smile. "However, I also believe that the existence of the alliance is necessary. There absolutely cannot be only one terminal system in the market, and I think our CEOs would not accept such humiliation. Perhaps the alliance can still continue to exist!"
Well, that was just perhaps.