New York 2006

Chapter 131 New Era
On July 2007, 7, the front pages of major music magazines and newspapers related to the entertainment industry were all about Britney.

"Britney officially divorced Kevin yesterday."

"Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Scott Gordon yesterday signed off on Britney Spears and Kevin Federline's divorce settlement. Neither Spears nor Federline attended the dissolution ceremony of their marriage, which was confirmed by their respective Attorneys are present.”

"Although the two have divorced, the custody lawsuit is not over yet. The couple will continue to jointly custody their son, and Federline will still receive $15000 per month in child support from Spears. According to reports, Federline currently receives $20000 a month in spousal support from his ex-wife, but under the terms of the couple's prenuptial agreement, those payments will end in November."

Luo Ji was speechless after reading this report. Britney's public opinion was already so dominant, and the custody lawsuit was not over yet.

The judge of their custody is an old white Republican man. Is it because of the involvement of women's rights organizations that he is disgusted.

"Forget it, Britney is much richer than Kevin, so she shouldn't be able to lose the lawsuit."

Luo Ji then looked at other news about Britney. There was quite a lot of news about her today.

"Britney released a new album without warning after four years. She told the media that this represents her new life. She wants to say goodbye to her past self and embrace a new life."

"Britney's latest studio album, Blackout, released today, is a dance-pop and electro-pop style influenced by European disco and dubstep since her 2003 In the Zone album, "Blackout," released today. The themes revolve around love, fame, media scrutiny, and nightclubs.”

"Britney personally told reporters that she, like Logic, is very optimistic about the future of electronic music. Her album tells the story of how she was over-consumed by the media last year and this year. It was a very dark stage in her life, so the album A lot of the songs reflect that."

"Britney's album is the best pop dance and electronic music album I have ever heard. The music is very groundbreaking and forward-looking, and it is likely to lead the trend..."

Luo Ji read a few more reports. Most of the media were full of praise for Britney's new album. Everyone now had great goodwill toward this woman who had been besieged by the media some time ago.

After browsing Britney's news, Luo Ji looked at the news about Apple. During this period, Apple had become very popular in the technology industry.

"On June 6, thousands of people were waiting in line outside the Apple flagship store on Fifth Avenue in New York. Their purpose was to buy the latest Apple mobile phone."

"In the past six months, Apple's product marketing has been ubiquitous, with tens of thousands of articles written, millions of Internet hits, and Logic's music video for "We don't talk anymore" featured in The response has been very good. So much so that six out of [-] Americans surveyed said they knew Apple phones were on sale during this period."

"Many Apple stores reported inventory shortages within an hour of the phone being released. To avoid a repeat of the PlayStation 3 launch, which led to break-ins and even shootings, Apple stores hired off-duty police officers to guard the stores overnight."

"The development of Apple smartphones began in 2004. The entire development team has more than 1000 employees. It is a highly confidential project of Apple mobile phones. At the beginning of the project, it received early help from the American telephone and telegraph company AT&T, and the two agreed on the US distribution rights of Apple mobile phones. Leave it to AT&T, Apple phones can only use AT&T calling cards."

“苹果手机4GB机型售价499米元，8GB机型售价599米元。均需和AT&T签订2年合约。”

"After the release of Apple's mobile phone, sales have been booming, and Apple's stock price has soared 13%. Major technology media have given the mobile phone extremely high praise. Everyone thinks it is an epoch-making product, and some people call it the "God Mobile"."

"Six weeks before the iPhone was released, the plastic screen was replaced with glass because Jobs was upset that the screen of the prototype in his pocket was scratched by his keys. With more than a dozen companies around the world bidding, the project was Foxconn won the bid. China’s large-scale industrial chain advantages are gradually emerging.”

Luo Ji held the newly purchased iPhone with a glass screen in his hand. It felt much better to use than the plastic screen and was extremely smooth.Luo Ji then studied it quietly to see if any new functions would appear.

In the conference room of Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, California, Steve Jobs was wearing glasses, his eyes were full of determination, and he was high-spirited. He was talking to Tony Fadell next to him, Fadell was the engineer of the first-generation Apple mobile phone.

Other executives and shareholders of the company looked at Jobs flatteringly. Everyone was full of infinite respect for the leader who led Apple out of the quagmire and achieved greater glory.

Jobs glanced at the people in the surrounding conference room. They were almost there, so he said, "Let the meeting begin."

Jobs then said: "The sales of the first-generation Apple mobile phone are very good. The supply of mobile phones is now in short supply. The only restriction on sales is production capacity."

"In the field of smart handheld mobile phones, there is a market as vast as the computer industry, with market potential exceeding one trillion dollars. Microsoft's market value exceeds 3000 billion dollars. This industry can also give birth to such a technology giant. This is the best opportunity for us to surpass Microsoft. .”

"We are now in a leading position. But we cannot let up. There are rumors that Microsoft, Google and other manufacturers are planning to start developing their own smartphones."

"The development of the next generation of mobile phones is now in the process. Let Fadel introduce it to you."

Engineer Tony Fadel opened the PPT, projected it on the screen and said: "With the popularization of global 3G communication technology, there are now 2 million users in the world. The Global Communications Alliance has also issued a message that countries around the world will fully enter the 3G network in the next two years. In the [-]G era, network speed will be greatly improved."

"The development of the next generation of mobile phones will also introduce 3G technology. As network speeds increase, we will also introduce GPS services to provide everyone with accurate navigation..." Engineer Tony Fadell spent an hour talking about the new generation of mobile phones. There was applause for all aspects of product development.

Then Jobs stood up, glanced around the crowd with his eyes, and spoke seriously.

"In the field of computers and operating systems, we lost to Microsoft and other computer manufacturers. In the field of mobile operating systems and mobile phones, we cannot fail again."

"The reason why the field of computers and operating systems failed at the beginning was because we wanted to capture all the profits and not give opportunities to third parties. All software was developed by our company ourselves, and there was no competition. The software experience The feeling was very bad. As a result, all third-party manufacturers moved into Microsoft's system ecosystem. After that, we failed step by step."

"We are now two years ahead in the smartphone field. Our strategy of closing the operating system will not change, but we will give opportunities to third-party software developers."

"Next year we will provide a distribution platform for third-party mobile applications. We will name the software App Store. We will provide a rich range of applications for Apple phones to meet everyone's various needs."

After Jobs finished speaking, no one in the conference room objected. He paused for a moment and continued.

"Now, our company has a cash reserve of more than 100 billion US dollars, so profit is not our primary purpose. Our primary purpose is to comprehensively combat competitors in the mobile phone industry, expand the market share of smartphones, and expand the number of users of Apple mobile phones. The group will pave the way for us to establish a complete Apple mobile phone ecological chain in the future and eliminate potential competitors."

The temptation to become the Microsoft of the mobile phone industry is not ordinary.Everyone is looking forward to it.

Jobs paused and said, "I plan to cut the price of Apple phones by $200 and win this war at all costs."

At the same time, in the conference room of the Bear Stearns headquarters on Wall Street in Manhattan, New York, an old white man shouted to the director of the Standard & Poor's Ratings Agency on the other end of the phone.

“Fxxk, how much business have we brought to you, and is this how you treat us?”

The director of Standard & Poor's on the other end of the phone was not to be outdone: "We have delayed it for three months. Aren't you satisfied?"

"Can you give us a little longer?" The old white man from Bear Stearns lowered his body.

"If this continues, the credibility of our rating agencies will be completely destroyed." A director of Standard & Poor's said: "We will only downgrade more than 200 billion US dollars of subprime loans this time. If you companies invest so little, Haven’t they been sold out in three months?”

The old white man from Bear Stearns said coldly: "Are you pretending to be stupid with me? Who asked you to do this, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase or that damn John Paulson? Have they started short selling a long time ago? Is there a subprime loan market?”

"You are responsible for your own problems." People from Standard & Poor's stopped pretending: "The tens of billions of subprime loan markets have been amplified by your leverage of dozens or hundreds of times. Tell me, how many times have you seen this in the market now?" Derivatives related to sub-prime loans will cost hundreds of billions of dollars or trillions of dollars."

"you……"

The people from Standard & Poor's interrupted directly and ruthlessly: "You are responsible for your own problems. We will not risk the company's reputation to accompany you to continue playing indefinitely."

Luo Ji took a car to the Burbank Convention and Exhibition Center in Los Angeles. Today there was a new energy exhibition organized by Al Gore.

Jingle Bell.

As soon as Luo Ji answered the phone, Xu Youyu's voice came over: "Look at the front pages of major financial media."

Luo Ji quickly took out his cell phone and started reading. The first news that caught his eye shocked Luo Ji. His heart started beating loudly. The harvest season had finally arrived.

"Moody's Investors Service of the United States announced today that it would lower the credit ratings of 52 subprime mortgage bonds with a total value of approximately 399 billion yuan. At the same time, Standard & Poor's also announced that it would lower the ratings of 612 such bonds. , with a total value of up to 120 billion yuan."

“Securities and CDO derivatives in the subprime loan market may be worthless, and the media criticized the U.S. rating agency for fraud. A person familiar with the matter revealed that CDOs rated AAA are mixed with many worthless subprime loan derivative securities. "

"The ABX index, the subprime mortgage index rated BB and BBB, fell by more than 20% today, and the indexes with excellent credit ratings of A and AAA also fell by more than 10%."

"The collapse of the subprime loan market has led to a decline in housing prices and an increase in subprime mortgage default rates. The U.S. subprime loan market has entered a death spiral. Some professionals call it the subprime mortgage crisis."

(End of this chapter)