On New Year’s Day of the Millennium, Wind and Rain Electronics and Philips held a grand product launch. They are introducing their latest model of mobile phone with a camera function!
This phone is almost twice the size of Wind and Rain’s last phone, Palm Treasure, and uses a 300,000 pixels camera with three times digital zoom, 256 colors on a 2.1-inch screen.
These designs showcased the difference between Wind and Rain mobile phones with other phones. No one had to expect a mobile phone can take pictures.
This is the best Wind and Rain Electronics can do. In their research lab, they do have a better color screen, larger display, higher camera pixels, etc.
But those features cannot be mass-produced yet, and cannot be introduced to the market.
If Feng Yu had not bought some patented technologies from Kodak, this phone might have to wait for another year. The engineers in Wind and Rain Electronics will have a tough time figuring out the digital camera technologies.
This phone is the first mobile phone with a camera function in the world. In the future, when mobile phones with cameras become popular, Wind and Rain’s phone will be recorded in history!
This is very important for Wind and Rain. They can add a slogan to all their future advertisements. “The inventor and producer of the world’s first camera phone.” This will mean all other mobile phone brands are imitating Wind and Rain!
Of course, Feng Yu had tried using this phone, and he felt the quality is too poor. It is good for capturing pictures in short distances, but if the object is further away or in poor lightings, the quality is very poor. All the photos taken are only suitable for the user’s own viewing.
But if the user is using this feature to show off, it is enough. Even when the picture quality is poor, but this is the first camera phone in the world. Feng Yu did not expect the sales of this phone to be good, and all he wants is to capture the attention of the consumers.
The later models will have upgrades to the display, camera, operating system, etc. In another two years, camera phones will become mainstream phones.
After this phone is launched, Wind and Rain Electronics grabbed all consumer electronics manufacturers and digital camera manufacturers’ attention.
These two products can be combined, and from the consumers’ reaction, they love it.
So, all mobile phone manufacturers start looking into producing camera phones.
……
Wind and Rain Electronics is doing well, but Microsoft and other companies are in trouble.
Microsoft and other companies’ share prices start to fall and are showing no signs of recovery. Even when Microsoft announces they will be introducing a new operating system, its share prices still could not recover.
Microsoft’s antitrust lawsuit is still ongoing, and it is not looking good for them. The ones suing Microsoft wants the company to be split to lower their influence, and this is what Bill Gates does not want to see.
Microsoft currently has four main product categories, operating systems, media players, web browsers, and office software. Each product is bringing in high profits for Microsoft. Oh, they still have one more instant messaging software now.
Among the products, the office software that is not sold in a package, but the operating system, media player, web browser, and instant messenger are all suspected of selling in a bundle.
Selling these products in a bundle is considered monopolizing the market because it prevents competition.
When Microsoft share prices are falling, and the antitrust lawsuit under the spotlight, the media reported that Feng Yu sold his shares because he thinks Microsoft will lose the lawsuit.
Those investors who are holding on to Microsoft shares start to worry. If Microsoft had to split up, then their share prices will plunge!
Although the share prices might recover in the future, it might also not recover.
The investors would suffer heavy losses if Microsoft shares did not recover.
Some media praised Feng Yu for being a wise and rational investor and is one step ahead of others.
Many software companies and some hardware companies criticize Microsoft for forcing them to use Microsoft operating systems.
Other than the US, companies from Europe, Japan, and many other countries, start to sue Microsoft for antitrust.
However, Microsoft is not sued in China. No one seems to care if Microsoft is monopolizing the market because Microsoft had not monopolized the Chinese market. Microsoft’s operating system is not bundled with other products in China. They are selling their system at a very low price.
Lenovo is also prepared to introduce a new type of operating system within the next two years. It will be compatible with Microsoft operating system and will have free upgrades. This new operating system will push Microsoft out of the Chinese market.
Even when Microsoft’s operating system retail price is the lowest in China compared to the rest of the world, but there are still many Chinese using counterfeit versions.
Microsoft is not afraid of paying hefty fines, but they are afraid the courts ordering the stop of their bundle sales model. Microsoft had already monopolized the operating system and almost monopolize the office software. Now, Microsoft wants to monopolize the media player, internet browsers, and instant messaging software to profit from advertisements on them.
Once a product got a monopoly on the market, it will bring high profits. If four or five products can monopolize the market, Microsoft’s profits will be several folds higher.
When the house is leaking, it keeps raining the whole night. This is how Microsoft feels now.
Although other companies’ share prices had not recovered to the peak, they had stopped falling. Only Microsoft share prices continue to drop.
The latest <Forbes> billionaires list is out. Bill Gates is still sitting in the first position with 79 billion USD. This is a far cry from what 90 billion USD he expects.
Feng Yu is still in second place, with 53 billion USD. Oh, this is based on estimations.
Feng Yu had also created a miracle. Everyone else on the list owns large amounts of listed companies’ shares and got on the list based on their shares’ value. But Feng Yu’s most profitable companies are not listed, and he can still get second place.
Many people speculate if Feng Yu’s most profitable company got listed, how much will be his actual wealth?
As everyone discussed this, Feng Yu had secretly dumped all of his Yahoo shares and caused Yahoo to share prices to tumble. What’s left is for the courts to fine Microsoft, and it will cause all the share prices of the tech companies to plunge!
