While the United Super Vacuum Railway Pipeline Company's construction start date remained uncertain, after a full year's delay, Apple and Google finally announced their launch events for their second-generation products.
However, unlike the immense attention their product launches received two years prior, this announcement only garnered coverage from a few pre-briefed media outlets and some electronics-focused publications. Most other media outlets showed no interest in the matter.
This was partly because the United Super Vacuum Railway Pipeline Company had been dominating the trending headlines, leaving no room for other news.
Secondly, this wasn't considered significant news. After all, two years had passed since the first generation, and the hype surrounding the initial products had largely dissipated.
Furthermore, with the first generation products being completely overshadowed by the Tianzhou terminals and deemed outright failures with minimal user adoption, it was unrealistic to expect media attention for their current launch events.
It was akin to how, before 2008, Motorola's new product launch events were always highly sought after. But now, who even knew when Motorola was holding one?
This situation clearly dealt a blow to both companies. Just two days later, new information emerged in the media: the upcoming products from both companies were not simple, and their performance was set to surpass that of the recently released Tianzhou 3 terminal.
Upon this announcement, the news heat surged. The Tianzhou 3, released on October 12th, not only boasted a comprehensive performance improvement of over 20% compared to its second-generation counterpart but also astonishingly introduced fingerprint unlocking, once again pushing the boundaries of human imagination for terminals and shocking the world with Jiangnan Group's technological prowess.
Who would have thought that two companies, crushed by the Tianzhou terminals two years ago, would now declare their own products capable of outperforming the Tianzhou 3? This was truly exhilarating news!
Many Westerners, especially Americans, had been feeling quite disgruntled, lamenting the lack of impressive terminal products from their own country, forcing them to purchase terminals manufactured by foreigners. Was this still the world's number one superpower?
Fortunately, the vacuum magnetic levitation pipeline railway announced six months prior had restored their pride, allowing the world to witness America's great strength once more. It was just a pity that the Chinese suddenly emerged to disrupt things, snatching away the glory that rightfully belonged to America.
Now, at last, a terminal for Americans themselves had appeared.
Of course, America had indeed produced its own terminal products. Although major corporations like Motorola persisted in producing traditional mobile phones, steadfastly promoting the notion that a terminal was not a phone but a personal digital assistant, thus asserting that everyone could own their own phone without it conflicting with owning a terminal.
This could be seen as a classic case of stubborn pride.
However, not all companies were as rigid as Motorola. Over the past two years, at least three to four hundred terminal brands had emerged worldwide, each launching their own terminal products, leading to a diverse market with relatively fierce competition. Otherwise, the United States would have long ago initiated antitrust investigations into Tianzhou terminals.
Unfortunately, the performance of these terminal products was too poor. Although they could utilize some functions, they were in a completely different league compared to Tianzhou terminals.
Over time, users came to categorize terminals into two types: genuine terminals like the Tianzhou terminals, and pseudo-terminals produced by other brands.
It was similar to how future smartphone users would only recognize Apple phones and other phones, a testament to the effectiveness of Apple's product marketing.
Therefore, when users learned that Apple and Google were about to launch terminals with performance exceeding that of Tianzhou terminals, they became very excited. Consequently, the attention surrounding this product launch event began to soar, and many media outlets eagerly applied for invitations, helping the companies save face.
It was like a certain lesser-known team in the LPL that quickly gained massive attention and became a prominent team by promoting itself as an all-Chinese roster, thereby becoming a famous team in the LPL.
Of course, the "all-Chinese roster" later became a tag that drew considerable ridicule, as an all-Chinese team that failed to win championships would inevitably incite more anger.
However, whether it was the curious users or the media preparing to attend the launch event, they were unaware that both Apple and Google were currently grappling with a crucial question: what should their products be called?
In fact, if one observed Apple and Google's external communications closely, and if they were able to obtain invitations to their new product launches, they would notice that neither mentioned what the new product actually was.
Was it a phone, a terminal, a Phor, or a Pad? They merely referred to it as the new generation product.
Originally, one would expect this new generation product to inherit Apple's Phor or Google's Pad, terms they had coined themselves. But in reality, the management of both companies had yet to reach a consensus. Even Page or Jobs himself was greatly troubled by this issue.
Larry Page was simply indecisive. Google's Pad division, formerly Android Inc., had been holding meetings for over half a month regarding the name. Every meeting descended into heated arguments, yet no decision was made.
One half of the group believed that their product should continue to use the term Pad, which they had created. Otherwise, what was the point of calling it a new generation product?
Moreover, Pad would help distinguish their product from the so-called terminals, establishing a clearer brand identity.
But the other half believed that Pad was a huge burden for Google.
The term Pad not only lacked brand image but, due to the performance compromises of Pad in the past, its market perception had become a joke.
If their newly developed product was still called Pad, wouldn't that be like throwing freshly cooked rice into a cesspool?
Concurrently, they vociferously urged everyone to face reality. The reality was that the term "terminal" had already formed a fixed impression in the minds of users worldwide, much like "mobile phone." It had become the general term for handheld computing communication devices.
If they used the product name "terminal," they could directly leverage the image created by their competitors, making it easily understandable for users to grasp what their product was. Instead of an unheard-of term like Pad, this would significantly reduce product recognition.
No matter how much meaning was behind the term Pad, if users didn't know what a Pad was, and they only wanted to buy a terminal, they wouldn't even glance at their product.
These two factions argued back and forth about the terms Pad and terminal for half a month. They still hadn't decided even before the new product launch. Larry Page himself was hesitant until he saw a post online. It was a simple sentence posted by a child on an online forum: "Christmas is coming soon, I really hope to receive a terminal as my Christmas gift!"
This post was randomly recommended to Larry Page; no one was paying attention to it, with only two or three replies.
However, at that moment, this sentence enlightened Larry Page and led him to make his final decision!
Unlike Larry Page's hesitation, Jobs was actually very resolute. His company's new product should be called Phor and absolutely not follow the trend by calling it a terminal. His pride, and his reverence, would not allow him to do so.
Yet, Jobs's position in the company was somewhat precarious. He had not achieved the tremendous success that the iPhone had in history.
On the contrary, after the company poured vast resources into Phor, spending billions of dollars, the first generation Phor only sold a few million units. This had caused Apple's board of directors to begin harboring doubts about Jobs, thus diminishing his absolute authority.
This was why some of Apple's senior executives dared to suggest that the second-generation product be directly called the Apple Terminal, despite Jobs's clear opposition. Even on the eve of the new product launch event, these executives stubbornly expressed their opinions.
The usually unyielding Jobs naturally refused to back down in such a situation. He personally went to the backstage of the launch event and watched as the staff replaced all the materials with Phor, and then personally burned all the promotional materials related to terminals prepared by others. Using his authority, he stubbornly insisted that Apple's second-generation product be called Apple Phor 2.
Finally, the day of the launch event arrived. Both companies simultaneously commenced their new product launches at 2 PM. This was something they had agreed upon beforehand because both companies were using the same technology. Aside from slight differences in exterior design and some choices in component parts, the core chip and the underlying architecture of the system were identical, resulting in identical performance data for both products.
Under these circumstances, if either company held its launch event first, the one that followed would inevitably be at a disadvantage. Thus, both companies decided to hold their new product launches simultaneously, even setting the same start time for their events.