The battle between Google and Apple has officially entered its white-hot stage. Because Google officially announced their sales date three days later than Apple, this put Google at a disadvantage. It took three days to sell out the 500,000 units for pre-sale, clearly indicating that the market seemed to favor Apple's products.
The result was a sharp decline in Google's stock price, losing $20 billion in just two hours, putting immense pressure on the entire Google board of directors.
However, this pressure did not fall on Page. This was because everyone on the board knew who the real culprit was for Google's lagging position.
Firstly, it couldn't be Jiangnan Group, as Jiangnan Group delivered to both companies simultaneously, with one ship carrying all the equipment for both companies. One couldn't blame Jiangnan Group.
Page himself seemed to have no issues. After all, Google had grown and prospered under his leadership to its current state. Moreover, in the version Page submitted at least, he had hoped Google would open online stores on both Wanbao Pavilion and Oriental Amazon platforms. However, the board only approved Wanbao Pavilion and not Oriental Amazon, so it couldn't be blamed on Page for being a step behind.
Therefore, all blame naturally fell on Goldman Sachs. If it weren't for Goldman Sachs directly refusing cooperation with Oriental Amazon due to personal vendettas, how could things have escalated to a loss of $20 billion?
Fortunately, at the board meeting, Page presented a new plan. This plan wasn't particularly brilliant; in essence, it was about spending money on publicity. In the last month before the launch, they would go all out with various online marketing campaigns, striving to completely overshadow Apple's phones in terms of buzz.
Although the final promotional cost for this plan was as high as $300 million, considering the $20 billion in market value that had been lost, this price was certainly not excessive. Thus, after careful consideration, the board agreed to the promotional plan.
Ultimately, almost all of this $300 million promotional budget was allocated to online advertising. The reason was simple: since Google PT's sales channels were entirely online, it was impossible to expect offline users who watched television daily to purchase Google PT. Users had to be precisely targeted online.
This was also where Google's strength lay. After all, Google itself was the world's largest online advertising platform, with its top ad slots selling for over $100 million a year.
However, Google advertising to itself clearly didn't cost money, so this $300 million ultimately went to other online platforms. Among them, the most aggressive promoters were the two online video platforms, Los Gatos Television and Netflix.
Driven by the $300 million budget, various creators on these platforms received advertisements for Google PT and then racked their brains to embed Google PT into their videos in various ways.
Fortunately, Google understood the preferences of online users very well. Brute-force ad insertions would only backfire, so Google's requirement for these online creators was flexible ad integration, ensuring that viewers wouldn't become annoyed.
Of course, no matter how flexible the ad integrations were, the ultimate focus of the advertisements had to be on Google PT's more convenient full keyboard design and its futuristic side-sliding cover. Naturally, they also didn't forget to tout how smooth and seamless their own devices were to use.
Lastly and most importantly, they had to showcase their gaming performance. To this end, Google specially spent $50 million on oo Network, requesting their affiliated game studios to develop a mobile version of Grand Theft Auto. This version of the game would be exclusively available on Google PT and would be free for all players.
The news of this caused a sensation across the internet. At that time, Grand Theft Auto was unparalleled in its openness and freedom, possessing a massive fan base. Being able to play a game like Grand Theft Auto on a mobile phone would be truly awesome.
This also became the focus of promotion and discussion for almost all online creators. Meanwhile, Google's marketing department came up with an excellent idea: all video bloggers should find ways to extend their conversations with viewers to mobile games, then casually mention, "Did you know? You can play Grand Theft Auto on your phone now, it's really t—"
But the final result was quite perfect. Since Google PT's name never appeared from beginning to end, hardly any viewers realized that these were essentially unavoidable advertisements.
However, the idea of playing Grand Theft Auto on a mobile phone sounded so cool that many players would subconsciously search online to see which phone could play Grand Theft Auto, thus naturally discovering Google PT.
This strategy was far more ingenious than directly stuffing the product name into the audience's ears.
Thanks to this successful promotional strategy, Google PT's momentum began to successfully counter Apple's. Especially among Google PT fans, they began to mock Apple by asking questions like, "Can your phone play GTA?"
Apple fans felt very wronged, and they also really wanted to play GTA, so many of them went directly to Apple's official website to ask if Apple phones could also play GTA.
Apple naturally remained tight-lipped, adhering to its usual modus operandi of ignoring fan inquiries.
So, some people shifted their inquiries to oo, as oo Game Platform was the exclusive global partner for Grand Theft Auto. They should be able to get more information from them.
Indeed, what Apple refused to discuss was immediately answered by oo. The oo customer service representative directly replied:
"We apologize, but due to business cooperation, a certain company has bought the exclusive game rights for Grand Theft Auto 3 on the mobile platform. Therefore, phones from other mobile manufacturers will not be able to run Grand Theft Auto 3."
"Furthermore, as this game port was specifically optimized for its mobile system, phones with other systems will also be unable to play the game. However, we are negotiating with more mobile companies to allow more users to play more mobile games on multiple system platforms!"
Although this was not an official announcement, it essentially declared that Grand Theft Auto 3 was indeed exclusively held by Google PT. Consequently, Apple fans were in despair, while Google fans were overjoyed.
Especially when July 25th arrived, by this time Jiangnan Group had informed Apple and Google that the entire second batch of 1 million phones had been loaded onto ships and were sailing, expected to arrive in the United States in about 20 days.
This time, Google couldn't hold back any longer. They immediately announced the second batch of phones on their official website, which would go on sale nationwide on August 28th. They also opened the pre-sale link, this time beating Apple to the punch with their release, which was a great relief.
Apple was half a day late, so the second batch of sales for both parties also occurred on August 28th.
Moreover, Google PT's promotional blitz had also yielded significant results. After the announcement of the second batch of pre-sale news, this time it only took one day for the 500,000 units of Google PT in the second batch to be completely sold out, with a speed even faster than Apple's first batch.
Apple, on the other hand, was in an awkward position. The second batch took a full five days to sell out. This made everyone at Apple feel extremely uncomfortable. Steve Jobs himself was furious. He never imagined that a game could cause such an astonishing reversal.
Thus, Apple, which had been quiet before, immediately began to contact Jiangnan Group, considering acquiring the exclusive mobile platform rights for two or three games.
Suddenly, the exclusive rights for many classic games under oo sold for profits of hundreds of millions of dollars again.
Overall, although the phones from both sides had not yet begun mass sales, the expenses incurred for promoting the phones had already skyrocketed. The combined promotional expenses for both companies were estimated to be around $1.5 billion.
And about $1 billion of this money, through various channels, flowed into the hands of Jiangnan Group, not including the profits from manufacturing phones for them.
On August 1st, Apple and Google phones officially began global sales. There isn't much more to say about the process; they essentially sold out within a day. Both Apple and Google could earn about $200 profit per phone, with sales of 500,000 units each, totaling $100 million in profit.
Well, at first glance, the profits earned seemed to be less than a fraction of the promotional expenses. However, it was estimated that the market sales for both phones would reach over 10 million units each, which would translate to a profit of $2 billion. These two companies would still be able to make a fortune.
Both sides expressed great satisfaction with this profit, as a 40% gross profit margin was much higher than that of traditional mobile phone companies.
Of course, Boss Huang was also very satisfied. The actual production cost per phone was around $150, and in the future, with optimization through various processes and cost reductions due to mass production, the actual production cost per phone could drop below $100.
However, let's still calculate based on a $150 cost. This way, Jiangnan Group could earn a profit of $150 per phone. Although the profit seemed less than that earned by Apple and Google, the problem was that since only Jiangnan Group had the capability to manufacture both phones globally, Jiangnan Group was actually earning double the profit.
If Apple and Google each earned $2 billion, then Boss Huang could earn $3 billion in profit, which was indeed very pleasing.
However, Boss Huang had no intention of immersing himself in such pleasure. He was about to introduce his own bombshell into the market.