"To be frank, the user experience is truly terrible!" Huang He said frankly after using the prototype machine for a while.
Users who have experienced early Android phones know that the Android system experience back then was hellish.
It was normal to wait for one to two minutes to open an application, and sometimes after two taps on the screen, the system would crash directly. Restarting the phone five to six times a day was quite normal.
Moreover, a new phone would be fine at first, but once used for a long time, the system would become so laggy that it was unusable, making you want to throw the phone away.
This was precisely why, before the iPhone 5, the entire iPhone series sales crushed the Android system. The reason was that the Android system's performance was so poor that describing it as "awful to the extreme" would not be an exaggeration.
If there were no other system options besides Android, who would be willing to use such a thing?
It wasn't until after Android 7.0 that the overall Android system experience began to be optimized. However, this was not due to the efforts of Google, which acquired Android, but rather due to the contributions of Chinese mobile phone companies.
Because Chinese companies could only use the Android system, and the poor user experience of the Android system greatly hindered users, these mobile phone companies had to develop their own operating systems based on Android and optimize it themselves. Companies like Blue-Green Factory, Xiaomi, Huawei, and OnePlus all have their own operating systems.
To make the underlying Android system more excellent, Chinese companies contributed various technical modifications to Android for free, helping to optimize the entire Android system at the foundational level.
According to statistics, after Android 5.0, system optimizations from the Android company itself accounted for only 40% of the system data. The remaining 60% were all system optimizations freely shared by third-party companies and then adopted by the Android company.
It can be said that the current Android system is the result of joint optimization by Android's parent company and all third-party mobile phone companies using Android.
Ahem, let's get back to the point. Upon hearing Boss Huang's complaints, Andy Rubin could only explain with a slightly stiff expression, "There's no other way! This is mainly because the current mobile phone chip's processing power is too weak."
"All the chips currently used in mobile phones are designed for feature phones and 2G networks. Although many mobile phones can now take photos, record videos, and play games, there is still a huge gap compared to the processing power requirements of our Android system!"
"It can be said that our Android system's demand for processing power is basically designed according to the various functions that a computer system needs to achieve. This would require processing power equivalent to a computer chip! However, computer chips require astonishing power consumption. Mobile phone chips can only be powered by batteries, and this electrical energy also needs to be distributed to other components of the phone, leaving very little power for the chip."
"This leads to the fact that even the best mobile phone chips we can currently buy have less than 1% of the processing power of the best computer chips, yet they need to achieve about 1/10th of a computer system's processing effect. The demand for computing power in this scenario is imaginable."
"It is already very difficult for the chips we are currently using to make the Android system run normally. If we still want to pursue smoothness in usage, it's almost impossible!" Andy Rubin said. As he said this, he felt a sense of injustice deep down. It wasn't that his abilities were insufficient, but that the current material conditions simply couldn't deliver.
"I know, but I believe you can do better!" Huang He said.
"I have already done my best!" Andy Rubin said dismissively.
"What did you say?" Huang He's eyes widened, and he reprimanded, "I give you $200 million a year to rent six floors of office space here and hire a research and development team of two hundred people, and you come up with this? You say you've done your best!"
"This is indeed the best it can be!" Andy Rubin retorted without hesitation, completely disregarding Boss Huang's attitude. "The best mobile phone chips on the market are like this. The fact that I can build such a mobile system has pushed these chips to their absolute limit. What more do you want me to do?"
"If this is your limit, then look at this!" Huang He laughed with anger and then took out a mobile phone from his pocket and placed it in front of Andy Rubin.
Andy Rubin was stunned for a moment, then realized it was an engineering prototype with "Confidential, strictly forbidden for unauthorized personnel" written on it. Most noticeably, there was an Apple logo on the back of this prototype phone.
Andy Rubin eagerly turned it on and started running the phone. He found that this phone actually had an intelligent system developed specifically for mobile phones, similar to his own. However, the functional design and UI of this system were completely different from his. It still retained the keyboard operation mode, instead of heading directly towards a full touchscreen like their Android system.
Furthermore, the functionality was very incomplete, with only a basic system architecture and nothing else, a complete embryo.
However, the system on this phone was exceptionally smooth to use. Although there was some lag, it was at least five times smoother than his own.
"This is Apple's mobile system!" Andy Rubin blurted out, unable to help himself.
"That's right. To tell you the truth, Apple is also secretly developing mobile phones. However, they only started last year, a year later than your system. And Apple only allocates $100 million in funding each year, which is half of yours."
"But even so, the smoothness of this phone has already surpassed our Android system. Seeing this phone, can you still say you have tried your absolute best?" Huang He retorted. xxs One
"Our phone has more features and is entirely designed for touchscreens, requiring more computation. This simply cannot be compared!" Although Andy Rubin knew their system was indeed inferior, he still stubbornly retorted, "Besides, although Apple is just starting with mobile phone systems, their computer systems have over twenty years of development history. Their iMac system is the only computer system that can survive under the pressure of Windows."
"Their foundation is much stronger than our company's. I don't see any shame in losing to Apple!"
"Oh, and I've looked at this chip. This is a brand new chip model, never seen on the market before. Although detailed data tests haven't been conducted, I believe this should be a mobile chip developed by Apple specifically for their phones."
"If this is the case, then on mobile chips, Apple can specifically design various chip functions according to its system's needs. The two complement each other, and the technological advantage becomes even greater!"
"Conversely, we can only purchase mobile chips from Qualcomm and MediaTek for corresponding development. We can only accommodate their chip designs. To make the chips run normally, we have to design many complex instructions, which further leads to system crashes!"
"Therefore, you have no right to criticize me using Apple's phone, unless you have the ability to develop a mobile chip yourself and have this mobile chip specially designed for our phones. Otherwise, you have no right to blame me. This is entirely a problem of the parent company's insufficient foundation!" Andy Rubin stopped talking there, but Boss Huang could tell that he still had one thing left unsaid, which was that he wouldn't mind that Jiangnan Group, as the parent company, didn't have strong enough technology to give him a dedicated chip, and that he was actually doing Boss Huang a favor.
"..." Huang He was rendered speechless by Andy Rubin's retort. In fact, Huang He also knew that Apple's accumulated technical strength and advantages in mobile phone development were very powerful, and it was impossible to expect Andy Rubin to develop an Android system that surpassed Apple.
However, Andy Rubin's attitude thoroughly chilled Huang He. He had no spirit of striving for higher goals. If Andy Rubin had just said he would work harder and expressed his commitment, then today's matter would have passed.
Simply put, Boss Huang knew his own child was inferior but just wanted to tell his child, "You haven't done enough, you need to keep working hard. Look at Mr. Wang next door's child."
Then, this child exploded and started attacking Boss Huang, the father.
Of course, from the child's perspective, this didn't seem wrong. Any child who was spoken to like this by their parents would likely lose their temper. It's often said that parents nowadays are particularly terrifying because they don't need exams.
So, the question is, do children need exams?
And in many people's opinion, the phrase "liberate their nature" can cover up all the child's problems. But once a child exhibits problematic behavior in public, a large number of people will jump out and accuse the parents of poor upbringing.
Well, in such matters, both sides have their own justifications, and it's hard to clarify. But Huang He was very clear about one thing: he was angry, extremely angry.
So Boss Huang left the Android company in anger and returned to the hotel by car.
In the car, Andy Rubin seemed to have thought things through and called Huang He. He admitted his mistakes, expressed that he was too emotional earlier and that what he did was wrong, and stated that he would work harder to develop the system. However, he hoped to receive more development funds and to further cooperate with Qualcomm, jointly developing chips and systems to achieve resource complementarity and mutual assistance.
"Okay, I completely agree with your view. Both of us were not in the right emotional state earlier. This attitude now is very good. Go ahead and do it, I will always support you!" Huang He said in a calm tone over the phone. After the call ended, his expression remained very grim.
"As expected, children who aren't your own are like white wolves that you raise for a lifetime!" Boss Huang rubbed his nose and then said to Hu Jing, "Connect Liu Nian's call for me."
He then added, "Oh, and also connect Zuo Sicheng's call. Let the three of us have a conference call."