Chapter 29 Another Competitor

The last stop of Tang Huandong's trip to the coast was to return to Harvard University to give a lecture. It has to be said that students are the group most willing to accept new things, and the concept of personal computer has been generally recognized among them, which can be seen from various questions.

During the speech event, Tang Huan found that the content of a person's questions was the most professional. After questioning, he learned that he was greatly affected by his own rebirth. He was the developer of the world's first spreadsheet software and the father of spreadsheets. , Dan Bricklin.

Apparently, Bricklin is completely depressed now, and the title of father of spreadsheets has already belonged to Tang Huan.

In the original history, in 1977, one year after leaving DEC, Bricklin was admitted to Harvard Business School to study for an MBA.

During school, Bricklin’s tutor often assigned some extracurricular homework—filling in receipts, accounts, and statistical forms mechanically and repeatedly, which was not only no fun at all, but also prone to mistakes if you were not careful.

Bricklin, who knows how to play computers, intends to hand over these repetitive tasks to the school's minicomputer, but he finds that different financial problems require different calculation methods, and often requires reprogramming. Bricklin, who hates repetitive labor Therefore, the idea of ​​​​writing a general-purpose program was born.

At the beginning of 1978, Bricklin, who had just learned BASIC, decided to start his own programming. This time he wanted to start the work on a microcomputer. The popular microcomputers at that time mainly included Comodo's PET, Tang Di's TRS-80, and Apple's APPLE-II. Since the hardware architectures of each were incompatible, the initial platform selection was very important.

In the end, Bricklin chose the Apple-II, not because the performance of the Apple-II was so good at that time, but because Bricklin could only borrow one Apple-II.

After the microcomputer was in hand, Bricklin's programming work officially began. Because the BASIC language is used for development, the execution speed of the software is so slow that you can drink coffee during calculations, but anyway, this program has initially possessed the basic characteristics of a spreadsheet.

In order not to waste good ideas, coupled with his own limited ability, Bricklin asked his friend Frankston to cooperate.

At the beginning of 1979, the two established a small company called SoftwareArts (SoftwareArts, referred to as SA), and began to work together to improve the program in Bricklin's hands.

In order to improve the practicability of the software, its calculation speed must be improved, so it can only be rewritten in assembly language. The two worked hard for more than two months with a division of labor, and finally launched their first commercial software.

This software was named "VisiCalc", "Visible" means "visible", and "Calculate" means "calculation". Visible Computing".

Soon, Bricklin's small software was taken by a company called Personal Software (PS for short), and the two parties signed a contract soon, entrusting all the sales of VisiCalc to PS.

At that time, the owner of PS Company was Festra, who had only graduated from Harvard Business School for a year or two, and made a living by selling chess programs for microcomputers.

At that time, the way to sell software was to deal directly with hardware manufacturers, as Microsoft did. As for the specialized agency sales method, there is no similar precedent to follow, and there are no ready-made rules for making money.

So after getting permission to sell VisiCalc, Feistella scoured a number of Harvard case study books for something similar.

It turned out that the closest analogy he could find was book publishing: the author was responsible for conceiving and completing the work, and the publisher was responsible for production, distribution, marketing and sales.

Switching to the legal process in the software industry means that the SA company under Bricklin and Frankston is responsible for the development of VisiCalc and subsequent versions, while the PS company of Feistella is responsible for copying floppy disks, printing manuals, advertising and publicity. Selling products to dealers and users created a new model for the cooperation between development and marketing, and became the initial successful example of independent software developers (ISVs).

As for the sharing, the two sides agreed as follows: SA gets 37.5% of VisiCalc's retail sales and 50% of wholesale sales. As the software became more and more popular in the market, this ratio became the fuse of the conflict between the two companies in the future.

In October 1979, VisiCalc was officially introduced to the commercial market, priced at $100.

At the beginning, VisiCalc did not cause much repercussions, but because it was developed for the Apple II, Apple readily accepted this gadget, so the Apple II and VisiCalc began to be favored by people. It became the first best-selling application in the history of the personal computer.

In the era when VisiCalc was popular, the concept of software patents had not yet appeared in the United States. Software companies successively launched their own spreadsheet software, such as: SuperCalc in 1980, Multiplan in 1982, Lotus 1-2-3 in 1983, and Lotus 1-2-3 in 1984. AppleWorks in 1985, and Excel in 1985. During this period, VisiCalc not only failed to withstand the pressure of competition, but also had internal strife because of the distribution of benefits, and gradually faded out of the market.

At the beginning of the speech event, seeing the various powerful and mature functions of CGrid on the Apple computer, Bricklin immediately fainted.

He never imagined that he and his friends worked so hard for so long to finally develop the program. It turned out that the same product had already been launched in Silicon Valley on the west coast, and compared with other products, his own program was weak. It exploded, just like a toy, Bricklin can only describe his mood as wanting to cry but not crying.

But soon, unconvinced and curiosity drove Bricklin to persistently question Tang Huan, exploring all the details of CGrid.

Regarding this, Tang Huan couldn't laugh or cry. Could it be that he came to collect debts after he found out that he had robbed him of his golden job.

"The questions you raised are very specific. Could it be that you have developed such programs?" Tang Huan probed.

Bricklin didn't hide it, "Yes, I made a Mac version with my friends, but compared with CGrid, our program is not competitive."

Looking at Bricklin's bitter expression, Tang Huan couldn't help feeling compassionate, "So, you have a lot of experience in the application of spreadsheets, why don't you join my technical team, Zerone is very demanding. Talent is thirsty."

Bricklin thought for a while, and finally shook his head resolutely, "I feel that my creativity and design are relatively mature, and I am really unwilling to give up on this. Since there is no chance on the Macintosh, let's try it on other platforms." .”

Damn, this little guy didn't succeed in recruiting, and he will become another competitor in the near future. Tang Huan sighed silently, feeling secretly that he was really going to be hit by the enemy.

That's okay, since you guys are not afraid of the embarrassment of going bankrupt and losing, then go ahead and flatter your horse.

...

Zhuang Menghua adapted quickly to the environment of Harvard University. Tang Huan was relieved after asking in detail, and set off directly for Los Angeles on the west coast.

Through the relationship of an Apple director, Tang Huan settled Madonna's affairs with just one phone call. This future money-absorbing queen is about to start her road to superstardom, and those old and beautiful celebrities are about to suffer. Think about it It's all great fun.

In the mansion in Beverly Hills, the slightly plump Deng Lijun was smiling and admiring some souvenirs Tang Huan brought back from the east coast. The life of a young grandmother who is well-clothed and well-fed.

Seeing that Deng Lijun looked good, Tang Huan was also happy. Remembering her going to college, he asked about it.

"I've started taking classes at UCLA, majoring in English, Japanese, biology, math, and a few other things."

While Deng Lijun was talking happily, she brought a photo album and handed it to Tang Huan, "This is a photo I took on campus."

Tang Huan took a look. Deng Lijun's smile on the photo was very sweet. It seemed that she was in good spirits.

"Are you comfortable with the university courses?" Tang Huan asked casually.

"Then what class do you want to watch?" Deng Lijun showed a twisted look on her face, "Mathematics must be difficult, but in the Japanese class, I pretended not to understand anything, but when the teacher asked questions, I answered all the questions correctly, teacher They were so surprised that they praised me as a genius."

Tang Huan was amused and laughed, "You are going to be a mother soon, and you are still so naughty."

A happy expression appeared on Deng Lijun's face, and she rolled her eyes at Tang Huan, "It is precisely because of this that we must maintain a happy mood."

Tang Huan looked at the Rolex watch Deng Lijun gave him on his wrist, "I have to go to catch up with the flight time. The headhunting company sent me a batch of materials. I have to carefully screen the available talents."

"I'll give it to you." Deng Lijun nodded, "By the way, I bought you a gift, go to the garage to have a look before you leave."

"Go to the garage to see the presents, you bought me a car, right?" Tang Huan began to guess.

"You'll know if you go and have a look." Deng Lijun said coquettishly.

Tang Huan came to the garage to take a look. Sure enough, Deng Lijun really prepared a luxury car for herself. The Mercedes-Benz 450SEL6.9, which was launched in May 1975, is the top model in this series, because it was the first in the world to be equipped with ABS anti-lock The dead brake system, so while enjoying the extreme speed, the safety is also guaranteed.

Turning around the car, Tang Huan sighed in admiration, "I will drive this car when I come to Los Angeles in the future, but my wife, this will cost you money."

Deng Lijun pursed her lips and smiled, "I can't talk about it. According to the company, my records are still selling well, and there is another record of "A Small Town Story" to be recorded, so this expense is not a problem."

Tang Huan nodded and gave a thumbs up, "You are so popular."