Eight Hundred and Fortieth Chapters Suddenly Refused

Eric remembered what Elizabeth had said to him yesterday, so he didn't intend to explain too much, and said with a final word: "Next year, Seagate will probably be able to launch a 2G capacity micro-hard drive, and then we can appropriately increase the price of different styles according to the capacity. , now, and beyond, the $299 bottom line cannot change.”

Victor McNally and the others saw Eric frown slightly, and their expressions were a little more indisputable than before, and they were very interesting and stopped arguing.

After breakfast, everyone went to visit Firefly Electronics' latest multi-touch capacitive screen laboratory, which was set up after Firefly Electronics acquired a small capacitive screen R&D company in recent months. Compared with the current mainstream resistive screen, capacitive screen undoubtedly has more advantages, and this kind of screen has also proved to be the mainstream technology of handheld mobile devices in the future.

Similar to 3D and IMAX in the film industry, both capacitive screen and multi-touch technology have been around for many years, but there has been no mainstream electronic products that match them, so the development is slow. Eric believes that as long as the planned tablet PC is launched, the capacitive screen supporting multi-touch will soon become the mainstream of the touch screen. At this time, if the layout is in advance, Firefly Electronics can also gain more advantages in technology patents.

As it approached noon, with only three hours left until the afternoon conference, more and more guests who planned to attend the conference began to gather at the Marriott Hotel.

Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos arrived in San Francisco in the morning. After three rounds of capital injections, Firefly Investments already owns 30% of Amazon's shares. Under the operation of Jeff Bezos, Amazon has also developed extremely rapidly in recent years. Although it has not yet completely occupied the dominant position of online book sales, Jeff Bezos can't wait to make Amazon move towards a comprehensive The direction of the online retailer, the online sales of Amazon is Amazon's first business expansion attempt.

In order to show the importance of Amazon, Eric made time to have lunch with Jeff Bezos at noon, while discussing the next development direction of Amazon.

After selling 30% of Firefly to Firefly, in order to avoid losing control, Jeff Bezos did not plan to continue financing with Firefly Investments and began preparing for an IPO. Eric also has no intention of eagerly acquiring more shares of Amazon. After all, Amazon's development process is not so smooth, and there are still many opportunities for Firefly investment in the future.

The two were sitting in the restaurant of the Marriott Hotel while eating and chatting when Bill Olsen, the president of Firefly Electronics, suddenly hurried into the restaurant and walked directly towards Eric.

Bill Olson nodded to Jeff Bezos, without shyness, and said to Eric in a somewhat eager tone: "Eric, Celine Dion's agent Renee Angeli has just fought. He called and he said Celine Dion couldn't just come to the press conference tonight."

Eric's thoughts turned around, and he basically understood what was going on.

Of the five traditional record companies, the biggest hit is undoubtedly Sony, which produces a variety of mainstream portable music player devices at the same time. Celine Dion is a singer under Sony Records.

Although Celine Dion's voice can be called the sound of nature, in fact, her personal musical style is very single. Without the birth of "My Heart Will Go On", it would be difficult for Celine Dion to reach the ranks of the first-line superstars in the music world. . Therefore, before "Titanic", Celine Dion can only be regarded as a second-tier singer under Sony Records. Although Celine Dion's status has risen after the release of "My Heart Will Go On", it is bound by the contract and absolutely It's impossible to get the freedom of superstars like Michael Jackson and Madonna.

Clearly, this time Sony Records was pressuring Celine Dion for a product launch that she couldn't attend.

Eric just didn't expect that Sony would be so bad that he chose to put pressure on Celine Dion only two hours away from the press conference.

I haven't had time to say anything yet.

Bill Olson's phone rang again.

Bill Olson didn't answer, but handed it directly to Eric, saying, "Ms. Dion just said she wanted to apologize to you in person."

The driving force behind this incident was Sony. Although Eric was angry, he would not have the guts to anger Celine Dion. He answered the phone and chatted a few words with the other party.

Celine Dion is very aware of the importance of "My Heart Will Go On" in promoting her career, so she also spoke respectfully to Eric on the phone, apologized repeatedly, and vaguely explained her difficulties.

After chatting for a while, Eric hung up the phone. At this time, Chris, Victor McNally and others who heard the news also appeared in the restaurant.

Since this conference will also announce the launch of the "Titanic" soundtrack album on the Yahoo Music Store, Celine Dion can be said to be the most important performer tonight, and Bill Olson also deliberately placed her near the conference. Appeared at the end and announced the official release of the "Titanic" soundtrack album on behalf of the Yahoo Music Store.

After a quick chat, everyone left the restaurant together and went to a conference room specially prepared by the Marriott Hotel for Firefly Electronics to discuss countermeasures.

Bill Olson looked at the crowd and said, "It's definitely too late to negotiate with Madonna now, but it's not too difficult to get the Backstreet Boys to praise one more song, just let them come on stage, and the next part is It's going to be disrupted."

There were originally three honorable guests scheduled for the afternoon. Madonna Ciccone, The Backstreet Boys and Celine Dion.

Madonna is naturally not bound by the same constraints as Celine Dion, plus she has publicly expressed her intention to cooperate with the Yahoo Music Store, so after receiving the invitation, she readily agreed. Backstreet Boys are the pillars of Firefly Records, and Firefly Electronics' press conference will naturally not fall to them. Celine Dion was also determined early, but no one thought that she would be pressured by Sony at the last minute to give up this performance.

Everyone has seen the preview of the press conference last night, and it is natural to know that if someone else is temporarily replaced, the details of the announcement that the "Titanic" soundtrack album will be launched on the Yahoo Music Store will have to temporarily make a lot of changes.

After discussing for a while, Chris suddenly looked at Eric and said, "Eric, since Celine Dion can't be on stage, you can come in person. You are the songwriter of "My Heart Will Go On", and you have read it again. There should be no problem with the preview of the press conference last night."

Chris' voice fell, and before Eric had time to shake his head, everyone cheered excitedly together: "Yes, Eric, you come in person. Your coffee position is much higher than Celine Dion."

In fact, during the conception stage of the product launch, Bill Olson hoped that Eric would be able to give a speech on the stage, but Eric refused. At this time, Chris suddenly proposed, and they were naturally very excited. As the soul of the Firefly system, the series of halos surrounding Eric is destined to have a far greater influence on the media than Celine Dion's performance as long as he is on stage.

Eric stretched out his hand and pressed the crowd, and smiled helplessly: "You won't let me go up and sing "My Heart Will Eternal", is that a good word?"

Bill Olson said: "Of course not, Eric, you can say whatever you want, do whatever you want, and then help announce the digital album of "My Heart Will Go On".

Victor McNally, who has always been not very good at words, also echoed excitedly at this time: "Yes, yes, that's it."

Ian Grenier also smiled and played the emotional card: "Eric, I don't think you want this conference to be screwed up, and, this is your responsibility, the whole firefly is yours ."

Facing everyone's eager eyes, Eric hesitated for a moment, then nodded slightly and said, "Okay, then, let's discuss it now, what should I say then."

Bill Olson shook his head and smiled: "Oh, Eric, this is your business, we won't participate, I should go to greet the guests."

Victor McNally simply stood up: "Well, the vice president of Best Buy is still waiting for me downstairs."

"Haha, Jeff just said he wanted me to discuss Amazon's advertising on Yahoo. I'll go down first."

Eric turned to Chris as Bill Olson, Victor McNally, and Ian Grenier left the conference room.

Chris smiled and spread his hands: "I haven't thought of an excuse yet."

"Forget it, I'll play it at will, even if I screw it up, no one will dare to say anything to my boss," Eric shrugged and asked about other things: "You and Emily How are the wedding preparations going?"

When Eric brought up this topic, Chris had a bitter look on his face: "It's still the same, my dad and her parents are much more eager than us."

Looking at Chris, Eric can almost imagine the appearance of three elders chasing after Chris and Emily who are busy with work to discuss the details of the wedding, and joked with a smile: "I will also go to New York to stay for a while. In two weeks, maybe I can help you come up with ideas."

"Don't make trouble," Chris shook his head and asked curiously, "In two weeks, do you have anything else to do besides Kevin and Xia Xia's birthdays?"

Eric nodded and said: "About the establishment of Marvel Studios, Avi Arad and the others have made a preliminary plan, and I need to confirm it myself."

Chris occasionally heard Eric mention the huge plans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He had too many things to pay attention to, but he didn't express much interest in it. The two chatted for a while and left the conference room together.

After twelve o'clock, in the grand ballroom of the Marriott Hotel, more than half of the guests had gathered at this time, and the remaining guests were coming one after another.

Eric studied the specific plan of the press conference, and then devoted himself to the activities of welcoming the guests.

Media reporters from all walks of life do not need to be entertained by Eric in person. However, those tech giants in the IT industry still need him to greet him in person.

As time ticks by, IT industry executives such as Microsoft's Bill Gates, Cisco's John Chambers, Oracle's Larry Ellison, and Apple's new CEO Jill Amelio And high-level executives from partners such as Seagate and Best Buy electrical chain stores have appeared one after another, and even Warren Buffett has specially rushed over from Omaha. In addition to these technology or investment industry giants, there will be no shortage of entertainment industry stars who are invited to join in. Katzenberg personally arrived at the Marriott Hotel an hour before the start of the conference.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, all the guests had gathered in the banquet hall. The lights in other parts of the venue were dimmed, and only a few beams of bright lights remained on the stage.

As the CEO of Firefly Electronics, Victor McNally took to the stage first, announced the start of the conference, and gave a brief speech to all the guests present.

In Eric's original suggestion, he did not want the conference to be too long. Therefore, plus several interactive performances, the entire conference is expected to be only one and a half hours, mainly including configuration and function display, Yahoo! The introduction of music stores and the introduction of sales methods and channels are three parts.

Bill Olson has been preparing for this product launch for two months. Therefore, everything is in good order. With Bill Olson and others releasing detailed information such as the Yahoo Music Store, the guests on the spot. There were frequent applause and cheers, and the flash of the cameras in the hands of the media reporters did not stop at all. During this time, countless media have exposed a lot of information, but the final official news undoubtedly has the greatest news value.

When Amazon President Jeff Bezos took the stage to introduce the news of the establishment of Amazon, Bill Olson, who served as the host himself, took the stage again to the applause, carrying a chair in his hand.

The atmosphere at the press conference has been quite active, and Bill Olson's strange move easily caused a chuckle of laughter from the guests.

Bill Olsen put down the chair and patted the back of the chair pretentiously, but did not sit down as expected by everyone present, just raised the microphone in his hand and said with a smile: "This chair is not for I prepared it myself, and guess who will sit here."

If the president of Firefly Electronics could put himself on the chair, there were naturally not many people in the banquet hall.

Soon someone shouted out.

"Eric Williams!"

"Eric Williams!"

"Eric Williams!"

As the noise got louder and louder, Bill Olson stopped selling his business, raised the microphone in his hand and said, "Then, please welcome Mr. Eric Williams together."

In the warm applause and cheers, Eric walked to the stage from the side steps. (To be continued.)