Meanwhile, after finishing his call with Lee Hyun-woo, Billy Gates had a deeply unsatisfied expression on his face.
The reason was clear: the company he founded, 【Macro Soft】, had hardly any successful projects aside from the PC operating system.
‘This is no different from a crisis.’
【Macro Soft】’s golden age had come with the PC era.
If the PC era started to wane, 【Macro Soft】 would inevitably decline as well.
Because of this, he got up from his seat and quickly went to find his friend and the CEO of 【Macro Soft】, Steven Balmer.
“What brings you here, Billy?”
“What do you mean, what brings me here? I just wanted to see you.”
There was no way that was the real reason. Both of them knew that wasn’t the case.
Perhaps because of this, Steven Balmer laid the groundwork first.
“Running 【Macro Soft】 must be really frustrating, right?”
“What are you talking about? 【Macro Soft】 is the company with the highest market capitalization in the world.”
“That’s true, but after seeing evaluations that we would eventually be overtaken by 【Jungle】, I’ve been quite tense. And I’m also thinking that I’m far inferior to my friend.”
“Everyone has their own style. 【Macro Soft】 needed me back then, but not now.”
“Even so, I’m not what’s needed now. I think it’s time to find a new CEO.”
Fortunately, Steven Balmer was clearly aware of his limitations.
“The reason we’re enjoying this peak period is all thanks to the PC operating system, which you spearheaded. On the other hand, I’ve always been late to make decisions, stepping into red oceans.”
“Why are you saying this?”
“Why do you think? As I said earlier, I’m insisting that we need to start looking for a new CEO.”
“Hmm…”
Billy Gates let out a deep sigh.
But Steven Balmer’s words were close to the truth, so he couldn’t disagree.
【Macro Soft】 enjoyed a monopoly in the PC operating system market with Windows, but beyond that, there was nothing particularly noteworthy.
There were several reasons, but the main one was, as Steven Balmer said, their late entry into markets.
Suddenly, he saw the face of his friend, whose hair was turning gray and wrinkles were increasing, always being compared to the founder himself.
It seemed like he should lighten Steven Balmer’s burden.
“Yeah, it’s time for you to take a break. Let’s start looking for your successor.”
“Thank you. Oh, and while we’re searching for a new CEO, how about you make all the major decisions?”
“Me?”
“Of course, I’m still the current CEO, and stepping down immediately would cause confusion. So I’m suggesting I act as a figurehead while we search for a new CEO.”
“Why are you doing this?”
“I’m sincere. You know how much I love 【Macro Soft】. Consider how I feel seeing our company lagging behind others because of me.”
“Sigh…”
There hadn’t been a day when he thought his friend’s words were so perfectly right like today.
That’s why he felt something pitiful.
In the end, Billy Gates nodded.
“Alright. I’ll do as you wish.”
At the same time, a fire ignited in his heart.
In other words, while rekindling his slightly cooled passion, he thought of someone in his mind.
‘Hyun-woo Lee, wait. Whatever you’re aiming for, I’ll block your way.’
From now on, he needed to become Lee Hyun-woo.
To push anything forward, he needed to know what plans were in Lee Hyun-woo’s head.
Since he had his answer, 【Macro Soft】 soon embarked on a new project.
That was Windows for mobile.
Meanwhile, confirming that the infrastructure and content for making a smartphone were roughly prepared, Lee Hyun-woo now moved on to check the mobile operating system.
This was handled by the new product planning and development division of 【Jungle Communication】, which was undergoing a process of separation.
But the mobile operating system was already nearly complete.
“If any errors or inconveniences arise, solutions are immediately derived from the open platform.”
Woo Sang-won boasted about the mobile operating system as if it were his own child.
Understandably, as everything was being connected through 【Jungle】’s own open platform.
Here, ‘everything’ meant all forms of portable devices.
It initially started with 【Guseong Electronics】’s PDA, and then it became compatible with digital cameras as they proliferated, and the explosive growth of e-book readers laid the foundation for the mobile OS.
By this point, it would have been normal to hide the open platform.
But 【Jungle】 didn’t do that.
They realized that the more sharing and openness there was, the faster shortcomings were improved and new innovations happened.
They even gave a new name to this open platform.
It was called 【Root】.
This aligned with the company 【Jungle】 and the web browser 【Forest】.
“The remaining task is to apply it to smartphones and tablet PCs, and that work has already begun.”
Everything proceeded smoothly even without Lee Hyun-woo having to point it out.
Lee Hyun-woo smiled warmly.
“You’ve worked hard.”
Scenes were being set where 【Jungle】 could surpass 【Macro Soft】, and where Lee Hyun-woo could easily contemplate retirement after surpassing Billy Gates in stock valuation.
Now, the only thing left was to directly verify that it worked properly on smartphones and tablet PCs.
So, after another month, when a smartphone was finally in his hands, he turned on the power button with a deeply emotional expression.
‘Finally, this is coming into the world.’
He felt a sense of pride for some reason. And as he imagined the world that this smartphone would change, he couldn’t help but let the words slip out of his mouth.
“A tectonic shift is about to happen.”
Woo Sang-won’s pupils shook.
He couldn’t even fathom the impact of what Lee Hyun-woo meant by a tectonic shift.
‘I need to discuss this at the next study meeting.’
These days, discussions at those meetings helped crystallize ideas in his head.
A few days later, at a study meeting, Woo Sang-won brought up the ‘tectonic shift’ that Lee Hyun-woo had mentioned.
“A tectonic shift… Could it mean the industry?”
“That’s possible. Then we should first look at the mobile phone industry.”
“Is 【Guseong Electronics】 number one in market share?”
“No, it’s 【Nokia】. Next is 【Motorola】. 【Guseong Electronics】 is third. They haven’t caught up with the other two yet.”
“Why is that?”
“Why do you think? They’re shifting to smartphone production because of us. It was in the newspaper recently.”
A certain daily newspaper indeed had a feature on 【Guseong Electronics】 preparing to transition to smartphones.
“As expected from 【Guseong Electronics】, they’re effectively using the media.”
“They must be aiming to take first place in mobile phones with this opportunity.”
“Then what about us? Are we going to lose what we worked for?”
“Well, don’t you think the chairman has a plan? That’s probably why he acquired 【ARMY】.”
“I think that’s what it is. Instead of aiming for the top spot in mobile phones, maybe he’s planning to take the top spot in smartphones.”
“Oh? That’s a plausible guess. As expected, Min-woo, you’re sharp.”
“In that sense, what’s the target for next year after launching smartphones, CEO?”
“It’s modest. One million units worldwide. However, the price is a bit problematic.”
“What’s wrong with the price?”
“The chairman mentioned it should be over 700,000 won.”
“What? Really? That’s too expensive for a mobile phone.”
“So I’m not sure if we can achieve the one-million-unit target. Actually, the smartphone infrastructure is only built in our country, so most of the target has to be met in Korea.”
“We have no choice but to use the telecom companies’ contracts.”
At this point, Lee Jung-woo, who wanted to do the math, suddenly asked a question.
“By the way, what’s the production cost of a smartphone?”
“About 300,000 won.”
“Wow, you set the price at more than double the cost. I understand why the CEO finds the target challenging.”
“Are they trying to make up for the losses from e-books with smartphones?”
“By the way, that’s 700 billion won in sales and 400 billion won in profit.”
“Putting it that way, the target doesn’t seem that big again.”
【Jungle】 was making so much money that 700 billion won and 400 billion won didn’t seem like a lot.
“While we’re at it, can I ask about the target for the following year?”
“It’s simple. It doubles every year.”
“Then if we calculate exponentially, it’s 1.4 trillion in the second year, 2.8 trillion the next, then 5.2 trillion, and 10.4 trillion… wow, over 20 trillion in the fifth year?”
“It’s just a target. It might not happen.”
“And calculating it that way, over 10 trillion in profit when it exceeds 20 trillion is no joke.”
“No way, will it really turn out that way? The first year is crucial, and if we don’t hit the target, we might have to lower the price.”
“That’s true.”
“Indeed. That seems highly likely.”
In the end, the conversation wrapped up in this manner, and the tectonic shift Lee Hyun-woo had mentioned ended like a tempest in a teapot.
But they didn’t know.
Lee Hyun-woo had no intention of lowering the price and was actually thinking of raising it.
And the tectonic shift he mentioned didn’t just refer to the mobile phone manufacturers.
In fact, the next day, while calculating in his office, Lee Hyun-woo was surprised by the numbers that came out.
‘Next year, we’ll sell at least three million units, so it’s already over 2 trillion won.’
He had already set the minimum goal at three times the target.
Even so, it wouldn’t surpass 2 trillion, so why did this calculation come out?
It was, of course, the interpretation difference of the 700,000 won range.
Woo Sang-won simply thought of 700,000 won, while Lee Hyun-woo calculated 799,000 won.
He planned to influence the price aggressively.
‘It’s expensive, but people will buy it.’
He was confident from his past life experiences, and even if not, with South Korea’s per capita income recently surpassing $30,000, he foresaw exceeding this goal.
If that happened, it would exceed the market expectations, and maybe next year, they could be on par with 【Macro Soft】.
A few days later, through a piece of news, Lee Hyun-woo realized he had been complacent.
『Windows to be released for smartphones!』
Entering the 21st century, 【Macro Soft】 had always been a step behind.
‘It seems Billy Gates has become actively involved.’
At first, he had a stunned expression, but later, his face turned to one of excitement.
Unlike in his past life, preparations for a mobile operating system had been made early, so 【Macro Soft】 wouldn’t easily relinquish its throne.
‘Does this mean they’re releasing a smartphone OS too?’
This wasn’t just about South Korea; it meant the mobile ecosystem in the U.S. would also be established quickly.
‘Should I raise next year’s sales target even more?’
