After the Divorce, I Could Hear the Voice of the Future-Chapter 226 - 225: Jobs’ Successor

Li Jiahui and Wang Xiaofeng returned to the company one after another.

Lu Liang, not versed in technology, only explicited to Li Jiahui the functions of the car systems currently used by Li Xiang, asking whether they could be optimized on the existing basis, or even surpassed.

Li Jiahui pondered for a long time, "Millimeter-wave radar and 360 imaging can't be the measure for intelligent driving; they're just auxiliary equipment for the car. If you just want a smooth smart control system, achieving that isn't difficult."

He also frankly admitted his own shortcomings as well as those of the current R&D team, and informed Lu Liang that there was a team that might be absorbed.

"Whose team?" Lu Liang was puzzled. Nowadays, both the internet and the vehicular network were in full swing; how could there still be wild teams out there?

"The development team of SmartisanOS."

Li Jiahui had a senior brother working as an engineer in that team. With the Hammer phone out of the picture, their whole team was on the brink of unemployment.

It wasn't that Huaqing's R&D team was inadequate, but they leaned more toward academia and hardly considered commercialization.

If they had help from the Hammer team, he could guarantee that before December, he would present a report that would satisfy Lu Liang.

Lu Liang asked, "Without relying on an external team, with the current R&D progress, how long would it take to surpass Li Xiang's car system?"

Li Jiahui gave a shy smile, "Mr. Lu, our system is just a slight improvement away from surpassing Li Xiang's car system."

According to Mr. Lu's description, the difficulty of executing three commands at once, to put it unflatteringly, a five million outsourcing budget could produce a similar control system in less than two months.

In contrast, their STOS system, with a 20-million US dollar investment, was aimed at intelligent driving from the start. Even just revealing the basic architecture would be enough to thrash Li Xiang's control, they weren't even on the same level.

"Li, you're that confident?"

"Mr. Lu, I can still guarantee that."

Lu Liang contemplated for a moment, then turned to Wen Chao, "Contact Mr. Li's assistant; change this afternoon's meeting to the day after tomorrow."

He then looked at Li Jiahui, "How much time do you need to prepare? I can take you there now for a direct inspection."

Li Jiahui replied, "An hour and a half, I'll go back to the university to collect some things and bring a few installation assistants."

"Okay."

Lu Liang called Li Xiang to inform him of the current situation. Without hesitation, Li Xiang expressed his warm welcome.

A new car launch was slated for the day after tomorrow; if he could optimize the car system a bit, he would have more to boast about.

It would be best if it could be put into use, but it wasn't a problem if it couldn't be. After all, there was still time before mass production began.

While Li Jiahui returned to the university to prepare, Lu Liang asked Wen Chao to retrieve Hammer Technology's information.

His deepest impression of Hammer Technology was Luo Yonghao, and concerning Luo Yonghao, it was the "medium, large, and super large" cups.

A few months ago, when Lu Liang facilitated the merger of Douyin and Watermelon, Luo had cursed him out, and Little Wang had a heated exchange with him.

"The first-generation internet celebrity?"

Seeing the information about Luo, Lu Liang couldn't help but chuckle.

Like Jack Ma, he came from a teaching background but managed to become the first-generation internet celebrity by blowing his own trumpet and letting loose.

After resigning from New Oriental in 2006, he created an elite blog site, also known as niubo, roughly equivalent to the current Zhihu, but it quickly fizzled out.

However, it attracted a crowd of Luo's fans, and Luo became synonymous with "sentimentality" and "idealism."

Six years ago,

The most popular tech trend worldwide was smartphones.

As soon as Luo revealed his intentions to venture into mobile phones, a large number of fans supported him.

"Luo, you just focus on being earnest, we'll help you win."

Translated, it meant, "We the leeks are ready for you to harvest."

And so, Luo naively believed it.

In the year that Jobs died, proclaiming himself the sole inheritor of Old Qiao's legacy, Luo established the Hammer phone, aiming to make the best phone in the East Half Ball since Apple was in the western half.

He also said that Apple was inevitably heading for decline.

As the only successor to Old Qiao, his responsibility was to refine Hammer Technology, preparing for the future acquisition and revival of Apple.

But taking things too seriously, the R&D progress was painfully slow.

For instance, Xiaomi's updates and iterations were released weekly, while Hammer kept postponing its press conferences, dragging them out for a year and a half until users lost all patience.

Three years ago, when Hammer's first phone, the T1, was finally launched amidst great anticipation, full payment was required to preorder, but not even that could deter Hammer Fans from impulsively buying.

However, the thrill of ordering was fleeting, and waiting for the delivery was akin to waiting for a cremation. Production couldn't keep up, and even the most devoted fans lost patience.

Consequently, the rate of order cancellations skyrocketed from 2% to 90%.

With customers cancelling their orders, warehouses piled up with unsold stock, and funds on the books dwindling, they had no choice but to slash prices by a thousand yuan in promotions.

And yet, they had previously declared they would never reduce prices and strive to mirror Apple. This reversal of policy led to intense criticism from both media and fans, and corporate reputation plummeted.

Last year, while all smartphone manufacturers were upgrading to 4G, Hammer was still fixated on 3G, dismissing 4G phones as meaningless gimmicks.

The pitfalls a start-up should avoid, Luo seemed to have fallen into almost every single one of them, burning through 580 million yuan within three years, leaving no cushion.

Just this year, there were rumors of Hammer's bankruptcy six times, potential acquisitions five times, and financial chain breakdowns three times.

Not long ago, Luo was sued for "business fraud" by users after overstating claims at a product launch, landing the company in legal trouble.

"He is indeed talented."

Lu Liang smirked, Luo should have become a motivational speaker instead of an entrepreneur; it would have been more lucrative.

Although the demise of Hammer phones was imminent, it did not mean that Hammer OS was a failure.

On the contrary, with its distinctive features, Hammer OS was regarded as one of the most unique smartphone systems in history.

Since Luo saw himself as the sole inheritor of Jobs' legacy, Hammer's mission was to acquire Apple; thus, the OS philosophy aligned closely with Apple's.

It featured a clean and efficient interface, along with many iconic functions, such as Thought Capsules, voice interaction, and smart voice assistant.

Li Jiahui endorsed it, particularly interested in Hammer OS's smart voice assistant, which could nearly be transposed directly onto vehicle systems.

In this domain, they excelled, and it's not an exaggeration to say they were among the leaders in voice interaction.

"With Hammer owing so much and losing so much, but not fleeing, it seems they won't be easy to deal with."

Lu Liang muttered to himself. He was interested in Hammer OS's R&D team, but Luo didn't seem easy to handle.

If Luo were in Dai Wei's shoes, he would be laughing in his sleep at such a wonderful start.

Conversely, if Dai Wei were in Luo's place, he'd likely have fled by now. The mess was more serious than ofo.

Luo's reluctance to give up suggested that he was a challenging person to negotiate with, and unless absolutely necessary, he probably wouldn't surrender.

After consideration, Lu Liang decided to start with Hammer's investors and creditors. Golden Sand River led the C-round investment in Hammer, and Ali was a creditor.

As the financing would certainly have involved some form of a betting agreement.

Golden Sand River had the right to force Hammer to repay its debts, while Ali, having taken the pledged shares from Luo, could just opt for an overpriced transfer. They would likely grant Lu Liang this favor.

The investors and creditors represented external pressures,

while Lu Liang would personally handle the internal problems.

During this time, he could have headhunters poach staff and wait until Hammer was under enough pressure to sell assets, then scoop up the patents for Hammer OS.

An hour later, Li Jiahui returned from school and before heading to Li Xiang, Lu Liang found Wang Xiaofeng.

He shared his plan and assigned the task to hollow out Hammer's R&D members and prepare to take over the R&D team.

The cost didn't matter as long as it was reasonable, granting him substantial financial authority.

Last year, Hammer was valued at 2.6 billion yuan. Taking action then would have been difficult. But this year, its value plummeted to less than 1 billion yuan, with several months of unpaid salaries.

"Understood, Mr. Lu. I'll start looking into it right away."

Wang Xiaofeng nodded, feeling a pang of pity for Luo for a fleeting second. With Lu Liang's focus, Hammer was doomed whether it died or not.

With both internal and external troubles doubling down,

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Even the mighty deities couldn't save the faltering Hammer Technology, let alone Luo.