Time Travel: 2014

The reason why Lin Hui thought it was okay to add more money was because Lin Hui understood Pingcheng's need for this software.

And not a need in the ordinary sense, but a desire.

Lin Hui has already elaborated on the significance of the shortcut software for Apple's human-computer interaction more than once, so there is no need to go into detail.

At the same time, Lin Hui felt that he could increase the money because Lin Hui had identified Apple's current pain point - lack of innovation.

To be precise, there is a lack of innovation in products, although the things in the laboratory are innovative and fancy.

But the official product still squeezes toothpaste.

Although Apple's products will also lack innovation in the next few years, compared with those in the next few years.

In recent years, the lack of innovation has become even more exaggerated.

Even now, popular sayings in the digital circle are: "Apple replaces its new generation every two years" and "S is the real upgrade."

This probably means that Apple/Apple 4s, 5s, and 6s are the real replacements, while the iterations of the digital series are completely useless.

That certainly seemed to be the case in the early years.

In the previous generations of Apple mobile phones in the past few years, the truly powerful upgrade iterations were first launched on the S model.

For example, fingerprint recognition and 64-bit chips were launched on the 5s, not on the Apple 5 as expected.

As for why there is such a lack of innovation?

/*As for why people feel this way, it’s probably because there is no opponent.

At this time, the Android camp is still strong except for the BOOM phone, which has not yet exploded.

None of the others can fight.

Why innovate when there are no opponents?

Volume?

Sorry, there is no "volume" in the mobile phone industry in this era.

Because all the kings (domestic mobile phone manufacturers) are still on their way on horseback at this time. */

Although it seems to lack innovation, Apple still has to show that it is working hard on innovation in order to make money in the stock market.

In this case, seeking innovation at the software level is naturally a good choice.

After all, innovation in software comes at no cost.

And shortcut commands are indeed a good innovation in software. In the past, Apple/Apple promoted the combination of shortcut commands + Siri as a version feature of subsequent versions of iOS.

In short, Lin Hui is very clear about the value of shortcut software to Apple.

What’s more, Apple’s first-round quotation was US$60 million, so the actual transaction price definitely has room to rise.

If the negotiation goes well, an increase of 25% to 30% is possible.

Moreover, the team that Apple contacted Lin Hui online this time was a team headed by Adrian Perica.

Although this person's status in Apple is not as high as it will be in 19 years.

But in terms of authority, it was far from being comparable to that of He Yue who had negotiated with Lin Hui before.

In this case, there is no need for Lin Hui to be too hesitant.

Lin Hui shouldn't think too hard.

Lin Hui's confidence lies in the information in his mind and the techniques he is familiar with.

With technology in hand, I have the world.

These are Lin Hui's real supports.

After several rounds of tug-of-war that were not too short.

In the end, the two parties negotiated a price of US$75 million after tax, and finally signed a letter of intent online.

After signing the letter of intent, you only need to sign the formal contract again for it to take effect.

After the formal contract is signed, Apple will need to pay Lin Hui US$75 million in four installments.

An initial payment of US$45 million was made to Lin Hui when the formal contract was signed.

The remaining 30 million U.S. dollars were settled in three installments, each time settling at 5 million U.S. dollars, 10 million U.S. dollars, and 15 million U.S. dollars respectively.

These settlement times depend on the progress of Lin Hui's upgrade of the shortcut command software.

Lin Hui needs to upgrade the shortcut commands three times based on the current shortcut commands.

They are adaptability upgrade, functional upgrade and expandability upgrade.

As for the adaptability upgrade, it's easy to say. It just requires Lin Hui to make the shortcut command software compatible with the upcoming iOS8 version.

This thing is a piece of cake for Lin Hui. Even if Apple makes Lin Hui compatible with iOS 12, it won't be a big problem.

The five million dollars was basically free for Lin Hui.

The functional upgrade is a function that Apple requires Lin Hui to further develop the shortcut command software.

The functional completeness should be at least 40% better than the current shortcut command.

This is not difficult for Lin Hui.

Lin Hui had thought about it before when developing the shortcut command software.

If Apple really acquires it, it will definitely require Lin Hui to carry out functional upgrades.

So when I was building the shortcut software earlier.

The main function of this software is to implement the required action modules/built-in operations.

Lin Hui only built 80 built-in actions at the time.

In fact, if Lin Hui wanted to just add built-in actions, he could have added more than fifty more.

Lin Hui couldn't help but feel that he was really too foresight.

Under such circumstances, it is not easy to ask Lin Hui to continue to upgrade the functions of the shortcut command software.

Let alone a 40% increase in functionality, there is no problem if Lin Hui continues to increase it by more than 60% on this basis.

The final payment of US$10 million can only be obtained by upgrading the functionality by 40%. This task is easy for Lin Hui.

If everything goes well, it can basically be done in one day.

After completing the adaptability upgrade and functional upgrade, the US$60 million is basically stable.

The scalability upgrade is to generally combine Siri with the shortcut command software.

This is a little troublesome, but it is not a technical trouble, but a practical trouble.

Whether it is adaptability upgrades or functional upgrades, Lin Hui can do it domestically.

But the functional upgrade of Siri and shortcut commands may have to be carried out in the United States.

After all, Siri's main team is in the United States.

Although it was a bit troublesome, Lin Hui still did not refuse. After all, Lin Hui had a lot of things to do and needed to go to the United States.

In addition, Apple has promised to upgrade the shortcut command software in the future.

Lin Hui will take the lead when collaborating with Siri in this area.

This is undoubtedly very nice. It’s great to think about being able to command a team of top software engineers from a top giant like Apple.

Maybe we can also kidnap some engineers, Lin Hui thought mischievously.

In addition to the above.

There are many addendums to the previously signed letter of intent.

Including but not limited to clauses such as "requiring Lin Hui and Apple to keep the contents of the letter of intent strictly confidential."

These are all things that a contract should normally cover.

In fact, Lin Hui also needs privacy.

Otherwise, it would be okay to develop a software and sell it for hundreds of millions of dollars so that everyone would know about it.