PDLP Chapter 425 Visiting the Purple Prototype
Chapter 425 Visiting the Purple Prototype
Jobs led Lingyun through the garden and into an inconspicuous two-story building.
There were no signs or windows at the entrance, only a gray iron door and a card reader. Jobs took a card out of his pocket, swiped it, and the door clicked open.
"Most of Apple's employees don't even know what projects are being done in this building," Jobs said as he pushed open the door. "Come in."
The corridor was narrow, and the cold white lighting cast a faint blue hue on the walls, giving it a cold, modern feel, almost like a biotechnology laboratory.
At the end of the corridor was another door, with the same card reader and the same gray iron door. Jobs swiped the card again, the door opened, and inside was a laboratory.
The laboratory is not large, about forty or fifty square meters.
The laboratory had no windows, and the lights were very bright, illuminating every corner clearly.
Several long tables were set up with oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, power supplies, several Macs, and a pile of disassembled circuit boards.
The walls were covered with sticky notes and various printed schematic diagrams, some crossed out and some marked with big question marks.
Three or four engineers were sitting at the table, and when they saw Jobs come in, they all stood up.
Jobs waved his hand, and they sat down again.
Lingyun noticed that on the workbench in front of one of the engineers was a circuit board larger than his palm, with various chips and ribbon cables soldered on it. The screen was separate and connected to the motherboard by a ribbon cable.
The screen displays the Apple logo, but the resolution is very low, and the pixelation is very obvious.
Jobs walked over, picked up the circuit board, and turned it to show Ling Yun. "This is the prototype of Purple; internally we call it 'M68'."
Lingyun took the circuit board and turned it over to take a look.
The green motherboard has an ARM chip soldered on it, several power management chips, and a baseband chip.
The screen is approximately 3.5 inches with a very low resolution; Lingyun estimates it to be only around 320 x 240. The touchscreen is resistive, with a plastic film on the surface that leaves a slight dent when pressed.
The entire circuit board is very thick, thicker than any mobile phone on the market, and feels heavy in your hand.
"You can turn it on and take a look," Jobs said.
Lingyun located the power button and pressed it. The screen lit up, the Apple logo appeared, and then a simple main interface appeared—a few rounded square icons: Phone, Messages, Browser, iPod, and Photos.
He tapped the browser icon with his finger. The cursor followed his finger, but it wasn't very responsive, showing a noticeable lag. The browser opened and loaded a local webpage, but the images and text displayed very slowly.
"Is this using a resistive touchscreen?" Lingyun asked.
Jobs nodded. "The accuracy of capacitive touchscreens isn't high enough. We've talked to a company called Fingerworks. You should know them, since you acquired them."
Ling Yun remained silent.
He continued, tapping on the iPod icon. The interface closely resembled a real iPod, with a circular scroll wheel icon appearing on the screen. He ran his finger along the wheel, and the menu scrolled accordingly. However, there was still a noticeable delay, and sometimes the interface would continue scrolling a short distance after his finger left the screen.
"Multi-touch isn't fully optimized yet," Jobs said, "but the direction is right. This device will eventually eliminate all physical buttons, except for volume, mute, and power. All interaction will be on the screen."
Ling Yun put the prototype down and looked at Jobs. "Where are your batteries?"
Jobs pointed to a raised silver square on the back of the motherboard. "1500 mAh. Battery life is about three to four hours. The goal is to achieve more than eight hours, but we're still far from that."
Which company's baseband chip are you using?
"For Infineon, we're doing the adaptation ourselves."
Ling Yun looked at the rough circuit board, the ARM chip, the resistive touchscreen, and the flying wires.
This is not a usable phone, not even a presentable engineering prototype. It has problems everywhere – the screen is unresponsive, the battery life is too short, it overheats badly, and the software is rudimentary.
"How long do you expect it will take before it goes public?" Ling Yun asked.
Steve Jobs paused for a second, then said with difficulty, "It will be 2007, three years from now. It was originally planned to be completed in two years, but now we've discovered there are still many problems, so we have to postpone it."
Ling Yun nodded. Three years later, this ugly prototype would become an iPhone, but Ling Yun had intercepted it, and it was unknown whether it would be delayed.
Steve Jobs looked at Ling Yun. "Ling, I know you're doing something similar. Do you have any advice for us?"
Ling Yun nodded and said, "Our approach is different from yours. We use capacitive touchscreens, have our own batteries and operating systems, and our progress is a bit slower than yours. We don't have a prototype yet, and our project has only been in the works for a short time. The acquisition of Fingerworks was somewhat of a coincidence; we originally intended to use it for computer screens."
Ling Yun's words were a mix of truth and falsehood, but they were logically sound. Ling Yun knew how much of what Steve Jobs believed.
Jobs extended his hand, "No matter who wins in the future, we have changed the world."
Ling Yun squeezed his hand. When their hands met, Ling Yun felt that Jobs' fingers were strong, with clearly defined knuckles. This man truly believed he could change the world, and so did Ling Yun.
Ling Yun bid farewell to Jobs, promising to invite him to visit the Spark Group after the prototype was completed. It was already dark when they left the gray building.
Ling Yun got into the car, Zhao Hu started the engine, and they quickly drove away from Apple headquarters.
Ling Yun took out his phone and sent Li Mo a text message: "I've seen Apple's prototype. Resistive touchscreen, ARM chip, external baseband, three to four hours of battery life. Lots of problems. Steve Jobs predicts it won't be released until 2007."
A few seconds later, Li Mo replied: "We're not even as good as them. Our prototype isn't even here yet."
Ling Yun looked at the message and replied, "We have our own operating system. The computer version of Spark is modularly designed, so porting it is not difficult. It's just a matter of continuous optimization."
"We have our own batteries and a complete battery power system designed specifically for mobile device management, which requires almost no modifications when placed on a mobile phone."
"We have our own screens, and although the resolution is low and the screen size is small, it's still much better than starting from scratch."
"We also have chip design, chip manufacturing, and factories. We just need to integrate the technologies well, and then we'll be faster than them. I expect to reach mass production in about a year and a half."
He put his phone back in his pocket. Outside the window, Cupertino was shrouded in darkness.
In the distance, at Apple's headquarters, a few windows still had lights on. Those inside were preparing for the same war. And what Ling Yun needed to do was be faster than them.