Chapter 180: Technology Promotes Hong Kong
Originally, these computer hardware manufacturers could only provide supporting services to computer manufacturers and become professional TOB manufacturers.

However, the emergence of the "computer assembly" market has enabled these component manufacturers to also have TOC business.

The TOC business is not only more profitable, but also helps these component manufacturers break away from their dependence on computer manufacturers.

This change in the industrial structure has far-reaching impacts. After all, many hands make light work.

As more and more manufacturers poured into the PC industry, the scale of the entire PC industry continued to grow and the industry began to develop rapidly.

Moreover, the distribution of benefits in the industrial chain is constantly changing and becoming more and more specialized.

In the past, after entering the new century, computer brand manufacturers gradually became hardware integrators with insufficient technical content.

However, several component suppliers that have mastered core technologies have become the industry leaders, mainly in chips, graphics cards, and motherboards.

IBM is the initiator of the PC era. As the value of computer brands gradually declined, the one who had the last laugh was the WINTEL Alliance.

Finally, INTEL and Microsoft became the new monopoly overlords in the IT industry.

INTEL's core product is the chip. INTEL has mastered the core technology of the chip and can eventually become a monopoly leader, which is more based on its technological leadership.

Starting from the 4004 chip, every leap forward in the computer industry has been based on the improvement of chip functions.

But Microsoft is different. The core product of the Microsoft empire is the operating system.

However, the technological content of early operating systems was not that high, and Microsoft's products did not achieve a crushing lead over its competitors.

It was not until WINDOWS 95 that Microsoft truly unified the PC operating system market and occupied a true monopoly position.

It should be said that technological leadership is only one aspect of Microsoft's success. More success factors should be attributed to Gai's business operation capabilities and the natural monopoly characteristics of the system.

In a meeting at the Federal Building, Liu Zhicheng was operating a computer, which was developed by Orange Technology itself.

Since the release of IBM PC, Liu Zhicheng has instructed the Orange Technology Beautiful Country Research Center to move along this path.

Hard work pays off. The first generation of Orange PC was finally completed. After a moment, Liu Zhicheng said, "Not bad."

Although, compared with computers in previous generations, today’s computers can be said to be: extremely slow!

Limited by the productivity of science and technology, there is no way to solve this problem. At least, Orange Technology has taken another big step forward.

Orange Technology has also begun to deploy its own graphics operating system, but it is still some distance away from full success.

"Mr. Huo, how is the development of our own operating system going?" Liu Zhicheng asked Huo Haiqing.

"Mr. Liu, it will take some time. We are cooperating with the mainland to develop the business, but the slow development is mainly due to lack of experience," Huo Haiqing replied.

Liu Zhicheng just started to operate the Orange PC, which uses Microsoft's operating system and the basic language is English.

In this way, when using a computer, you must know English and cannot type in other languages.

It doesn’t matter for the Hong Kong market, but there are certain limitations for other Southeast Asian markets.

Liu Zhicheng recalled that in his previous life, the mainland developed a software called Hanka to solve this problem.

Most people in the previous life had never seen a Hanka, and many people born after the 90s may not even have heard of the name of this thing.

But Hanka actually left a significant mark in the history of computers in mainland China.

In this era, the Chinese-speaking region's economy is backward, and no one has launched products specifically for the Chinese-speaking market.

For users in the Chinese area, the minimum requirement for using a computer is to have a certain level of English proficiency.

When computers began to become popular in Chinese areas, this situation greatly limited the scope of computer use, and then there began to be a huge demand for Chinese localization of computers.

The first Chinese card in the mainland was developed by the Institute of Computing Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and this Chinese card also became the founding product of that famous conscientious company.

Many of the early IT practitioners in the mainland started with Hanka, including Shi Dazhu of Giant and Lei Jun of Xiaomi. When they started their business, the first thing they thought of was Hanka.

Another early flagship IT company in mainland China, the Soitong Group, did not produce Chinese cards, but it did produce Chinese typewriters.

Although the products differ in appearance and function, their cores are actually very similar.

Qiu Bojun, who later developed the domestic office software WPS, resigned and went into business. He first went to the Soitong Group and then joined Kingsoft to develop WPS.

It can be said that the first independent development wave of the mainland IT industry was basically centered around the demand for Chinese localization of computers. It was also this development wave that cultivated China's first generation of IT professionals.

However, with the improvement of computer hardware and the expansion of the mainland market, Microsoft's later computer systems have directly built-in Chinese localization functions.

This completely cut off the foundation for the survival of the Hanka, making this important mainland product a forgotten transitional product.

Liu Zhicheng naturally knows a little about this history. Since he wants to use the Chinese-speaking area as his base market, Liu Zhicheng will naturally not forget this most important transitional product and launch Chinese supporting hardware.

Although Orange Technology is developing its own Chinese operating system, due to experience issues, the development progress of the computer operating system has been slow and has not been successful.

The Chinese card is not technically complicated. It mainly stores a Chinese character library and is equipped with a Chinese input method.

With Orange Technology’s current R&D capabilities in Hong Kong, it can be done.

At this time, the Chinese input method had already appeared: Cangjie input method, which was invented by Mr. Zhu Bangfu from Taiwan in 1976.

Liu Zhicheng immediately instructed: "Mr. Huo, Taiwan already has a traditional Chinese input method. You can arrange for someone to buy it and use it on our own computers.
At the same time, I will develop my Chinese vocabulary for computer localization. When everything is ready, I will promote Orange PC to the Chinese community in Southeast Asia."

Computer localization is a killer weapon that Liu Zhicheng prepared to consolidate the computer market in the Chinese-speaking area. The Cangjie input method supports traditional Chinese input and can be directly used in Hong Kong, Southeast Asia and Formosa.

Of course, Liu Zhicheng will also develop a simplified Chinese version of the Chinese card, and there is no difference in hardware between the two.

The only difference is in the font library and input method. Liu Zhicheng uses the simplest pinyin input method for the simplified Chinese card.

Orange Technology will launch its own computers in a relatively low-key manner. After all, the PC architecture has just been launched and there are not many computer accessories manufacturers on the market.

Chinese cards, especially simplified Chinese cards, are actually developed to meet the needs of the mainland, and entering the mainland market is inevitable.

Liu Zhicheng couldn't give up such a gold mine, but he had to make adequate preparations. However, with the current strength of Orange Technology, this process would not take too long.

The Chinese card is an optional accessory for computers, and its sales volume will be restricted by the number of computers owned. If you don’t even have a computer, it is impossible to buy a Chinese card alone.

It was only 1981, and the number of computers in the mainland was very low, with a total of about . Liu Zhicheng thought that this might not be the case. If he had a magical tool like the Chinese card, he might be able to expand the market quickly.

In his previous life, Liu Zhicheng heard a story about selling leather shoes. When no one in the market wears leather shoes, that is your opportunity.

If a company can be the first to occupy a position, it will be the only way to quickly grow into an industry leader.

It was only 81, and Zhongguancun in Beijing was just beginning to take shape. There was no wave of people going into business, and almost all sales channels were within the system.

It is definitely not easy for foreign-funded enterprises to sell products in the mainland. The only thing to be thankful for is that Liu Zhicheng currently has extensive connections in the mainland and can definitely find an excellent agent.

"You also need to develop a Chinese typewriter, not a mechanical typewriter, but one that combines printer technology with computer technology to make a computer typewriter. In addition, do we have enough technical reserves?" Liu Zhicheng continued to instruct.

Now, after installing a Chinese card on a computer, you can connect it to a printer to output Chinese characters.

The Chinese typewriter that Liu Zhicheng mentioned is actually just a product that combines a computer and a printer into one.

Huo Haiqing has a technical background and now knows a little about computer technology, so he knows that it is very feasible to realize the application.

Printers are supporting equipment for computers and are often purchased as a set together with computers in this era. Hong Kong is still in a blank stage and can only rely on imports.

"Mr. Liu, we can introduce some of Xerox's relevant patents in this field, and then conduct product research and development based on them.

We can even cooperate with Xerox to set up a joint venture to develop my Chinese typewriter."

"Yeah." Liu Zhicheng nodded in agreement.

Chinese typewriters are much more complicated than Chinese cards and require certain patented technologies. Cooperating with leading companies is also a good choice.

Next, Liu Zhicheng asked about the R&D cooperation with the mainland, and Huo Haiqing answered all the questions and made a lot of progress.

In particular, the United States Digital Research Center has developed its own patented digital camera technology, but it is still some distance away from application.

"By the way, how is the LAN technology that I taught you last time going?" Liu Zhicheng asked again.

"Mr. Liu, we have already obtained the relevant patents and are in the process of digesting them. We have experimentally set up a network of ten computers and are carrying out relevant experimental applications," said Huo Haiqing.

"Well, we need to speed up the research and development of relevant technologies and find ways to realize networked office in the industrial park. Moreover, by then, we need to realize networked office for the entire group.

You can even sponsor the current Hong Kong University and help them build an internal education network." Liu Zhicheng said slowly.

Liu Zhicheng is preparing to move from a small local area to a large local area, and then to an even larger local area. Isn't this the Internet?

To achieve this, you need large servers, the so-called 'root' servers.

At present, the United States has not yet formulated the Transmission Control Protocol and the Internet Protocol, and the concept of root server has probably not yet been proposed.

In fact, the root server is a supercomputer center that provides services to computer users.

In the previous life, the United States controlled the entire world's Internet through roots. In this life, Liu Zhicheng also wanted to get a piece of the pie in this field.

In order to prevent accidents, Liu Zhicheng decided to keep a low profile in this regard and not to do any publicity.

They will also use their own power to restrict media coverage.

Some things, you just have to do them.

"How is the research and development of our chips, printed circuit boards and liquid crystals going?" Liu Zhicheng asked again.

These three things are the result of Liu Zhicheng building a factory in Hong Kong and having a preliminary layout.

"Mr. Liu, we can already produce circuit boards for radios, televisions and other electrical appliances, and we can also produce our own chips.
As for liquid crystal, it can already produce electronic watch panels. As for the panels developed for handheld game consoles, there has been a breakthrough. I believe it will be successful in a short time. "Huo Haiqing answered one by one.

Speaking of handheld game consoles and LCD, Liu Zhicheng continued, "LCD needs to move towards larger panels, and in the future, TV panels will be LCD-free. Also, when will our handheld game consoles be available on the market?"

The large LCD panel is to prepare technology for the future, and the handheld game console provides bullets for the strategic layout. None of them is simple.

Moreover, LCD technology will be an essential technology for mobile phones, tablet computers, and computer monitors in the future.

The saying "one thing leads to a hundred things" may be just like this. Liu Zhicheng will certainly pay great attention to this, and this will also be the direction Liu Zhicheng will focus on in the future.

Everything is for the Internet, everything is for Internet services.

Murray MacLehose will step down next year and his successor will be Edward Youde, who places more emphasis on education.

In Hong Kong today, only the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong have their academic qualifications recognized.

Of course, there are also several technical colleges such as Heungkong Polytechnic, Shue Yan College and Heungkong Baptist College.

According to statistics, only 2% of secondary school students in Hong Kong can receive higher education locally.

In order to achieve his own political achievements, Youde vigorously promoted education after taking office. He built the City Polytechnic Institute and the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, and also advocated the establishment of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

In its previous life, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology was built in 1991. However, Hong Kong is so short of scientific and technological talents now, Liu Zhicheng will definitely promote its construction ahead of time.

There is no way around it. Although talents can be introduced, sometimes we still have to cultivate them ourselves.

The development of advanced science and technology cannot be separated from talents. For a period of time, students in the mainland were more yearning for freedom.

At that time, we will persuade the Hong Kong government to relax the enrollment of mainland students. It is impossible to push all talents to the beautiful country.

If there is an opportunity, Liu Zhicheng will definitely build Hong Kong into the Silicon Valley of the East, so that Hong Kong's business card will have another name, no longer just an economic and trade port.

However, Liu Zhicheng knew that Hong Kong’s high housing prices made it difficult to produce technology companies, because technology companies required huge initial investments and there was no visible benefit in the short term.

In order to solve the pain points, Liu Zhicheng planned to build a science and technology industry incubation park after taking over Tin Shui Wai.

It not only solved the development of Tin Shui Wai, but also solved the technological development of Hong Kong, killing two birds with one stone.

In his previous life, Hong Kong had gone through several changes and was slowly declining. Liu Zhicheng didn't want to see that happen again in this life.

Because he doesn't want to be a pure businessman.

Hong Kong will be developed through science and technology and established through talents. This is the future of Hong Kong.

(End of this chapter)