American History 1988
Chapter 306 - 296: Aerial Gunner

Chapter 306: Chapter 296: Aerial Gunner

"Since its launch in March, by the beginning of June, Explorer browser has been downloaded a total of 180,000 times!

180,000! Dean, can’t we commercialize Explorer now?"

Clark was pacing anxiously around the Netscape office, having repeated this question countless times.

And just as Clark was complaining, the numbers on the electronic screen in his office were still rising.

These numbers represented the backend count of Explorer browser downloads.

Clark had wired it up himself to sync with the electronic display.

But at this moment, these jumping digits did not excite him as much as they first did.

On the contrary, Clark just felt exceptionally irritable.

"Take it easy, Jim," Dean soothed him with a calm face.

"If Explorer weren’t free, it might not have been so popular~"

"But on average, Explorer is downloaded more than two thousand times a day!"

Clark raised two fingers excitedly, "Dean, more than two thousand times!

If only a quarter of those people chose to pay, Netscape could be generating tens of thousands of US dollars a day!"

How long had this new company been established? It had practically been founded on the very day Explorer was released.

Clark would bet that this was definitely the fastest record for a startup in Silicon Valley to make a profit.

"I understand, but we can’t do that," Dean had to douse him with a dose of reality.

"To avoid long-term legal trouble in the future, Explorer must be free right now.

You should know, Jim, how bad it is for a startup to get trapped in an intellectual property lawsuit.

It could doom the company, and such cases are common in Silicon Valley."

"OK, I just..." Clark spread his hands in resignation, "It could have been a winner."

"Hey, buddy," Dean stood up and slapped his shoulder, "Netscape will definitely be a winner, I guarantee it.

But we need a bit more patience right now, look, Mosaic from Illinois is also a free browser."

"Crap!" Hearing about Mosaic cooled Clark down from his irritable mood.

"Dean, I was right from the start, it’s our threat!"

"Sounds like Mosaic is doing pretty well too?" Dean asked curiously, as he hadn’t been paying much attention to these lately.

"Its performance is roughly half of Explorer’s, and on Unix systems, Mosaic is ahead of us."

That was because Explorer’s Unix version was released nearly two weeks later than Mosaic.

So at the onset of distribution, under the "first-mover" influence, Mosaic generally had the upper hand over Explorer.

There wasn’t a particularly noticeable difference in user experience between the two browsers, and their features were very similar.

So Mosaic, being the first out of the gate, became the standard for universities, research institutions, and laboratories, whose operating systems were mostly Unix versions.

Hearing that Mosaic had also been downloaded nearly 100,000 times, Dean had already made a rough estimate about it.

"Explorer has been downloaded 180,000 times, that includes the Windows, Unix, and Mac versions, right?"

"Windows accounts for 75% of the downloads, followed by Mac, with Unix the least."

Clark looked at these figures every day and knew them by heart.

Because of the winner-takes-all principle, Mosaic had almost drained the Unix system’s download volume.

Of course, by the same token, as Explorer was the first browser on the Windows system, it was nearly the only choice for the average household.

"Any news from NCSA?" Now Dean was starting to care about this potential competitor.

"At first, they apparently didn’t anticipate Mosaic being so popular, and they were slow to respond to user feedback and updates.

But they adjusted quickly, and I’ve heard they are about to release a Windows version of Mosaic in the next few days."

Indeed, expansion seemed to be almost instinctual, even if the business temporarily had no profit to speak of.

"Jim, Netscape needs to focus more on Explorer, especially the Windows version.

If we can dominate that, we’ll be in an invincible position because we stand on the side with the largest audience."

It doesn’t matter if we can’t beat Mosaic on Unix systems, but we must keep our stronghold on Windows.

"Don’t worry Dean, Mosaic’s Windows version definitely won’t make a splash," Clark understood this logic all too well.

At this moment, he had to admire Dean’s foresight from the beginning; initially, Clark’s first thought was to develop for the Unix platform, too.

It is the common fault of those with a technical background; the software platform they first think of is usually the open-source Unix.

They despise the closed Windows and look down on Microsoft, notorious for its imitations.

Therefore, including Clark and Anderson, they all favored the more open Unix system.

"By the way, has Explorer been updated recently?"

Dean’s original intent was to let Netscape grow on its own, but the emergence of Mosaic forced him to change strategy.

"As of now, there has been one minor update, mainly fixing some issues, and also adding some plug-ins.

For example, Explorer now supports the printer interface protocol; web page content can be directly printed.

And the plug-in for GIF and other dynamic images has been updated as well; our Explorer is becoming more and more lively."

"Good, but pay attention to what’s happening with Mosaic, and immediately follow up with any possible optimizations," Dean instructed.

No team can create a perfect product, so if others have good ideas, we should humbly learn from them.

"Got it~" Clark understood instantly.

In the wild era of browsers, it was all about copying each other; after all, they were all free.

"Oh, I heard you got yourself a private jet?" Clark’s face showed a hint of envy.

"A Dassault Falcon, it’s in San Francisco, you know I need to fly to the East Coast often."

Dean had ordered the plane last winter, and it had just been delivered to him last week.

The delivery was somewhat delayed due to renovation.

On this plane, Dean had spent nearly 30 million US dollars, front and back.

Of course, the money was well spent, and it also made Clark extremely envious.

What is a true billionaire? Just look at whether he has a private jet or not.

With Dean’s wealth, a private jet certainly wasn’t much, but it was still a symbol of status.

"Take me for a spin in the sky someday~" Clark was also fantasizing about the day he would own a private jet.

"No problem, I’ll fly it myself when the time comes." Dean actually had a pilot’s license; he had flown more than once on his farm in Ohio.

...

"God, you spent 30 million dollars on this plane?"

Jennifer, wearing sunglasses, looked shocked at the big guy on the tarmac.

The silver fuselage was as eye-catching as a mighty eagle about to spread its wings and soar.

"This is also my first time flying it, Come On, let’s see how great it is."

Dean, also with sunglasses on, led the way to the plane’s stairs.

"Oh~, the first time?" Jennifer couldn’t contain her excitement; she loved this feeling.

"Jenny~, hurry up, I can’t wait." Dean called to her from the cabin door.

Bouncing Jennifer, in her high heels, walked quickly over.

Oh~ I forgot to say, this is Jennifer number two, Jennifer Aniston.

The other Jenny was in San Francisco nursing a baby, so this almost unknown Jennifer number two got lucky this time.

"To save space, only six seats were left here, and the rest of the space was converted into a bedroom and a kitchen."

The interior of the cabin was lavishly decorated, from the carpet to the seats, to the ceiling. In Jennifer’s eyes, they were all luxury items.

But before she had time to sit down on what looked like a very comfortable seat, Dean had already pulled her into the bedroom.

"The plane is about to take off, Jenny, we need to be quick.

I want to fire one off in American airspace, that’s a must-have medal for an ace pilot!"

Dean had tried many quirky positions, but honestly, it was his first time on a plane.

Such an exhilarating mode of operation, he certainly wanted to savor properly.

The Dassault Falcon soared into the sky, and the vibrations Dean brought hardly affected its skyward surge.

A few hours later, the plane landed steadily, but Aniston was left with weakened legs.

Because she’d been propping her arms on the window for so long, her legs had gone numb from standing too much.

"Dear, I’ll have Caitlin take you, you know my address in Manhattan."

"No, I’ll go back by myself, my father will come pick me up."

Jennifer Aniston waved her hand, then holding her abdomen, staggered away.

Her parents were both actors, who had once settled near Hollywood in Los Angeles.

But because both were the kind of actors who didn’t draw much attention, they soon struggled to make ends meet in Hollywood.

The pinch of life made them sell their house in Los Angeles when Jennifer was young, then move to New York in search of opportunities.

Later, her father got some work at NBC, and then got involved with the lead actress of a TV show.

As a result, Jennifer and her mother Nancy became a single-parent family, struggling to get by together.

It wasn’t until the ’90s when Jennifer got some acting gigs that their life began to improve significantly.

Of course, the notable change happened a little over a year ago when Jennifer saw great improvements in both her career and personal life.

This change was so big that it felt unreal; her mother was worried at times and even had argued about it.

Now, her father, hearing some news from somewhere, suddenly reconnected with Jennifer.

But Dean didn’t bother with these trivial matters; he had just had a moment as an airborne gunner and was now incredibly pleased with himself.

"Cook, have you guys arrived?... Can’t sleep, haha, you’ll get used to it~"

Going public was an old hat for Dean, with familiarity the second time around, and customary by the third.

As planned, Intuit was finally about to walk through Nasdaq’s door in ’93.

Since last year’s couple of months of intense competition with Microsoft, Intuit had been smooth sailing all the way.

According to last year’s earnings report, its sales had skyrocketed from less than twenty million the previous year to one hundred and thirty million last year.

The more than tenfold surge in sales made Intuit not only hugely popular with venture capitalists in Silicon Valley but also highly favored by Wall Street.

As for the Microsoft Money that had been heavily advertised by Microsoft at the time, it was also still alive.

With its super low price of 19.5 dollars and the potential incremental market, this personal finance software had grabbed about 20% of the market share.

However, it was clear that these revenues were not sufficient for Microsoft to invest more resources into it.

The planned 4.0 version, to this day, was still dragging its feet without being released.

Without a doubt, Intuit is the current market leader in personal finance software.

Look, now it’s finally time for it to step onto Times Square.