American History 1988
Chapter 359 - 348: Pleasing People

Chapter 359: Chapter 348: Pleasing People

The progress went smoothly, under the direct promotion of Steve Case, the CEO, and with Durell making a personal appearance.

Finally, AOL’s board agreed to launch the subscription service, but it would not be simple.

Subscription plans were set to start on a trial basis in large cities like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

If the effects were good, the plans would gradually roll out nationwide.

This achieved Durell’s purpose, knowing that many people would find subscription plans irresistibly attractive.

Because the monthly service fee for local telephone was between 20 to 30 US dollars, the cost of connecting to the internet was comparable or even slightly lower?

A computer connected to the internet could do much more than just a little fixed telephone.

Of course, internet fees that once had to be meticulously budgeted were now surprisingly without any time restrictions.

This was like a person walking in the desert, with little water left in their canteen, suddenly coming upon a large lake.

No one could resist such a temptation; any family with a computer would choose to give it a try.

Well, Durell had done everything he could, now it was just a matter of quietly waiting for the fruit to ripen.

...

In March, something not too big nor too small happened in Silicon Valley: Java officially became the first networking programming language.

Sun Microsystems fulfilled its bold initial pledge: "The network is the computer."

With the rapid development of the internet, especially pushed by the Netscape browser, the JSP language environment was becoming an essential plug-in for web design.

Countless tech enthusiasts and engineers, through the Java language, embedded images and animations into web pages.

The internet was becoming more lively and fascinating; other companies also saw the opportunities.

Thus, under the push of Sun, Netscape, Durell, and Durell among others, Java was increasingly accepted by more companies.

Companies like Oracle, Borland, SGI, Adobe, IBM, Intel, and AT&T gradually joined the Java alliance.

Firstperson, holding the Java rights, promised not to charge these companies any licensing fees for three years.

Even after the contract expired, the above companies would also have special discounts on licensing fees.

This was considered a benefit for promoting the Java language, and in fact, it proved to be a very worthwhile transaction.

With so many companies beginning to maintain the Java language ecosystem, it swiftly became popular in the internet circle.

Recently, even the "Los Angeles Times" did a special feature on it, and Java was becoming the darling of internet companies.

James Gosling, in charge of the Java’s operations, accepted an interview with a reporter, calling his long speech "Hot Java."

He felt that this new programming language was big news, on the day it was published in the newspaper.

James frantically flipped through the business section of the newspaper; he wanted to see where the "Los Angeles Times" had placed it.

However, he found nothing, and James dejectedly threw down the newspaper.

Just then, he saw the front page of a crumpled newspaper lying aside.

The report was published there: "Why has Java become a powerful assistant on the internet?"

James was thrilled, he meticulously read every single word on it.

After reading, he began to pick up the phone to call his friends.

This included Andy and Scott from Sun Microsystems, and his friend Jim Clark.

Five minutes later, Durell received the call.

"Really, I’ll take a look... You’re talking about the Netscape going public issue? Don’t worry, I’ll drop a hint at Wall Street."

After hanging up, Durell shook his head with a wry smile; Jim Clark was more anxious about this matter than anyone else.

Roughly five months since the last funding round, Jim was already impatiently inquiring Durell about its IPO plans.

But no wonder Clark was so impatient; Netscape’s profit for the past month had already exceeded 20 million US dollars.

Explorer browser and various associated internet licenses were all generating profit.

All shareholders believed that Netscape’s sales volume could exceed 300 million US dollars that year.

This was just a few months after it released its commercial browser version.

Silicon Valley had never seen a company create such a scale of profit in such a short period.

Therefore, everyone was secretly looking forward to the moment Netscape went public; Wall Street and many media outlets were also paying attention to Netscape’s development.

This was a good thing because it meant that Netscape’s market was being viewed positively.

According to the plan, Netscape was expected to go public in July or August.

In two more months, it would be time to prepare for the roadshow, but this time Durell would sit among the audience.

The roadshow would be handled by the new CEO and Clark among others. Durell no longer needed such exposure.

As investments in projects increased, he no longer pursued management in detail.

Just occasionally checking on his plans and setting the general direction for them was enough.

Otherwise, with so many tasks, he simply had no time to cover everything.

One bit had already diverted much of his attention, like Toktok he was currently discussing.

"Right, where were we just discussing?" Durell put away his phone and looked up at the opposite side.

"Uh~, we were talking about FutureWave Software Company," Thomas quietly reminded him.

"Right, FutureWave," Durell nodded, "So what’s special about this company?"

"They have an interesting drawing program called SmartSketch," Thomas showed him some of the works from the company.

"Why does that name sound familiar?" Durell frowned slightly.

"This software used to run on the Penpoint system for handwriting computers and was later ported to Windows and Mac platforms."

Hearing this, Dean finally had an impression; he had seen this software recently at Palm Company.

As development progressed, Hawkins and his team were looking for suitable pre-installed software for PDA products.

This SmartSketch was also on the list because it had once been compatible with the Penpoint system.

And the handwriting computer operating system at Palm Company had many designs derived from Penpoint.

Dean was just curious why it was associated with Toktok.

"Is this SmartSketch drawing program crucial for us, or where could it be applied?"

"SmartSketch itself is not very useful to us, but FutureWave Company has recently modified it.

They added frame-by-frame animation capabilities to the software, and if it’s based on vectors, we can run it on the web.

FutureWave Company has now re-released it and renamed it Futureflash."

"Flash?" Dean heard a familiar name.

"Yes, perhaps it could also be called that," Thomas shrugged uncertainly.

"You just said that this type of program can run on the web?" Dean further confirmed.

"It’s a computer animation program that theoretically can not only run on the web but also interact with users to some extent."

Thomas nodded affirmatively; the internet was making everything more accessible.

"Flash animations..." Dean also got the answer he wanted.

"Thomas, share your thoughts." At this moment, Dean was also brainstorming.

With the arrival of the internet wave, more and more familiar things began to emerge.

"My idea is to apply this animation technology on Toktok,

like developing some interactive games, which could become part of our value-added services.

The advantage of this is that it has low development costs and a short cycle.

We can launch a variety of games all at once without worrying about their cost."

Thomas had reviewed Toktok’s business plan, in which games were an important element.

But as a consumer business division that had just been established for only a year, they had no experience in game production.

So, to reduce the costs of trial and error, he thought FutureWave Company’s animation program might be worth a try.

Thomas’s ideas, indeed, impressed Dean.

In the era when the internet was just becoming widespread, thinking of using Flash to create games showed a foresight and pioneering spirit not everyone possessed.

"Thomas, Flash games are a great idea, I support you giving it a try.

Toktok could embed it in the program or directly on the web page, by any means, just simplify its implementation."

Today’s broadband speed still cannot support large web pages, so the games should be simple and ensuring smooth operation is the primary design criterion.

"Moreover, games can be made not just with Flash animation; Java is actually more powerful.

However, its development cost is a bit higher, so we could try this project after Flash.

Now the most important thing is still the user activity for Toktok; AOL is currently piloting a subscription fee model.

Perhaps before long, our Toktok may become the most popular online software."

The size of internet users has grown large enough, with AOL alone capturing over four million users.

Once it switches to a subscription fee model, a significant portion of those four million will become active Toktok users.

Once the number of users reaches a certain level, a software ecosystem becomes possible.

"So Boss, about FutureWave Company..." Thomas was seeking his opinion.

"Make a budget and then go talk to them about an acquisition,

This animation technology is not only needed by Toktok, but other departments of Byte Company might also find it useful."

Flash animation, even if not used for games, is a good deal to license.

"I’ll take responsibility for this matter personally," Thomas immediately pledged.

Honestly, he liked Dean’s style of doing things; grab anything useful first and talk later.

Even if it becomes unnecessary later, it can still increase the company’s intellectual property barriers.

"By the way, don’t fall behind on the software porting work for Windows95.

We should launch the new version of Toktok just when the public beta is released."

Software development for a new system takes time, and a few months’ cycle is actually not that relaxed.

Moreover, as a revolutionary operating system, Toktok needs to be sufficiently impressive.

"We are already reallocating some personnel to develop the underlying software for the new system.

We expect to complete most of the work by June or July."

Thomas knew Dean valued Windows95 highly, so the consumer business division was also following this project.

"Good, I have a feeling this year is going to be exciting."

Byte wasn’t the only one with the Windows95 software development kit; other emerging internet companies, including Netscape, had it too.

Microsoft readily agreed to Netscape’s application for software development and even provided some technical support.

When Dean learned this news from Clark, his expression was quite remarkable for a moment.

Gates’s blunders could actually be somewhat endearing.

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