While the phone launch party didn’t have as many live viewers as Theo thought it would. The video uploaded afterwards exploded and within days the phones were the only thing people talked about. The free advertising they gained by giving out phones to major celebrities and popular Vibe users was the main reason.
The mainstream media also helped to promote the phone's popularity, since it was heavily featured on a lot of news channels. Tony was also invited to be on a few popular talk shows to promote and talk about the phone. Since that was the case, Theo gave Tony the idea to give everyone in the audience a free phone. That just hyped up the expected release more and increased the pre-orders.
Another bonus was with the access to a high end camera in their pocket, a lot of the Vibe users with the phones started to use the photo platform on the site. Out of all the platforms Theo created it was still the slowest growing, but with cell phones being released he expected that to change soon.
As for the official release date, people started showing up to the new Stark Mobile stores days before release to save a spot in line. It was one of the first times something like this happened for a product launch, so it just added even more hype to the release date.
As for the release itself, it mostly went off without any problems. Actually the only real problem was inventory, since most stores sold out of phones on the first day or two. While Theo expected the phone to be popular, he didn't realize just how popular it could be.
Within a week they sold out of all the phones they had created and Tony's factory was scrambling to make more. Since they wanted to keep everything a secret until after the phone was launched, Tony only set up a single manufacturing plant with strict NDA’s for all employees. It was only a slight setback though, since a new plant was already built. It just needed workers and the materials to start up production.
After about a month or so, Tony's company was able to fulfill all the backorders and the rush to buy the phones died down. That said, they were able to sell over forty million phones in little over a month and Tony's company made over ten billion in gross profit. Well those numbers weren’t made public yet, but would be released during the next quarterly earnings report. Theo already bought up a bunch of Stark Inc. stock as he waited for the stock to practically double, since the company only made around twenty billion gross profit last year.
Tony was also in high spirits since the phone release, but not because of how well it was doing. No, Tony was happy because he finally became the most followed person on Vibe. When Theo heard the reason he shook his head and called Tony an idiot.
With the launch event out of the way and a steady production of phones being created. Theo moved on to stage two of the phone project. His goal with this was to get his phones into the hands of every government official and company executive he could. It didn’t matter how big or small they were, he wanted all of them to have one of Tony's cell phones.
Theo knew making that happen would take a while but he talked Tony into giving governments and companies a deal on the phones. He also created a special software package for the phones. It was focused on productivity and wasn't loaded with all the extra applications the normal phones used.
While Theo waited patiently for his potential victims to take the bait, he focused on other tasks related to the phones. With the phones officially released, he needed to open up the app store. While the phones came preloaded with software, he knew people would want to customize it. So he already created clones of the most popular software in his past life.
While he didn't go crazy with micro transactions, or gacha games. He still incorporated some of them for a reasonable price in the games he copied. He also removed almost all the features that made the games highly addictive. They were still fun to play and people enjoyed them, but they didn't need to play the game just for the dopamine rush they produced.
As for other games that might be created with those game mechanics? Theo would just ban them outright if they tried to release them in the app store. He also planned to stop anyone who tried to copy his Vibe platforms. Was it underhanded? Sure, but Theo didn't trust other people to keep the general public's best interests at heart.
With the phone project out of the way, Theo arrived at Tony’s house with a few more projects he wanted to make. Since they already had cell phones, he now wanted to create smart home devices and have Tony make them. With a couple pizza boxes in his hand along with a flash drive, Theo portaled to Tony’s in his Ezekiel persona.
After Ezekiel stepped out of the portal he found Tony's workshop empty but was greeted by JARVIS who said, “Welcome Ezekiel, Mr. Stark is currently up stairs talking with Mr. Stain.”
Ezekiel took out the flash drive he brought and plugged it into Tony’s computer before he asked, “Thank you JARVIS, is anyone else here?”
As Ezekiel moved towards the door for the stairs JARVIS said, “Happy is currently out with Miss. Potts, but they will be back within ten minutes.”
“Oh? Maybe I should order more pizza.” Ezekiel said as he opened the door.
“That won’t be necessary, they are coming back with food now.” JARVIS said.
“Oh, okay.”
As Ezekiel walked up the stairs he heard, “Tony, I don’t wanna complain about the current success you had with the phone.”
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
“But?” Tony interrupted as Ezekiel walked into the living room and saw Tony seated on the couch while Obadiah stood next to it with his back to Ezekiel.
Obadiah let out a sigh as he said, “But we have military contracts we need to complete and we are a bit behind on them.”
Tony noticed Ezekiel as he said, “Can you believe this guy? I make the company billions of dollars and it’s not enough.”
Ezekiel shrugged and moved towards the coffee table as he said, “If you have contracts, you should probably fulfill them. Then again it’s none of my business and I don’t plan to make it my business either.”
Stane smiled at Ezekiel as he said, “It’s nice to see you again Ezekiel.”
After Ezekiel placed the pizza boxes down he reached out and shook Obadiah’s hand as he said, “Same to you Mr. Stane. Actually I’m surprised I didn’t see you at the launch party, I’m pretty sure you were on the invite list.”
“Just call me Obadiah or Obie.” Obadiah said as he released Ezekiel’s hand.
“As for the party, I missed it because I was in Japan conducting some business and thought it was just a normal party Tony was putting on.” Obadiah said.
Ezekiel nodded in understanding as he sat down on the couch and Tony opened one of the pizza boxes before he said, “I just sent Happy and Pepper out to get food, but I could never say no to pizza.”
Obadiah glanced at the pizza box and the hot pizza as he asked, “Is there a Joe’s pizza nearby?”
Tony shook his head as he finished his first bit and said, “No, this is straight from NYC.”
“Really? How is it so fresh?” Obadiah asked as he studied the still steaming pizza.
Tony pointed at Ezekiel as he said, “He can portal anywhere he wants.”
As Ezekiel moved the top box aside and opened the other box he said, “I’m mostly restricted to earth for now.”
Obadiah glanced between Tony and Ezekiel for a moment as he started to laugh before he said, “Portal anywhere on earth? That’s not possible.”
Tony shrugged as he said, “I said the same thing, but he does it all the time.”
Ezekiel nodded as he lifted his hand and spun it in a circle before he said, “Look behind you.”
Obadiah glanced behind himself and froze in place as he looked at a portal. As he studied it he noticed the Eiffel Tower in the distance and asked, “Is that…”
“The Eiffel Tower? Yup.” Ezekiel said before he took a bite of his pizza.
Obadiah turned towards the portal and went to touch the edge as Tony said, “If you touch the edge it will paralyze your arm for the next half an hour.”
Tony elbowed Ezekiel as he said, “I found that out the hard way because some jerk didn’t warn me.”
Obadiah stopped in place before he dropped his hand and asked, “Is this real? Could I really go to France through this?”
“Yeah. Or anywhere else he makes one.” Tony said.
Ezekiel closed the portal as Obadiah turned around and asked, “How did you make it?”
“Magic.” Tony and Ezekiel said at the same time.
Ezekiel glanced at Tony who smirked before he took another bite of his pizza and Obadiah asked, “Magic?”
“Yup, but Tony doesn’t believe me.”
Tony nodded in agreement as he said, “Because magic isn’t real. It’s either one of your weird powers or some kinda alien tech you don’t wanna share with me.”
Ezekiel shrugged as the front door opened and Happy said, “Tony, we’re back with the food.”
As Happy and Pepper moved into the living room area and noticed Ezekiel who smiled at them before he pointed at the pizza boxes and said, “I brought pizza.”
Happy smiled as he held up the bags as he said, “I brought burgers.”
As everyone but Obadiah settled down on the couches to eat, Ezekiel asked, “So Happy, how are things going with Anna?”
“You’re really gonna move on from the portal thing without explaining anything? And what about the alien technology you mentioned?” Obadiah asked.
“That sounds about right.” Tony said as Happy and Pepper nodded in agreement.
“I explained it, it’s not my fault if you don’t believe me. As for the alien technology… It’s alien tech, what else do I need to explain?” Ezekiel said as he pulled out some french fries and stuffed them in his mouth.
Obadiah wanted to say something when Tony pointed at the couch and said, “Just sit down and eat. I’ve learned it’s a waste of time to think about things when it comes to Ezekiel.”
Obadiah reluctantly sat down on the couch as Happy said, “Things are going great with Anna by the way.”
Ezekiel smiled as he asked, “You should invite her to join you when you go on vacation.”
Happy nodded as he said, “I’ve been thinking about it. Maybe when it gets closer and she isn’t busy with a movie.”
“Just let me know and I’ll make sure she’s bumped ahead so she can join you.” Ezekiel said with a wink.
“That would be great.” Happy said with a smile.
As Ezekiel took another bite of pizza Tony asked, “So what brought you by? I thought you were gonna be busy after the phone launch?”
“I wanted to start on the next projects since the cell phone was so popular.” Ezekiel said after he finished his bite.
Obadiah and the others seemed interested as Ezekiel said, “JARVIS can you show us those project files I brought?”
“Right away sir.” The lights dimmed slightly and a holographic projection appeared over the coffee table to show a bunch of different possible projects Ezekiel wanted Tony to work on.
While Ezekiel wanted Tony to work on smart home tech, he knew it would be easier to give him a bunch of options to choose from. So as everyone ate, Tony browsed through the projects before he found a few things he was interested in and wanted to work on.