Extraordinary Genius
Chapter 871 - Voice recorder
In the past, AIWA used some dirty tricks tomake Nintendo fall out with Sony, and Sony starts to develop its ownPlayStation console. Nintendo on the other hand, cooperate with AIWA for awhile.
Although the cooperation between Nintendoand AIWA was short, AIWA got some critical information about the video gameconsole. After the partnership ended, the engineers and developers involved inthe cooperation joined Aiwa The Little Tyrant, with the information andcontinued their research there.
But there was still a huge gap in thetechnologies. Nintendo and Sony had already introduced their latest video gameconsoles, and another video game manufacturer, Sega, also developed their ownLCD video game player. Aiwa"s Little Tyrant was still a step behind them.
Now, Aiwa"s Little Tyrant Company"s gamingconsole and learning machine"s sales had dropped drastically and their profitsare getting lesser and lesser. In the end, they become a factory thatmanufactures games" VCDs for other companies.
Under the leadership of Duan Yongping, thecompany start to manufacture cordless phones and start making profits again.
Duan Yongping"s foresight and ability areoutstanding. Everytime when Aiwa Little Tyrant is on the decline, he will thinkof ways to bring it back to life.
……
"Old Duan, come and have a seat. Are youhere about the CD-based gaming console? Is it developed?"
After helping other companies manufacturegames" VCD, the company understands this technology inside out. If not forpatents, the Little Tyrant would have re-engineered Sega or Nintendo"s gamingconsole and launched their own consoles.
"Not yet. There are still two technologieswhich we can"t get over. We are considering buying the authorization of thepatents or continue to develop our own technology to overcome them." DuanYongping said.
Actually, Duan Yongping also have anotheridea, which is to develop arcade game machines" circuit boards and cartridges.But if they buy the rights of the game, they will not make profits, and if theydon"t buy the rights, they will become counterfeits. Manager Feng will neverallow him to do this.
Feng Yu had emphasized more than once. Inthe past, they were poor and there were many loopholes with the legal systems.But now, China had started to look into copyrights and patent protection. Thegovernment will no longer protect Duan Yongping, and the company"s reputationwill be gone if they were sued for copyright issues.
"Just see which way is more worthwhile. Youcan decide on this yourself. But our technology must keep up with the rest ofthe world as we cannot keep buying patent authorization from other companies.All our profits will go to their pockets." Feng Yu was curious. Since the videogame console is not developed yet, why are you here?
"I know. If we still have no breakthroughsbefore the New Year, we will buy Nintendo"s technology, which is the cheapest,and our video games console should be out in the market before Lunar New Year.Our target is not only a video game console but also arcade centers."
Feng Yu heard what Duan Yongping said andgave him a thumbs-up.
Game arcade centers had become popular inall major cities after all the illegal gambling game centers were shut down bythe authorities.
The biggest challenges faced by arcadecenters were the lack of interesting games and faulty machines. They need tokeep changing their games and most of their arcade machines were rented.
Also, the benefits of a CD-based video gameconsole is many games can be stored in one CD.
CD-based video game consoles can come withits own LCD screen or connect to the TV or the arcade machine"s screen. Thiswill meet the demand of consumers. Nintendo"s latest console can even be usedas a CD player. That is also because of market demands.
In China, there are 3 CD-based video gameconsoles for sale. Nintendo, Sega and Sony. All of them are 32 bits 2D game anduses the most ordinary CD.
The console Duan Yongping is developinguses DVDs and is a 64 bits console. The storage is bigger and can handle 3Dgames. He is thinking of developing a new console which will beat all 3companies.
The consoles from those 3 companies werefor families, and Duan Yongping is targeting another ma.s.sive market, the arcadecenters. With this CD-based console, the arcade centers can save on renting thearcade machines and give their customers more choices.
If all the arcade machines in the arcadecenters are replaced by the Little Tyrant"s consoles, there will be a widevariety of games, and there will even be 3D games. The bosses of the arcadecenters will surely welcome this.
Even if the Little Tyrant can only sell1,000 units in a city, there are 500 to 600 cities in China, and if the profitsfor one unit is about 1,000 RMB, that will be 500 to 600 million!
This is only in China. If these machinesare exported, they will make more profits.
"Old Duan, Aiwa Little Tyrant is lucky tohave you around." Feng Yu said.
"I am lucky to have met you. You had neverturned down any of my requests and the salary and dividends you gave me aremuch more than what I got when I was working for the government. I was a.s.signeda small car by the government at that time, but now, I can afford to buy thetop model, Olympic, Songjiang Motor"s cars!" Duan Yongping said proudly.
"Hahaha… Old Duan, why are you back inBeijing?" Feng Yu asked.
Duan Yongping slapped his forehead. "Ah… Ialmost forgot about this. Manager Feng, I was chatting with Old Xu a few daysago, and he mentioned about Walkman"s sales dropping recently. There are manysmall factories in China producing Walkman now. Despite their poor soundquality, many of them are still doing well because they are selling cheap.Their sales are even better than Aiwa. The Walkman market is shrinking, and OldXu is prepared to lower the Walkman"s production. I have an idea for AiwaWalkman factories to manufacture a new product."
Feng Yu"s eyes brightened up and asked. "Isthe new product voice recorder?"
Duan Yongping was shocked. "Boss, you sawthis before? This product is already available overseas?"
Feng Yu almost bit his tongue from hisshock. It"s really the voice recorder!
In Feng Yu"s previous life, China"s mostpopular brand of voice recorder, BBK Electronics, is set up by Old Duan afterhe left the Little Tyrant. When this product was introduced into the market,there were many other companies following the trend. But BBK electronics" voicerecorders had better quality sounds and quickly become the market leader.
How well can this voice recorder sell? Thevoice recorder"s annual sales volume was more than 1.5 million units in 2000!
"I had only heard of this. How did you comeup with this idea?" Feng Yu asked.
"I saw some Hong Kong reporters using asmall pen-like device, recording pen, during their interviews here. It canstore a short voice recording and can be played back later. Our Aiwa Walkmanfirst advertis.e.m.e.nt had claimed to be used to learning foreign languages. It isuseless to learn a language if you don"t use it. So, I got this idea. A Walkmanwith the recording function of a recording pen. This is the creativity you arealways talking about."
Feng Yu gave him a thumbs-up. "This is aterrific idea. Discuss with Xu Lihua about the details. I will support you withthis product!"
Translator"s notes:
Duan Yongping
Electronics