Chapter 871 – Voice recorder

In the past, AIWA used some dirty tricks to make Nintendo fall out with Sony, and Sony starts to develop its own PlayStation console. Nintendo on the other hand, cooperate with AIWA for a while.

Although the cooperation between Nintendo and AIWA was short, AIWA got some critical information about the video game console. After the partnership ended, the engineers and developers involved in the cooperation joined Aiwa The Little Tyrant, with the information and continued their research there.

But there was still a huge gap in the technologies. Nintendo and Sony had already introduced their latest video game consoles, and another video game manufacturer, Sega, also developed their own LCD video game player. Aiwa’s Little Tyrant was still a step behind them.

Now, Aiwa’s Little Tyrant Company’s gaming console and learning machine’s sales had dropped drastically and their profits are getting lesser and lesser. In the end, they become a factory that manufactures games’ VCDs for other companies.

Under the leadership of Duan Yongping, the company start to manufacture cordless phones and start making profits again.

Duan Yongping’s foresight and ability are outstanding. Everytime when Aiwa Little Tyrant is on the decline, he will think of ways to bring it back to life.

……

“Old Duan, come and have a seat. Are you here about the CD-based gaming console? Is it developed?”

After helping other companies manufacture games’ VCD, the company understands this technology inside out. If not for patents, the Little Tyrant would have re-engineered Sega or Nintendo’s gaming console and launched their own consoles.

“Not yet. There are still two technologies which we can’t get over. We are considering buying the authorization of the patents or continue to develop our own technology to overcome them.” Duan Yongping said.

Actually, Duan Yongping also have another idea, 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 they don’t buy the rights, they will become counterfeits. Manager Feng will never allow him to do this.

Feng Yu had emphasized more than once. In the 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. The government will no longer protect Duan Yongping, and the company’s reputation will be gone if they were sued for copyright issues.

“Just see which way is more worthwhile. You can decide on this yourself. But our technology must keep up with the rest of the 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 video game console is not developed yet, why are you here?

“I know. If we still have no breakthroughs before 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 and gave him a thumbs-up.

Game arcade centers had become popular in all major cities after all the illegal gambling game centers were shut down by the authorities.

The biggest challenges faced by arcade centers were the lack of interesting games and faulty machines. They need to keep changing their games and most of their arcade machines were rented.

Also, the benefits of a CD-based video game console is many games can be stored in one CD.

CD-based video game consoles can come with its own LCD screen or connect to the TV or the arcade machine’s screen. This will meet the demand of consumers. Nintendo’s latest console can even be used as a CD player. That is also because of market demands.

In China, there are 3 CD-based video game consoles for sale. Nintendo, Sega and Sony. All of them are 32 bits 2D game and uses the most ordinary CD.

The console Duan Yongping is developing uses DVDs and is a 64 bits console. The storage is bigger and can handle 3D games. He is thinking of developing a new console which will beat all 3 companies.

The consoles from those 3 companies were for families, and Duan Yongping is targeting another massive market, the arcade centers. With this CD-based console, the arcade centers can save on renting the arcade machines and give their customers more choices.

If all the arcade machines in the arcade centers are replaced by the Little Tyrant’s consoles, there will be a wide variety of games, and there will even be 3D games. The bosses of the arcade centers will surely welcome this.

Even if the Little Tyrant can only sell 1,000 units in a city, there are 500 to 600 cities in China, and if the profits for one unit is about 1,000 RMB, that will be 500 to 600 million!

This is only in China. If these machines are exported, they will make more profits.

“Old Duan, Aiwa Little Tyrant is lucky to have you around.” Feng Yu said.

“I am lucky to have met you. You had never turned down any of my requests and the salary and dividends you gave me are much more than what I got when I was working for the government. I was assigned a small car by the government at that time, but now, I can afford to buy the top model, Olympic, Songjiang Motor’s cars!” Duan Yongping said proudly.

“Hahaha… Old Duan, why are you back in Beijing?” Feng Yu asked.

Duan Yongping slapped his forehead. “Ah… I almost forgot about this. Manager Feng, I was chatting with Old Xu a few days ago, and he mentioned about Walkman’s sales dropping recently. There are many small factories in China producing Walkman now. Despite their poor sound quality, 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 Old Xu is prepared to lower the Walkman’s production. I have an idea for Aiwa Walkman factories to manufacture a new product.”

Feng Yu’s eyes brightened up and asked. “Is the new product voice recorder?”

Duan Yongping was shocked. “Boss, you saw this before? This product is already available overseas?”

Feng Yu almost bit his tongue from his shock. It’s really the voice recorder!

In Feng Yu’s previous life, China’s most popular brand of voice recorder, BBK Electronics, is set up by Old Duan after he left the Little Tyrant. When this product was introduced into the market, there were many other companies following the trend. But BBK electronics’ voice recorders had better quality sounds and quickly become the market leader.

How well can this voice recorder sell? The voice recorder’s annual sales volume was more than 1.5 million units in 2000!

“I had only heard of this. How did you come up with this idea?” Feng Yu asked.

“I saw some Hong Kong reporters using a small pen-like device, recording pen, during their interviews here. It can store a short voice recording and can be played back later. Our Aiwa Walkman first advertisement had claimed to be used to learning foreign languages. It is useless to learn a language if you don’t use it. So, I got this idea. A Walkman with the recording function of a recording pen. This is the creativity you are always talking about.”

Feng Yu gave him a thumbs-up. “This is a terrific idea. Discuss with Xu Lihua about the details. I will support you with this product!”