Chapter 121: Poke Sony in the Ass
On January 4, 1980, just after the New Year holiday, Tokyo once again returned to its former prosperity.
Just like in later generations, the workers who returned home gradually returned to Tokyo.
The holidays of major companies basically end on the 3rd or 4th.
Today is Sony's first day of work in the new year. Ozone Kozo walks into the Sony headquarters building with a beaming smile.
This New Year, the whole family was in Hawaii and had an unforgettable beach trip.
If we were to talk about the most popular holiday destination for Japanese people nowadays, Hawaii would definitely be the first one.
Besides because it is the place of America’s father, it has a halo of its own.
In addition, Hawaii's beautiful island scenery and warm and comfortable climate are also a major attraction for Japanese tourists.
In addition, there are many local Japanese people in Hawaii, and neon culture has penetrated into every corner of it.
When Japanese people arrive in Hawaii, they often feel like they are at home.
Now is not the bubble era, and going to Hawaii for vacation is probably still a privilege only for the rich.
Although Kozo Ozone was also a middle- and senior-level executive at Sony, he was still quite satisfied with a place like Hawaii.
Arriving at his minister's office, Ozone Kozo casually took the report that his secretary had already prepared.
He planned to check the sales of Walkman during the New Year holiday. Sony's Walkman factory has been running at full capacity in the past six months.
It is no exaggeration to say that the current Walkman is another growth point for Sony's profits.
And such star products were developed under their own leadership.
I guess I will have my own seat in the president's office this year, Ozone Kozo thought proudly.
Hmm? Walkman sales growth seems to be a little lower than expected.
Ozone Kozo looked at the report in his hand and immediately frowned.
Although there is still growth overall, the growth rate has slowed down significantly compared with the first half of the month.
The market is saturated? As soon as this thought came to his mind, Ozone Kozo shook his head.
Sony has internally estimated that the market for portable players will continue to grow in the next few years.
It is impossible for the company to fall into a growth bottleneck in just half a year. Besides, the factory's production capacity has not been fully released, which is not in line with the laws of economics.
The market is not saturated and there are no quality issues, so why is growth slowing down?
Just when Ozone Kozo wanted to call his secretary to find out more details, Nakajima Heitaro from the research institute suddenly knocked on the door and came in in a hurry.
"Ozone-san, would you like to take a look at this?"
As he spoke, Nakajima Heitaro handed the Flashman he had specially collected and the familiar-looking lawyer's letter from Shirakawa Denki to Ozone Yukizo.
To be honest, when Nakajima Heitaro saw the lawyer's letter for the first time, he almost laughed out of anger.
Just forget about the fact that your Shirakawa Electric Flashman is similar to Sony's Walkman.
It’s even more outrageous now, even the lawyers’ letters are identical.
When he first received the lawyer's letter from Shirakawa Electric, Heitaro Nakajima almost burst out cursing the other party as a bastard and shameless.
However, when I saw the English patent attached to the lawyer's letter, I broke out in a cold sweat.
To be honest, he really didn't know that the idea of the Walkman had been registered abroad a few years ago.
But Sony's Walkman is definitely the world's first portable player, among which...
Nakajima Heitaro didn't dare to think too much about it. He realized that Shirakawa Electric's Flashman was definitely a hot potato.
I originally thought it was another small company that was not afraid of death and was ready to take a gamble.
Generally speaking, for this kind of infringement, a lawyer's letter will scare the other party into leaving immediately.
He had experience dealing with small problems like this before.
Little did he know that things were far more complicated than he had imagined. Fortunately, he remembered the friendship between fellow students and did not hand it over directly to the board of directors.
Since things have become troublesome, of course we have to throw them away.
Then the best person to take the blame is, of course, the person in front of us, Ozone Kozo.
In fact, Ozone Kozo is ten years younger than Nakajima Heitaro according to the general company seniority ranking.
In theory, Ozone Kozo should call Nakajima Heitaro his senior.
It’s a pity that Ozone Kozo joined the company more than ten years earlier than Nakajima Heitaro.
The latter worked in other companies several times before joining Sony at the age of about 50, serving as the director of the Tape Recording Technology Research Institute.
Currently, the Tape Recording Technology Research Institute is under the Tape Stereo Sound Division.
In terms of job rank, the two are similar, but in terms of organizational structure, Nakajima Heitaro is half a head shorter than Osone Kozo.
Nakajima Heitaro, who is a little proud in his heart, actually has complicated feelings towards Ozone Kozo.
The other party's technical ability is comparable to his own, but his longer experience makes him feel a little unconvinced and he has always been inferior to the other party.
After all, he was responsible for designing the sound system for the Tokyo Olympics, and this qualification will not allow him to bow his head easily.
Now, since there is something troublesome, then it is just right, I would like to ask Mr. Ozone to show his responsibility as a superior.
Nakajima Heitaro watched silently and noticed that Ozone Kozo's face was getting darker and darker.
Well, the same as before.
"Shameless! They plagiarized our ideas and even sent us a lawyer's letter?!
I want all the information about Shirakawa Electric within three minutes!"
Ozone Kozo was a man of good temper. He flew into a rage as soon as he read the lawyer's letter from Shirakawa Electric.
Nakajima Heitaro silently turned the page of the lawyer's letter .
Hmm? Patented?
Ozone Kozo changed color suddenly .
"Hurry, I need to go see Ohga Norio-san!"
Ozone Kozo was so frightened that he jumped up and ran out of the door with the documents in his hand.
…
Shirakawa Electric, who was unaware that he had stabbed Sony in the ass, was happily celebrating the sales of 60,000 Flashman units with everyone.
Yes, 60,000!
In the ten days or less than two weeks since the Flashman was launched, Shirakawa Electric shipped a total of 60,000 Walkmans.
According to the market sales situation, the number of shipments is roughly equivalent to the number of sales.
At this moment, the warehouse inside Shirakawa Electric was empty, and there was not a single Flashman left.
However, orders are still piling up in large numbers, and it is definitely impossible to complete them relying solely on the current production lines.
So from the first day of work in the new year, Shirakawa Electric urged equipment manufacturers to ship goods.
Currently, the first batch of machines have arrived from an equipment manufacturer close to Tokyo.
Yasuda and Yamazaki Teru were leading their men, working intensively on installation and debugging.
If all goes well, the second production line will join the ranks of Flashman production within two weeks.
But to be honest, the sales of 60,000 units in two weeks not only exceeded the expectations of everyone at Shirakawa Electric, but also exceeded the most optimistic figure in Shirakawa Feng's mind.
At first he thought that if he could sell 30,000 copies, it would be a great success .
Unexpectedly, everyone still underestimated the power of the combined Christmas and New Year holidays.
When the Japanese people start shopping, the scene is quite impressive.
