Chapter 226: Future Trouble
Shirakawa Kaede was not surprised by Panasonic's entry. Sony had been able to hold out for half a year, but it had already reached its limit.
After all, there are so many audio-related and consumer electronics companies in Japan. If they unite and put pressure together, no one can ignore it.
In addition to Panasonic now, there are a number of companies including Sanyo, Pioneer, Hitachi, NEC, etc. that will launch their own Walkman.
It is conceivable that this year's Walkman market will definitely not be divided between Sony and Shirakawa Electric like last year.
With so many manufacturers entering the market, fierce competition is inevitable, and even a decline in profits is inevitable.
There is no shortcut when dealing with them, as everyone has rich product experience.
When it comes to the design of the Walkman, our own R&D capabilities are definitely enough.
Even compared with them, Shirakawa Electric is considered the younger one.
So is it possible to join forces with Sony like we did with Nintendo last time?
Don’t even think about it. These companies don’t rely on copying other people’s junk.
If that were possible, Sony would not release the license.
Therefore, when faced with this kind of situation, we can only face it with an upright attitude, which means improving ourselves.
"We will have to put a little more effort into the design of the next generation of Walkman this year."
Baichuan Feng fiddled with the Panasonic Walkman in his hand, thinking.
Yasuda, Oki and the others nodded seriously. With so many opponents pouring in at once, everyone was a little overwhelmed.
Everyone is competing on the same field, so tricks are basically useless. The rest depends on your own ability.
“What are the characteristics of the new friends’ designs?”
Only by knowing yourself and your enemy can you make the most appropriate strategy.
“They are basically the same design as ours, the only difference is probably the audio effects they have been tuned differently.
Some have great highs, some have amazing lows, and generally speaking, they all have their own merits.”
Da Mu has the most say in this regard, as he has a rough idea of the audio effects of various products after listening to them.
"How do ours compare to theirs?" Baichuan Feng sat up straight. This was part of internal strength and could not be taken lightly.
Da Mu answered confidently, "We'll both win and lose, but at least we won't be worse than them."
"Yoshi," Baichuan nodded in approval, "Keep it up, and eventually we have to aim to surpass our competitors."
"Hai" Da Mu responded.
After all, portable listening is an art of hearing. First of all, the sound quality and sound effects must be as good as others, so that everyone can be said to be on the same starting line.
I have to say that it was worth it to hire a professional sound engineer at a high price.
Without them, Shirakawa Electric's performance in audio technology would probably be very mediocre now.
Being able to keep up with the main group now is already an amazing progress.
"The gap in audio technology is not that big, so we have to think of solutions elsewhere."
Baichuan Feng already had some ideas about this.
"President, do you have any suggestions?" Knowing him well, Yasuda knew that his president must have his own plans.
Baichuan Feng nodded, "Let's see if we can make some breakthroughs in terms of functionality and ease of use."
Ease of use ?
Everyone frowned and began to think about it.
"Consider making a walkman with an automatic tape-flipping function." Baichuan Feng didn't keep anyone in suspense and directly expressed his idea.
"Automatic rewinding?" Yasuda's eyes lit up.
"That's right," Baichuan Feng demonstrated with the machine in his hand, "When one side is finished playing.
Press the switch button, the motor reverses and the head starts reading information from the end.
In this way, the automatic tape turning function can be realized, eliminating the trouble of manual tape turning.
Of course, I am just proposing an idea. How to implement it will be up to you guys.”
There are many different kinds of portable players in later generations, with many unique functions.
However, Shirakawa Feng thinks that this practical function can be regarded as a major innovation of the Walkman.
As for why it wasn't brought out earlier, it's because it was waiting for now.
Good things, of course, need to be squeezed slowly.
Otherwise, we will not be able to come up with any effective counterattack against our competitors.
"What a genius idea!" Even a straight man like Yasuda couldn't help but applaud this idea.
This is a unique secret technique, which can be said to be unique to me.
"From a technical perspective, there shouldn't be any big problems." After a brief assessment, Yasuda gave a positive answer.
What is difficult is the idea, not the method of realization.
"Okay," Baichuan Feng nodded, "This function will be used on mid- to high-end models first.
As for the low-end models..." Baichuan Feng thought about it and couldn't come up with a good solution, "Continue to reduce costs and save wherever necessary.
If the factory price can be lower than 10,000 yen, there won’t be many companies that can compete with us.”
If a competitor who is equally good at low-end products enters the market, the only thing we can do is to respond with a lower price.
Moreover, Panasonic, which excels at low-end products, is not only good at low-end products, but also has rich experience in high-end products.
The pressure is huge.
"When will Sony launch its new model this year?" After discussing for a long time, Shirakawa Feng almost forgot about his old friend.
"It is said to be in May." Hasegawa has always been paying close attention to the movements of his competitors.
“And according to the preview information released by Sony, there should be more than one model.
It is likely that they will have the same or even more positioning models as us.”
Well, they come one by one and in full force.
"It seems we have to hurry up." Baichuan Feng put down the machine in his hand and sighed.
“Everyone, in the next six months, our goal is to produce low-end models with lower costs.
As well as mid-to-high-end models with automatic tape-flipping functions. Of course, other ideas can also be proposed.
In addition, we should pay more attention to the differentiation of the market and conduct more feedback surveys.
As long as there is customer demand, we will also make niche special-positioning products.
If we don't occupy this part of the market, others will.
We have the first-mover advantage and will continue to maintain this lead.”
"Yes!" Everyone in the meeting room nodded in agreement.
Baichuan Feng also doesn't plan to let go of those niche products.
No matter how small a mosquito is, it is still meat. Besides, I would rather eat it myself than leave it for my opponent.
Things are different now, there are too many people sharing the cake.
Even those scraps that are not very sweet usually have to be picked up and put into your mouth.
In the fiercely competitive market, everyone will use all means to survive.
Baichuan Feng has already realized this and is prepared for this.
After having a meeting with the people from the Walkman Division, Baichuan Feng's expression started to become serious after they left.
I spoke so confidently during the meeting to boost everyone's confidence.
But no matter what the final result is, it is foreseeable that Shirakawa Electric will no longer have such lucrative profits in the field of portable players.
The market is so small, and with so many manufacturers coming in, they will eventually take away some of the profits.
The profits from portable players were decreasing, and at this moment Shirakawa Electric had emptied its funds.
It's really difficult.
The handheld game console market seems to be a case of small profits but quick turnover, but fortunately Shirakawa Electric and Nintendo have cleared the market in advance.
Otherwise, Shirakawa Electric's profits in the domestic market are expected to plummet this year .
The overseas market will probably be the main source of profit for Shirakawa Electric this year.
However, overseas markets also have their own problems, which mainly come from two aspects.
First, Panasonic and other friendly companies also want authorization for overseas markets.
They also have their own branches abroad. They have seen the market performance of Sony and Shirakawa Electric. How could they remain indifferent?
Baichuan Feng also has a headache with these new friends who come to him.
If Sony can’t withstand it, can he?
Definitely not.
However, Baichuan Feng has not given in yet, and the performance of their local market is still unknown, so they didn't push too hard.
But Baichuan Feng knew that if the local market was good, he would have to honestly release the authorization within half a year.
After that, there is no other good solution except to collect a huge patent fee.
He is not stupid enough to go against so many companies, unless he doesn't want to work in Japan anymore.
This is the first difficulty in the overseas market.
As for the second one, it is obviously from the identity of Shirakawa Electric.
Yes, Shirakawa Electric’s business card in North America is that it is a Japanese company.
At this time, Japanese companies did not have a very good reputation in North America, especially among automobile industry workers, who hated Japan to the core.
Now that Shirakawa Electric's products are selling like hot cakes in North America, how could they possibly escape the eyes of those capitalists?
All kinds of troubles always come to you.
The problem is not serious now, but if it continues, Shirakawa Electric's tariffs may increase significantly.
But its competitor Sony does not have such worries. As one company gains strength while the other loses, it is only a matter of time before it falls behind.
So why doesn't Sony have such trouble?
There are two reasons: Sony is listed in the United States and has factories in the United States.
This is definitely an American company.
Wall Street saw this and thought, oh, we are one of them. Everyone put down their guns and don't cause any misunderstanding to the brothers.
But Shirakawa Electric does not provide such treatment. Not only are there all kinds of troubles, but they also keep their eyes on you all the time.
If the robbery wasn't so conspicuous, they would have taken action long ago.
There are so many people coming to us every day looking to invest.
What kind of investment is this? It’s nothing more than wanting to get a piece of the pie.
Baichuan Feng has no good solution for this problem for the time being, and his temporary plan is to build a factory in the United States.
Doing so can at least shut up some politicians, provide jobs, increase tax revenue, and can also be considered an explanation to that place.
Even though the costs in the United States are much higher than those in Japan, there is nothing that can be done about it.
If you want to make money, you have to pay the price.
In general, the situation faced by Shirakawa Electric this year is much more complicated than last year.
The larger the scale, the more revenue you will earn, but it will also be easier to attract other people's attention.
All the chaos is really a headache.
Just when Baichuan Feng was feeling bored, a cup of coffee suddenly appeared in front of him.
"Hey" Shirakawa Feng raised his head, "It's Kobayashi."
He put away his sorrow and a smile appeared on his face.
"Are you worried about something again?" Asuka Kobayashi knew that he was in trouble again when she saw his frown.
"It's not a worry, just a small trouble at most." Baichuan Feng picked up the coffee and took a sip leisurely.
Let’s deal with it when things happen. There’s no need to worry about it so much that you can’t eat.
Seeing that he didn't seem to be faking it, Kobayashi Asuka felt relieved.
"Has your family hired a nanny recently?" she asked casually while stirring her coffee with a spoon.
"Hmm?" Bai Chuanfeng gave her a strange look, "How did you know?"
I did hire a nanny recently, and also a nutritionist.
I just started the job yesterday. What a coincidence!
"Really?" Asuka Kobayashi looked at him suspiciously.
"Of course, there's more than that. We also have nutritionists and drivers." Baichuan Feng felt that he was telling the truth.
Did I guess wrong?
Asuka Kobayashi felt that she might have really wronged Shirakawa Kaede.
