Chapter 248: Local Market Structure
At the end of July, Shirakawa Kaede, who had been in the United States for almost two months, finally returned to the land of Japan.
"Shirakawa-kun, here~"
As soon as he walked out of the airport lobby, Shirakawa Feng saw Asuka Kobayashi, who was wearing a light-colored long skirt, waving at him.
"Tsk, it's an honor for Xiaolin to pick me up at the airport in person."
Baichuan Feng greeted her from a distance, and then sat directly in her passenger seat without any hesitation.
As for the followers Xiaodao and Sama, after putting away their luggage, they quietly got into another car behind them.
"Go to Shirakawa Electric or go home?" In response to Shirakawa Kaede's teasing, Asuka Kobayashi just smiled and ignored him.
This guy is just a big mouth sometimes , and if you provoke him easily, you can't get rid of him.
But if I ignore him, I always feel like something is missing.
"Go to Shirakawa Electric."
Shirakawa Kaede's thoughts are not as complicated as Kobayashi Asuka's. After being away from Japan for two months, a lot of things have piled up here.
He had already slept on the plane, so he didn't have to adjust to the jet lag.
As for Seiko Matsuda, who had previously lived with him in North America, she returned by flight yesterday.
As a master of time management, this schedule arrangement is not a problem for him at all.
"How is it going? Is everything going well in the United States?"
Asuka Kobayashi started the car and talked to him about what they had gained.
"Overall, it went smoothly." Baichuan Feng stretched and felt relaxed.
First of all, Shirakawa Electric's new generation of Walkman was successfully launched and received very good feedback in the North American market.
If nothing unexpected happens, Sony will launch more high-end models.
Shirakawa Electric's Walkman will occupy a mainstream share in the high-end market.
As long as Shirakawa Electric continues to launch innovative products and use technology as a driving force, its pace of progress will not stop.
Meanwhile, in the low-end segment, FM-02 swept the market with an ultra-low price of US$63.
Aiwa, which had previously been promoting products at low prices, fell into complete silence after encountering this rival.
If nothing unexpected happens, Aiwa will soon disappear from North America.
In addition to its performance in the market, Shirakawa Electric has also officially signed an agreement with the local government of Auckland.
In the next two years, Shirakawa Electric plans to invest 30 million US dollars to build a local Walkman factory with a workforce of 1,000.
The construction is scheduled to start this year and production will begin next year. In the future, this Oakland factory will supply most of the portable audio needs in the North American market.
Although the manufacturing cost has increased, at least it has saved tariffs. In addition, building a factory locally will save a lot of unnecessary trouble in the future.
Europe has also sent people to take the lead in the effort to gain a foothold this year.
Most of the overseas work has been completed, so he won't have to fly there again in the short term.
After returning to Ota Ward, Shirakawa Kaede couldn't wait to check the performance of the local Walkman business.
Although the overall financial statements for July have not yet been released, clues can be seen based on the statistics from the previous few weeks.
With the arrival of summer vacation, the launch of Shirakawa Electric's new generation of Walkman has also ushered in a sales boom.
Especially the low-end models, with an ultra-low price of just over 10,000 yen, have attracted countless students to buy them.
This price is quite low compared to all products in the entire consumer electronics field.
Most students can basically buy an FM-02 with their pocket money. The portable player that they used to envy is now within their reach, so what is there to hesitate about?
FM-02 has now become almost standard equipment for students, and everyone has one.
Students wearing earphones and holding FM-02 can be seen everywhere on campus.
With rich colors and mini cute designs, they are the new favorites of students.
There is no doubt that with the launch of FM-02, Shirakawa Electric once again occupies an absolute mainstream position in the low-end market.
And as prices drop by leaps and bounds, the consumer group will further expand.
This is equivalent to making the cake bigger, and then the extra part is eaten up by Shirakawa Electric in one bite.
Panasonic, which had previously put pressure on Shirakawa Electric, was no longer seen as a threat by Shirakawa Kaede.
He knew that this was about the lowest price for a Walkman and it wouldn't change in the next few years.
This time, the price of just over 10,000 yen has almost reduced the cost of the Walkman to the limit.
Prices have hit rock bottom and there is no room for further price cuts, so everyone's bottom line is clearly revealed.
Even if Panasonic continues to follow up, it will not have much price advantage.
Shirakawa Electric, which has taken the lead, will definitely remain the mainstream in the market.
I have to say that Shirakawa Electric's ultra-low pricing this time is a bit unfair.
In the past, everyone competed in the market, even in price wars.
It is also constantly adjusting, slowly moving down the price range.
After all, capital pursues profits and everyone wants to make money.
It is a tacit understanding that the profit margin should be guaranteed as much as possible.
However, Shirakawa Electric directly set a rock-bottom price at one time, so how can other players who have just entered the market or are about to enter the market continue to play?
Baichuan Feng certainly did this on purpose. It wasn't because he wanted to do charity or didn't want profit margins.
Rather, in recent months, as more and more audio equipment manufacturers have entered the market, Shirakawa Electric's market share has been declining.
Rather than waiting for others to slowly eat away at your market share, it is better to take drastic action immediately.
We would rather take less profit than clean up the chaotic portable player market.
Those models that other manufacturers had just released, or the projects that were being developed to compete with Shirakawa Electric's previous generation of low-end machines, all suffered a devastating blow.
The best example of this is Aiwa, whose new model failed within two months of sales, and the loss was huge.
In Shirakawa Kaede's opinion, the only company that can compete with him in the low-end market is Panasonic.
The other party also has a complete industrial chain and has unique advantages in cost.
However, it is already the second half of the year, and it may be next year before Panasonic launches a portable player of the same price.
Baichuan Feng put the data table in his hand and finally relaxed.
Smaller manufacturers such as Aiwa and Pioneer are no longer a concern, and the future portable player market will most likely be dominated by large manufacturers.
Sony, Panasonic, Hitachi, NEC, and Shirakawa Electric, those are probably the companies.
To be honest, Shirakawa only cares about the first two. Sony has the strongest technical strength in the audio field, which goes without saying.
Shirakawa Electric was able to keep up with it only by virtue of its leading design, otherwise the outcome would be hard to predict.
This is what happens when technology is not enough and creativity is used to make up for it.
As for Panasonic, as I just said, its complete industrial chain has unique advantages in manufacturing costs.
Perhaps Panasonic is the least likely to be eliminated from the future portable player market.
Although the market share may be limited, as long as the price is low enough, it can survive.
If Sony and Shirakawa Electric are technology-driven companies, then Panasonic is a marketing-driven company.
This is because the technical creativity is not enough , so low prices are used to make up for it.
As for the remaining two companies, Hitachi and NEC, their products are too diverse, and audio is not their strong point.
In fact, Panasonic does a lot of different things, but it has a complete electronics industry chain.
The industrial chains of Hitachi and NEC are not in the field of consumer electronics. The former's main profit pillar is in the industrial field (electric power industry, machinery industry, semiconductor industry), while the latter's pillar industries are communications and semiconductors.
At the same time, these giant groups are so complex and intricate that the portable player business is not even given much attention.
So in general, in the field of audio consumer products, Shirakawa Electric is not inferior to Hitachi and NEC.
This is the general structure of the current portable player market, with three main players and two roving players playing supporting roles.
Tsk, I just wonder when Shirakawa Electric will be able to grow to this day, spanning multiple fields and occupying a dominant position.
The future is promising, but the road ahead is long and difficult.
After going through the information from Shirakawa Electric, Feng Shirakawa went to ask Yasuda about the market feedback on the new model.
"Mr. Yasuda, what is the market response to our new generation of Walkman?"
After all, a new function has been added, and Baichuan Feng also needs to pay attention to the market's evaluation of it.
“The overall evaluation is quite good, especially the automatic tape-turning function, which greatly increases the convenience of use.”
As the director of the R&D department, Yasuda also pays close attention to market feedback on new models.
"But if there are shortcomings or unsatisfactory aspects, it is not without them."
"Oh~" Baichuan Feng perked up, "Tell me in detail."
"Endurance" Yasuda uttered a word that surprised Shirakawa Kaede.
"Battery life?" Baichuan Feng frowned slightly.
"That's right," Yasuda nodded, "because automatic tape reversal requires the motor to reverse, and the working mode changes.
Then the power consumption demand of the motor will also increase, so the battery life will be relatively reduced."
"How long can the No. 5 batteries we are using normally last?"
Shirakawa Electric's Walkman generally requires two to three batteries, and high-end models consume relatively more power.
"Under normal use, it's probably close to an hour, but with the automatic rewinding function, it's probably only around 40 minutes."
Shirakawa Kaede frowned even more tightly at the answer given by Yasuda.
The density of today's AA batteries is not high enough, and their battery life is generally disappointing.
This problem exists not only in Shirakawa Electric, but also in Sony and other consumer electronics products.
Now, several new batteries can't even last an hour on new models, which is enough to finish listening to a tape.
It has to be said that this is indeed a big obstacle to the user experience.
"Can the design be improved?" In order to increase battery life, the first thing Baichuan Feng thought of was to improve himself.
However, Yasuda shook his head awkwardly, "It's difficult because we have already adopted the most advanced brushless motor.
This type of motor has only been commercially available for two years, and there won’t be any technological breakthroughs in the short term.”
A major factor affecting the battery life of a portable player is the motor, and there is little room for further optimization of other components.
"In other words, apart from external conditions, it is difficult for us to make any improvements ourselves?"
Baichuan Feng opened the battery cover of his walkman and looked at the batteries inside thoughtfully.
Although he didn't want to admit it, Yasuda still nodded obediently.
As expected, the application of new technologies will also bring new problems, either internally or externally.
"We will try to optimize the design. As for the external conditions, I will go to the professors at Tokyo Institute of Technology to come up with a solution."
Although this is a common problem in the industry, Baichuan Feng knows that the product's demand for power consumption will become more severe in the future.
Problems must be solved and cannot be ignored.
