Chapter 345 Black-Hearted IBM
As soon as the two parties of Shirakawa Electric and IBM sat down, Shirakawa Kaede first signaled Nakajima Heitaro to distribute a blue book to the other party.
"You can study the technical specifications of CD-ROM. It has improved all aspects of floppy disk."
Louis and Robert took the blue book, opened it and looked at it carefully.
To be honest, both the capacity and the scanning speed surprised them. As for why they only paid attention to these two parameters, it was because they were intuitive enough.
700MB of capacity versus 1MB, any ordinary person understands the difference.
The reading and writing speeds with current floppy disk technology are between 100 and 300 KB/S.
It seems to be not much different from the 150KB/S of a CD-ROM, but please note that this is only twice the speed of the optical drive.
As they deal with computers all year round, they certainly understand what one speed means. If there is one speed, there must be multiple speeds.
From the perspective of ordinary consumers, both the capacity and data scanning speed are far superior to floppy disks.
The improvements brought about by these two points will give consumers a world of difference in user experience.
So of course Louis and Robert were surprised by the specifications in the blue book, and even a little delighted at their own foresight.
They knew all too well what this meant; the floppy disk was indeed on its way to the grave.
But even though he thought so in his heart, Louis showed an unhappy expression on his face.
"Mr. Shirakawa, you have arbitrarily formulated CD-ROM technical specifications with Sony and Philips, which will put IBM in a passive position."
The determination of CD-ROM specifications has, to a certain extent, limited the technical standards of optical drives.
With the release of the Blue Book, IBM's say on optical drives has been reduced to some extent.
"Mr. Louis, first of all, the optical drive serves the CD-ROM, the specifications of which were developed after extensive verification by Shirakawa Electric.
Please do not doubt the parameters in this regard; we are the world's most authoritative CD-ROM technology experts."
Shirakawa Kaede now has enough confidence to say this, and Sony and Philips will have to take a step back in the research of CD-ROM.
“Also, I’d like to remind you, Mr. Louis, that Shirakawa Electric has been here with sincerity from the beginning.
But we didn’t get the attention we deserved, so to this day the optical drive remains on paper.”
"Okay, Mr. Shirakawa. We are here today to solve this matter, right?"
Seeing that Baichuan Feng was about to bring the topic back, Louis quickly interrupted him and started to get to the point.
"Of course," Baichuan Feng shrugged.
"Okay gentlemen, now let's talk about standardization of optical drives. Robert, what suggestions do you have for this?"
Regarding the technical issues of the optical drive, Louis first consulted his own technical director.
“I have seen the optical drive brought by Shirakawa Electric, and I will not comment on its internal structure, after all, it is a commercial secret of each company.
In terms of data interface and working mode, I suggest you get closer to computers. After all, the existence of optical drives is to serve users.
Users use computers to achieve their goals, so whether in terms of hardware or software support, the optical drive should comply with computer logic."
Robert's view on the hardware of optical drives is very simple, that is, to serve the computer.
"Mr. Baichuan, what do you think?" Louis turned his gaze to Baichuan Feng.
After thinking it over for a while, he turned to discuss with Nakajima Heitaro, and finally Shirakawa nodded and agreed to IBM's suggestion.
If the optical drive is to be installed on a computer and used as an opportunity to be launched on the market, then it is only natural that it complies with the requirements of the computer in terms of certain specifications.
Of course, these so-called specifications are mostly hardware factors such as interfaces and dimensions.
Baichuan Feng doesn't mind giving the right to speak in this regard to IBM as long as it does not involve its core interests.
"Very good, then let's talk about the parameters that affect performance." Louis was satisfied with Baichuan Feng's concession.
“Regarding scanning speed, error correction logic, and data pickup mechanism, we hope that Shirakawa Electric can provide detailed technical information.
Because we need it to write corresponding software and open certain permissions in the system to users.
Of course, we will sign a confidentiality agreement for all of this, and IBM has an excellent reputation in this regard.”
"In principle, we agree with IBM's request, but if I may ask, which models will IBM first apply the configuration of optical drive?"
Providing more detailed technical information is a necessary means to develop software and hardware, which Shirakawa Feng can understand.
But as a manufacturer of optical drives, he was more concerned about the platform that IBM applied first.
In response to Baichuan Feng's question, Louis and Robert looked at each other and then answered.
“We think large-scale opportunities are a good choice because, you know, those commercial companies always have all kinds of data to store.
The capacity of a floppy disk is too small to store a large amount of data. A hard disk can meet the requirements, but it is too large for storage.
So we all agreed that mainframe users would find it hard to resist configurations like optical drives.”
What Louis said makes sense. Many companies have several GB of data. If they use floppy disks to store it, it would be a disastrous choice.
Today's hard drives are already 1G in size, but they are almost the same size as washing machines, making storage a problem for companies.
But it’s different with CDs. Several GB are just a few CDs, which takes up less space than a book.
I believe that those business companies will definitely not reject the new technology such as CDs, and IBM knows very well what their demands are.
But when Baichuan Feng heard that IBM wanted to use the optical drive on mainframes first, he frowned.
"Mr. Louis, I agree with your judgment on mainframe users. But as the first promotion platform, I suggest you add personal computers."
"Personal computer?" Louis looked at Baichuan Feng in surprise.
“I’m sorry Mr. Shirakawa, you may not understand that the personal computer market is not mainstream now.
And for individual users, such a huge capacity of 700MB is totally unnecessary.
As Gates said, 640KB is more than enough for anyone.
The Gates that Louis was talking about is the famous Bill Gates.
Last year, a newspaper reported Bill Gates' views on memory capacity.
I don’t know whether this joke is true or false, and I don’t know whether Gates really said this.
But it does not stop Louis from using it to prove that individual users do not have such a great demand for large-capacity storage .
Bai Chuanfeng almost laughed out loud when he heard him say that, "Mr. Louis, the reason why individual users are satisfied with the current 640KB is because they have never seen the elegance of CD-ROM.
If Mr. Gates were to see the blue book in person, I think he would definitely take back what he said."
What is completely unnecessary and what is enough for 640KB is simply because there is no such large-capacity storage device in reality for users to waste.
Baichuan Feng dares to bet that once the public has experienced the hugeness of 700MB, they will never go back.
Do you really think that 700MB can only be used to store data? In the future, pictures and multimedia files will easily fill it up.
"But..." Louis's idea was still relatively conservative. After all, this was going to be promoted to the public as a standard feature of computers.
If the reviews were not high, wouldn't that drag down the reputation of IBM PC?
"Mr. Louis, why don't you ask how much our Shirakawa Electric's optical drive costs?"
"Hmm?" Louis looked at Baichuan Feng's smiling expression and seemed to react.
"So how much does Shirakawa Electric's optical drive cost?"
"Double optical drives for $199, quad optical drives for $425."
"Wait!" Louis raised his hand to signal Baichuan Feng to wait for a moment, "What do you mean by the scanning speed of the optical drive, Mr. Baichuan?"
"Of course," Baichuan Feng nodded, "These are just the two most basic scanning magnifications. In the future we will develop optical drives with higher scanning magnifications."
Louis and Robert looked at each other and saw the disbelief in each other's eyes.
What they found unbelievable was not the scanning speed of the optical drive, but its price.
Too cheap~
A floppy disk with a capacity of only about 1MB can sell for two or three hundred dollars, and a floppy drive can cost as much as $400.
In this comparison, Shirakawa Electric's optical drive seems more like a charity.
"Mr. Shirakawa, I have to remind you that this price is too low."
The black-hearted capitalist Louis couldn't stand Shirakawa Electric's pricing strategy at all and thought it was too cheap.
"I understand what you mean, Mr. Louis, but we want to make it a standard feature of PCs and popularize it to the general public.
Too high a price is not conducive to the promotion of CD-ROMs. Especially if you want people to change their habit of using floppy disks, you always have to come up with something exciting. "
In fact, Baichuan Feng already felt that he was black enough. The cost of an optical drive was lower than that of a CD player, and a quadruple-speed one was no more than $50.
Now it is sold for 200 US dollars or more than 400 US dollars, which is already a huge profit. But IBM still thinks it is too kind.
Hearing what Baichuan Feng said, Louis' eyes turned and an idea came to his mind.
"How about this? We, IBM, will purchase the optical drives according to this quotation, but IBM will have the right to set the market price."
"Mr. Louis, Shirakawa Electric will not give in on pricing power. There is no need to mention this again."
Are you kidding? For such a monopoly-like product, how can we give the pricing power to others?
Bai Chuanfeng refused without a second thought, because he knew what IBM was planning. It was nothing more than raising the price of the optical drive and making a profit.
But IBM was too ruthless. Shirakawa Feng was worried that the price they set was too high, which would affect their rapid expansion in the optical drive field.
For example, IBM's own personal computer 5150 series, the cheapest price is US$1,535, the ordinary configuration is US$2,000 to US$3,000, and the high-configuration can reach US$4,000.
Yes, you read that right, this is the price of personal computers in US dollars.
Although people in the United States are wealthy, such high prices mean that personal computer sales will not experience explosive growth.
But how many people know that an IBM personal computer only costs about $600 if only the cost of parts is counted?
The profits involved are astonishingly large and far beyond the imagination of ordinary people.
IBM may be able to explain such pricing by using high R&D costs, but in Shirakawa Kaede's opinion, it is still a bit too high.
While ensuring profits, appropriately lowering selling prices will be more conducive to expanding market share.
If the pricing power of the optical drive was given to them, Shirakawa Feng suspected that IBM would be able to sell it for $1,000.
After all, compared to the floppy drive's $400, it's normal for the optical drive I'm attacking to be twice as expensive.
There will indeed be people who will pay $1,000, but how many people can afford it?
Therefore, Shirakawa Feng felt that it would be enough to keep the selling price similar to that of the floppy drive.
It is both profitable and has no worries about sales, and it also makes up for the shortcoming that current CDs cannot write data.
Seeing that Louis wanted to say something, Baichuan Feng signaled him to be patient.
" However, considering that the application platforms of optical drives are divided into mainframes and personal computers, our optical drives will also be designed specifically for this purpose.
For example, mainframes have higher security requirements, so we will design a series of insurance measures for optical drives.
For example, the optimization of shock-proof structure and data analysis will have additional chips to assist in the work.
Of course, due to the increase in design costs, the selling price will also increase.”
"Different versions of optical drives?" Louis' eyes lit up. "Mr. Shirakawa, can you explain it in detail?"
