Chapter 368: Never-ending Innovation
Just after the New Year of 1984, Shirakawa Kaede, like most people, started working in the Shirakawa Building on the first day after the holiday.
The first thing that needed to be solved in the new year was the development of the next generation CD player, which was one of Shirakawa Electric's main products and must be personally reviewed by him.
Hearing Shirakawa Kaede's question, Nakajima Heitaro straightened his posture slightly and said, "Based on the progress, there shouldn't be any problem in July or August."
The second generation CD player does not need to be redesigned. Its goal is to improve the shortcomings of the first generation CD player, so the time is not particularly urgent.
But when it comes to shortcomings, Baichuan Feng frowned slightly, "Brother Nakajima, please tell me the main problems we have collected from user feedback so far."
As a brand new type of music player, CD players always had various problems at the beginning.
This is true for Shirakawa Electric and Sony.
“The most common complaint about our CD players is their vibration resistance. If they are just standing still, there will be no disc skipping or freezing.
However, as long as you are in motion, such as fast walking, running, and jumping, there is a high probability that the CD will skip.
This greatly affects the user experience, and many people complain that portable CD players are far less convenient than they imagined.
At best, compared with a desktop CD player, it can be taken outdoors and serve as a mobile audio device.
However, the active speakers that go with it have received widespread acclaim from the public.”
To be honest, Nakajima Heitaro is not surprised that users have complaints about the earthquake resistance of his own CD player.
Of course, complaints aside, portable CDs still have great advantages over desktop computers due to their low price and real portability.
To put it bluntly, it all relies on the comparison with its peers. Even if it has some shortcomings, it still sells well.
In addition, Shirakawa Electric's stereo active speakers seem to be unexpectedly becoming a best-seller.
This small speaker does not require an amplifier and can be driven by even the lowest-end portable player. This is simply black technology for many music lovers.
Of course, the most important thing is that it is cheap. A single one costs less than 40,000 yen, and a pair can form a stereo system.
The stereo sound system, which cost less than 80,000 yen, instantly became a favorite among street youths.
Those street-stalkers with flamboyant personalities no longer need to carry half-person-high speakers to gather on the streets. A pair of small active speakers in a backpack can solve all the problems.
At the same time, compared with the standing audio system that costs hundreds of thousands of yen at home, active speakers are much cheaper and have become the choice of many middle-class families.
I can't afford the expensive ones, but an active speaker with a slightly weaker effect is still fine.
Therefore, the sales of active speakers, which were far lower than those of CD players when they were first released, have been catching up after two or three months.
I have to say this is indeed a pleasant surprise. The profit earned from a pair of active speakers worth more than 400,000 yuan is more than that from a CD player.
However, although speakers seem to have greater profits on the surface, Shirakawa Kaede always focuses on CD players.
He knows that this will be the mainstream of the future and that we cannot favor one over the other just because of temporary market feedback.
"The vibration resistance of the next generation of CD players must be improved. Even if we cannot eliminate the disc skipping phenomenon, we must reduce its frequency.
The solution to earthquake resistance can be focused on the optical head and the turntable, which are the main working mechanisms of the CD player. "
The so-called disc jumping is nothing more than the instability of the turntable caused by vibration, or the loss of information due to the shaking of the laser head.
It may not be possible to completely solve the problem with current technology, but it is still possible to reduce the impact of vibration.
"Turntable and bald head?" After hearing Shirakawa Kaede's reminder, Nakajima Heitaro seemed to be thinking about something.
As an expert in this field, he already had a few vague ideas in his head.
“First, consider it from a physical perspective, such as optimizing the turntable structure and strengthening its fit with the optical disc.
The same is true for bald heads, but they are more suitable for improvements in digital information.
In order to reduce the difficulty of implementation, give priority to the turntable.
Designing a caliper structure to reinforce the contact area between the disc and the transmission system can effectively reduce the resonance of the turntable system. "
As he spoke, Baichuan Feng had already taken out a piece of white paper and started writing and drawing. He studied science in his previous life and had some basic knowledge of mechanical structures.
At the same time, precision mechanical design has always been Shirakawa Electric's strength, and this tradition has been passed down from the Walkman a few years ago.
At this moment, everyone's eyes lit up after seeing the schematic diagram drawn by Shirakawa Kaede.
There are many things that people just didn't think of at first, but once they see their true face, they instantly understand the principles behind them.
"Yasuda, this mission is left to you."
"Haiyi, this turntable system will be put into production smoothly before July."
Shirakawa Kaede has probably given the direction, and as a mechanical design expert, Yasuda already has a specific design idea in mind.
"In addition to the vibration resistance issue, we also need to further optimize our portable CD player in terms of miniaturization."
Shirakawa Electric's current CD players also have an additional power supply box. Although this is a great improvement over desktop CD players, not many users complain about it.
But that does not mean that Shirakawa Electric is satisfied with the status quo and stands still.
"Everyone, this is Shirakawa Energy's latest achievement, the chewing gum battery."
Shirakawa Feng took out a flat, long battery from the storage box handed to him by his assistant .
"Eh" everyone present showed surprised expressions.
Shirakawa Feng passed the chewing gum battery around and let them observe it carefully.
"This new type of battery went through tens of millions of formula screenings before finally reaching its current 1350mAh capacity."
"1350mAh?!" Everyone exclaimed subconsciously.
"That's right," Bai Chuanfeng nodded affirmatively, "It will be the dedicated battery that we will promote for future electronic products."
The capacity of the No. 2 battery used in current portable CD players is about 2000mAh.
It seems like the gumball battery is a long way off, but the AA battery is too big.
The reason why the first generation of portable CD players were made into split structures was because a few No. 2 batteries could not be stuffed into the small CD player.
Now with gum batteries, the truly integrated design of the CD player is no longer an obstacle.
"For the next generation of portable CD players, we will get rid of the battery box. Four pieces of gum laid flat on the bottom of the CD player can completely replace the battery box."
Shirakawa Feng held the gum battery and gestured at the bottom of the CD player, and everyone's eyes lit up.
With a thickness of less than two centimeters, it is really a piece of cake for a CD player.
"At the same time, chewing gum batteries can also be used in Walkmans. We have done tests and found that a single chewing gum battery can keep a Walkman working for more than two hours."
I have to say that although it is the first generation of chewing gum battery, Shirakawa Kaede is very satisfied with its performance.
It not only solves the battery life problem of the Walkman, but also solves the miniaturization problem of portable CD players.
"If this is the case, perhaps we can completely abandon the traditional AA battery design for future products."
Yasuda is very clear about the advantages of this new type of battery, and it is not impossible that it will replace the common No. 5 and No. 7 batteries in electronic products in the future.
"There's no need to be so radical." Baichuan Feng never thought that his own chewing gum battery could replace the international standard.
"We can prepare for both situations and make the battery compartment of the Walkman into a detachable module.
There are dedicated battery compartments for AA batteries and gum batteries, and you can easily switch between battery types by simply snapping them on. "
He had already thought about this aspect, and he took out a small rectangular box.
"Similar to this design, we provide a free box for gum batteries in the accessories of the new Walkman, but the box for No. 5 batteries needs to be purchased separately.
Of course, I believe that after users experience the long battery life of the chewing gum battery, it will be difficult for them to reject its existence.
After the public's usage habits are cultivated, we can consider the integrated design of chewing gum and battery in the future."
Shirakawa Kaede has always preferred a gradual approach to market promotion. If it is too radical, it is easy to receive complaints from users.
Everyone present was also impressed by the compact battery compartment design, which is truly full of creativity.
"In the same way, the portable CD player will retain the interface of the original battery box. Users can freely change the power supply method according to their choice."
Shirakawa Kaede wants to vigorously promote the use of chewing gum batteries, but is also worried about user acceptance.
Therefore, in the way of large-scale promotion, this relatively compromising design method was adopted.
Everyone nodded in agreement, after all, many Japanese are very stubborn.
Just look at how in the era of smart phones, people are still using flip phones in large numbers.
The stubbornness of the Japanese is like going backwards in history.
"By the way, what is the service life of our chewing gum batteries?" Nakajima Heitaro is more concerned about the durability of the new batteries.
"It's no problem to charge and discharge 500 times. After the Walkman is launched, we will put chewing gum batteries in vending machines.
Several companies in this area are in talks, and if nothing unexpected happens, there shouldn’t be any problems.”
Using Shirakawa Electric's products to promote chewing gum batteries is one way. Of course, in order to make it easier for users to buy, vending machines are also a powerful tool for promotion.
Shirakawa Feng even wanted to meet with Sony and Panasonic.
Instead of going it alone, it is better to bring these two giants together, so as to accelerate the development of Shirakawa Energy.
But there is no rush for this matter. It is best to wait until Shirakawa Electric's chewing gum batteries have been sold for a while.
"In addition to the improvement of portable CD players and the use of gum batteries, this year we will also launch our own desktop CD player."
After saying that, Shirakawa Kaede looked at Nakajima Heitaro and said, "Brother, I still need your attention in this area."
"No problem." He took on the task without hesitation.
Although Sony has launched a desktop CD player, its sales have not exceeded Shirakawa Electric's portable CD player.
However, in order to enrich its product line, Shirakawa Electric also plans to launch its own desktop computers.
It exists as a high-end product among CD players. For some music lovers, the sound quality of a desktop computer is indeed better than that of a portable CD player.
And because of the high selling price, its profit is also very considerable.
In addition, as a high-end product among CD players, if you don’t occupy it, others will.
Therefore, Shirakawa Electric never intended to give up on desktop computers.
"Considering the difficulty, the portable CD player was launched in July and the desktop one in October.
But in addition to these two CD players, we are also going to develop a third CD player."
"The third type of CD player?" Everyone present was surprised. They had never thought that there was a so-called third type of CD player.
