Chapitre 938: Chapter 938: Tiangong Walkman
Unexpectedly, in the face of Xia Yu's question, Huo Jianning shook his head with a wry smile and said, 'Chairman, this is the Walkman we developed. The project has been in place for eleven months, and it is still an unqualified semi-finished product. It is still a long way from being launched.'
Fok Kin-ning had no intention of hiding it, either, and said he would directly call the project leader, named Lu Chao. Lu was an expert in the field of electronics that Fok Kin-ning had poached from the United States. Not only was he a PhD graduate, but he had also worked for General Electric before being poached.
As a yellow person, Lu Chao did not feel comfortable at General Electric, and the old General Electric company had a strong bureaucratic culture, so he was unable to completely focus on scientific research. When Tiangong Electronics Co., Ltd. in Xiangjiang threw him an olive branch, Lu Chao decisively jumped ship after understanding the situation and brought his family to Xiangjiang.
'Dr Lu, this is the chairman, Mr Xia Yuxia. Could you please tell him about the Walkman project?'
Lu Chao, in his forties, wears glasses and seems to be a bit naive. Even though he knows that Xia Yuxia is the chairman, he simply calls him 'chairman' and then picks up the semi-finished prototype to introduce it to Xia Yuxia.
'This Walkman is currently in the positioning and defining model stage. Its measurements are 80x115x29mm, it weighs 300g, it is powered by two dry batteries, has an operating time of 8 hours, a maximum output of 20mw+20mw, and a frequency response range of 40-12000Hz.'
'This is a comparison of our Walkman with the Sony TPS-L2 in terms of horizontal parameters. We are superior in every respect.'
Lu Chao said, and took out a comparison chart and handed it to Xia Yu.
Xia Yu took it and quickly looked at it.
The comparison chart was very concise and clear, with the parameters of the world's first portable player, the Sony TPS-L2, on the left, and the parameters of the portable player developed by Tiangong Electronics on the right.
The amount of optimisation was indicated above the arrow in each row in the middle.
The dimensions of the Sony TPS-L2 Walkman are 88x133.5x29mm, it weighs 390g, has a battery life of 8 hours, a maximum power of 15mw+15mw and a frequency response range of 40Hz-12000Hz.
Both are the same in terms of frequency response range and battery life. The former is the most suitable range today, while the latter is limited by battery technology and cannot be changed.
The most obvious changes are that the size has become smaller, the weight lighter, and the maximum power has increased significantly!
Xia Yu commented: 'Judging from the current parameters, it can stand its ground in the market, but the prerequisite is that the sound quality is good.'
Unexpectedly, upon hearing Xia Yu's somewhat complimentary words, Lu Chao shook his head and said, 'The sound quality is already not inferior to the Sony TPS-L2 Walkman, but it is only compared to this Sony Walkman. Our product still has many shortcomings, and I can feel that this is not the limit!'
'If we launch it on the market as it is now, we might just manage to sell a few, but we won't be able to give customers a sense of wonder.'
'The Sony TPS-L2 Walkman was launched on the market in July 1979, and it's been nineteen months since then. Sony must have already developed a second-generation product, and it's likely that it's already in production.'
'The most obvious criticisms of the Sony TPS-L2 Walkman are its size and weight. Sony will definitely have made improvements in these two areas. We have since been able to reduce the weight to 300g. There is no reason why Sony cannot do the same. I even suspect that the weight of Sony's second-generation product will be below 300g.'
'If we start mass production and launch the product now, there is a high probability that it will be beaten by Sony's second-generation product before it even gets off the ground.'
'So this product is only a half-finished product!'
Xia Yu nodded with a smile. Lu Chao's ability to have such demands and awareness made Xia Yu believe even more that he could develop an even better product.
After thinking for a moment, Xia Yu asked Lu Chao, 'Do you have a Sony TPS-L2 Walkman in the lab?'
Lu Chao replied, 'Yes!'
After saying that, he walked straight up to a cabinet, opened it, and took out a silver-coloured Sony TPS-L2 Walkman.
'Play the tape and compare the sound quality,'
Xia Yu commanded.
Lu Chao nodded, put in the batteries, put in the tape, pressed the start button, and handed the headphones to Xia Yu silently.
Xia Yu took the headphones, inserted them into his ears, and the melodious singing came through the headphones. Xia Yu closed his eyes and carefully felt the sound quality.
After listening to a few songs, Xia Yu did not comment, but pressed the various buttons to experience the functions, and then asked Lu Chao to play the tape on the self-developed portable player.
After a few songs, Xia Yu took off the headphones and commented: 'The sound quality seems to be better than the Sony TPS-L2 portable player. Is there some kind of technology used?'
Lu Chao nodded and said, 'Yes, our portable player uses Dolby B noise reduction technology, and we have put a lot of effort into the jitter rate, with a tracking accuracy of 0.05% WRMS.'
'However, correspondingly, these two technologies have made our costs very high.'
Xia Yu immediately said, 'It doesn't matter if the cost is high. With Sony so far ahead of us, we have to establish our brand even if we don't make any money, and it's most important that the product is good enough!'
'But now it seems to me that this product is really a failure, and there is still a lot of room for improvement!'
Lu Chao's eyes narrowed, but instead of getting angry, he calmed down and asked Xia Yu, 'Chairman, those in the know are confused, and those on the sidelines are clear. What do you think needs to be improved?'
Xia Yu was not polite and said directly, 'First of all, the appearance. Although the current appearance is obviously different from the Sony TPS-L2 Walkman, it is still not amazing enough. I will draw a random appearance for you to refer to.'
After saying this, Xia Yu found a blank piece of paper and a pen, thought for a moment, and then started to draw quickly on the paper.
After all, he had experienced the baptism of various electronic products in the future, and even an oblong iron box could be made fancy in terms of details.
In less than five minutes, a sketch of the appearance was completed. Even just by looking at the drawing, Fok Kin-ning and Lu Chao could sense a sense of exquisite visual perception.
The appearance of the Sony TPS-L2 Walkman is incomparable!
In later generations, the appearance of the Sony Walkman has always been discussed by consumers, and it has even been praised as 'the appearance of a time traveller's design'. This shows that the Sony Walkman has always led the trend in terms of design.
However, in the face of Xia Yu, a true time traveller, the appearance of the Sony Walkman is no match.
After putting down his pen, Xia Yu interrupted the discussion between Huo Jianning and Lu Chao and continued, 'I've drawn this shape, which can be used to make a shell. For comparison, the positions of the various function buttons can also be adjusted according to the situation. Next, I'll talk about the functions.'
'A cassette tape must be listened to from beginning to end, which is very inconvenient. Why not research a technology that allows our Walkman to automatically rewind the tape?'
'If the tape can be rewound automatically, then can we further research the repeat playback technology?'
'Just now I pressed each button, which required a certain amount of force and made a relatively loud noise, which is not very customer-friendly. We can develop a touch-sensitive button control system for this.'
'Also, the Walkman was originally developed on the basis of a radio, but now it has lost the FM radio function. We can add this function back in while controlling the weight and size, so that the Walkman will impact the radio market.'
'Speaking of radios, recording and playback are also radio functions, but the Sony TPS-L2 Walkman does not have these functions. We can also make our products have recording and playback functions.'
'And the most important sound quality, although Dolby B-level noise reduction technology is now used, since this technology can be licensed to us, Sony must also be able to use it. After using this technology, the sound quality has improved to a certain extent, but I think it can definitely be made even more delicate.'
'...'
Xia Yu listed the common functions of future portable players, all of which were common in the future, but when he said them now, they made Lu Chao's heart tremble wildly. He quickly took notes with a pen in his hand, afraid that he might miss something.
After he finished writing down everything, Lu Chao looked at Xia Yu expectantly, hoping that he would continue. 'Chairman, do you have any more advice?'
Xia Yu was a little between laughter and tears, and said, 'Dr. Lu, these are the only things I can think of for now, but if all of these are developed, do you think it will be enough to compete with Sony?'
Lu Chao immediately said, 'It will definitely be enough. As long as it can be done, it is not impossible to share the world with Sony or even surpass Sony!'
'Then that's it, you'd better develop all of these that I said as soon as possible.'
'By the way, Sony invented the Walkman, so are there any restrictions in terms of patents?'
Xia Yu asked with concern.
Lu Chao shook his head and said, 'Chairman, you're wrong. Sony didn't invent the Walkman, they just invented the Walkman brand. If you pay attention, you'll notice that Sony's own publicity materials only say that Sony invented the Walkman, and that term was also coined by Sony themselves.'
'In fact, the concept of the Walkman was proposed by Americans in the late 1950s, and the concept was "portable, integrated, battery-powered portable audio player".
'In 1964, Philips launched a portable cassette player!'
'And just last year, a German named Andrew Pawel sued Sony in court for infringing his concept patent for a personal wearable stereo product system, and negotiations are still ongoing between the two parties.'
'We can ignore him for now, but we can also secretly pay him a little money to buy his patent and prevent him from biting us like a mad dog.'
'As for the various basic technologies used in portable music players, they are already in common use worldwide and are basically used in portable cassette players.
'Even the word 'walkman', although invented by Sony, can be used by us because it is not a trademark and therefore does not meet the conditions for patent registration. Now the Japanese company Aiwa and Panasonic are also using the word 'walkman'.
'If you want to talk about patent restrictions, it can be argued that we can't use the word 'walkman' because it is a trademark, but the premise is that we have to use the technology developed by Sony. After listening to your advice just now, we have enough self-developed technology to use. Even if there is a slight conflict with the patent, we can obtain it through patent exchange.'
'So in terms of patents, there are no restrictions.'
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
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Power Stone 
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