Steve Qiaobusi looked at the gadget in front of him. Such a little guy could play wonderful music. He had to admit that the technical research and development personnel of aiwa company were really geniuses.
But he also found some shortcomings of this MP3, such as the screen is too small and can only display two lines of lyrics, there is no built-in battery, which consumes a lot of battery, there are many function keys on the outside, and the appearance is messy, etc.
If he were to do it, he would design the mp3 into a flat shape half the size of a palm, the screen must be large, the function keys could be designed in a ring shape, simplify it as much as possible, increase the storage capacity, and make the body lighter etc.
He called his subordinates over and told them his thoughts.
The Fruit Company is also going to make this MP3, but we won’t call it this name, as it will be suspected of following the trend. All our products must be known to people as being from our Fruit Company. Well, they can be called iPod, and we will use the naming of our IMAC. Way.
If the storage capacity is large, then it is not cost-effective to use flash memory technology. The cost is too high. You can use hard disks as storage, which can increase the storage capacity several times, increase the selling price, and increase profits.
And iPod can also be used as a portable mobile storage device with larger capacity, which is definitely more popular.
There is currently a huge demand for portable mobile storage devices in the market. Traditional floppy disks have been gradually eliminated. Nowadays, mainstream computers no longer produce hosts with floppy drives, but instead use optical drives, all of which are DVD drives.
This DVD drive mainly adopts the Fengyu Philips standard. We generally obtain patent authorizations from these two companies, among which Fengyu Electronics has more patents.
As a result, optical discs became the mainstream mobile storage tool, and floppy disks basically disappeared. But optical discs have a big disadvantage, that is, they are easily scratched.
Even more fragile than a floppy disk. Some have few scratches and the data cannot be read. Although technology continues to advance and error correction capabilities continue to increase, data loss will still occur in areas that are actually scratched.
As a result, everyone's demand for mobile storage tools has become greater, and mobile hard drives have emerged as the times require. Connect the mobile hard disk to the computer through a USB data cable. After driving, it can be used.
However, this product also has a big disadvantage, that is, once the power is cut off, the data will be lost or damaged. Moreover, the mobile hard drive is also fragile. Sometimes if it is dropped a little hard, it may seem like nothing is wrong, but it is no longer usable.
At this time, flash memory technology also emerged as the times require. It is not afraid of power outages and is not easily damaged. Its cost is much cheaper than mobile hard drives. Of course, the storage capacity will be much smaller.
At this time, a storage tool called a USB flash drive appeared on the market. It was small, only slightly larger than a thumb, and extremely easy to carry.
However, the previous capacities were not large, only 128m and 256m. Because they were too small, not many people bought them. But when I saw that aiwa company's mp3 also used flash memory as storage and had developed to 512m, many people also noticed this product.
Many companies in Japan, South Korea, Nanyang, the United States, etc. have begun to study this product and strive to make it the best, hoping to use it to replace other mobile storage devices.
With the popularization of computers, inter-company offices are becoming more and more computerized, and it is obviously more convenient to use this kind of mobile storage device to transfer various files.
Of course optical disks are also possible, but optical disks can only be written once. The price of mobile hard disks is too high. This kind of USB disk is the most suitable and very convenient.
The fruit company once wanted to study this technology, but found that this technology was patented by a company called **Hua Electronics.
If they want to study USB flash drives, they cannot get around Aihua Electronics' patent barriers for the time being, and they have to pay the other party patent royalties. They originally sent someone to contact them, but the result made them very dissatisfied.
Twenty million dollars, permanent license, why don’t they grab it? The research and development expenses for this patent, even two million US dollars, may not even be used.
There are also many companies that have successfully researched this technology, but found that the patent has been registered. They couldn't afford a patent license either, so they gave up.
However, there are also some companies that insist that their technology is different from Aihua Electronics' patents, such as Dongzhi Company, which invented SM card technology, Sandi Company, which invented CF card, and Sini Company, which invented memory stick, etc. Wait, they have also launched USB flash drives, or products similar to USB flash drives. After all, the name USB flash drives has been patented.
At first, some people thought that flash memory technology was useless, expensive, and technically complex. Even after the USB disk came out, many people thought it was just a short-lived technology with limited application prospects.
But when MP3 became popular among consumers, those companies finally discovered that this flash memory technology turned out to be so easy to use.
Unfortunately, some small companies were technically unable to circumvent patent barriers, so they came up with the same idea as the fruit companies, which was to study MP3 with built-in hard drives and specialize in the selling point of large-capacity storage. ,
But at this time, Feng Yu insisted that aiwa company should not study hard disk MP3, but just make flash memory MP3. At this time, hadn't Aihua Electronics successfully researched a 1GB USB flash drive? Then they would find a way to apply this to MP3 and expand the MP3 LCD screen. Moreover, Feng Yu would also design the appearance of the previous iPod and let Fengyu Design come up with it. , handed over to Hajime Yagyu.
The idea of one-hand operation really added a lot of points to the iPod. Even at that time, the iPod had many shortcomings such as high price, poor sound quality, and intermittent use time, but it still became the favorite electronic product of many young people and will continue to be used in the future. , bringing extremely huge profits to the fruit company.
At the same time, Feng Yu also asked aiwa to study the direct recording function, which is to record CD songs directly through a cable into MP3 format. This eliminates the need for MP3 to rely on a computer and can be recorded anytime and anywhere. Convert cd songs to mp3 format.
However, this feature made Yagyu Hajime frown. After this feature is launched, the Recording Industry Association of America will definitely take it to court. They will definitely believe that this infringes on intellectual property rights.
But no matter what, this is just a functional application. As for how the other party uses it, they don't need to care. Someone bought a genuine CD, why can't it be converted to mp3 format? As long as it's not spread, it's not considered infringement, right
At the end of the development of MP3, it will definitely transform into MP4. By then, color screen technology should have matured, and by then, aiwa company will definitely continue to lead the development direction of the industry.
Truly accomplished: always imitated, never surpassed!
(End of chapter)