If the cumulative shipments of the three main electronic products exceed 90 million, then the most interesting point is that Tinco Bayer’s product with the most shipments is not any one of iCam, iPlayer or iRec. But with the popularity of USB interfaces and the continuous increase in flash memory chip capacity, the price continues to fall, a peripheral product, iDisk.
This U disk product, which has a very simple principle in space and time, was the first to win the patent among all manufacturers. In 1996, its cumulative shipments reached an astonishing 63.7 million units.
This is very similar to the Airpods wireless headphones that Apple later quietly sold and made a fortune of more than 10 billion US dollars a year.
Even if the average price dropped to less than 30 US dollars, the iDisk series brought more than 1 billion US dollars in revenue to Tinker Bayer in 1996.
In addition, the iVid, a desktop camera peripheral launched by Tink Bayer last fall, quickly exceeded 10 million in shipments, reaching 13.6 million in just half a year.
Also interesting is the iLink adapter for adapting to older PCs without USB interfaces.
Because of the open sharing of USB interface patents, there is no monopoly on this peripheral. Countless manufacturers are producing it and it can be found all over the street. Tinker Bayer still sold 27.6 million units.
Taken together, even if you don’t count the purchase of the broken ship at the end of last year, Apple still has a revenue of nearly 10 billion U.S. dollars. Tinker Bayer’s full-year revenue in 1996 also reached 29.3 billion U.S. dollars, compared with 12.6 billion U.S. dollars in 1995. Revenue surged by 132% again year-on-year, and it is only one step away from becoming another US$30 billion revenue giant in the Westeros system.
At the same time, Tinker Bayer's net profit in 1996 also reached US$3.5 billion.
Although it cannot be compared with Daenerys Entertainment's annual net profit of more than 5 billion US dollars, it also entered the top ten ranks of U.S. corporate profits in 1996. Moreover, this is because Tinker Bayer is still in the early stages of business development and requires large investments. The premise. Otherwise, just relying on the increasing gross profit margin of iCam and iPlayer as the average price of electronic accessories is getting lower and lower, Tinker Bayer can easily achieve a net profit margin of more than 15%.
Looking at the revenue and profit histograms of Tinker Bayer on the big screen in the past three years, which were like an upward roller coaster, thousands of guests at the Eaglet Employee Activity Center felt a sense of unreality at certain moments. .
There's some delusion that Tinkerber should be the most valuable company in Westeros.
Because even though every product under Tinco Bayer is not considered a monopoly, it gives people a sense of bestseller that makes consumers flock to it.
This is probably the brand effect.
And until now, what people have almost overlooked is that this company has only been established for five years.
After some onlookers thought about it, they realized again that Tinker Bayer's miracle was, to be precise, making a series of correct products at just the right time. The right time is the rapid rise of the Internet industry. The right products are the hardware peripherals that are urgently needed by the Internet industry.
This is clear just after looking at the performance review on the stage. As guests, a series of website managers then re-recommended Instgram, YouTube and other websites that Tinco Bayer works closely with, as well as their own online sales platform Broadcast.
Although the core of Tinker Bayer is electronic products, this company can basically be positioned as an Internet company in the new technology category.
Perhaps, many competitors have ignored or weakened this gene of Tinco Bayer? As a result, their own similar products cannot compete with Tinco Bayer? Just like Sony? Whether it is a consumer-grade digital camera or a digital music player, It has been launched, but it has not caused too many waves.
Because Sony still adheres to the concept of an old electronics manufacturer and has not taken much initiative to embrace the Internet. In fact, because the interests of its own record companies have been severely impacted by Internet piracy, it has also shown an attitude of obvious resistance to the arrival of the Internet era.
Failure is inevitable.
on the stage.
As a website promotion in the early stage of the conference? The climax is probably the introduction to the video live broadcast website Twitch.
Is this a live video website jointly incubated by Igret and Tinker Bayer? Born out of the live broadcast function of YouTube? Launched together with the launch of the iVid camera product last fall? The name Simon directly refers to the European and American popularity in my memory. Live streaming website.
Different from the video live broadcast website model that gradually became routine, Simon did not interfere too much except for the name. Therefore, Twitch, which has been online for half a year, is still in the exploratory stage. The current operating idea is 'Everyone on line', everyone can Online? And it still takes interactive social networking as the core? It focuses on everyone being able to show themselves.
Of course, due to the current limited network bandwidth resources, there are still barriers to Twitch's live broadcast.
There is no charge.
It's similar to YouTube's original limited duration model.
In addition to Internet celebrities such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and other cooperative platforms who can obtain unlimited time rights after application, ordinary users only have one hour of live broadcast time per week. Can they want more? There is no charge. They just need to make a reservation in line. , usually the anchor with a higher live broadcast history has a higher chance of successful reservation.
Although this model greatly affects the user experience, under the current network environment, it is helpless, otherwise it will be too expensive.
Even if the two giants could afford it, Simon would not allow the management to do so.
If Twitch wants to operate for a long time, restrictive opening up in the short term is actually the most sustainable solution. After the launch of Twitch, other companies launched threshold-free live streaming platforms, but it is conceivable that similar platforms will never survive the upcoming bursting of the Internet bubble.
Moreover, things that are not easy to obtain are always cherished more, and opening them up with restrictions creates a hunger marketing effect.
At this press conference, dozens of celebrities from various fields greeted the audience through Twitch, once again allowing everyone to feel the charm of the information age.
Afterwards, Lady C came on stage again and the main meal started.
The core three-piece set.
The new generation of iCam, iPlayer and iRec.
To the disappointment of many naysayers, this update still has many bright spots.
First, iCam digital cameras fully enable flash memory storage mode. Compared with microhard drives, flash memory has well-known high-speed and stable performance. The only disadvantage is probably capacity. To remedy this, Tinker Bayer has introduced the plug-and-play iCard flash memory card.
Similar to the SD card of the past.
The original SD card was not jointly launched by several major electronics manufacturers until 1999. This time, Tinker Bayer was once again one step ahead.
Secondly, all three electronic products are equipped with rechargeable lithium batteries as standard.
Prior to this, due to cost and technology limitations, products such as iCam still used traditional disposable dry batteries.
Simon took over IBM's battery department two years ago and began to bypass some detours and directly invest in the research and development of lithium batteries.
However, one thing that has to be admitted is that currently the best lithium battery manufacturers are Japanese manufacturers.
Therefore, Tinker Bayer adopted a multi-supplier strategy for lithium battery procurement this time. Several Japanese manufacturers such as Toshiba and Hitachi shared orders with Rectery, a company spun off from IBM, and also made certain exchanges. The Japanese manufacturers wanted To enter the Tinco Bayer supply chain, certain patent authorizations must be provided to Recttery.
The total shipment volume of the core three-piece set this year is certain to exceed 100 million. No manufacturer can ignore such a huge order. Therefore, Rectery easily obtained a batch of the most advanced lithium battery technology.
Just as the launch of iDisk has driven the development of flash memory into the fast lane, Tinco Bayer's three-piece set uses rechargeable batteries. There is no doubt that the development of related technologies will also enter the fast lane. In the next few years, the performance of lithium batteries will be rapidly improved. .
As for the current stage, due to capacity limitations, the supporting batteries of the three products are still replaceable.
On the other hand, Tinker Bayer certainly would not miss this opportunity and raised the slogan of 'environmental protection', winning overwhelming applause from the press conference.
The last highlight is the price.
In addition to the iRec's starting price of US$799 remaining unchanged, the starting price of iCam and iPlayer has been significantly reduced from US$499 in previous years to US$399. Without any prior news, the price reductions of iCam and iPlayer across the board made the news both inside and outside the conference There was an uproar.
Sniper!
This is the first thought that many people in the industry have after reacting.
In 1996, iCam and iPlayer still maintained their absolute dominance in global market share, with iCam’s market share reaching 63% and iPlayer’s market share reaching as high as 86%. However, due to the technology of the two products, The threshold is not high, and even the patent barriers established by first-mover advantages are not unbreakable. Therefore, in recent years, various similar products have appeared on the market, posing more or less threats to Tinco Bayer.
As a result, the increasingly high starting price of $499 for iCam and iPlayer has inevitably become a key reason for user churn.
You know, in the early 1990s, personal computers cost two to three thousand US dollars. Now the low-end products have dropped to less than 500 US dollars. With the development of the entire industry chain driving the overall cost to continue to decline, if iCam and iPlayer continue to maintain 499 US dollars, The high price of US dollars is destined to continue to lose users.
However, taking the initiative to lower prices is never easy. This will involve all aspects such as brand value, product positioning, supply and procurement, etc. Not to mention that a company like Tinco Bayer, whose products have a large number of loyal user groups and has an absolute advantage in market share, would take the initiative to give up profits. It is even more difficult to imagine.
Therefore, in the past two years, there has been a lot of media discussion about whether Tinker Bayer will use a price reduction strategy to snipe potential opponents, but it is basically difficult to make too much waves.
No one expected that Tinker Bayer would suddenly attack this time.
The prices of two of the three core products have dropped by 25%, and Tinco Bayer can still retain a considerable gross profit. However, it is a disaster for other manufacturers that have used price advantages to encroach on the market in the past.
The starting price of $399 is still high-end compared to many similar products priced at $299 or even $199. However, the narrowing of the pricing range will inevitably change the consumption mentality of users, thereby greatly squeezing the living space of competing manufacturers.
Compared with the previous price difference of US$200, if the difference is only US$100, considering Tinco Bayer's advantages in brand value, after-sales guarantee, etc., why not
Just like every time Chinese mobile phone manufacturers tried to make high-end products later, once the price got closer to Apple, it would inevitably lead to an argument: Why not buy Apple
Why this reaction
There is so much to think about in it.
Today's Tinker Bayer, as for iCam, iPlayer, and even iRec, etc., have unknowingly formed a brand advantage similar to that of Apple's later mobile phones.
After the core three-piece set, there was another buffer, where executives from some partner software or game manufacturers took the stage to promote their own products.
However, the reporters in the audience had no intention of caring about this. Many people had already started writing press releases about the core three-piece set with laptops in hand. The most important thing was undoubtedly the changes that this big price reduction would bring to related industries. .
After about 15 minutes of software and game product promotion, Tinkerber planned to launch iWorld terminals in various places for users of its products to download music, share pictures and upload videos anytime and anywhere.
Another highlight.
Neil Brantley, the president of Tinco Bayer who is responsible for the introduction of this product, once again broadcast live through Twitch and unveiled the first batch of iWorld launch locations in major cities in North America. Users can go directly to try it out.
Finally, a well-known and highly anticipated product is here.
Girl C took the stage again and officially unveiled the mystery of iMac-10 to the public.
iOS-10 operating system;
Intel Pentium series processor;
1024*768 high-resolution CRT screen;
Software mall integrated into the desktop;
And, compared to the current mainstream split desktops, the biggest design improvement is the integrated body.
With Simon's personal intervention and repeated deliberation, the Tinkerber team finally chose the design of the first-generation iMac.
Not because I like it.
Frankly speaking, Simon really dislikes the original iMac, which he remembers as a lump of jelly dropped on the floor.
Mainly because it's unique enough.
Simon talked about this with Girl C last time he came to San Francisco.
In a mature enough product field, if you follow the footsteps of others, it is destined to be difficult to succeed. If you want to break the game, you can only make enough changes.
The iMac-10, which is similar to the previous iMac, conforms to this concept.
iOS-10 based on Linux is an internal change, and the external design, integrated into an integrated body, is the most deviant change. Coupled with the colorful casing that is very different from the current mainstream black and white fuselage, even if it looks ugly at first, as long as you see it a hundred times, just like shouting a weird name a hundred times, you will become accustomed to it, and even be repeatedly marketed in the media. Under brainwashing, in turn, you will feel pretty.
Of course, Simon didn't copy it exactly.
On the basis of still having a variety of optional colored casings, Simon chose opaque plastic material this time, because the previous transparent body of iMac really gave people a very cheap feeling.
The last thing is pricing.
Unlike last year's iRec-10, which was eager to open up the market and priced lower than outside expectations, both Simon and the Tinker Bayer team knew that the iMac-10 could not pose a threat to Windows, so they directly targeted niche, The high-end, professional product line starts at $1,299.
Just like the price reduction of iCam and iPlayer, the high price of iMac-10 has once again become a hot topic of discussion at this conference.
Because the price of the cheapest basic Pentium processor personal computer has dropped to about US$500 at this stage. Even if the iMac-10 has sufficient materials in terms of hard drive, graphics card, screen, etc., the price has more than doubled, and it is still too expensive. Some.
Even if Tinker Bayer has a large number of loyal users, even if the official claims that iMac-10 has a more perfect fit with iCam and other products, users will still want to try a new operating system, and the appearance may not be so perfect. Design, do you accept such a high price