Reborn since 1993

Chapter 644 Testing the Waters
In recent years, Dongling Hi-Tech has been supporting its own auto parts industry chain. As long as it is within Dongling Hi-Tech's auto parts industry chain and can be produced by itself, it will not be purchased from outside.

Some components, such as chips, memory cards, and screens, may not be as technologically advanced as those of other overseas brands, or may cost more than others.

However, as long as the product quality is qualified, the technology is up to standard and does not affect the use, Dongling Hi-Tech will purchase it from companies in its own parts industry chain.

Companies like BYD, BOE, Hanxi New Materials, Chuanrong Electronics, Dongxin Semiconductor, Oriental Optoelectronics, Shenzhou Storage, etc., currently there are more than 150 parts suppliers in China that have entered the Dongling Hi-Tech parts industry chain.

There are more than 30 companies overseas that provide parts and components to Dongling Hi-Tech. This is completely different from manufacturers such as Lianxiang, which place major parts orders with foreign manufacturers and only purchase some insignificant parts from domestic companies.

Any domestic company that can enter the Dongling Hi-Tech parts industry chain will see a surge in performance.

Anyway, in recent years, among the companies that have joined the Dongling Hi-Tech parts industry chain, some have complained about not being able to complete orders, but none have complained about not being able to get orders.

Of course, the prerequisite is that their parts must be cross-checked by Dongling Hi-Tech’s logistics and production departments before they can be ordered and purchased.

Compared with those overseas companies, these parts companies supported by Dongling Hi-Tech are naturally more cooperative with Dongling Hi-Tech and will not cause any trouble.

With the control over the spare parts industry chain, Dongling Hi-Tech's quality and cost control are even easier to control!
For R&D personnel like Zhang Bing, the cooperation of parts companies allows them to get twice the result with half the effort. When there is a demand for a certain part, the other party will put his requirements first, mobilize engineers overnight to come up with a solution, and then make samples as quickly as possible and send them to him.

To be honest, Zhang Bing had never seen or even heard of such treatment in all his years at Xerox.

In other words, as long as it is official business, Zhang Bing, as the chief engineer of a new product of Dongling Hi-Tech, has the internal resources, funds, technical personnel, and parts industry chain suppliers of Dongling Hi-Tech at his disposal. This kind of power is almost unimaginable treatment for a technical engineer, and it is also the ceiling treatment that engineers dream of!
After entering the technical department of Dongling Hi-Tech, Zhang Bing finally understood why the technical talents who graduated from Hanxi Jiaotong University in recent years did not want to go abroad but instead went to Dongling Hi-Tech.

Many overseas talents have also been recruited by Dongling Hi-Tech. Dongling Hi-Tech's attitude towards engineers is rare among those giant companies.

Dongling Hi-Tech provides not only salary and benefits to technical personnel like Zhang Bing, but also maximum emotional value. Which engineer can refuse? All the people in the project revolve around him, and all component companies will cooperate as long as he proposes a solution. This kind of "power of life and death" is what all technical engineers dream of!

Seeing Li Dongling put a tape into the repeater, Zhang Bing said, "Our repeater is currently the most advanced on the market!

In addition to the most basic repeat function, there are also digital display screens, fast forward, and speed-changing functions. Currently, it can achieve 0.2 times slow playback or 2 times fast playback! "

The concept of repeaters began to appear a few years ago, but it was not mature. There were other companies on the market that were also developing them, but they were basically small-scale and had not become mainstream electronic products.

As for technology, it is completely different from the new palm-sized repeater developed by Dongling High-Tech Department!

Don't take bean buns as dry food. Compared with overseas giants such as HP, Dell, and IBM, Dongling Hi-Tech's technical research and development capabilities are still weak, but that is relative. In China, Dongling Hi-Tech's research and development capabilities, scale of technical personnel, and funding investment all beat a large number of domestic technology companies.

"What is the current cost of this handheld repeater?" Li Dongling asked.

“About 240 yuan!”

Chen Tao said, "In the early stage, due to production capacity and technology, the cost will be relatively high. In the later stage, when production capacity increases and technology matures, the cost should be able to be reduced to around 150 yuan!"

After listening to this, Li Dongling looked at the metal repeater in his hand and asked, "What is the current price of the Sony Walkman?"

"A Sony Walkman with an ordinary plastic shell costs around 700 yuan, while a high-end model with a metal shell costs more than 1500 yuan!" said Chen Tao as he took over a piece of information.

The handheld repeater launched by Dongling Hi-Tech was initially benchmarked against something. It was not a repeater, but a Sony Walkman!
When Li Dongling gave Chen Tao the blueprint, it was for a handheld mini repeater, the style of which was even more trendy than the Sony Walkman.

The biggest reason for the rise of repeaters in China was that the Yenching Education Committee announced that English would begin listening comprehension tests, which directly ignited the repeater market. As long as there was a child in school, almost every household bought this thing, and 10 to 20 million units were sold every year.

However, it will take about a year and a half for the Yanjing Education Commission to implement the new rules, and the news will not be released until the second half of next year.

Before this, if Dongling Hi-Tech's repeater wanted to occupy the market, wait for the opportunity to come, and then eat the fattest piece of meat, it had to find another way.

Just like electronic dictionaries, selling repeaters to people who need to learn English or study abroad is one channel, but what about changing your thinking and selling repeaters as portable player?
It’s not that I can’t afford the Sony Walkman, but the handheld repeater is more cost-effective!
Even in the past, a big part of the reason why repeaters were so popular was probably that people who bought them regarded them as substitutes for walkmans!
When mobile phones did not have music functions and MP3s had not yet appeared, electronic entertainment products were quite scarce.

Previously, Feiyan Technology launched a mini radio, and why it sold so many units was because many people regarded the broadcasting of the mini radio as an entertainment activity. Dongling Hi-Tech launched a handheld repeater to grab the market first and occupy the entertainment attribute market of repeaters. When the Yanjing Education Committee changed the English test rules, the biggest piece of meat in the repeater market basically went to Dongling Hi-Tech.

As for whether the Sony Walkman is difficult or not, that is none of Dongling Hi-Tech’s business. After all, what Dongling Hi-Tech is going to launch is a learning product, and it does not intend to compete with the Sony Walkman!

"This handheld repeater is priced at 599 yuan!"

Li Dongling said directly that this price has a price advantage compared to other brands of portable players on the market.

The domestic portable player market is currently the backyard of Japanese products. Portable players from brands such as Sony, Panasonic, Aiwa, and Sharp are selling well in China, while there are almost no local brands.

Because the patents, production lines and technologies of the Walkman are all in the hands of Nippon Benz, and given Nippon Benz's style of preferring to have its own share, how could it allow other companies to grab a piece of the pie?

"The sound quality, analysis, audio restoration, noise, headphone adaptation, battery durability and other technologies of handheld repeaters need to be improved!"

Li Dongling said to Zhang Bing that, in addition to reaping a wave of profits from the launch of the repeater, the most important thing was to reserve audio technology in order to prepare for the launch of Dongling Hi-Tech's self-produced MP3.

If you follow others, you will always only be able to pick up leftovers, especially if you are on the same track with Nippon Benz. It will be really difficult to surpass the other party if you just follow behind them.

Whenever Nippon Benz Company entered a certain industry, it would occupy all the technology, patents, and key components in that industry, leaving no chance for latecomers to survive.

Whether it is a Walkman, VCD, DVD, plasma TV or hydrogen-powered car, Nippon Benz has always adopted this style. Even if there are latecomers entering the market, all the money earned will be paid as patent fees to Nippon Benz.

The Walkman and CD player have already been occupied by Nippon Benz. It is impossible for latecomers to catch up. Only cross-border development can kill the Walkman!

Zhang Bing hesitated for a moment. To be honest, due to different product positioning, the machines developed are very different.

Although they are reluctant to admit it, Sony's Walkman, including CD players and the MD launched two years ago, have really reached the pinnacle in the field of music players. It is difficult for other products to surpass Sony's achievements in this regard.

"I see!"

Seeing Chen Tao's look at him, Zhang Bing nodded in response.

Zhang Bing didn't understand, but Chen Tao knew Li Dongling's style. Whatever Li Dongling told him to do was never without purpose.

Li Dongling asked the Innovation Laboratory to reserve audio technology, so there must be follow-up plans. Chen Tao is already familiar with this aspect.

Li Dongling saw what Chen Tao and Zhang Bing did, but did not say much. It was enough for the technical department to just do what he instructed.

"Have you made a prototype of the digital video recorder for stargazing?"

Li Dongling asked. Li Dongling came here today mainly for this machine.

The day for Feiyan Technology to be listed on NASDAQ is coming soon, and Li Dongling will go to America with Yao Luoying and others.

Li Dongling also needs to bring the Stargazing digital video recorder back to have Microsoft take a look at it, and then put it into production to test its sales in America.

As part of the cooperation with Microsoft, Microsoft systems support Doxin Semiconductor's chips, and Dongling Hi-Tech will cooperate with Microsoft on hardware projects.

It includes a number of products including stargazing digital video recorders, Internet set-top boxes, game consoles, computers, etc., and the stargazing digital video recorder is a test product.

If this product sells well, Microsoft will increase its investment. Otherwise, Microsoft will not rashly invest tens or hundreds of billions of dollars.

If you want to get dollars from Microsoft, you have to prove something. Microsoft is not a good person. If Dongling Hi-Tech can't help Microsoft with hardware, Microsoft will probably turn against it faster than turning the pages of a book!

(End of this chapter)