Rebirth Tokyo 1986

Chapter 253 Xinghai II

"it's beautiful!"

Masato Takeshita looked at his new mobile phone with a fascinated look.

"Yeah, so beautiful."

Lou Gerstner now has to admit that Xinghai mobile phones have surpassed Motorola, the king of analog signals.

This kind of transcendence is not so much about technology, but more about concepts.

Because the second-generation Xinghai mobile phone is close to the ultimate appearance of future bar-type mobile phones.

Not only does it have a display screen that takes up more than one-third of the phone's area, it also has a mobile operating system installed.

It has caller ID, a calculator, the ability to save phone numbers, check time, and most importantly, send text messages.

The young man was playing with his new phone and asked casually, "How many colors are there now?"

The head of the mobile phone R&D department, Tomoji Yokoko, responded confidently, "Currently, it is available in black, white, red and blue. It is definitely the mobile phone with the most colors on the market."

"Very good. Thank you for your hard work, Minister Yokogu."

"No, this is all thanks to the president's suggestion at the last meeting. We just developed it."

Yokogura Tomoji felt a little embarrassed because many of the phone's functions were thought up under the guidance of his own president.

In particular, the most important and interesting mobile phone text messaging function was simply the product of the president's direct request.

Yes, Xinghai Semiconductor's mobile phone division has already witnessed the power of mobile phone text messaging.

When testing their phones, employees loved communicating via text messages.

Female employees, in particular, are avid fans of text messages.

If I don’t post for a while, I always feel like something is missing.

Gerstner then happily interjected, "It's all the same, all the same."

"Whether it's the president who came up with the idea, or Yokoko-san and Sakamura-san who realized the function, they are all great contributors to the new phone."

Masato Takeshita also laughed, shook his head and said, "Grossner-san, did you forget to mention yourself and Fukuoka-san?"

As the president of Star Ocean Semiconductor, Lou Gerstner naturally contributed to the successful development of the new mobile phone.

Tomioka Tetsu was also in charge of production and also proposed a lot of suggestions for revisions.

Only with him can the mass production of new mobile phones be achieved.

It can be said that everyone has made their own contributions in some aspects.

"Well, the president is right, we are all heroes."

Lou Gerstner didn't care and agreed happily.

After briefly experiencing the various functions of the new phone, Masato Takeshita looked at Ken Sakamura.

"Sakamura-san, how many phone numbers can be stored in your phone now?"

"The upper limit is 300. If there are more, the system will not be able to support it."

"Can it be increased?"

“It’s difficult in a short period of time. It takes some time.”

Mobile operating systems are still very new, so their functions are relatively simple.

If you want to store more phone numbers, you need to modify the underlying logic of the system.

It's not difficult, just quite time-consuming.

"That's it."

The young man nodded and continued asking questions while sending a text message test.

"So, can you add an alarm function to your phone?"

The alarm function is also a very practical basic function on mobile phones.

It can even be said that its practicality is second only to the clock function.

Even in the era of smartphones, many people cannot live without mobile alarm clocks.

“This can only be added in the next phone.”

In the era of feature phones, there was no concept of updating mobile phone systems.

Basically, once confirmed, the operating system will not change.

Especially in the early 90s when mobile phones were not yet connected to the Internet, it was impossible to change the operating system even if you wanted to.

Unless you want to do something big and make the same mobile phone produced by the company have different functions.

"Well, remember to add it to the next phone model."

“I think the alarm and ringtone functions on mobile phones are absolutely very practical.”

"Yes, President!"

After simply testing all the functions of the phone, Masato Takeshita reluctantly put it down.

He looked at Lou Gerstner and asked, "When will the new phone be launched?"

"It will take some time to prepare, and it is expected to go online on December 12st."

Lou Gerstner is also very optimistic about the new mobile phone and hopes that it can be polished for a longer period of time.

By then, the product will definitely be popular throughout Japan.

Masato Takeshita nodded in approval and said, "This is a great time. Have you ever thought about entering the American and European markets?"

The Xinghai second-generation mobile phone is no longer a poor imitation of Motorola.

It may not be much ahead in technology, but it is ahead of its time in concept.

Even if there are candy-bar-type mobile phones that surpass it in the future, at most they will only have some improvements in appearance and functions.

If such a good mobile phone is not used to occupy the global market, it would be a shame to the birth of the new mobile phone.

"Well, the company is looking for American and European telecommunications companies to discuss cooperation."

Lou Gerstner also has a global vision. The first time he saw the new mobile phone, he wanted to sell it to the United States.

The market there is bigger and you can make more money.

The young man showed a relieved expression, and then asked again: "Oh, how did the talk go?"

“It’s still a stalemate.”

Lou Gerstner first shook his head, then raised his chin confidently.

"But I believe that once they see the new phone, they will definitely agree to our terms."

“Um, I haven’t seen the real thing yet.”

Masato Takeshita was a little amused and helpless.

Considering the appearance of the Xinghai first generation mobile phone, how could anyone agree to such good terms?

"Well, it's still confidential. I plan to wait until the 15th of this month to send the actual product to the telecommunications company."

Telecom companies would definitely not keep it secret, and Lou Gerstner was worried that it was too early and that companies like Motorola would copy it.

After all, the technological advantage of the Xinghai second-generation mobile phone is limited.

As long as you are willing to spend money, half a year is enough to imitate successfully.

"Well, it's up to you to decide."

Having said that, the young man smiled and changed the subject.

"By the way, how many mobile phones are you going to produce in advance this time?"

Although the sales volume of the first generation of Xinghai mobile phones exceeded 50 in the first two months, the sales volume was indeed a bit concentrated.

It took almost a year to finally raise a little over 100 million.

On the one hand, people are relatively unfamiliar with mobile phones and the demand for them is not that great.

On the other hand, the emergence of competitors such as Panasonic and Sony caused the sales of the first generation of Xinghai mobile phones to plummet.

There is no way. The first generation of Xinghai mobile phones are immature in many aspects and are indeed no match for Panasonic.

If it hadn't had the first-mover advantage and hadn't reached a cooperation with NTT, the result would probably have been even worse.

Of course, just over 100 million is already a very good result.

Although Xinghai Semiconductor did not make any money, it has already made a name for itself.

The current Xinghai second-generation mobile phone will be the beginning of the official rise of the Xinghai mobile phone department.

Gerstner turned his head and said, "Minister Fukuoka, you are in charge of production. You speak."

"Okay, President."

Tomioka Tetsuya bowed slightly to his own president, and then looked at Chairman Takeshita Masato with an even more respectful expression.

"We plan to produce 50 to 100 million phones before launching."

"If the negotiations with Europe and the United States go smoothly, we will produce 100 million units."

"If the negotiations don't go well, we'll produce 50 units."

The Japanese domestic market is limited. Although the second generation of Xinghai has a high probability of detonating the Japanese mobile phone market, we should be cautious.

If too many are produced, there may be a backlog of mobile phones.

The global market is different.

Once we succeed in breaking in, 100 million copies will definitely not be enough.

Of course, this also has to do with time.

The launch time of the second-generation Xinghai mobile phone is close to Christmas, and many Europeans and Americans, especially Americans, will make huge purchases.

The novel design of the Xinghai mobile phone can easily become a hit product.

"Yeah, that's pretty sensible."

The young man agreed softly, then asked curiously.

"By the way, we've been talking about negotiations with foreign telecommunications companies."

"I still don't know what the negotiation terms between the company and foreign telecommunications companies are?"

Gerstner said as a matter of course: "Of course the conditions are the same as NTT."

"We have the upper hand now, so we must get good conditions."

In the 20s and s, the world's telecommunications industry was booming.

Companies such as British Telecom, NTT, and ATT, which once monopolized their country's telecommunications industry, now have their own competitors.

Even if the former giants do not agree to Xinghai Semiconductor's conditions, Lou Gerstner can still find these emerging competitors.

The mobile communications industry has just emerged, and the old telecom giants do have more advantages, but the lead is not that big at all.

If you are not careful, your market position will be overthrown by emerging companies.

ATT in later generations is a typical example.

Due to its failure in the development of the mobile market, it was eventually acquired by its own spun-off subsidiary Southwestern Bell.

It's actually the opposite of Tiangang.

"That makes sense. I'll rely on you in this regard."

Masato Takeshita didn't quite understand these business negotiations, and all he could do was give his full support.

"By the way, what is the price of the new phone?"

Gerstner shook his head. "No one has thought about this yet. After all, the mobile phone has just been developed."

"That's it."

The young man tapped the table with his fingers, then looked up at Tomioka Tetsuya.

"Fukuoka-san, how much would it cost if we produced 100 million units?"

Tomioka Tetsu had already calculated it and answered smoothly: "To produce 100 million units, each unit would cost about 78000 yen."

"To produce 200 million units, each unit would cost about 73000 yen."

"To produce 300 million units, each unit would cost about 71000 yen."

Production costs have marginal effects. They may be reduced a lot at the beginning, but gradually they can no longer be reduced.

As for the price of mobile phones being too expensive?
There is no way, mobile phones are high-tech products.

The price of chips is there, and even if you want to reduce it, you can't reduce it too much.

This is also due to Xinghai's outsourcing and the company's own research and development of flash memory chips.

If we purchase everything from outside, the cost will increase significantly.

Of course, it is difficult to reduce chip prices, and this is also affected by the computer revolution caused by Microsoft.

The demand for chips is gradually increasing, but the production capacity of wafer fabs is limited.

The chips produced by various companies are in great demand, so naturally there will be no price cuts for Xinghai mobile phones.

Maybe the price of chips will increase in the future.

By then, the cost of mobile phones will increase instead of decrease.

But the matter has little impact, the young man has made up his mind.

The domestic price of the new generation of Xinghai mobile phones will be more than 15 yen, and the overseas price will be more than 1500 US dollars.

The prices abroad are slightly higher, leaving Motorola with no excuse to accuse Xinghai Group of dumping.

These days, Japanese companies are doing business in the United States.

You have to be extra careful.

If you are not careful, you will be punished in various ways.

Of course, the difficulties encountered by Xinghai mobile phones may be fewer.

Because Americans pay more attention to the underlying ecology of technology.

Various highly integrated software including operating systems, and various high-tech hardware including chips.

There is not so much suppression on consumer electronic products.

Therefore, Toshiba, known as the light of Japanese technology, has been criticized by the United States in various ways.

It is obvious that American companies sold more contraband to the Soviet Union, and European countries such as Britain, France, Germany and Italy also sold them in large quantities.

But only Toshiba was severely punished under some excuse.

Sony is different.

Sony is the king of consumer electronics, but has hardly been suppressed by the United States.

Of course, it may also be related to Sony's listing in the United States.

Sony has a large number of American shareholders, while companies such as Toshiba and Hitachi have fewer.

Therefore, when it comes to suppressing companies such as Toshiba and Hitachi, it is easy for all sectors in the United States to reach a consensus.

The young man smiled and praised: "It's a very competitive price."

“But you need to be careful not to compromise quality for the sake of price.”

Mobile phones are now luxury goods, and even if their prices are reduced, they are unlikely to fall below $1000.

Therefore, we must ensure the quality and avoid letting quality issues make buyers think that this product is cheap.

"Please rest assured, President. Our company is absolutely number one in the world in this regard."

A series of fraud incidents occurred in Japanese companies in later generations.

But now, it is absolutely impossible, and it is still a guarantee of quality.

Besides, Xinghai Group’s mobile phones are currently produced by its own company, so it will not encounter this kind of problem.

Speaking of which, Xinghai mobile phones have changed to self-production.

The main purpose is not to save costs, but to maintain confidentiality.

For this reason, Xinghai Semiconductor had to transfer part of its disaster emergency radio orders to other companies for outsourcing.

Then they converted their own factory that produced disaster emergency radios into a new factory that produced mobile phones.

In fact, Masato Takeshita prefers not to outsource production to other companies, but to handle the entire industry chain internally.

But there is no way, we can’t recruit enough people.

I can only say that the Japanese are really happy nowadays.

Taking college students as an example, Japanese companies have a talent gap of more than 450 million, but there are only a few hundred thousand college graduates each year.

Almost every university graduate has six or seven jobs seeking employment.

For this reason, Japan has had to introduce campus recruitment policies to protect companies.

That is to say, except for August to October, companies are not allowed to conduct campus recruitment at extra times, and try to avoid malicious raising of the application prices for college students among companies.

Of course, there are policies and countermeasures.

Many large companies resort to various tricks to recruit enough employees.

Give money, beautiful women, and free companionship for eating, drinking and playing.

It can only be said that during the bubble era, Japanese companies were completely crazy in their efforts to recruit employees.

Electronics factories do not need so many highly qualified university graduates, but it is also difficult to recruit them.

Xinghai Semiconductor is trying hard to recruit, but is still short of staff.

In the end, they had to abandon the originally planned plan to build a new mobile phone factory and choose the alternative plan of transforming a radio factory.

Of course, after the transformation, the scale of the factory has expanded.

After all, Xinghai Group is now considered a well-known company in Japan.

Although the ultimate goal cannot be achieved, the number of factory employees can still be increased.

Unlike many Japanese factories that had to close down due to lack of manpower.

(End of this chapter)