My Lord, you need to stand up!

Chapter 540 Guess what I want most

The current Apple display is a 9-inch monochrome CRT monitor with a resolution of 512×342 pixels.

Bring along a floppy disk drive that costs two or three hundred dollars, and sell it for $2500.

Wei Dong had always wanted to ask, Steve, doesn't your conscience hurt?
After the Shanghai Vacuum Electronics Factory began its trial production and upgrade, Wei Dong realized that the 14-inch color monitor, which was priced at thousands of dollars in the North American market, cost only about $260 for a picture tube, thanks to the combined advantages of raw materials and labor in mainland China!

The bakelite casing is indeed a bit lacking, but it's complemented by various components such as the electron gun and deflection coil.

A monitor only costs four hundred dollars!

Those 9-inch black and white monitors, with their casing integrated with the computer case, cost only a little over a hundred US dollars when made in Shanghai.

The cost and selling price are comparable to the exorbitant profits in the clothing industry.

Either the production costs at Citibank's home country are genuinely high.

Steve's eyes lit up when he heard Wei Dong's quote, but he still insisted: "Then we must improve the quality and workmanship to meet my requirements."

Wei Dong is already considered a semi-expert in the factory: "Quality is nothing more than the selection of raw materials, manufacturing process and strict procedures. As long as the equipment and technology are in place, I am confident that I can give you the best product support, including what you can think of and what you can't think of."

He pointed to the X computer in the corner as he spoke.

Currently, the only thing the Shanghai Apple computer assembly plant can do is assemble all the imported components and then ship them to Japan, Southeast Asia, and especially Hong Kong for sale and delivery.

They only earn the meager labor assembly fee.

Capitalists are willing to assemble here not only because of the most efficient parts transportation costs, but also because Shanghai workers are currently paid far less than those in California.

Therefore, if you don't have the parts you can provide, you're destined to be a loser who only earns wages.

The monitor became the breakthrough point that Wei Dong was looking for.

Because China is now capable of mass-producing 14-inch television picture tubes, and is currently developing various 21-inch color picture tubes.

Although most of the blind imports will turn into garbage, the production capacity and technology do exist.

The cost of a monitor's cathode ray tube is one to two times higher than that of a television tube. This is mainly because the monitor needs a high-precision electron gun and a precision deflection system to display the dynamic picture on the television screen.

With the equipment, technology, and funding provided by Apple, Shanghai Vacuum Electronics Factory was indeed able to quickly improve its performance, and even made some technological modifications as much as possible according to Wei Dong's requirements.

Using fake flat right angles to minimize the bezels creates a noticeably "borderless" look, much like the difference between whether a phone has a bezel or not.

It's much prettier than any of the bulky, bezel-less monitors on the market.

After all, most monitors nowadays are 9-inch or 12-inch, but they are equipped with bezels that are the same size as 14-inch monitors, making the screen appear even smaller.

So after this initial success, what motivated Weidong to further promote were the Haijing computer case, titanium alloy keyboard, and mouse.

Steve hadn't paid much attention to this thing before.

From his perspective, it's crude!
The kind that's completely beneath one's notice.

But with the display on the monitor, he also realized that the most important thing was the idea. Once the right direction and selling points were confirmed, quality and effect were just the inevitable result of countless trials and tribulations.

The design of the computer case in the ocean view room is quite stunning when you see it in person.

The case is silver-gray, with a glass panel on the side. The keyboard and mouse are also silver-gray, but the keyboard and mouse buttons, as well as the case panel, are made of bakelite and heated plastic glass.

It exudes a strong sense of non-mainstream aesthetics typical of township enterprises.

It's ugly. They completely lack design knowledge, yet they confidently and boldly claim they can break free from those limitations and create entirely different material designs.

Steve probably didn't even pay much attention to the sparkly designs in the photos.

But the more I look at it, the more mesmerized I get. I stare at it silently, as if wondering what kind of result I could create by combining these design elements.

It's like how, even though they are both Chinese characters, Wei Dong can only combine them into "wo cao" (a Chinese idiom), while Li Bai and Su Dongpo can create timeless masterpieces.

But neither of them could make Wei Dong a salesperson, especially since they didn't have his ulterior motives, which he had discovered through his supernatural abilities.

"Titanium alloys are characterized by their extreme hardness and corrosion resistance, and are known as aerospace materials. I have my own factory that can produce them, so the cost is very low. But the problem now is that titanium alloys have poor cold and hot working properties because they are too hard. As long as you can provide me with β21 alloy technology, I can supply large quantities of bent and rolled titanium alloy chassis, keyboards, and mice, so that Apple computers can be associated with aerospace and high-end products."

Before the 1970s and 80s, computers were high-end items that only belonged to laboratories and large companies, often requiring huge server racks and several rooms.

It only started to get smaller after it became a personal computer.

We are currently in the stage of shrinking the size, making it as usable as possible, and figuring out exactly how to use it.

To ordinary people, this is a very high-tech, advanced, and mysterious machine.

Apple touched the threshold of graphics, and it was Apple that began to inspire the way to make computers look good and have a distinctive appearance, starting in 84.

As a result, Wei Dong suddenly realized that computers would become incredibly affordable in the next 20 or 30 years.

Why bother competing on internal motherboards and electronic components? Everyone's pretty much the same. It's all about the appearance!
In this era, apart from Steve, no one else had this idea!
The groundbreaking success of the iPhone in later generations reveals that Steve Jobs had an almost obsessive obsession with aesthetics.

Ordinary people don't understand system architecture, design languages, or data performance; they just look at the appearance.

Once you figure this out, you can instantly outperform all your competitors.

This is a huge cognitive leap.

All the science and engineering experts were still agonizing over performance and technical details.

It was precisely because Rang Weidong and Steve didn't have an electronics background that they chose the appearance. They chose the gimmick!

Qin Yuye's eyes and body were practically slick with desire.

She didn't feel this way when she was translating for the Citizens' Vice President while standing between two super-powerful figures.

It is said that power is the best aphrodisiac.

It's useless to a Hong Kong girl like her; she doesn't even realize this. What she admires is this talent, this extraordinary vision that surpasses ordinary people.

Just like her older brother whom she admired since childhood.

However, it also possesses the overall stability that Qin Zhiming lacks most.

These two men in front of me are probably the two people in the world with the most "vision" for the future of electronic products. One of them is a true expert who is still honing his skills, while the other is a pseudo-expert with a supernatural vision.

Qin Yuye had to rack his brains to break down and translate the word "gimmick": "It's a trick, a scheme to attract attention or entice people to buy, but it can create a high-end image for Apple computers."

Steve touched the rather rough chassis; the bending and cold rolling were not very effective. This was already the limit of the capabilities of that non-ferrous metal processing plant in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. They still had to rely on the Hongguang plant to start pre-processing from the time they were refining titanium ingots.

The β21 alloy technology proposed by Jiangzhe Nonferrous Metals Plant to Rang Weidong is currently a patented technology unique to Citibank.

Anyone with a bit of strategic vision would know the enormous changes that would occur if titanium alloys had the ability to be hot and cold worked.

Wei Dong, of course, didn't say a word, and then saw Steve's hand touch the glass again.

Yes, it's just ordinary 5mm glass, with the edges polished to prevent them from getting caught on your hands: "If you can also provide me with high-precision acrylic technology, I can also provide high-quality, low-priced polymethyl methacrylate to ensure the production of the chassis, keycaps, and mouse buttons."

Wei Dong had to have people search the entire market just for this one thing.

Ironically, it is precisely Shanghai that possesses this advantage of concentrated technology. If Shanghai cannot handle it, then basically no one in the rest of the country can do it now.

The transparent plexiglass sheets that are now commonplace and the high-definition transparent acrylic sheets are currently not made in China.

And this just happens to be the key product of Xishan Factory in the past.

This technique was used in artillery scopes, periscopes, and even later inexpensive camera lenses, but it was only done in small sizes and with manual or semi-mechanical polishing, making it impossible to achieve the natural high transparency of the finished product.

Two years ago, Shanghai did import a production line, but it could only produce stationery-grade acrylic sheets.

That's right, it's the kind of plastic set square and protractor that people born in the 70s and 80s used to use on their school desks. Those things represented the pinnacle of technology in China at the time.

Even the best plastic sheet that Wei Dong got was a bit cloudy, completely lacking the visual penetration of a "sea view room." Even if he didn't add any fancy lights inside the case, it should at least allow people to see the inside of the case clearly at a glance.

Therefore, in the end, only ordinary glass could be chosen.

Steve, who certainly couldn't have imagined any other extreme uses for this kind of acrylic sheet, only discussed the genius's thought process: "What's the point of making it transparent so you can see inside the chassis?"

Rang Weidong spread his hands: "Let's dispel the mystery surrounding computers. All other manufacturers' computers are just cold, impersonal devices. Only with us are they our open-hearted friends and partners, companions with whom we can create an infinite future!"

Qin Yuye even grinned slightly. You're so good at talking, but why can't you do the same with girls?

Demimore, observing his actions and hearing his words, was also filled with amazement. Was it really that romantic?
The kind of masculine romance that's typical of otaku and straight men has absolutely nothing to do with females.

Xiaodie quickly grinned at the translator, then at the foreign auntie, keeping herself very busy.

Steve understood immediately, and nodded with a laugh, saying "Okay!"

Another assistant stepped forward to take orders.

Tell Wei Dong to calm him down, and that there's still one last bit to go.

In fact, keyboards and mice are the best examples of combining titanium alloy and transparent acrylic.

This is just a sample.

The keyboards and mice produced in Jiangzhou to supply X-computers are standard bakelite shells with rubber pads; as long as they work, that's fine.

The cost price can be reduced to around twenty yuan.

However, this set of samples is displayed in the exhibition hall of Building 5 in Shanghai and inside the glass pyramid.

It's a thick titanium alloy plate with thermoplastic glass keycaps on top, and imported original mechanical keycaps.

Its appearance and feel are absolutely top-notch.

Handcrafted to the level of a Rolls-Royce.

The unit price naturally reached over three hundred US dollars, because the mouse shell alone is made of titanium alloy casting and polishing.

If hot bending and stamping are possible, costs will definitely plummet.

The two transparent thermoplastic glass buttons in the front, like the keycaps, exude a high-end craftsmanship, but they just can't cut costs.

As for the most cost-effective option, it's the membrane keyboard, a cheap keyboard that even dogs won't look down on in twenty or thirty years.

The year 1986 was a year of technological innovation that brought about a major transformation that helped popularize computers to all of humanity.

Wei Dong has already arranged for the circuit board to be made, and the materials of the upper and lower thin films are basically usable. The key is the rubber elastic key core, which is a chemical material and it is really impossible to make it not deform after hundreds of thousands of taps.

This solves the problem of technology import at the same time, and it can be used in many places!
(End of this chapter)