Console

Author: Underwater Wild Fish

Console

"By the way, how are our chip factories and LCD factories doing now?" Chen Zhiwen asked again.

Since the two factories hired many engineers from Wanwan at the end of last year, the factory has started smoothly. After learning that the sample was successfully put on the market, Chen Zhiwen was also very concerned about it. The follow-up feedback was not bad, and nothing has been produced.

Problem, but because the focus was on the acquisition of Wharf some time ago, I didn’t bother with it.

Lei Shengli replied: "Our chips have already begun to be supplied to several electronics factories in Hong Kong. Because the price is less than half of imported Japanese chips, many manufacturers have already purchased a lot. At present, we occasionally

After receiving feedback on some problems, engineers have begun to make adjustments according to the problems, and now Hong Kong workers are beginning to become familiar with them.

The same goes for LCDs. At present, we mainly produce LCDs for electronic watches. This market is very large. There is a lot of demand in Hong Kong, and the risk of LCDs is much smaller than that of chips. Basically, there is no problem in the factory, and the follow-up will be fine.

There will be no problem.”

"In terms of chips, in addition to some traditional electronic products, we can develop in the direction of remote controls. Our color display factory will soon start construction, right? Wouldn't it be better if color TVs had remote controls? In this area, in fact, many international

Brands are already doing it, but the price of chips is not cheap now. Only high-end color TVs are equipped with remote controls. If we can reduce the cost of this piece, not only can the chip factory obtain a large number of orders, but it can also increase our future growth.

The advantage of color TV? Isn't it?" Chen Zhiwen thought for a while and said.

"Yes, but it still needs to pass a lot of tests. I'm afraid it won't be able to keep up with the first batch of built color TVs." Lei Shengli said.

"It doesn't matter, we can do it again in the future." Chen Zhiwen said nonchalantly: "I am just pointing out a direction. If the cost in this field can be suppressed and the quality is good, then the chip factory can be completely satisfied with this business. Now foreign countries

The chip giants are all desperately pursuing the production of high-performance chips. The profits of such ordinary chips are far less than those of high-performance chips, but this may also be our opportunity. The technical content is not very high, as long as we do it in batches first

When the quantity is increased, the cost will come down, which is an advantage.”

"Understood." Lei Shengli nodded. The purpose of the existence of his own chip factory is actually to meet some of Hong Kong's needs and to produce commonly used mid-to-low-end chips. As for high-end chips, not even the boss has thought about it. This is better than developing

Game engines are also unreliable. Although the profits of mid-to-low-end chips are low, there is still a market as long as they become bigger.

"As for LCD, can we make one as big as a calculator display now?" Chen Zhiwen asked again.

"It can be done, but the yield rate needs to be controlled." Lei Shengli said: "However, there are not many orders for calculators, and the global market demand is far less than that of electronic watches."

"It's not a problem with the calculator, but I'm going to launch another product that needs a larger LCD," Chen Zhiwen said.

"New product? Larger LCD? Is Chen Sheng talking about a handheld machine?" Lei Shengli asked.

"Yes, it's a handheld console. Do you think our Snake will have a big market if it is transferred to a handheld console?" Chen Zhiwen asked with a smile.

For handheld consoles, many people in later generations remember that Nintendo launched GameWatch in 1980, which was also very popular in the 1980s.

But GameWatch is not the world's first arcade machine. It is a racing game handheld machine launched by the American Mattel Company in 1976. However, it is very simple and uses the LCD screen of a calculator. As a result, it is naturally not recognized by the market until

After GameWatch appeared, handheld consoles became popular all over the world.

Although Mattel's finished product failed, the idea was very good, and many game companies were also studying it. However, due to the small space of the handheld machine, it was difficult to develop supporting games, and ultimately nothing happened.

"The market is huge, but if you want to have a good experience, the screen must be larger, and the chip requirements are not low. After all, handheld consoles are very small." Lei Shengli thought for a while and said.

"Yes, there is also the cost issue. It cannot be too expensive, otherwise no one will be willing to buy it." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

This seems to be back to 5 years ago, when he went to the United States to find Woz to build an arcade machine. The core problem was cost. The chips from back then are the worst level today. Even if they were given to better electronics factories, no one would want them.

, but that was all that was available at that time.

Today, chip technology is advancing by leaps and bounds. In two years, complex games will be available in arcades, but if you want to get them on handheld consoles, even the simplest games will be difficult.

If you want to do well in the handheld market, you cannot use the most expensive chip, because this will cause the user terminal cost to be too high, but you cannot use a poor chip, because a poor chip not only responds slowly, but also causes severe heat generation.

Equipment, solving the problem of heating is a very troublesome problem. Even in the 21st century, the heating of smartphones has been bothering the giants for a long time.

On the other hand, LCD is much simpler. If you can't make it yourself, you can buy it from others. With Japan's current LCD technology, handheld screens can still be made.

"This level of difficulty is probably not lower than that of home game consoles," Lei Shengli said.

"You guys should set up the project first and do research and development first. This project can't be successful like an arcade machine in two or three months. One year can be considered fast. In addition, I have already thought of some practical patents. You can arrange for people to go around the world.

Register." After saying that, Chen Zhiwen took out some documents.

Here is some operational information on handheld consoles and home game consoles, the most important of which is naturally the cross-keys of handheld consoles. In addition, in order to prevent future competitors from bypassing them, he has registered all similar cross-key shapes.

, in short, even if you don’t use it, you still have to make it impossible for others to get around it.

"Okay, then all Midea's resources will be focused on home game consoles and handheld console projects." Lei Shengli took the document, glanced at it, and suddenly thought of a question, and asked: "Sheng Chen, we

If the handheld console and the home game console are both greedy snakes, will they affect each other?"

"Don't worry, although the game is the same, the scenarios are completely different. It meets the needs of the same customers in different environments, and the handheld console is definitely not as fun as the home game console. The handheld console is for outdoor use."

Chen Zhiwen thought for a while and said: "But if the cost cannot be reduced, it may have an impact."

"Okay." Lei Shengli nodded and said.

"Besides, even if it has an impact, as long as it's not a serious conflict, you have to do it. Otherwise, you can only benefit others." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

In fact, the research and development of these two products is not easy, and the research consumes the company's energy and resources.

But in the electronic age, time is very urgent. If research and development is a little late, the opportunity may be completely lost. Atari has successfully developed home game consoles, but because there are no related supporting games, the market has been normal in the past year or two.

But once the number of games reaches enough, the market will explode immediately.

After Atari launched its products, Midea's R&D team also had a reference. In addition, they could poach people with high salaries to develop their own home game consoles, so that they could make their own products before the Atari arcade market exploded.

products, and through its own high-quality games, even if it cannot defeat Atari, it should still be able to seize part of the market. When the market returns a large amount of funds, then the next generation of home game consoles can be developed. Calculating the time, maybe

It just happened to coincide with the great collapse of Atari in history, provided that history has not changed much.

The handheld console was launched by Nintendo in April 1980. Considering that this kind of research and development usually takes about a year, if Midea had done it later, once Nintendo released it, and the price of the handheld console was not expensive,

On the contrary, it may quickly occupy the market. Once the handheld console is late, it may really miss the opportunity.

Therefore, these two directions need to be carried out in 1978 or 1979. If it is too early, it will not work because the cost is too high or the semiconductor industry cannot meet product requirements. If it is too late, there will be no market.

However, with Midea's current scale, it is normal, or even rare, to research two products at the same time. It is estimated that few electronic companies in Japan can surpass Midea in terms of profits, but any new product developed at the same time will

It is estimated that there are dozens if not more than a hundred, with countless departments researching different products in different directions and technologies. Midea currently only has two main ones, but we still know the future potential.

Lei Shengli nodded and said: "These two projects currently still mainly rely on teams from the United States, but I want to send all the Hong Kong teams there this time. First, it can reduce the R&D costs in the United States.

Our team in Hong Kong can still do some of the most basic tasks, and the second thing is to let our team learn more technology."

"That's no problem. You can send people out at will in the United States. If the cost of living there is too high, then just buy a hotel." Chen Zhiwen said. Although his plan is not to put the factory in Hong Kong in the future, since

The headquarters is here, and there must be a team here that understands technology, preferably one whose level is similar to those overseas.

"I think we probably don't have that many engineers who are capable of going overseas to participate in research and development together." Lei Shengli shook his head helplessly.

"If there are not enough people, just like the last chip and LCD factory, we directly recruit people from Wanwan. Talents who understand electronic design, electronic technology, and electronic industry manufacturing can be recruited. As long as they have the ability, they can stay with me.

It won’t be a problem to give him a house for a few years.” Chen Zhiwen thought for a while and said.

Whether it is salary or house price, Hong Kong is higher than Wanwan. Working in Hong Kong, the income will definitely be higher than that in Wanwan. As for the house, if he has the ability and contribution, Chen Zhiwen will not be stingy.

"Okay, but in addition to poaching engineers, it is also possible to poach some graduates from Wanwan. There are so many graduates from the electronics industry in Wanwan every year, and there will always be many who are willing to come to Hong Kong." Lei Shengli said.

"Yes." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said. In fact, many big companies like to recruit graduates, because they can conduct targeted training according to their own ideas. When large companies have high-quality training plans, they can quickly obtain talents with the required abilities.

It may be more efficient than social recruitment.

Midea's main income is basically in overseas offshore accounts, mainly for legal tax avoidance. The Hong Kong headquarters only has funds to maintain its normal operations.

The two projects currently launched at the same time have relatively high research and development costs. Therefore, Chen Zhiwen deliberately transferred 20 million US dollars from overseas. These funds are not the entire budget of this family game console and handheld console. After all, several models are now available every month.

Arcade machines can still bring tens of millions of dollars in net profits to the company, and when "Pac-Man" is launched again in the future, profits may increase further.

Midea has no shortage of funds for research and development. Taking advantage of this research and development opportunity, it can greatly increase the research and development experience of its team and recruit more suitable people. By the 1980s, the demand in this area will be several times higher.

Improvement, after all, involves personal computers, various computer software, various complex games, and some electronic products, etc. Even if Chen Zhiwen knows the direction, he still needs a lot of talents to help him turn his ideas into reality.

Time soon came to June, and news suddenly came from the Hong Kong market. Land Group sold its shares in Prince's Building in Central, Windsor Building in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, and Wharf to Ship King Bao at a suitable price.

Tamaoka.
Chapter completed!