After the iPod was launched in bulk in Europe and the United States and Sony reported it, Chen Dong was indeed nervous for a while.

However, after the second-generation iPod was released, Chen Dong was no longer afraid.

Currently, no electronic product on the market has a memory chip exceeding 120MB.

"Brother-in-law, you have to have confidence in our products." Chen Dong took out the new products that the engineering department had just delivered from the drawer and placed them in front of him.

"Engineer Chen said that the second-generation iPod has a memory chip of up to 120MB, which, together with the decoding chip, can store three hundred songs."

It is quite remarkable that they can achieve this with their current technology. Wang An added, "Actually, our second-generation product did not achieve a technological breakthrough in memory cards. However, Engineer Chen and his team took a different approach and increased the size of the mechanism, thus regaining their advantage in terms of quantity."

In other words, they did not upgrade the memory card, but instead enlarged its size, quadrupling its original storage capacity.

"Does enlarging the storage module mean that other functions of the iPod have been reduced?" Lin Zhiyuan asked.

“Of course, we have made improvements in other areas, such as making the body thinner, reducing the footprint of electronic components, and making the buttons smaller,” Wang An explained. “The new product’s body is only two millimeters thicker than the first generation.”

Lin Zhiyuan has been tracking products for many years and has developed a keen sense of smell, which makes Chen Dong very pleased.

“But I still don’t understand.” Lin Zhiyuan looked at Chen Dong. “Actually, compared with Sony, I mean, in terms of the products themselves, our current products are still on par in terms of competitiveness.”

"In terms of sales channels, we are number one in sales volume on Amazon, and in terms of market share, we also have one more Southeast Asian market than Sony."

"If we scale up production of a first-generation product, we can leverage the sheer volume to minimize production costs..."

He was referring to the typical process for electronic products, from release to updates.

New product launch - advertising and marketing - celebrity endorsement - TV promotion - increasing brand awareness - increasing investment - expanding production lines - sales promotion

“Our first-generation product hasn’t even fully realized its potential or captured market share yet, and we’re launching a new product in the short term,” Lin Zhiyuan said, his voice full of complaint. “Isn’t this just putting our first-generation product in competition with our second-generation product?”

Their first-generation product had a good reputation and stable sales, but if the second generation comes out, consumers will focus their attention on the second generation, which will inevitably cause the first generation to be neglected.

In other words, the current upgrades and replacements are essentially fighting against themselves.

"Brother-in-law..."

"President Chen!"

Just as Chen Dong was trying to figure out how to explain, Engineer Chen rushed over from the high-tech park.

Engineer Chen never leaves the science park. If there is any new progress on the project, he will directly notify Wang An or Annie.

"What's wrong?" Wang An asked.

"Toshiba Corporation of Japan has just released an announcement saying that they have developed an SM card."

SM cards are solid-state floppy disk cards. In the late 1990s, new memory storage modules were continuously developed.

Toshiba's products are just one example.

Chen Dong's worst fears have come true.

"Once SM cards are applied to the electronics market, our current products will have almost no advantage," said Engineer Chen.

As Wang An said, although they improved the iPod's storage mechanism, this improvement was in terms of size and quantity, but there was no qualitative change in the capacity per unit volume.

"Sony and Toshiba are both Japanese companies. Now that Toshiba's SM card has been developed, Sony will definitely try to obtain their patents and apply them to their products."

Think about what Sony's most popular products are right now; they're nothing more than cameras and IDEs.

Either of these upgrades to storage will impact Longteng Electronics.

"Now we have two options: one is to negotiate with Toshiba to buy their patents and apply them to our products."

Chen Dong calmly analyzed, "But this also means that we must simultaneously solve the incompatibility problem between our two products."

"The second option is to partner with Toshiba, have them manufacture storage components, and then purchase their products to use in the iPod."

Lin Zhiyuan recalled his earlier hesitant words and asked, "You already knew that Toshiba had developed a new generation of solid-state floppy disks?"

Chen Dong quickly shook his head. In fact, he had only estimated that around this time, a large number of memory cards would emerge like mushrooms after rain, but he did not know the specific research and development status of Toshiba.

"We have now entered a period of technological bottleneck, and there will be no new breakthroughs in MP3 in the short term." When Engineer Chen said this, he sounded very helpless.

The West's technological blockade against China was comprehensive. Back then, Engineer Chen and his teacher had to bite the bullet and return to China. At that time, the field of electronic technology was practically starting from scratch.

After more than a decade of development, and with the opening of treaty ports, China's technology has caught up with that of Southeast Asia, but it still lags behind in some key technologies.

"Engineer Chen, it's already quite remarkable that you've achieved this much under such limited conditions," Chen Dong comforted him.

Wang An thought for a moment and said, "I think we actually have a third way."

Upon hearing this, Chen Dong and Lin Zhiyuan both looked at Wang An.

"Toshiba does indeed possess the latest storage technology, but their patents haven't been applied to the market yet. As long as our second-generation iPod can be launched soon, it might be able to hold out for a while."

Chen Dong snapped out of his daze and said, "Wang An is right."

"Let's take advantage of the fact that they haven't launched on the market yet and rake in some profits in Europe and America!" Wangcai was usually quiet, but when he spoke, it was absolutely terrifying.

Lin Zhiyuan muttered under his breath, "You can't say that outside."

Wangcai, puzzled, asked, "Why?"

“What you said is true.” Chen Dong nodded and instructed, “However, we should treat consumers as service recipients, not as leeks to be harvested. If those people who have been around in Europe and America heard what we just said, what would they think?”

Wangcai nodded.

The relaunch of the iPod triggered a surge in retaliatory spending among electronics enthusiasts, but Amazon's official platform's purchase limits quickly surprised everyone.

Sony was already struggling to recover from the iPod's dominance, and Longteng Electronics' purchase restriction policy undoubtedly poured cold water on MP3 consumers.

As a result, Sony's offline sales finally began to recover slowly.

Even so, Sony's total online and offline sales volume is still incomparable to that of the iPod.

Chris was also planning to help his teammates buy a few iPods online through a group purchase, but when he woke up, there was a purchase limit!

......