They chatted for a long time before drifting off to sleep.
The next morning, Jiang Xiaoyan urged Duoduo to do his winter vacation homework. The little guy cried as he wrote. Lu Feng watched the commotion for a while and then drove to the company.
Inside the R&D company's conference room, three VCD players were placed on the table, with a Weipuda television set directly opposite them, and a group of technical engineers sitting on either side.
"Now I'll demonstrate how to connect a VCD player to a WEPTA TV." An engineer, displaying a high-tech approach, picked up the various connectors and explained their components, prices, and technology.
If one day someone picks up a VCD player and starts talking to you nonstop, you'll find it boring too. Lu Feng interrupted, "Plug it in, put in a disc and see, stop the introduction."
The executive plugged in the cable, started the computer, and inserted a disc. The screen was blank for about thirty seconds.
"This period is the data reading time, which can take up to one minute," Liu Cheng explained.
"Don't do this program. People who don't know will think the thing is broken. You know this is data reading, but ordinary people don't. I've told you so many times, don't try to do things like an engineer. It's only a few dozen seconds. Let me tell you, there will be tons of returns!" Lu Feng frowned.
"This... this problem needs to be fixed immediately, today!" Liu Cheng said hurriedly.
"If you set up a simple program to display the product identifier, people will be particularly impatient when looking at static data. To give a simple example, when you go to the toilet for a few minutes, doesn't it feel like a long time?" Lu Feng asked the crowd.
Everyone nodded, thinking to themselves, "So, Mr. Lu has some knowledge about going to the toilet?"
"This is a psychological issue. Users definitely want to get it as soon as possible, but they don't know how long they have to wait, so we need to give them something to look forward to. Put the product label on it, scroll back and forth, make the screen dynamic, and then add a line of text saying 'The exciting content will be presented soon,' followed by a string of dynamic ellipses to indicate that the event is in progress," Lu Feng instructed.
Liu Cheng hurriedly wrote it down, repeatedly saying, "Revise it immediately, revise it overnight, revise it overtime!"
The screen showed a Chaplin comedy film, and the overall picture quality was quite good, much clearer than the videotape, and the machine operated more smoothly with less noise.
"Can't we fast forward?" Lu Feng asked.
"No, it's not possible. If fast-forwarding is needed, the data reading speed needs to be increased, and the machine's motherboard needs to have faster computing capabilities. Mr. Jiang told us that the next research and development direction is to increase the reading speed, while also researching compression and parsing technologies to be able to handle more content. This technology is not difficult at present, but it will take time."
Lu Feng remembered that DVDs came out in just a few years, and the content stored on the discs was quite considerable. After watching for a while, he found no problems. The design was mainly black, with red and black and blue and black color schemes as well.
To reduce costs, the outer shell was entirely made of plastic. To be honest, looking at the manufacturing process of the first-generation VCD from the perspective of more than 20 years later, Lu Feng could only say that it was crudely made.
It has no texture whatsoever; some seams are big enough to fit a needle; it creaks when you squeeze it. This is the kind of 'garbage' that Lu Feng considers worthy of being produced by more than 90% of private enterprises in China.
The fact that it could even get Lu Feng to give it a second glance already represents the pinnacle of manufacturing in the industry, and it itself signifies the word 'quality'.
"What is the cost price per unit?" Lu Feng asked.
"Because many of the materials are high-end materials, especially the motherboard, which uses integrated circuits, which are very expensive. The cost of a single unit is 3,500 yuan. If we can achieve a shipment volume of more than 100,000 units, it is estimated that it can be reduced to 3,000 yuan. If it is a million units, it can be reduced by several hundred yuan."
"This doesn't even include the patent fees. If we spread half of the 50 million patent licensing fees evenly, and calculate based on sales of 100,000 units, the cost per unit would increase by 250 yuan. Add in shipping costs, dealer profits, and various losses, and roughly estimate that if the retail price is 5,000 yuan, we'd break even!"
The cost price is already five thousand, no wonder the price soared to seven or eight thousand when it was first launched in the previous life.
Lu Feng leaned back in his chair, pondering for a moment, before asking, "With an annual sales target of five million units, and the terminal unit priced at around three thousand yuan, is there any profit margin?"
Three thousand yuan?
"This price is too low; it's easy to not recoup the costs. If we can sell five million units, this price should be fine," Liu Cheng pondered.
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