nucmednet Chapter 363 The VCD War is about to begin
Chapter 363 The VCD War is about to begin
Chapter 363 The VCD War is about to begin
During the period from 1993 to 1996, Blue Bird VCD was the only one in the international market with no competition, which provided a broad space for the development of Blue Bird VCD.
In the previous life, Wanyan launched the world's first VCD in 1993. However, Wanyan spent a huge amount of money on research and development and technology investment in the early stage.
This put it in a difficult position in terms of market development and capital circulation, and it was busy dealing with various domestic problems and had no time to take care of export business.
By 1995, the sales volume of VCD players in China had reached 60 units.
The domestic VCD market has just started, and major brands are focusing their main efforts on the development and fierce competition in the domestic market, so the export volume is extremely limited.
Moreover, the core technology of VCD came from abroad, and domestic companies lacked independent intellectual property rights, which to a great extent restricted the export pace of early VCDs.
But the situation in this life is completely different.
Qingdao Publishing House is like a dark horse. Relying on its profound technical background, it has mastered many independent patents.
Before the market was officially fully developed, it successfully obtained foreign patent authorization and quickly established a production line of millions of units.
By integrating the resources of the entire industrial chain, all spare parts are domestically produced.
The huge production volume quickly filled the huge gap in the domestic and overseas markets.
海外销量更是一路高歌猛进，每年都以成倍的速度增长：1993至1994年达到100万，1994 - 1995年飙升至200万。
In 1995, with another major breakthrough in Qingdao lithography technology and decoding technology,
The 0.5-micron mass-production lithography machine was officially put into production, and the super VCD was born.
This super VCD attracted much attention as soon as it was launched, and its overseas sales jumped to 500 million units.
Super VCD is far superior to previous versions in terms of image clarity, playback smoothness, and fault tolerance.
At the same time, Qingdao Technology Center has made progress in optical disc storage technology, significantly upgrading the storage time of VCD from 60 minutes to 300 minutes, which can easily accommodate the capacity of three movies.
Compared with the previous generation's Super VCD, it has obvious advantages in disc capacity.
Of course, there is still a certain gap compared with DVD technology.
At the same time, Super VCD has good compatibility and is compatible with the VCD format, and can play VCD discs on devices that support Super VCD.
In the domestic market, after three years of fierce competition and vigorous development, the sales volume of VCDs in China in 1995 has successfully surpassed that in foreign countries, reaching 600 million units.
Nearly 100 VCD factories have sprung up in China.
At first, Qingdao offered a price of 2500 yuan for the whole machine, and then various provinces launched fierce price competition.
Others found that the price of purchasing key parts from abroad and then assembling the parts themselves was lower than the price of the complete machine parts supplied by Qingdao.
Then we started to produce and assemble by ourselves, and the market competition became increasingly fierce.
By 1996, the price of the first generation of VCDs had been almost halved, selling for only RMB 2000.
The price of complete machine parts in Qingdao has also dropped from 2500 yuan to 1500 yuan.
The price of the second-generation VCD is 3000 yuan, and the accessories cost 2500 yuan.
Time quietly entered 1996.
"Professor, what is the current progress of the lithography machine?" Jiang Weimin asked with a hint of urgency in his tone.
The professor frowned slightly, his expression slightly solemn: "Mayor Jiang, there is still a key node that has not been overcome.
It is not possible to achieve mass production of 0.35 micron (350 nanometer) lithography machines for the time being.”
"Professor, judging from the patent information obtained, Japan's new DVD video player is almost ready. I expect that the new product will be launched this year."
The professor gritted his teeth and said, "Mayor Jiang, give me another six months! I guarantee that the 0.35-micron lithography machine can be mass-produced."
The rapid progress of the lithography machine is also thanks to Jiang Weimin.
A 0.5-micron lithography machine was shipped back from abroad through a special channel.
This enables foreign and domestic technologies to verify each other, greatly promoting the research and development process.
In just three years, lithography technology has advanced from 3 micron to 1 microns. Of course, the outstanding capabilities of the scientific researchers are beyond doubt.
At this time, Qingdao's third-generation DVD chip has been designed, but mass production requires a 0.35-micron lithography machine.
Seeing that the Japanese DVD might be on the market soon, Jiang Weimin was a little anxious.
However, considering the impact that Japanese DVDs will have on the Bluebird VCD brand, Bluebird must not be allowed to lose its number one position in the world in the field of audio and video players.
This makes foreign countries feel that Bluebird VCD is technologically backward.
Jiang Weimin could only respond by producing 200 million chips from abroad based on the designs of the Qingdao Chip Research Center.
These 200 million chips were purchased from a foreign trade agency, involving a capital of more than RMB 4 million.
With such a high purchase amount, both parties hit it off and quickly signed the contract, and began to fully produce Qingdao's third-generation decoding chips.
As for the Japanese side, their anxiety is even greater than Jiang Weimin's.
Originally, they thought they had a deep insight into the market and underestimated Chinese companies, thinking that Chinese companies were short-sighted.
But while they were still working hard on their research, China had new patent applications for DVDs every month.
Originally, I was thinking of applying for a patent all at once, which threw the Japanese side into disarray, and they immediately started a technological competition with China.
In the later period, it almost became a situation that if you applied for a patent, I would immediately apply for one too.
Japan
"President, China has purchased 200 million chips from abroad, and has an intended order for 300 million more."
A marketing manager hurried into the office and reported to the president.
"The Chinese have a really big appetite. With 400 million coins, they want to take over the foreign market.
Arrange for our chips to start production as soon as possible."
"President, part of this chip from China is our published patented technology.
As long as their products come out, can we sanction them so that they can’t sell their products? "
The president was immediately furious: "Baka, sanction them? Then will our products still be on the market?
Don't forget that they also own various patents. If both parties stop producing, will their super VCDs make crazy money in the world?"
The product manager quickly bowed his head and admitted his mistake: "I'm sorry, President, I didn't think it through. What should we do next?"
The president pondered for a moment and said slowly: "Cooperate, share patents with China, and defeat them in other ways."
"President, where should we start?"
"What is the current price of VCDs in China?"
"The price of the first-generation VCD to suppliers is now US$400, and the price of the second-generation super VCD is US$600."
"How much does it cost us to produce a DVD?"
"The cost of labor plus various spare parts is about $260. But it can be controlled within $200 later."
"How is the cost investigation going on the Chinese side?"
"China needs to purchase chips from abroad, so the price may be a little higher. But they now have a complete industrial chain.
The cost is estimated to be not much different from ours. The most important thing is that the production capacity is enough to produce tens of millions of units a year."
"The cost is similar, and the production capacity is not low. In this backward China, there is a competitor who understands the rules of the international market so well and has excellent insight.
China is indeed a country that cannot be underestimated, with talented people emerging.”