Extraordinary Genius

Chapter 1061 – MP3 players

“Chairman, congratulations!” Norio Ohga’s assistant ran into Norio Ohga’s office excitedly.

“Huh? What happened?”

“Aiwa is being sued in the US, and it is reported in the newspaper. This will be a devastating blow to Aiwa’s brand!”

Norio Ohga’s eyes brighten up. “Where’s the newspaper? Let me see!”

“Aiwa’s newest product, MP3 player, is alleged to have infringed intellectual property rights and is being sued by the Recording Industry Association of America. The lawsuit will start on 19th March in the US...”

The smile on Norio Ohga’s face disappears slowly. Is the reporter an idiot? Why is the article not mentioning about the wrongdoings of Aiwa, and keep mentioning about the MP3 player? Is this a newspaper article about an advertisement?

This article had introduced the MP3 player’s features more detailed than Aiwa’s product launch! How can this be considered good news?!

“Our research department is also researching on this MP3, right? What can they develop a finished product? I am referring a better product than Aiwa!” Norio Ohga asked.

When Aiwa had introduced their first MP3 player, Sony had noticed this product and got together a development team to develop their own MP3 players.

Sony is also a leader in portable music players, and their electronic product-related technologies are also one of the most advanced in the world. Their team immediately analyzed the benefits of MP3 players and knows how to improve it.

Sony is looking at improving music quality, playtime, storage, size, etc.

Sony’s technology in music quality is lagging Aiwa now. Still, their storage, size, continuous playtime, etc. are on par with Aiwa.

No matter which aspects Sony is stronger than Aiwa, they will stand a chance to win against Aiwa’s MP3 players. The IT technologies are developing fast now, and electronic products will become smaller. In the future, Walkman, CD players, and MD players will be obsolete!

This is an opportunity for Sony to retake the top sport for portable music players and suppress Aiwa!

“Chairman, our research is from reverse engineering Aiwa’s MP3 players and had started much later. Currently, our technologies are only on par with Aiwa’s Second-generation of MP3 players. Our storage, battery life, and music quality are about the same as them, and we need a bit more time before we can develop better products. After all, most of our engineers are focusing on PlayStation’s development.”

When mentioned this, Norio Ohga is pissed.

Why is that Feng Yu always competing with Sony? When we are producing music players when Feng Yu entered the music player industry and took away most of our market share.

When we started manufacturing PCs, Feng Yu invested in Lenovo and made Sony’s PCs and laptops unsellable in China.

When we go into the video game console, Feng Yu started a joint venture with Microsoft to develop Gbox!

Why can’t you do something else and stop copying us?!

But Sony is not afraid of anyone when it comes to the video game console. They had come from behind and overtaken Nintendo, and are confident to suppress Feng Yu’s Gbox.

Don’t think you all started a game development company, and you all can win against Sony. Your companies are mostly developing online games and are different from our PlayStation and 3D games.

Regardless of video game console or handheld gaming devices, you all are doomed to fail!

“Tell the research department to increase manpower and fund on the MP3 project. After this lawsuit ends, we must launch Sony’s MP3 players into the market!”

“Chairman, this product will infringe intellectual property rights. Will our brand image be affected if we sell this product?” Norio Ohga’s assistant asked.

“Who says Aiwa will lose this lawsuit? Who says Aiwa will be found guilty for infringing intellectual property rights? That Recording Industry Association of America is stupid, and Aiwa will win this lawsuit for sure. They will also use this opportunity to promote their MP3 players, and increase this player’s popularity.” Norio Ohga shook his head as his assistant is too short-sighted.

“Why?”

“Let me ask you. How much does an original cassette tape, CD, VCD, and DVD cost? This is telling the consumers that they do not have to pay to listen to songs if they use this product in the future. All the consumer needs to do is to download songs from the internet. This is equivalent to not needing to spend money on cassette tapes, CDs, etc. forever. Even if there are charges, it will be much cheaper. Do you think the consumers will be interested?”

The assistant was stunned. This product will be extremely popular.

Once a product becomes popular, it will have a significant impact on Sony. After all, Sony’s record label is one of its main revenue sources. This product will cut off one of Sony’s revenue sources.

“Chairman, then why are we still developing this product? Shouldn’t we be suppressing it instead? This will hurt our revenue, as we own lots of song copyrights.

“No. This will be our advantage. We must encourage the growth of this product and encourage people to spend money to download songs from our website. This way, our music copyrights and value will increase.”

Norio Ohga is very disappointed with his assistant. He can’t even comprehend such a simple thing and is not worth grooming him as a successor. At most, he can only be a good executioner of orders!

“Oh, get our men to acquire a few websites that provide MP3 downloads, and put our songs up for downloads. Remember, we must collect fees for the downloads, and let the Music copyrights management department to decide on the charges. It must be cheaper than cassette tapes.”

At the same time, Samsung knows about Aiwa’s lawsuit. The head of Samsung is regretting his decision of not developing this product two years ago when his subordinate suggested.”

But at that time, Samsung was undergoing restructuring and had no time to focus on this product. Thus, they had missed the opportunity and let Aiwa developed the first MP3 player.

However, Samsung is not discouraged, as they are much bigger than Aiwa. They have more research engineers and will overtake Aiwa sooner or later. Samsung’s MP3 player will be the most advanced in the world!

Many companies noticed the prospect of this MP3 player after news of Aiwa’s lawsuit spread, and they started to develop this product.

Almost all consumer electronic products felt this type of music player will replace Walkman, CD players, MD players, etc. and will be the only music player left!

This cake is too big for Aiwa to eat, and the other companies will have a chance to grab a slice!