Rebirth Tokyo 1986

Chapter 361 The real opponent

After handling all his business, Masato Takeshita arrived at Xinghai Technology to participate in the final call experiment of Xinghai Electronics' PHS (Personal Handyphone System) department.

"Hello, I am Masato Takeshita. Can you hear me clearly?"

"OK, no problem within 500 meters of the signal tower."

Masato Takeshita first tested it in an open space, and the results were quite good, approaching the call quality of a mobile phone.

The young man was quite satisfied and prepared to go to the next location to continue testing.

"Yes, can you hear me clearly on your end?"

"Hey, hey, hey, what are you saying? I don't have a signal here?"

"Hey, can you hear me?"

After trying for more than ten minutes, Masato Takeshita could only regretfully fail.

The current PHS (Personal Handyphone System) technology still has many flaws. As long as the vehicle speed exceeds 40 kilometers per hour, there will be distortion in the telephone transmission.

"Forget it, we can only make improvements based on user feedback after it goes live."

The PHS (Personal Handyphone System) technology is unique to Japan, and there is a lack of experimental data. Even if Xinghai Electronics and Xinghai Communications immediately correct their mistakes, it will be difficult for them to produce a better product.

The signal was weak while riding in the car, so Masato Takeshita then tested the situation when there were buildings blocking the signal.

"Hello, still no signal?"

"Hello..."

The young man hung up the phone again, then shook his head with a hint of helplessness.

The term "Personal Handyphone System" (PHS) was aptly used to describe communication for the poor, as its signal strength was significantly inferior to that of mobile digital phones.

When there are buildings blocking the signal, the signal is very poor.

No wonder people are making fun of it.

Holding a mobile phone, I stood in the wind and rain. I switched from my left hand to my right, but still couldn't get through.

This is normal, though. If it weren't for the poor signal quality, the global mobile market would be dominated by PHS (Personal Handyphone System).

There are many cheap and useful technologies in this world, but PHS (Personal Handyphone System) is clearly not one of them.

After testing it in every corner of Tokyo, Masato Takeshita gained a clearer understanding of the PHS phone.

The current competitors of Xiaolingtong were not mobile phones, but pagers that only had SMS sending and receiving functions.

Both were communication devices for the poor, but the PHS phone had an additional call function.

In the beginning, the price of PHS phones was a little higher, and pagers also existed for a while.

Once the price of PHS phones drops to a certain level, the pager will be dead.

It's somewhat similar to the relationship between PHS (Personal Handyphone System) and mobile phones in a previous life.

In the beginning, mobile phones were expensive, and calls per minute were also expensive. Ordinary people who didn't have much money but still needed to make calls had no choice but to choose the cheaper PHS (Personal Handyphone System).

Later, as mobile phone prices and call rates continued to fall, PHS phones became increasingly difficult to sell.

The third wave of technological advancement has had a profound impact, with new things replacing old ones every day.

"What should the price be?"

"The price of a PHS phone is 49999 yen, and the call charges are only one-third of those of a mobile phone."

Masato Takeshita did a quick calculation and found that it only cost a little over 4000 RMB.

This price is half that of common mobile phones on the market, and even has a significant price advantage compared to some brands of pagers.

A Motorola pager in 1994 cost over 4000 yuan, and it didn't have as many functions as a regular PHS phone.

However, PHS phones cannot enter the Chinese market at present, so the young man is preparing to cooperate with a telecommunications company to operate the business.

The two companies already have the highly profitable Xinghai Internet Cafe project, so presumably Xiaolingtong (a type of mobile phone service) shouldn't have too much of a problem either.

Besides, in my previous life, mobile phones were also tacitly approved by the government; at most, their development was somewhat limited.

"The price is very good, and our product has a great advantage."

Masato Takeshita was very satisfied and looked appreciatively at Hidenori Hasegawa, the president of Seikai Electronics.

"President, you flatter me. This is the result of everyone's joint efforts."

"Alright, no need to be so modest. I will remember everyone's contributions."

Then Takeshita Masato turned to look at Ono Kenji, the president of Seikai Telecommunications.

"Xiaolingtong successfully made a call this time, and Xinghai Communications deserves the most credit. Although there were various problems with the call, they were secondary considerations when it came to the low price."

"Our goal is to capture the market share that belongs to BB and become an important supplement to the mobile calling field."

Kenji Ono instantly grasped his chairman's unspoken message and responded astutely.

"Yes, Chairman, please rest assured that we will continuously improve the signal propagation capability of the base station."

Hideaki Hasegawa wasn't stupid either, and loudly assured him.

"Our PHS phones will also continue to improve, enhancing their ability to receive signals."

With the presidents of Xinghai Electronics and Xinghai Communications setting an example, Xinghai Chip, another important player in the PHS (Personal Handyphone System) market, naturally followed suit.

We will continue to improve the chip's signal transmission and reception capabilities while reducing prices.

"Alright, everyone just needs to do their best. My only request is that the price of PHS phones be reduced to 3.5 yen next year."

What's 4000 RMB? He wants to drive the price of PHS phones down to just over 3000 RMB.

Then, after a few years, the price will drop directly to 2000 yuan or even 1000 yuan, increasing the number of mobile phone users in developing countries.

"Yes, understand."

Hideyuki Hasegawa responded loudly and confidently.

Because chips are expensive at the beginning. As production scales up, they only become cheaper.

"Okay, I trust you to handle things."

The young man gave him an approving look, then smiled and changed the subject.

"Everyone's been testing all day, they must be exhausted and hungry. Let's go eat first."

"Yes, President!"

After finishing my meal and returning home, it was already 9:30.

"Wow, it's Daddy! Daddy's home!"

When his daughter saw and heard the noise at the door, she immediately ran over and hugged his leg.

"Yes, I'm back. What did you do at school today?"

After changing into his slippers, Masato Takeshita immediately picked up Kei Takeshita and looked at her with a happy smile.

"Yeah, it's just drawing and playing dodgeball."

The little girl couldn't remember much, so she simply made up two activities on the spot.

This is a characteristic of children; they love to talk nonsense.

A classic example is a child who soiled his pants and then came home saying that the teacher had soiled his pants.

"Oh, that's great. So, who did you spend most of your time with today?"

"I played house with Ei-chan and Aoi-chan, it was so much fun."

"Oh, she truly is my darling daughter."

Most people enjoy being praised, and children especially do.

Therefore, even for very ordinary things, the young man would often praise his daughter.

"Hehe, I'm not that good."

After playing around for a while, Masato Takeshita went to the bathroom to take a bath.

He was very tired today and wanted to clear his mind while taking a shower.

When he finished washing, Izumi Sakai asked curiously.

"Why did you suddenly take so long to shower today?"

My partner and I usually finish within half an hour, but today we spent more than an hour, which is way too long.

"Nothing much, I just wanted to do nothing and just lie in the water."

"You must be tired today. Let me give you a shoulder massage."

Izumi Sakai noticed a hint of fatigue on her boyfriend's face and walked over to him with a pained expression.

"No need, you're tired too today." Sister Quanshui has a lot of things to do every day, there's no need for this.

"I'm not tired at all, I just practice singing and take care of the kids."

"You always downplay everything you say."

Takeshita Masato pulled his girlfriend's hand and sat her down on the sofa, a happy smile spreading across his face.

The two remained silent for a while, until the young man finally broke the silence.

Have you seen the Oricon chart trends for this year?

"Well, congratulations! Xinghai Music is finally on its way to success."

It was her industry, and her lover's company, so how could she not pay attention? However, the two of them rarely talked about Xinghai Music, so she didn't say much.

Xinghai Music has achieved great results this time, and it's the perfect opportunity to boast.

"Thank you, but that's not what I meant. I meant that there's a shift in music trends."

One of the most prominent characteristics of human beings is their tendency to prefer the new and tire of the old.

In the 80s, idol singers were the most popular in Japan. Then, in the late 80s, after people got tired of all kinds of idol songs, rock music with real talent began to rise.

Now, we've moved into the mid-90s. Rock music, at its peak, is clearly being replaced by electronic music, represented by Tetsuya Komuro.

"Is that so? Izumi Sakai has never paid attention to these things; he simply wants to sing."

"There are already signs of this, so you need to pay close attention."

"I understand, I will look into it."

Izumi Sakai didn't want to be left behind by the times; he hoped to keep improving.

"Well, as long as you have an idea."

The next morning, Masato Takeshita, who didn't have much to do, personally took his daughter to kindergarten.

"Teacher, I'll leave the rest to you."

"No trouble at all, Xiaohui is very cute and well-behaved."

"Ah That's good."

The two chatted briefly, and seeing that the teacher was busy, he didn't bother him again.

"Go ahead, I'll pick you up after school this afternoon."

"Really? That's great, Dad."

"Yes, really, don't worry."

Masato Takeshita is a man of his word; he always keeps his promises to his daughter.

Back at the office, Masato Takeshita quickly finished processing today's documents.

"Uchida-san, have you finished compiling the data on the battery industry?"

"Hi, I'll come and give it to you right away."

"okay."

Batteries are a core component of electronic products such as mobile phones, and Xinghai Group must master them.

However, the company's laboratories mainly research lithium batteries and have little experience in the field of lithium batteries.

But that's okay, Japan's environmental policies gave him the opportunity to enter the field of tweezer batteries.

Previously, batteries were sidelined because semiconductors and medical devices were given higher priority.

Now that I have more time, it's time to pick it up again.

Soon, Miho Uchida entered the office carrying a large stack of documents.

"Chairman, here is the battery industry information you need."

"Okay, you go down first."

"Yes!"

There is a lot of information, but it has been clearly organized into documents that are only a few pages or a dozen pages long.

Masato Takeshita's books are easy to browse, allowing you to quickly find what you want.

"Second-hand production lines are so cheap, only a few million dollars per line. New production lines aren't expensive either, you can easily get one for twenty or thirty million dollars."

Compared to other key components of electronic products, battery components should be the least expensive to purchase.

Tens of millions or even a few million are enough to get started in this industry. Unlike chips and panel screens, which often require hundreds of millions.

Think about BOE in the future. In order to catch up with foreign countries in the panel industry, it must have spent at least several billion US dollars, and possibly more than 10 billion.

However, the technical barriers to entry in this field are relatively low, and many people can get in.

Since the equipment was so cheap, Masato Takeshita naturally wanted to go all out.

With a wave of his hand, he directly built 10 new production lines in China.

Tweezer batteries will remain dominant for a long time, so the new production line will not be wasted.

"Let me see, where would be a good place to put it?"

"Hmm, let's put it in a second or third-tier city, so we don't have to keep moving."

Tweezers batteries are polluting, and building them in first-tier cities will cause many problems in the future. They are more flexible and convenient than those in second- or third-tier cities.

As for environmental protection, that can only be considered at a later time.

With many people going hungry, environmental protection is a false proposition.

As long as people can have enough to eat, environmental damage is acceptable.

Pollution first, then cleanup – this is an inevitable path that every country must take.

Because environmental protection is something you can only do after the economy improves.

The primary purpose of developed countries' environmental protection concepts is to stifle developing countries.

Of course, green mountains and clear waters are still very important, but their priority is lower than having enough to eat.

After briefly reviewing the documents, Masato Takeshita asked his secretary to bring John Chambers, the president of Seikai Technology, and Yoshiaki Takayama, the new president of Seikai Hardware, to his office.

About half an hour later, Miho Uchida knocked on his office door.

"President, President Chambers and President Takayama have arrived and are waiting at the front desk."

"Okay, let them come directly over."

"Hi!"

A little over a minute later, the two arrived at the office, led by Miho Uchida.

After exchanging a few brief pleasantries with his two subordinates, Masato Takeshita told them his purpose.

"Chairman, this is great news! The company should have established its own battery factory a long time ago."

"That's right, the company spends more than 100 billion yen on batteries every year."

Japan currently holds pricing power in the battery industry, which is why its prices are so attractive.

Chambers didn't want to be taken advantage of and had long intended to establish a battery factory.

However, he was a newcomer and didn't have many good options.

As for Yoshiaki Takayama, he didn't consider that much; he was only thinking about expanding his own power.

“I know all of this, so the company is planning to build five battery factories.”

"That's great, at least we won't be blackmailed by the battery company this time."

Although Chambers had only recently taken over Xinghai Technology, he already harbored a deep hatred for battery companies.

Now we'll have our own batteries soon, and we won't have to ask battery factories to produce them as quickly as possible anymore.

"That's right, that's right."

"Okay, take this information. We'll talk again after we decide on the factory location."

"Yes, President!"

Both responded simultaneously, saying they were going back to select the 10 most suitable positions.

Masato Takeshita, having delegated all the troublesome matters to his subordinates, suddenly felt much more relaxed and left the office early in the afternoon.

He was going to pick up his daughter from kindergarten; the two had already made that agreement.

(End of this chapter)