October 1980. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

When Lin Qi returned to Hong Kong, Rong Jian said to him with a worried expression: "The calculator business of Xinai Electronics Factory is a little not good!"

"What?" Lin Qi couldn't help but be stunned, "Imitated by a copycat?"

"No, the price of electronic calculators from Japanese manufacturers has been greatly reduced!" Rong Jian said with a wry smile, "Especially Sharp, which has launched the EL-826 function calculator, which weighs only 1.5 ounces, and the retail price in the market is as low as 23 US dollars, and the retail price in Hong Kong is only 133 Hong Kong dollars." Not to mention exports, even in the domestic market, there are some smuggled Sharp calculators, you know, the retail price of the domestic black market Sharp calculator is 198 yuan, which is 100 yuan cheaper than the price of our products sold through regular channels!

"We are also following up on price reductions!" Lin Qi said, "The cost of Xinai Electronics is also very low, right? I saw the briefing last month, 90% of the components have been localized, and the hardware cost has been reduced to 50 Hong Kong dollars through the supply of cheap parts through domestic suppliers." ”

"The problem is that the price of TN LCD panels, the only component that has not been localized, has risen......," Rong Jian said, "The original TN LCD panel used for calculators on the market cost 3 Hong Kong dollars a piece, but now it has skyrocketed to 8 Hong Kong dollars." The original TN LCD screen of the electronic watch has also increased from 5 cents to more than 2 yuan. Not only the price of Sharp's TN LCD has risen, but the entire Japanese TN LCD panel has increased by more than 2~3 times. It's not just us who have been affected, Hong Kong's manufacturers of electronic watches and calculators have been in mourning. ”

"The core components are controlled by others, of course it will be like this!" Lin Qi said calmly, "Japan also makes electronic watches and calculators, and at the beginning it also introduced foreign components, but it quickly completed the localization, and the core TN LCD panel, Japan's output has accounted for 90% of the world! Hong Kong has only followed the trend for so many years, and there are hundreds of electronics factories, but none of them do the core LCD panels! Being stuck in the throat by others, of course, a large piece will die." ”

Lin Qicai didn't admit that it was because he launched a low-cost function calculator, which stimulated those electronics manufacturers in Japan to join forces.

The Japanese are like this, many companies have me and I have you, and behind them are controlled by those chaebols.

In the mid-80s, Sitong, a Chinese company that Chinese display typewriters, developed a Chinese typewriter that was cheap and could meet the needs of the Chinese market. However, the core components of the typewriter cannot be produced in-house, but need to be produced by the Mitsui Group of Japan. At the beginning, the two sides cooperated happily, and all the core parts of the Sitong typewriter were handed over to the Mitsui Group for procurement, and the Sitong earned the profit of OEM production, and the Mitsui Group made money for the supply of parts.

With the booming market share of Sitong typewriter in China, it does not want to be subject to the Mitsui Group.

Sitong Company told Mitsui of Japan that it would purchase parts independently. Mitsui Group could not convince Sitong with good words and bad words, and finally warned Sitong that independent procurement may not be cheaper, and if the parts are purchased separately, Mitsui will not guarantee its quality.

Sitong Company, which thought it had broken free from the control of the Mitsui Group, found that all the printer components in Japan were all at the same price. However, after buying all the key parts, it was found that the hardware cost of the whole machine added up to be more expensive than the previous purchase of all the components through a supplier in Mitsui.

The reason is very simple -- most of the manufacturers who supply Sitong Hanxian typewriters are related to the Mitsui Group, and even companies that are not directly related to Mitsui's equity also sell Mitsui's face, so the entire Japanese printer industry has formed a price monopoly alliance. To put it simply, you can give you whatever price you want, and if you can't produce independently, you won't have bargaining power!

The collective price increase of TN panels this time is just a lesson for the Chinese in advance. At least, Hong Kong and domestic manufacturers of calculators and electronic watches know what Japanese manufacturers are!

Internally, the Japanese themselves will certainly have a civil war, but once they have made up their minds to defeat their overseas competitors, they will consciously join forces.

To put it simply, Japanese manufacturers are monopolies and engage in unfair competition. Sometimes it is dumped at a low price, and sometimes it is a collective price increase.

Small and medium-sized electronics manufacturers like Hong Kong have no countermeasures at all, so they can only be slaughtered by others.

"The LCD panel should already be able to produce some of it independently in China, right?" said Lin Qi uncertainly.

The importance of TN panel technology has been recognized in China long before the reform and opening up. Since the mid-70s, many domestic research institutes have carried out the research and development of black and white TN-LCD screens.

In 79 years, China has mastered the ability of small-scale production of TN LCD panels in laboratories, and the LCD panels used in military machines and instruments can be self-sufficient.

"The production capacity is relatively small, and it is also relatively dispersed. Rong Jian explained, "Moreover, the bigger problem is - patents!"

"Patents?" Lin Qi was stunned.

"Yes!" Rong Jian said, "Our products are purchased from Japanese parts, because the TN panels produced in Japan are purchased with patent authorization, so there is no patent dispute for each part of our whole machine." However, with domestic LCD panels, it is good to produce and sell them in China, but if they are exported overseas, there will be patent disputes. ”

"If you can buy a patent, buy it!" Lin Qi said, "How much is it, and who will sell it?"

"RCA USA!" "In the late 60s, RCA developed TN liquid crystal display technology in the laboratory and established a production line. But later, RCA decided that the liquid crystal display foundation did not have any commercial value, so it disbanded the liquid crystal laboratory, of course, the basic patent is still in the hands of the Americans. Japanese manufacturers have purchased patent licenses and production lines for LCD panels in the United States since 72. Subsequently, Sharp introduced electronic calculators, and Seiko launched electronic watches...... Later, there were too many TN LCD manufacturers in Japan, and in order to seize the overseas market faster, they also began to supply TN LCD panels to the outside world. Since the TN panels supplied by Japanese manufacturers have always been very cheap, about the same as the cost of their own production, so overseas electronic watch and calculator manufacturers do not have the heart to engage in TN LCD panels by themselves, and completely rely on importing and assembling OEM from Japan to make money!"

"Now that Japan's LCD panel manufacturers have raised their prices, it is estimated that they feel that electronic factories around the world have fattened up and are ready to join forces to raise prices to slaughter fat sheep!" Lin Qi said with a sneer.

Originally, in the early 80s, TN panels had fallen behind in technology, and Japanese manufacturers began to engage in more advanced STN panel technology. At this time, the old production line of TN panels was transferred to the mainland and Taiwan on a large scale.

When Japan began to realize that STN technology had no future and began to develop TFT-LCD panels, it transferred those transitional technologies such as STN to other countries.

STN is just a chicken rib, and there is no need to engage in it at all. But TN is very necessary, because, in addition to electronic watches and calculators, handheld computers also need this kind of screen.

"It's no wonder that Japanese companies are arrogant, because although the basic patent of TN liquid crystal is in the hands of American companies, it will expire in a few years. However, the experience and technology of large-scale production are mastered by those LCD panel companies in Japan. Rong Jian said.

"Go to the U.S. and buy basic patents!" Lin Qi said.

"But...... It's going to expire in a few years, don't wait?!"

"Don't wait! Even if it's overdue next year, I can't wait, so I'm going to buy it right away. If you don't buy it, you will lose a lot!" Lin Qi said.

"$3 million!" Rong Jian said painfully.

"As long as we buy it, the "China Cube" handheld will be mass-produced, and it won't take a year to earn it back!" Lin Qi said, "What's more, in addition to our own use, we can also sell it to other electronics manufacturers, and we will definitely not lose money!"

With Lin Qi's resolute proposal, Rong Jian had no choice but to borrow money from the Rong family's relatives. In other words, last year, Yung Jian wanted to borrow $3 million, and the Hong Kong Rong family would definitely refuse.

But now it's different, not mentioning Rong Jian's father's relationship, just the business that Rong Jian cooperated with Lin Qi made the Rong family feel at ease about their ability to pay their debts.

After borrowing the money, Rong Jian arranged a foundry to work on the OEM production of the "China Cube" handheld machine, and then flew to the United States in the starry night to discuss the authorization of the TN liquid crystal technology patent and its derivative technology.

You must know that the price of TN panel technology introduced by Japanese manufacturers in the early 70s was only 3 million US dollars. At that time, patent protection fees were still very long.

Now that the patent protection period is about to expire, it is always necessary to add more technology or equipment......