I wish you all a happy Lantern Festival!

……

"Please go to the professional service area over there." After the salesperson finished instructing, he continued to respectfully entertain the two imposing-looking customers, Akio Morita and Norio Oga, "What else do you need to consult?" ”

"Then apply for a membership for me and buy a D-VHS recorder." A thoughtful Akio Morita commanded.

At this time, a young man with a large travel bag hurriedly walked over and said, "Bring me ten boxes of S-VHS-C video tapes with handheld cameras." ”

"Please go over there and pay." After the salesperson wrapped the videotape that the other party needed, he carefully advised, "When you usually maintain it, please be sure to prevent moisture." ”

Looking at the extraordinarily small S-VHS-C videotape, the corners of Akio Morita's mouth twitched stiffly, and he asked slowly: "What is the size of the videotape used in this handheld camera?" ”

"It's only 92 millimeters× 69 millimeters × 23 millimeters, and you can watch it on a regular VHS recorder with an adapter, but the resolution it supports is lower." The salesperson grabbed an adapter and gave the new member a demonstration.

"It's so exquisite, it's hard to make a Betamax tape so small." Akio Morita praised in a complicated tone.

"You've got to the point." After complimenting the salesperson, he asked earnestly, "We also have the most advanced broadcast S-VHS product solutions here, do you need to know about them?" ”

I have to say that the salesperson's eyes are very poisonous, and he will not let go when he stares at Akio Morita and Norio Ohga. And the other party's reaction is worthy of his diligence.

……

After leaving Akihabara. Akio Morita said with a gloomy face: "Our intelligence department is simply an ornament. If I hadn't gone through private channels, I wouldn't have found out about the VHS format, no, the S-VHS format is already so strong. ”

A trace of embarrassment flashed on Norio Ohga's face, and he opened his mouth to persuade a few words, "The previous lawsuit between us and Universal Pictures has reached a critical stage, and it is inevitable that our subordinates will be negligent. ”

In the 1970s, Sony developed the U-Matic videotape format. Dominance in the industry is very strong, and Hollywood's view of home video recorders tends to be two-tiered, with optimists estimating that it can bring in a considerable amount of additional income; The pessimists fear that they will be further slapped with the elusive box office that has been hit by the impact of television entertainment.

Among them, Universal Pictures and Disney belong to the latter, so after Sony launched the Betamax format, they took the lead and sued Sony and its distributors for copyright infringement in California, USA.

The lawsuit has dragged on for about eight years, and has even reached the U.S. Supreme Court.

Sony, an ambitious foreigner, was naturally in a very difficult situation in the United States at first. But with the booming home video recorder market, especially after the explosive leap around the world last year. As well as RCA, which felt an opportunity, joined the Betamax camp to exert influence, and the situation began to favor Sony.

This year, the U.S. Supreme Court finally ruled that the use of video cameras in the public domain did not violate copyright, and Sony was able to get out of the quagmire.

This was originally a happy event, but Akio Morita now sees that the victory of the lawsuit may not effectively increase the market share of his own Betamax format, on the contrary, he may have made a wedding dress for his opponent VHS format, which has an increasingly obvious advantage, and it is strange that he can be happy.

Norio Oga understood Akio Morita's feelings, so he continued: "Judging from the information gathered by the intelligence department on the American side, the RCA is leading our Betamax format and launching a fierce offensive against the VHS format. Last year, the price of VHS video recorders fell below $1,000 and gained great popularity, but RCA copied this trick and directly lowered the price to $895 this year. Perhaps, the decisive battle between the Betamax format and the VHS format is not far off. ”

Akio Morita snorted, "I hope that this decisive moment will not come too early." ”

Unfortunately, the development of the situation is not something that Sony can decide at this stage. The more you worry about the cheese on the table falling to the floor, the more it actually falls.

As soon as Akio Morita and Norio Oga returned to the company headquarters, their subordinates sent a document in a panic, and reported in a trembling voice: "President, president, this is news from the American branch, and the VHS alliance has begun to fight against the water!" ”

When you open the folder, the first thing that catches your eye is a fax of a newspaper. Akio Morita only glanced at it, and it felt as if he had been hit head-on, booming.

……

The protracted videotape wars between Betamax and VHS have not only left manufacturers at a loss, but also greatly damaged the rights and interests of consumers.

No one knows when this war will end and which side will be victorious.

But what is clear is that if this war is allowed to continue, in the end, consumers will inevitably have an extremely large number of videotapes and video recorders in their hands, which will become obsolete.

In order to avoid a recurrence of the chaos caused by the vicious competition in the videotape market in the 1970s, Epson, JVC, Panasonic, Sharp, ShackRadio, Wal-Mart, Luen Mei, MGM, Twentieth Century Fox, Columbia Pictures, Warner, Paramount, CNN, and nearly 60 other companies, including equipment manufacturing, channel distribution, and program content provision, have reached an agreement that from now on, only VHS format will be supported.

……

According to the analysis of performance observers, the current lineup of the Betamax Alliance, including the latest addition to the RCA, is only 13 companies. This inauspicious figure seems to hint at a bleak outlook.

Epson and JVC flipped the table in a frenzy to push the videotape format battle to a deciding set against the backdrop of this year's U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the use of videotapes in the public domain does not infringe copyright. The development of the home video camera industry has no legal risks.

Faced with RCA's aggressive trend of cutting the price of Betamax recorders below $900 to grab market share. Epson and JVC clearly don't want to be dragged into a stalemate. It's about a quick fix.

Epson, which led the research and development of the VHS upgrade format S-VHS, publicly stated that ending this senseless dispute due to the interests of merchants as soon as possible can allow everyone to focus on developing the next generation of more advanced digital home entertainment systems for families around the world.

……

Akio Morita, who had finally calmed down, turned his gaze to the manual of the D-VHS recorder that he had casually placed on the table just now, and muttered to himself: "Tang Huan's ultimate goal in the field of home entertainment, is it digital content?" ”

"This D-VHS format should be a test product made by Tang Huan himself." Norio Ohga, who has also read the document, muttered: "After joining the CD-DA alliance the year before last, he tried to pull us into the VCD alliance that implements video functions on CDs, but the terms were not in our interest. Coupled with the fact that the goal of completely replacing videotapes and laser discs was ridiculous, the invitation was finally over. Now it seems that Tang Huan should have not given up this effort, and the D-VHS format realizes the digital access of audio and video on the videotape, which is obviously preparing for the transition to VCD. ”

"Contact Tang Huan immediately to learn about the latest developments in this VCD alliance, we can't be out again." Akio Morita said with a twinkle in his eyes.

Hearing Akio Morita say all the words "out", Norio Oga couldn't help but sink in his heart and muttered to himself, "Could it be that the chairman plans to admit defeat in the battle between Betamax and VHS tape format?" ”

……

Tang Huan is not so easy to find. He is also in Japan with a lot of opportunities. For example, his team of consultants wanted to analyze the success story of the dance machine, and he wanted to learn more about the current mentality of the Japanese people from the bottom to the elite. After all, a little more mastery may mean another business opportunity.

In fact, Tang Huan was quite surprised by the hot sales of dance machines in Japan. His original intention was just to create an opportunity, but he didn't expect the dance machine to become the main decisive force for the expansion of the second-generation Xiaobawang game console market.

Most people believe that the success of the dance machine is a phenomenon, but with the further aggregation of information, Tang Huan noticed that there are also some inevitable factors in it.

For example, Japanese women, who are the main consumers of dance machines, often feel that their depression suppressed by the patriarchal tradition seems to have been completely released after they devote themselves to the dance machine game driven by pop idols.

Unexpectedly, the dance machine turned out to be a symbol representing women's liberation. Sure enough, the highest level of making games is to rise to the level of culture.

Tang Huan, who was smiling, went to visit the Japanese branches of Warner and Polygram with great interest, but he didn't expect several well-known brokerage companies to send their most popular female artists to invite him to participate in various special parties.

However, Tang Huan still has a more important banquet to attend, Japan's current Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Hikozaburo Komoto invited him to dinner in the name of business, and the participants are mainly representatives of some Japanese semiconductor companies.

The ongoing Japan-US semiconductor war is a major focus of the Japan-US trade friction, and Tang Huan's company's demand for memory ranks first in the world, and the position of leading the industry is very obvious.

In addition, the banquet was accompanied by two other political dignitaries, one is the current Foreign Minister Shintaro Abe, and the other is the current Minister of Finance, Noboru Takeshita.

Therefore, the specifications of this banquet are definitely high enough to give the richest man enough face. You must know that Japan is a world economic power, and the actual status of these three ministers of state who hold real power in the cabinet of Yasuhiro Nakasone is comparable to that of the heads of state of small countries, so Tang Huan has also done his homework in advance.

Masayoshi Son, who was traveling with him, looked a little nervous and excited in the car, which is also human nature, after all, as a Korean, it is very difficult to squeeze into the upper class of society in Japan, and he still does not have Japanese nationality.

Seeing Tang Huan throw the two blue pills into his mouth, chew them in a big gulp, and then take a bottle of water and drink it with his head up, Sun Zhengyi, who was a little flustered, subconsciously asked, "How do you eat Viagra?" ”

After Tang Huan coughed violently for a while, he replied with a smile, "Is this a good stomach digesting tablet, after coming to Japan, I have eaten cooked and eaten raw, sweet and spicy, and I will drink alcohol for a while, I am doing maintenance." ”

Son Masayoshi laughed embarrassedly, "I was a little distracted just now, and when I saw the blue pills, my first reaction was the Viagra that had been out of stock for the last few times." ”

"It seems that I have to ask someone to change the packaging of the stomach digesting tablets, so many colors are not used, how can they match the eyes of blue." Tang Huan muttered with annoyance while wiping the water on his shirt with a handkerchief.

"Would you like a change of clothes?" Son reminded apologetically.

"Forget it, it's too much trouble." Tang Huan waved his hand disappreciatively, "Besides, even if I don't want to pay attention to it, others can't say why, Silicon Valley nouveau riche." ”

At this time, when the car arrived at the place, Tang Huan took another sip of water, moistened his throat, and then pushed the car door and got out of the car. A gust of wind blew, and the handkerchief in his hand fell out inadvertently, and was scraped several steps away.

A young man who was in charge of greeting him ran over, picked up the handkerchief, and respectfully returned it, "Mr. Tang, your handkerchief." ”

"Thank you." Tang Huan took it, folded it twice, and put it in the pocket of his suit, but when his eyes swept over the other party, he couldn't help but be slightly stunned, "You are ......"

"Hello Mr. Tang, I'm Shinzo Abe, my father, Foreign Minister Shintaro Abe, and I am ordered to wait for you here." Shinzo Abe hurriedly introduced himself.

"I said, why was the posture of a trot so coquettish just now!" After muttering in his heart, Tang Huan nodded with a smile, "Fortunately, fortunately, Mr. Abe's family history is limitless." ”

Tang Huan didn't say it casually, you must know that Shinzo Abe's father, Shintaro Abe, together with Noboru Takeshita and Kiichi Miyazawa, are known as the three major leaders of Japanese politics and governance by the outside world, his maternal grandfather Nobusuke Kishi served as the prime minister of Japan in the 1950s, and his maternal uncle Sakae Sato served as the prime minister of Japan in the 1960s, all of which are extremely influential figures. And there is a significant feature of Japan's political ecology, that is, family inheritance. Shintaro Abe's current status is not unrelated to the deep political assets of his successor father-in-law, Nobusuke Kishi.

"Mr. Tang has won the award, and everyone is already waiting for you inside." Shinzo Abe said as he led the way in front.

"Is Abe now in politics?" Tang Huan asked with some curiosity. (To be continued.) )