Just after the New Year of '83, Shirakawa Kaede, like the general public, began to work in the Shirakawa Building on the first day of the holiday.

The first thing that needed to be solved in the new year was the development of the next generation of CD players, which was one of Shirakawa's flagship products, and he had to check it personally.

Hearing Shirakawa Kaede's inquiry, Heitaro Nakajima sat up slightly, "Judging from the progress, there should be no problem in July and August." ”

The second-generation CD player does not need to be redesigned, and its goal is to improve the shortcomings of the first-generation CD player, so the timing is not particularly urgent.

However, when it comes to shortcomings, Shirakawa Kaede also frowned slightly, "Senior Brother Nakajima, let's talk about the main problems we have collected user feedback so far." ”

As a new type of music player, CD players always have various problems at the beginning.

This is true of Shirakawa Electric, and so is Sony.

"The most complained about problem of our CD player by users is the shock resistance, if it is just stationary, there will be no skipping and jamming.

But as long as you are in the process of exercising, such as walking, running, and jumping, there is a high probability that you will have a chance to skip the disc.

This has a great impact on the user experience, and many people complain that portable CD players are far less convenient than they think.

At best, compared to a desktop CD player, it can be used as a mobile audio device outdoors.

However, it is an active speaker that matches it, which has been widely praised by the public. ”

To be honest, regarding the seismic problem of his CD player, Nakajima Heitaro is not surprised that users will complain in this regard.

Of course, complaining is complaining, portable CDs still have a great advantage over desktops due to their cheap price and real portability.

To put it bluntly, it is all set off by peers, even if there are some shortcomings, it still sells well.

In addition, Shirakawa Electric's stereo active speaker, unexpectedly, seems to have become a bestseller.

This small speaker doesn't need an amplifier, and a lowest-end Walkman can push it, which is a black technology for many people who like music.

Of course, the most important thing is that it is cheap, and for less than 40,000 yen each, a pair can form a stereo system.

The stereo sound system, which costs less than 80,000 yen, instantly became a favorite among young people on the streets.

Those bamboo shoot people with flamboyant personalities no longer need to carry half-human speakers to gather on the streets, a pair of small active speakers in a backpack can solve everything.

At the same time, compared with the standing audio system that is hundreds of thousands of yen larger in the family, the active speaker is much cheaper, and it has also become the choice of many middle-class families.

It's too expensive to pay for, but the effect of a slightly weaker active speaker is still no problem.

So at the beginning of the sale, the sales of active speakers were much lower than that of CD players, after two or three months of fermentation, and now there is a trend of latecomers taking over.

I have to say that this is indeed a bonus, more than 400,000 pairs of active speakers earn more profit than CD players.

However, although on the surface, the profits of speakers seem to be more, but Shirakawa Kaede has always focused on the CD player.

He knows that this is the mainstream of the future, and he can't favor one over the other because of the momentary market feedback.

"The vibration resistance of the next generation of CD players must be improved, if not to eliminate disc jumping, but also to reduce the frequency of their occurrence.

The anti-seismic solution can be concentrated in the two directions of the bald head and the turntable, which are the main mechanisms for the CD player to work. ”

The so-called jumping disc is nothing more than the instability of the turntable caused by vibration, or the loss of information grabbing due to the shaking of the bald head.

If you want to solve it completely, it may not be possible with the current technology, but it is still possible to reduce the impact of vibration.

"Turntables and bald heads?" Listening to Shirakawa Kaede's reminder, Heitaro Nakajima was thoughtful.

As an expert in this area, he already had a few vague ideas in his head.

"Let's start with the physical aspects, such as optimizing the structure of the turntable and reinforcing its compatibility with the optical disc.

The same is true for bald heads, but they are more suitable for the improvement of digital informatization.

In order to reduce the difficulty of implementation, give priority to turntables.

A caliper structure is designed to strengthen the contact area between the disc and the transmission system, which can effectively reduce the resonance of the turntable system. ”

Saying that, Shirakawa Kaede had already taken out a blank piece of paper and began to write and draw, he also studied science in his previous life, and he still had a bit of a foundation in the knowledge of mechanical structure.

At the same time, the precision design of machinery has always been Shirakawa's strong point, and this tradition has been passed down from the Walkman a few years ago.

At this time, after everyone below saw the schematic diagram of Shirakawa Kaede's painting, their eyes lit up.

There are many things that everyone didn't expect at first, but when they saw the face, they instantly understood the principle.

"Yasuda, this task will be handed over to you."

"Hay, this turntable system will be put into operation before July."

In terms of general ideas, Shirakawa Kaede has already given the direction, and Yasuda, as an expert in mechanical design, already has specific design ideas in his heart.

"In addition to the seismic problem, our portable CD player also needs to be further optimized in terms of miniaturization."

Shirakawa Electric's current CD player also has an additional power supply box, although it is a great improvement compared to the desktop CD player, and there are not many users who complain.

But that doesn't mean that Shirakawa Electric is satisfied with the status quo and rests on its laurels.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is Shirakawa Energy's latest achievement, the gum battery."

Shirakawa Kaede took out a flat, slender battery from the storage box handed over by the assistant next to him.

"Eh" everyone present showed a look of surprise.

Shirakawa Kaede passed the gum battery down and let them observe it carefully.

"This new type of battery has gone through tens of millions of formula screenings before finally reaching its current capacity of 1350mAh."

“1350mAh？！” Everyone subconsciously exclaimed.

"That's right," Shirakawa Kaede nodded affirmatively, "It will be the special battery that we will promote for electronic products in the future." ”

At present, the No. 2 battery used in portable CD players has a capacity of about 2000mAh.

It may seem like the gum battery is still a lot behind, but the number 2 battery is too big.

The reason why the first generation of portable CD players had a modular structure was because a few No. 2 batteries really couldn't fit into a compact CD player.

Now with the gum battery, the true all-in-one design of the CD player is no longer an obstacle.

"The next generation of portable CD players we have to throw away the burden of the battery box, and 4 pieces of chewing gum are spread on the bottom of the CD player, which can completely replace the existence of the battery box."

Shirakawa Kaede took the gum battery and gestured at the bottom of the CD player, and everyone's eyes lit up.

With a thickness of less than two centimeters, it is indeed a trivial matter for a CD player.

"At the same time, the gum battery can also be used on the Walkman, we have done tests, and a single gum battery can support the Walkman to work continuously for more than 2 hours."

I have to say that although it is the first generation of chewing gum battery, Shirakawa Kaede is very satisfied with its performance.

It not only solves the problem of battery life of the Walkman, but also solves the problem of miniaturization of portable CD players.

"If that's the case, maybe we can completely abandon the traditional No. 5 battery design for our future products."

Yasuda is well aware of the advantages of this new type of battery, and it may not be impossible for it to replace GM's No. 5 and No. 7 batteries in electronic products in the future.

"It's not so radical," Shirakawa Kaede never thought that his chewing gum battery could replace international standards.

"We can do it both ways and make the battery compartment of the Walkman a detachable module.

Both No. 5 battery and gum battery have special battery compartments, and as long as they are gently snapped on, the battery model can be easily switched. ”

He had already considered this, and he took out a small, long-shaped box.

"Similar to this design, we offer a box for a chewing gum battery for free in the new Walkman accessory, and a box for battery 5 needs to be purchased separately.

Of course, I believe that after experiencing the strong battery life of the chewing gum battery, it will be difficult for users to refuse its existence.

After the public's usage habits are cultivated, the integrated design of chewing gum batteries in the future will be considered. ”

Shirakawa Kaede has always preferred a step-by-step approach in the promotion of the market, and if it is too aggressive, it is easy to suffer from user complaints.

Everyone here was also impressed by the small design of the battery compartment, which was really full of creativity.

In the same way, the portable CD player will also retain the interface of the original battery compartment. Users can change the power supply mode at will according to their own choice. ”

Shirakawa Kaede wants to vigorously promote the use of chewing gum batteries, but is also worried about the acceptance of users.

Therefore, in the way of large-scale promotion, this relatively compromise design method is adopted.

Everyone nodded in agreement, after all, many neon people are very stubborn.

Look at the era of smart phones, Xiao Ri is still using a large number of clamshell machines.

The stubbornness of the neon people is like driving history backwards.

"By the way, how long do our gum batteries last?" Heitaro Nakajima is more concerned about the durability of the new battery.

"It's okay to charge and discharge 500 times, and when the Walkman is available, we'll put the gum batteries in the vending machine.

Several clubs are talking about this, so if nothing else, there should be no problem. ”

It is a way to use Shirakawa Electric's products to promote chewing gum batteries, and of course, in order to facilitate users to buy, vending machines are also a powerful tool for promotion.

Even Sony and Panasonic are there, and Kaede Shirakawa wants to meet them.

Rather than being reckless alone, it is better to pull these two giants together, so as to accelerate the development of Shirakawa Energy.

However, there is no rush in this matter, and it is best to wait for Shirakawa Electric's chewing gum batteries to be sold for a while.

"In addition to the improvements to portable CD players and the use of gum batteries, it's time for us to launch our own desktop CD player this year."

After speaking, Shirakawa Kaede looked at Heitaro Nakajima, "Senior brother, you still need to worry a lot about this work. ”

"No problem" task, he took it rightly.

Although Sony has launched a desktop CD player, it has not surpassed Shirakawa Electric's portable CD player in sales.

But in order to enrich the product line, Shirakawa Electric also wants to launch its own desktop.

It exists as a high-end item in CD players, and for some music lovers, the sound quality of a desktop computer is indeed better than that of a portable CD player.

And because of the higher selling price, it is also very profitable.

In addition, as a high-end product in the CD player, if you don't occupy it, others will occupy it.

So for desktops, Shirakawa has never intended to give up.

"Considering the level of difficulty, the portable CD player was launched in July and the desktop machine in October.

However, in addition to these two CD players, we also need to develop a third CD player. ”

"The third type of CD player?" Everyone in the audience was taken aback, they had no idea that there was a so-called third CD player.

(End of chapter)