Chapter 716 – Cordless phone
It was a new office building located in the East Third Ring Road. On the building, there were two ancient Chinese characters. “Wind and Rain”
This building had cost Feng Yu quite a lot. But he felt the money spent was worthwhile. This was because this area was gazetted as Beijing business district.
In the future, many international and Chinese companies will set up their China’s headquarters here. This includes CCTV, the People’s Daily. This place will be China’s most famous business district. It can even be compared to Shanghai’s business district.
Also, the two prominent ancient Chinese characters on the building were huge. This building will definitely be a landmark here.
Of course, Wind and Rain Electronics does not need such a big office building. So, Wind and Rain Logistics, Aiwa Electronics, Wind and Rain Pharmaceutical, Bing City Machinery Company, and the rest of Feng Yu’s companies, set up their Beijing offices in this building. Tai Hua Supermarket Enterprise headquarters had also shifted their headquarters to this building.
The remaining empty floors of the building were rented out. Feng Yu was satisfied with the rents, and it was still the rentals in this era. In another 3 to 5 years, rents will increase by several folds. Those companies that rented offices in this building were 3-years short term lease. If they do not agree with the increase in rents, they can move out. There will be other companies who were willing to pay the high rentals.
The biggest office on the top floor was Feng Yu’s office. It was more than 500 sqm. In his office, there was a gym, a recreation corner, an entertainment corner, a resting area, and many other rooms for different purposes. There was even a private stairwell to the rooftop. This was specially requested by Feng Yu. He wants to build a helipad on the roof for his helicopter in the future.
The aviation regulations in China was stringent. But in a few years, the rules will relax, and people start to own private planes and airline companies.
Feng Yu took the special elevator up to his office. Mei Zhigao picked up the phone on the table and called the room next door. “Boss has arrived.”
Feng Yu walked towards the recreation corner. There was a bar there, and he opened a cabinet. There were all sorts of dried fruits and other titbits. He took a few plates of dried fruits and sat at the bar to wait.
Aiwa Little Tyrant’s Duan Yongping, Aiwa Electronics’ Xu Lihua, Wind and Rain Electronics’ Jiang Wanmeng, and a few other people entered. Feng Yu waved them over to have the snacks together, and Mei Zhigao left the room, closing the door behind him.
“Old Duan, what is this cordless phone you are talking about? We have brought all our engineers over. Just tell us what you need us to do.”
Feng Yu was relaxed as he knew this project will surely be a success. In his previous life, Duan Yongping had left the Little Tyrant after falling out with them over the restructuring of the company.
But Duan Yongping was not in despair. He had the technical skills and understands the market well. He made use of his connections and got the license to manufacture cordless phones.
In the past life, BBK cordless phones were very popular in China. They had occupied more than 70% of the market share. This product helped Duan Yongping amassed funds quickly and forms the foundation of the company.
Later, BBK Electronics introduces a series of products, including repeaters, reading machines, cellphones, etc. All of their products sold well in the market.
That’s why Feng Yu had confidence in Duan Yongping. In his previous life, this was the year when Duan Yongping set up BBK Electronics. Although it was a few months earlier, the company’s technological abilities were much higher than Feng Yu’s previous life.
Duan Yongping nodded and said to everyone: “Cordless phones have existed in other countries for many years. It is only a telephone that uses radio waves to connect the handset and the base station. The handset can still be connected dozens of meters away from the base station. This cordless phone is more convenient than the traditional telephone. This is not a difficult technology and has great market potential.”
Xu Lihua tapped his cigarette ash into the ashtray and said to others: “We Aiwa Electronics can handle the part on radio waves. We are more familiar in this technology then the rest of you.”
Although Aiwa Electronics currently only manufactures pagers and stock pagers, they started off with manufacturing walkie talkies. They might not be the best in China for this technology, but they were definitely better than Duan Yongping and the rest.
Also, Xu Lihua and his men had wanted to produce mobile phones. Feng Yu was also supportive of this idea. They could make use of this cordless phone to perfect their mobile phone technologies.
Jiang Wanmeng added: “We are better in LCD and keypads. We can handle this part.”
Aiwa Home Appliances person in charge said: “We are not as good as you all in those areas. But if you all need phone recording features, we are good at it. Or if you need any help with the speakers and receivers, we can also help.”
After they finished, all of them looked at Duan Yongping. They will be handling all the critical components of this product. Then what will Aiwa Little Tyrant handle?
“We had accidentally developed a new technology which allows a base station to connect to multiple handsets. That means we can leave a handset in every room at home with only a base station. This way, no matter which room you are in, you will be able to pick up the call. My men are also good at radio waves. We are also able to help in this area. Also, I have conducted market research for this product. In the market, there is a huge demand for cordless phones. But the imported brands are too expensive. The cost of production of a cordless phone is not high. We can use low prices to compete against them.”
How much does a cordless phone cost in China now? 1 to 2 thousand RMB! The leading cordless phone brands in China were Philips, Motorola. Panasonic and Siemens. Based on Jiang Wanmeng’s calculations, the cost of a cordless phone was less than 200 RMB. They even felt that the cost might be much lower due to those big companies’ economies of scale.
How much were their profits? Several times of its cost!
All of them who were present at this meeting had the abilities to manufacture this product too. With such high profits at stake, why not just produce and sell this product themselves?
The few of them discussed for a while and suddenly noticed Feng Yu had not said a word. They all quieted down and looked at Feng Yu.
Feng Yu put down the dried peach he was holding and wiped his hands. He then drank some water before pointing to a stack of documents on the table. “There. Those are the information send over by Philips. You all can take a look.”
All of them were confused when Jiang Wanmeng suddenly opened his eyes wide: “Philips had given us their cordless phone technologies?”
“We are partners with Philips, and we agreed to share our technologies. Although this is not some new technology, it should help you all save a lot of time. Also, Philips owns some patents of these related technologies. These are also free for us to use.”
All of them knew that this was not a new technology. The technologies Wind and Rain Electronics exchanged with Philips were also not the latest technologies.
“That’s great. Manager Feng, with this information, we guarantee that we will develop the best cordless phone in the world within 3 months!” Duan Yongping’s face had turned red from his excitement.
Feng Yu laughed. “I trust all of you. This cordless phone project will be headed by Duan Yongping. The rest of you can send some of your men to form a development team. When this project is successful, all of you will get the credit. You all will be rewarded handsomely!!”