Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Chapter 861: Smart Fitness Drying Rack

Pei Qian pondered for a moment. One of the important factors in the success of Otto E1 was the mature design of many supply chains. The quality control of the cell phone was guaranteed. In addition, it only held up the high-end cell phone’s reputation with additional services such as no repair.

What about the opposite now?

Wouldn’t he be unable to guarantee the quality control if he only used the immature designs on the supply chain?

Of course, Pei Qian did not intend to scam consumers. If the quality was not good enough, he would just change it and not fix it. If not, he would give more compensation. At the same time that the cost of selling Otto Technologies rose, its reputation would become worse, and its sales would decrease. That would cause a chain reaction...

Wouldn’t that be a win-win situation?

Thus, after some consideration, Pei Qian asked, “What are the latest technologies in the supply chain?”

Chang You pondered for a moment and said, “The latest technology... should be a full screen display technology and a pop-up camera. This should be the mainstream plan for next year. From what I know, Shenhua and other large cell phone manufacturers have plans to develop similar models.”

“However, a full screen display would also bring certain problems. For example, the cell phone’s weight would increase, the cost would increase, the waterproof performance would be worse, the heat dissipation would be worse, the quality of the cell phone would be lower, and so on. The only benefit would be that the front side of the cell phone would be a full screen with a nicer appearance.”

“Therefore, these large brands would not consider using full screen display as a flagship model or for volume sales.”

Pei Qian nodded. “Yes, this is not bad. This is it!”

Of course, Pei Qian had predicted the development of cell phones.

Full Screen Displays were definitely a trend for future development. Before perfect full screen displays could be mass-produced, water droplets camera, bangs camera, pinhole camera and pop-up cameras would definitely exist as alternatives for a long time.

The pop-up camera would become popular for a short period of time, but it would soon be replaced by water droplets camera and pinhole camera.

Of course, some flagship models with 3D structural light would adopt bang cameras, but it obviously had nothing to do with Otto Technologies, which did not have much technical reserves.

He might have decided on the pop-up camera but there was still a high chance of success for the conventional pop-up camera. Pei Qian had to think of another way to be more safe.

” where exactly is the camera going to pop-up according to current plans?” Pei Qian asked.

Chang You immediately answered, “Of course it’s on top, Boss Pei. It’s usually arranged near the top of the cell phone. Some are on the left, some on the right, and some in the middle. The structure and the layout of the cell phone would naturally differ, but not too much.”

Pei Qian nodded. “En... We can’t be like them since everyone else is putting it on the top.”

“How about this? We’ll take the side!”

“Make it on the left side of the cell phone!”

Chang You was stunned. “Huh?”

It was indeed a relatively common plan to make a pop-up camera in the upper left corner of the cell phone. However, the upper left corner of the cell phone was on the short side and was ejected vertically. However, Boss Pei wanted to make it on the long side and to pop up horizontally!

That was too strange!

Of course, this position was not too ridiculous. That was because the lower half of the cell phone was not suitable to be used as a pop-up camera. It would be easily blocked by the hand and could only be used as the upper half of the cell phone.

However, ordinary people would definitely do it on the top, right? How could they do it on the side!

It would look like a ridiculous number “7” when the camera pops up.

Chang You hesitated for a moment and said, “Boss Pei, wouldn’t it be asymmetric if we set up a pop-up camera at this location? It might look ugly, right?”

Pei Qian remained silent for a moment. “Asymmetrical? Hmm... you can add another camera in the upper right or lower left corner to make a symmetrical shape.”

Chang You: “???”

What the f*ck! Two pop-up cameras!

Chang You said it was asymmetrical mainly because he felt that he should move the camera to the middle. It would at least look more beautiful no matter whether it was the middle of the upper side or the middle of the left side.

Yet, Boss Pei actually understood it as a symmetry between two pop-up cameras?

Wasn’t this a joke!

It was a good cell phone, but there were too many pop-up cameras. What was the use of making so many pop-up cameras!

Chang You said, “That’s definitely not appropriate...”

Pei Qian waved his hand. “Just do it in the position I mentioned. Alright, this design is set. You can think about the other details yourself.”

Chang You opened his mouth, but he did not say anything seeing how determined Boss Pei was.

Obviously, there was a deeper meaning in Boss Pei’s words. It was not appropriate to ask more now since it was better to figure it out for himself.

Pei Qian continued, “Apart from developing cell phones, I have another project for you. This project requires you to work closely with Deposit Fitness and Shang Yang Games to complete.”

Chang You naturally placed great importance when he heard that the project required three departments to work together. He temporarily put the matter of the cell phone aside. “Boss Pei, please speak.”

Pei Qian said, “We’re going to develop an intelligent fitness equipment. You’ll be in charge of finding a substitute factory and creating a product design. The Deposit Fitness will be in charge of providing technical support. At the same time, it can be used as a display store. Shang Yang Games will be in charge of developing games that match the fitness equipment.”

Chang You was stunned. He quickly asked, “Boss Pei, what is this smart fitness equipment?”

Pei Qian said, “Smart fitness drying rack.”

Chang You: “Huh?”

What the f*ck was this smart fitness drying rack!

Chang You would have thought that Boss Pei was joking with him if not for Boss Pei’s serious expression.

As for why Pei Qian emphasized that the three departments should work together...

That was because he realized that the more departments he used for a project, the more resources and budget he could use!

It was just like developing Mission and Choice. If it was just a game project or a movie project, he would only be able to spend the money for one department. However, he was able to spend more money than both of his budgets combined if he were to make a game and a movie!

What’s more, Pei Qian had already discovered that even if he only allowed one department to be in charge of one project, it would not be able to stop them from suddenly joining forces.

If that was the case, the damage would be even greater because Pei Qian had not been on guard. He could not tell when he would be stabbed.

Since that was the case, why not let many departments develop new projects together from the beginning and take the initiative to arrange for them to work together? The entire development process of the project could be monitored in real time. That way, he wouldn’t be stabbed in the back for no reason, right?

Wouldn’t he be three times happier if the three departments spent more than three times the budget on a failed project?

Chang You asked, “Boss Pei, the smart fitness drying rack you mentioned... what exactly is it?”

Pei Qian cleared his throat and said, “Family fitness has always been very important. Going to the gym might be more effective but for most people who are relatively more homely, going all the way to the gym is a rather troublesome thing. It’s very difficult to persevere.”

“We can develop a family fitness product that can help us expand the product line of our fitness industry since we have Deposit Fitness now! It would fit the concept of ‘Tengda Life’ at the same time.”

“The most fatal problem with the current family fitness products is that they easily become drying racks. No treadmill, elliptical, spinning bicycle, nor a bench press, can escape the fate of becoming drying racks.”

“This actually highlights a very critical user requirement. Think about it, why would users use these fitness equipment as drying racks? Is it because they are lazy? Don’t they want to train?”

“Not necessarily.”

“I think the more important reason is that they don’t have enough space to dry their clothes at home! If they have enough space to dry their clothes, why would they hang their clothes or bed sheets on the fitness equipment?”

“Therefore, this is a very important customer requirement.”

“The customers who buy these fitness equipment actually have two requirements: the first is fitness; the second is drying clothes. However, the traditional fitness equipment actually did not meet both requirements well!”

“Therefore, we have to solve this problem for our clients!”

“We’ll design our fitness equipment with a drying clothes function. This way, our products would be more practical than ordinary fitness equipment!”

“Among all household fitness equipment, our products are the best for drying clothes; among all drying racks, our products are the only ones with fitness functions.”

“This is the core competitiveness of a smart fitness drying rack! What’s more, I can foresee that such products will not appear in the market for a long time to come!”

“Users would feel that it’s a pity, if they were to buy a fitness equipment which ended up as a drying rack, and would not recommend others to buy it. However, if they were to think about it the other way, they would be able to use it to work out normally. That would be worth every penny!”

Chang You blinked, stunned.

Boss Pei was a genius in logic!

This was just like the joke: it would be very bad if one were to smoke while reading. However, it would instantly become inspirational if one were to read while smoking.

If the fitness equipment was reduced to a drying rack, people would feel that they were losing money. However, if the drying rack was used to exercise normally, they would instantly feel that they were making a killing!

However, the more he thought about it, the more he felt that something was amiss...

Chang You pondered for a moment and asked, “Boss Pei, why did you make this device intelligent? What kind of game do you think Shang Yang Games would develop with it?”

Pei Qian fell silent for a short while.

He had never thought about these two problems before. He simply felt that this could raise the price and reduce sales. There was no special plan.

A home fitness equipment was not of much use to begin with. It would be easy to eat dust and take up space. It would be useless even though he increased the manufacturing cost of smart equipment. On top of that, the game’s cost...

He would definitely incur losses!

However, he could not tell Chang You this reason.

Pei Qian could only pretend to be deep in thought as he said, “I’ll need the three departments to think about this problem together.”