Extraordinary Genius

Norio Ohga had been monitoring Aiwa closely. After all, Aiwa had not fully repaid their debts to Sony. Aiwa had introduced two models of Walkman this year and had beaten Sony again. Now, Aiwa holds more than 40% of the Walkman market share globally, and this figure was still raising. Sony’s market share had dropped to about 30%, and it was still declining!

Norio Ohga also discovered that Aiwa had made a big mistake, which was the Learning Machine, jointly developed by Aiwa and Nintendo!

What the hell was this thing? It looks like a game console, but it was not a game console. It looks like a computer, but it was not a computer. Who would buy such a product? Seems like Aiwa will waste all the profits made from their Walkman on this Learning Machine.

For such a useless product, Aiwa still asked Nintendo to manufacture for them. Was Nintendo stupid? Why did Nintendo let Aiwa take the bigger share of the profits? That’s because not much profits could be generated from this product! Nintendo only wanted Aiwa’s distribution channels in China.

That Chinese boss of Aiwa was really stupid. He had even persuaded the government to allow video game consoles to enter China.

After Nintendo and Sega entered the Chinese market, those Chinese video game consoles companies will be finished. That laughable Learning Machine will surely be obsolete. This was a lack of foresight!

Just like in the past, Aiwa might return to its previous situation. Being in debts because of a failed product!

Once Aiwa has problems with their finances, Sony’s Walkman will rise again. Sony was now researching on super slim Walkman. When this model was introduced into the market, it would be Sony’s turnaround!

Aiwa had focused all their attention on this Learning Machine. Norio Ohga had also heard that Aiwa had exchanged some technologies with another company and purchased two new production lines to manufacture a new type of video player.

Norio Ohga was overjoyed. Heitaro Nakajima was a greedy person. He wants to do everything and does not take Aiwa’s capabilities into consideration. How could Aiwa take care of so many fronts? Does the company have enough R&D staffs? Not every company have so many developers like Sony!

Sony will definitely overtake Aiwa this time! Especially Aiwa will need to repay their debts at the end of this year. We shall see how Aiwa repay their debts after spending so much money this year. Will, that Chinese brat have money to repay the debts?

If Heitaro Nakajima was sacked by the Chinese boss, then Aiwa will be gone. Without Heitaro Nakajima, Aiwa will have no way to revive!

When Norio Ohga, all of Sony’s higher management and all of Japan’s electronics companies were waiting for Aiwa to fail, they received news that Aiwa Learning Machine was out of stock. All the distributors in China were waving their cheques, requesting Aiwa to increase their production.

Soon after, the Learning Machine started to appear in many South East Asia countries. Although the sales in these countries were not outstanding, they did not have any competitors and did not make any losses. From the way things were going, it was only a matter of time before Aiwa make big profits in these countries!

Now, Norio Ohga, all of Sony’s higher management and all of Japan’s electronics companies were stunned. They started to investigate why this Learning Machine could sell so well and how this product makes money.

From their perspective, this was only a video game console with old outdated game cartridges. Although there was a keyboard attached and could learn foreign languages, there was nothing special. But this product was hugely popular with the consumers!

Soon, Aiwa had bought a company in China and started to produce another brand of Learning Machine. Aiwa also begins to sell this Learning Machine in Japan.

All of them did not expect that this Learning Machine could sell well in Japan. As Aiwa Learning Machine was only sold in Aiwa’s retail shops, they did not need to do many promotions. Aiwa’s retail shop has high traffic, and the Learning Machines were widely accepted by the Japanese!

Now, the consumers were saying that Aiwa’s technologies were good enough to produce computers and were better than Sony. What a joke! Were computers so easily manufactured? If it were so easy, Sony would have created their own computers ages ago. Aiwa’s electronic technologies could never be better than Sony, except for Walkman!

But all these people firmly believe that this was only for the time being. Aiwa will not depend on this product to earn money. Furthermore, Aiwa was also going to introduce a new type of video player. This was a greater joke!

It was impossible for Aiwa to make money from every product!

……

The Nintendo Chairman was fuming at their headquarters.

Nintendo had entered the Chinese market for about a month, but what were the sales? All of you had said that China was a new market and once we had penetrated into the market, we will surely increase Nintendo’s sales and profits.

But what happened in the end? This was the second month, and none of the distributors were ordering goods. This was because the consoles they ordered in the first month were still sitting on the shelves!

Nintendo’s factories had increased their consoles productions, and all these consoles were sitting in their warehouse. If this carries on, they have to lower the selling price. The Chairman could still accept if the China market were taken over by Sega. After all, Sega was still number 2 in the global video game industry. Some of Sega’s technologies were more advanced than Nintendo.

But in truth, the Chinese do not like Nintendo, and they had not even heard of Sega!

Nintendo had paid the advertising fees but why were there only newspaper advertisements? Where’s the TV commercials? China has TV stations that cover the whole of China, why can’t you advertise on these channels? What? No available advertising slots? Useless! All of you are useless!

Nintendo had wrongly estimated the Chinese market. Their products were too expensive, and the Chinese could not accept their prices. The consoles that were sold were only those models that cost about 1,000 RMB. No one was buying those consoles which cost more than 2,000 RMB.

Both consoles had the same functions. It was only the games cartridges that comes along with the consoles that were different. Nintendo also realized that there were counterfeit games of their newest titles within a short period. These counterfeits cost ranging from a few RMB to over 10 RMB. All the original game cartridges cost more than 100 RMB.

Nintendo also noticed that Learning Machine was selling very well. Although this Learning Machine was using Aiwa brand, Aiwa was taking the significant share of the profits and Nintendo was getting only a small part.

But very soon, Nintendo found out that Aiwa had reduced their production and had bought a Chinese company. Authorization was given to this Chinese company to produce another model of Learning Machine, called The Little Tyrant Super Learning Machine!

Nintendo felt that they were fooled by Aiwa. They had given Aiwa these technologies and had help Aiwa developed this product. However, the profits were reduced now!

“Call Heitaro Nakajima now! If he still wants to cooperate with us, then he has to give me an explanation!”

The Nintendo Chairman thought that with Nintendo’s influences, Aiwa will inevitably give in to his demands. But Heitaro Nakajima did not hesitate to tell him that if Nintendo thinks that Nintendo was at a losing end of this cooperation, then we can go separate ways!

At this time, Nintendo knew that Aiwa had made use of them and they were fooled by Aiwa! This was just like what happened between them and Sony.

Aiwa had terminated their cooperation, but they had gotten some of Nintendo’s technologies. The technologies Nintendo acquired from Aiwa were not as valuable. Although Nintendo had gotten what they wished for, entering the Chinese market and share Aiwa’s sales distribution channels, but their products were not selling in China. They had suffered an enormous loss!

Now, Nintendo was the same as Sony. Both were cursing Aiwa and praying for Aiwa to fail. They cursed Aiwa’s new video player to fail, and the learning machine was only a passing trend!