Hollywood Hunter

If the cumulative shipments of the three main electronic products are anything to go by, with over 90 million units shipped, it is interesting to note that Tinkerbell's most widely shipped product is not one of the iCam, iPlayer, or iRec, but rather a peripheral, the iDisk, that has been falling in price since the proliferation of USB interfaces and the increasing capacity of flash memory chips.

This simple flash drive, which was patented before any other manufacturer, shipped a staggering 63.7 million flash drives in 1996.

This is very similar to Apple's Airpods wireless headphones, which quietly sold more than $10 billion a year and made a fortune.

Even with the average price dropping to less than $30, the iDisk series, in 1996, brought in more than $1 billion in revenue for Tinkerbell.

In addition, Tinkerbell's iVid, a desktop camera peripheral launched only last fall, shipped more than 10 million units in just six months, reaching 13.6 million.

Equally interesting is iLink, an adapter for older PCs without USB ports.

Because of the open sharing of USB interface patents, this peripheral has no monopoly to speak of, and numerous manufacturers are producing it, and it's everywhere, but Tinkerbell still sold 27.6 million pieces.

All in all, even if you don't count Apple, which bought a broken boat at the end of last year and still had 3,000 nails and revenue close to $10 billion, Tinkerbell's 1996 revenue reached $29.3 billion, up 132% from $12.6 billion in 1995, only one step away from another $30 billion revenue juggernaut in the Westeros system.

At the same time, Tinkerbell's 1996 net income reached $3.5 billion.

This was not comparable to Daenerys Entertainment's annual net profit of over $5 billion, but it was one of the top ten profits of 1996, and that's only because Tinkerbell was still in the early stages of its development and needed to invest heavily. Otherwise, with the iCam and iPlayer, it would have been easy for Tinker Bell to achieve a net profit margin of 15 percent or more, just by virtue of the increasing gross margins of the iCam and iPlayer at a time when the average price of electronic components was getting lower and lower.

Looking at the big screen bar graphs of Tinkerbell's revenue and profitability over the past three years, the thousands of guests at the Eagle Wright Employee Center were struck by a sense of unreality for a few moments.

There was a certain illusion that Tinkerbell might be the highest market capitalization company in the Westeros system.

Because even though every product in Tinkerbell's portfolio is not a monopoly, there is a sense that it is a best seller that consumers are clamoring for.

This is probably the brand effect.

What's almost impossible to ignore is that the company has only been around for five years.

Some onlookers, on reflection, have come to realize that the miracle of Tinkerbell was precisely the right series of products at just the right time. Just in time is the rapid rise of the Internet industry. The right products, on the other hand, were the hardware peripherals that the Internet industry desperately needed.

This was evident when, after the on-stage performance review, the guest speaker, a series of webmasters, followed by the re-promotion of sites such as Instgram and YouTube, where Tinkerbell works closely, and Broadcast, its own online sales platform.

Although Tinkerbell's core business is electronics, the company can essentially be positioned as an Internet company in the new technology category.

Perhaps many of its competitors have overlooked or weakened Tinkerbell's DNA, which has made it impossible for their products to compete with Tinkerbell's, like Sony, whether it's a consumer digital camera or a digital music player.

Because Sony still upholds the concept of an old electronics manufacturer, it has not taken much initiative to embrace the Internet, and even because its own record company's interests have been severely impacted by Internet piracy, it has shown an obvious resistance to the Internet era.

Failure was inevitable.

The stage was set.

As a pre-launch website promotion, the small climax was probably an introduction to the live video streaming site Twitch.

This is an Igret and Tinkerbell incubated live video site, born out of YouTube's live streaming function, with the launch of the iVid camera products on line last fall, the name or Simon directly from the memory of the popular live streaming sites in Europe and the United States.

Unlike the later gradually routine of the live video site model, Simon in addition to the name, and did not interfere too much, so half a year on Twitch, still in the exploration stage, the current operating idea is 'Everyone on line', everyone can be online, and still interactive social networking as the core, the main focus of everyone can show themselves.

Of course, due to limited network bandwidth resources, there is a threshold for Twitch's live broadcast.

There is no charge.

Rather, it is similar to YouTube's original limited duration model.

In addition to Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and other partner platforms can be obtained after the application of unlimited access to the Internet celebrities, ordinary users only one hour per week of live time, if you want more can also, again without charge, just need to line up reservations, usually live history of the more popular broadcasters, the higher the chances of success in booking.

Although this model affects the user experience, at this stage of the network environment, there is no choice but to do so, otherwise it is too expensive.

Even if the two giants can afford it, Simon won't allow the management to do so.

Twitch wants to operate for a long time, short-term restrictive openness is actually the most sustainable solution.After the launch of Twitch, there are other companies have launched a no-threshold live streaming platform, but it is conceivable that similar platforms can absolutely not survive the upcoming bursting of the Internet bubble.

Moreover, what is not easily available is always more cherished, and the restrictive openness has created a kind of hunger marketing effect.

This time, the live presentation, with dozens of celebrities from various fields greeting the audience via a Twitch connection, once again made everyone feel the charm of the information age.

Then, the C-girls took the stage again and the main meal began to go online.

The core three pieces.

Next Generation iCam, iPlayer, and iRec.

The update, to the disappointment of many detractors, is still packed with highlights.

The first is that the iCam digital camera is fully flash memory enabled. The only downside to flash memory is probably its capacity, which is known for its high speed and stable performance compared to microdrives. To remedy this, Tinkerbell has introduced the iCard, a plug-and-play flash card.

It is similar to what was once known as the SD card.

The original SD card was not released until 1999 by a consortium of major electronics manufacturers, and this time, Tinkerbell was once again one step ahead.

Secondly, all three electronic products came standard with a lithium ion flushable battery.

Until then, products such as the iCam continued to use traditional disposable dry batteries, limited by cost and technology.

Simon took over IBM's battery division two years ago, and began to bypass some of the curve by going straight into lithium-ion battery development.

However, we have to admit that the best lithium-ion battery is still a Japanese manufacturer.

Therefore, Tinker Bell's lithium battery procurement has adopted a multi-supplier strategy, with several Japanese manufacturers such as Toshiba and Hitachi sharing orders with Recttery, which is divested from IBM, and in exchange, Japanese manufacturers wanting to enter Tinker Bell's supply chain must provide Recttery with certain patent licenses.

This year's total shipments of the core three-piece set are set to break 100 million, a huge order that no manufacturer can afford to ignore, and Recttery thus easily obtained the most advanced lithium battery technology.

Just as iDisk was launched to drive the development of flash memory into the fast lane, the Tinker Bell 3-piece set uses a wash-down battery, which will undoubtedly drive the development of related technologies into the fast lane, and the performance of the lithium-ion battery will improve rapidly in the coming years.

At this stage, the batteries for all three products also remain in replaceable mode, limited to capacity.

On the other hand, Tinkerbell, of course, did not miss this opportunity and raised the slogan of 'eco-friendly' to overwhelming applause at the press conference.

The last highlight was the price.

In addition to iRec's starting price of $799, iCam and iPlayer's starting price was lowered to $399 from $499 in previous years.

Snip!

This was the first thought that many in the industry reacted to.

In 1996, the iCam and iPlayer continued to dominate the global market, with the iCam's market share reaching 63% and the iPlayer's 86%. However, because the technical threshold for both products was not high, even the patent barriers built up by the first-mover advantage were not unbreakable, and so in recent years various similar products have appeared on the market, threatening Tinkerbell.

As a result, the increasingly high starting price of $499 for the Tinkerbell iCam and iPlayer has inevitably become a key factor in the loss of users.

The iCam and iPlayer are destined to lose users if they continue to be priced at $499, as the entire industry chain continues to drive down costs.

However, voluntarily lowering prices is never an easy thing to do. It involves brand equity, product positioning, supply sourcing, and more. It's hard to imagine that a company like Tinker Bell, which has a large and loyal customer base and an overwhelming share of the market, would voluntarily give up its profits.

Therefore, in the past two years, there have been discussions in the media about whether Tinkerbell would use a price reduction strategy to snipe at potential rivals, but it is hard to make too many waves.

No one expected that Tinkerbell would strike suddenly this time.

With two of its three core products priced at 25% less, Tinkerbell is still able to retain its strong margins, however, it is a disaster for other vendors who have been cannibalizing the market with their price advantage.

The starting price of $399 is still high end compared to many of its $299 and even $199 counterparts. However, the pricing range will inevitably change the user's consumer mindset, which in turn will significantly squeeze the survival space of competing vendors.

If the price difference is only $100 compared to the previous price difference of $200, why not, given the advantages of Tinkerbell's brand value, after-sales guarantee, etc.?

Just like every time Chinese cell phone manufacturers try to do high-end, once the price and Apple pull in the distance, it will inevitably lead to an argument: why not buy Apple?

Why is this reaction?

There are so many things to think about in this case.

Now Tinkerbell, as far as iCam, as far as iPlayer, and even as far as iRec and so on, has unwittingly developed a brand advantage similar to that of later iPhones.

After the core trio, there was a buffer period where executives from partner software or game makers took the stage to promote their products.

However, the reporters offstage didn't have the heart to care about this, as many of them had already started writing articles about the Core Package with their laptops in hand, with the main focus being on the changes this price cut would bring to the industry.

After about 15 minutes of software and game introductions, Tinkerbell's iWorld terminals, which are intended to be used by users of its products to download music, share pictures and upload videos anywhere, anytime, were unveiled.

Another highlight.

Neil Brantley, President of TinkerBayer, who was in charge of the product introduction, once again unveiled the first iWorld locations in major cities across North America via a live Twitch link, so users could go there to try it out.

Last but not least, the well-known and much-anticipated product arrived.

C-Girl took the stage once again to officially unveil the mystery of iMac-10 to the public.

iOS-10 operating system.

Intel Pentium family of processors.

1024 x 768 high resolution CRT screen.

A software marketplace integrated into the desktop.

As well as, the biggest design improvement over the current generation of mainstream split desktops, the unibody.

After much deliberation and Simon's personal intervention, the Tinkerbell team finally settled on what was once the first generation iMac design.

Not because they liked it.

Frankly, Simon disliked the memory of the first-generation iMac as a lump of jelly on the floor.

Mostly because it was different enough.

That's something Simon had talked to C-girl about the last time he was in San Francisco.

In a mature enough product space, if you follow in the footsteps of others, you're not destined to succeed, and the only way to break out of the box is to make enough changes.

The iMac-10, similar to what was once the iMac, fits into this philosophy.

The Linux-based iOS-10 is a change from the inside, while the outside design, integrated into a unibody, is the most deviant change. With the addition of the colorful shell, which is very different from the current mainstream black and white body, even if it looks ugly at first, if you look at it a hundred times, just like shouting a weird name a hundred times, you will get used to it, and even under the repeated marketing brainwashing by the media, you will find it pretty in turn.

Of course, Simon didn't copy everything.

Still based on a variety of optional colored cases, Simon chose opaque plastic this time, because the once transparent body of the iMac was really cheap.

Finally, there's the pricing.

Unlike last year's iRec10, which was priced lower than expected in a rush to open the market, both Simon and the Tinkerbell team knew that the iMac10 was unlikely to pose a threat to Windows, so they targeted a niche, high-end, professional product line right from the design stage, starting at $1,299.

As with the iCam and iPlayer, the high price of the iMac 10 was once again a hot topic of discussion at the launch.

Because the price of the cheapest basic Pentium processor PC has been reduced to about $500 at this stage, even though the iMac-10 is more than double the price of the hard drive, graphics card, screen, and other materials, it is still too expensive.

Even though Tinkerbell has a large number of loyal users, and even though the iMac-10 is officially claimed to be a perfect match for iCam and other products, would they accept such a high price just to try out a new operating system and perhaps not so perfect design?