All these companies had complied with Feng Yu's demands, and Feng Yu will give them some benefits. If not, no one will cooperate with Feng Yu. For example, all these companies can withdraw at the same time, and each company only needs to compensate 40 million USD. These companies will not be easy to deal with, and both sides will suffer losses. In the end, Toshiba and Sony will take advantage of them.
"From next month onwards, the patent fees for each VCD player will be reduced by 50%. In the future, the patent fees will be reduced by 5 USD every year until the patent fees reach zero." Feng Yu announced.
Even if the patent fees were reduced by 50%, each VCD player will still cost 25 USD, and the royalties will be collected for 5 years. Actually, within 3 years, the DVD technology will be mature, and the VCD player will be a thing of the past.
This condition seemed to be very good, but in fact, if one were to think about it, it was completely useless. But Feng Yu had already reduced the patent fees by 50%, and it will be lowered every year. What else can the others say? Lower the patent fees? Or let them use it for free? Only fools will agree to this condition.
If these companies really agree to this condition, it means they are not sincere.
So, they had no choice but to agree to this condition. But those Japanese companies were still not satisfied. They raised another condition. That was the VCD player prices must not be lowered anymore. If the prices were lowered anymore, they would not make any profits and might even lose money.
Now, after lowering the patent fees, the profits for each VCD player was only about 20 USD. It was already very low.
Feng Yu also agreed to this condition. He also does not want the VCD player prices to be too low, as it will affect his profits. Also, he still needs these people to implement the DVD standards. Furthermore, he had only agreed to not lower the prices this year. He can still lower it next year.
Also, the Super VCD player is the main focus now. The profits are several times higher than the normal VCD players. The sales are also not bad. Next year, they will introduce the second generation of the Super VCD player.
If Feng Yu really wants to attack these companies, he can lower the prices of the Super VCD players and make them vomit blood!
But now is not the time. Sony and the rest are still holding their ground.
When the DVD forum held a meeting, more than 30 of the world's largest consumer electronics companies were invited to join and set their headquarters in Hua Xia, Sony and the rest panicked.
Why didn't they receive the invitation from the DVD Forum? In the world of consumer electronics, they are also very strong, okay? Which f * cking company sent this invitation?
The headquarters is in Hua Xia Hefei, so the initiator is Wind & Rain Electronics? Such an insignificant company could become the initiator with just two patented technologies? Are those big companies idiots? You all went there and even joined this company?
They looked at the list of the forum's member companies and saw Microsoft and Tata Consulting. What does this have to do with you? What are you trying to do?
Although they do not want to admit it, they had to admit that after those companies formed this DVD forum, they were in an awkward position.
The DVD burning standards are split into 3 categories and 5 specifications. DVD + R/RW is the burning specification proposed by Wind & Rain Electronics, DVD-R/RW is the specification introduced by Pioneer, and Toshiba's specification is DVD-RAM. RW is only a theoretical specification and has not been developed yet. RAM will be replaced by ROM in the future.
Actually, Aiwa was still researching DVD-Audio, which was a DVD music CD-ROM drive. Wind and Rain Electronics was also researching DVD-Video, which was a DVD video CD-ROM drive. But these were not successful and could not be introduced to the market.
However, it was the DVD + R, DVD-R, and DVD-RAM that formed the competition for the current burning standards. DVD + R was at a disadvantage in the past, and the number of companies following this standard is the least. Most of the companies are following Toshiba's RAM standard.
But now, everything has changed. DVD + R will become the mainstream, and it will be hard for the other two standards to be introduced.
These companies had formed an alliance to fight against Wind & Rain Electronics. Toshiba was at an advantage in the past, but the tables had turned.
Now, these companies can only work together to introduce a DVD burning standard. If not, they will fail.
But now, there is a problem. Which standard should they use?
Both companies are only cooperating, but they must be on equal terms. All of them are big companies and have good technologies. There is no reason for them to give up on their own standards.
So, Toshiba, Sony, Pioneer, Hewlett-Packard, etc. came up with a solution. All of them want the other party to compromise.
All of them had the same idea. If they split up, they will fail. If they work together, they can continue to fight. The one who gave in first would be the one to lose.
Toshiba and Sony are partners, and Sony has a large DVD production line. Sony owns Columbia Pictures and Time Warner Inc. Toshiba is the shareholder of Time Warner Inc.
Pioneer also has a large DVD production line and is supported by Hewlett-Packard. Hewlett-Packard is the world's top laser technology. Also, Hewlett-Packard has a PC company, which is also one of the world's top PC companies.
Both parties started negotiations, but they want to speed up the process. This is because they know that the earlier they work together and set the standards, the earlier they can cooperate to fight against those companies in the DVD forum.
In the end, Hewlett-Packard gave in and requested to share the DVD technologies with them for free. They then support Toshiba. Pioneer was in a difficult position.
To not be kicked out, Pioneer had to agree to implement the DVD-RAM standard temporarily and give up on the DVD-R standard. But they will not give up on research.
So, Pioneer decided to follow the DVD forum and set up an alliance. The name of the alliance is DVD Alliance. At the same time, these companies used their connections to contact other big consumer electronics companies to join them. They will work together to develop technologies to fight against the DVD forum.
But most of the companies with advantages in DVD technologies had joined the DVD forum. They can only rope in some second-tier companies. But the scale of the forum is bigger, and it is better than having a few companies join.
The moment the DVD Alliance was set up, they immediately announced that they will continue to research and promote the DVD-RAM standard. They also claimed that the DVD-RAM standard is the best, most practical, and most accurate standard. This means that the DVD forum's DVD + R standard is not as good as theirs.
The DVD forum immediately retaliates by comparing the capacities of both standards. DVD + R's capacity is 2.8GB, and DVD-RAM's capacity is only 2.58GB. It's obvious which is better!
But these figures are all in theory. Although it can be done in the laboratory, it cannot be mass produced. That means both parties' technologies are not mature enough. But once the standard is accepted by more people, the company that developed the technology will have a big lead, and the profits will be high.
Now, the DVD industry has entered the era of two giants.
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