Recently I read about how the Sears Corporation trumped the traditionally low price leaders of Wal-Mart and Amazon.com in the field of books. For the avid reader, reduced pricing is a positive as they can now purchase the books they want at a much reduced cost. However, this has caused quite a stir with the American Booksellers Association (ABA) as they feel the continued reduction in pricing will diminish the funds available for publishers and authors therefore reducing the number of books being published and therefore limiting the range of expression that could come from less mainstream authors.

You can see the same concerns in the CE world as not only are the small retailers hurt by the major chain stores due to greatly reduced margins, but ultimately it’s the consumer who pays the price as the manufacturers, under pressure from the retailers to lower pricing, have to focus on reducing their costs and increasing output. This in a way lowers the overall quality of goods and reduces the lifespan of products.

At Vinpower Digital we are constantly battling between offering a greater product and yet keeping our pricing competitive with those on the market more concerned about sales than quality. Since most duplicator sellers are merely intermediaries and have very little interaction with the customer after the sale, they often could care less about the quality of the product and whether the low price is truly a good value or a ploy. They are more concerned about getting the sale because with the reduced margins, they are forced to care more about volume than customer service. Those that do emphasize customer service over pricing tend to have a loyal following of customers, but often loose footing to the companies who just move boxes.

Fortunately we are in a unique position where we move enough volume to keep our costs low which can be passed on to our resellers and ultimately to the customer. At the same time, as one of the very few duplicator manufacturers we also care deeply about the quality and ability of our products, so we are constantly striving to improve and develop new features and products that meet the consumer’s needs.

As a consumer myself, I’m all for lower prices, but I also recognize that quality has a cost associated with it, and often times it’s better to pay a little more now than a lot more later.

According to a recent article in Business Weekly entitled PC is coming back! in the October 12, 2009 issue, it states that with the rapid decrease in price and emergence of newer technology devoted to individual ownership of PC products, that the PC market as well as the Blu-ray market will grow significantly by the end of 2010.

In terms of the PC market, most households tend to have a single computer for the family, whereas with the introduction of the low cost Netbooks with their simplified feature sets and easy wi-fi connections will lead to the true definition of personal computers. This way each family member can have their own computer and everyone can independently connect to the web wirelessly. This increase in PC’s lends credence to the thought that content will increasingly be kept on some form of digital format such as optical disc (CD, DVD, or Blu-ray) or flash memory (USB pen drive, SD or Compact Flash card).

In addition the reduced price of PC’s the price of Blu-ray drives and media will continue to decline and is expected to be under $100 in 2010 which looks to be the magical price point whereby the drive can make significant inroads into the market share of DVD drives. With prices of Blu-ray media and players also continuing to decline, this format is positioned for a massive explosion in terms of adoption and increased market share.

The transference from tangible to digital “paperwork” will continue to pick up steam and it’s only a matter of time before paper becomes as obsolete as vinyl records and cassette tapes.

As we prepare for another Gitex, (this will be our 5th year participating in what is billed as the largest ICT trade show in the Middle East), we are encouraged by the rapid adoption of digital duplication in this growing marketplace. As Vinpower Digital expands our offerings from optical disc into common flash duplication through our USB Duplication line, we are certain that this expansion will be a huge success in the Middle East region.

From our experience, as technology continues to expand rapidly, the biggest winners are developing nations where they can merely leap frog old technology for the newer more easily adaptable to countries with minimal old technology infrastructure. For example, take phone service. In many 3rd world and developing nations, they were unable to cable the entire country (especially remote locations) for standard land line telephony. With the introduction of wireless cell phone technology, those countries/regions are able to integrate cell phone towers throughout the region at a far lower cost and hence allow the entire area to have communication capabilities where it once seemed impossible.

So, as we do every year, we look forward to the expanding and capable market of the Middle East as a strategic growth center for new and emerging technologies.

When I first started in this business, Half Height DVD burner write speeds were at 4x (I know I’m late as many of you can recall how exciting it was for the CD burner to reach 4x speeds). Then quickly everyone jumped to 8x speed while Plextor unleashed the 12x speed burner. The rest of the story follows where all other companies bypassed 12x for 16x speed and then 20x, and now settled at 24x.

The H/H Blu-ray drive models have followed suit for the most part. First starting with 2x speed, then jumping to 4x followed by 8x and now Pioneer announcing their 12x BDR-205 burner. It’s only a matter of time before a company looking to boost their credibility offers the 16x burner and then by extension the bar will be raised and leaped multiple times.

Just as there were constant comparisons and arguments as to the merits of DVD over CD (which by all accounts should have been extinct years ago) the DVD suffers the slings and arrows of Blu-ray enthusiast constantly writing its obituary for another format that refuses to go away. So even though the writing speed will continue to improve, Blu-ray one day will inevitably meet another format that becomes the natural successor with greater capacity and capabilities and we will simply recycle this article and change the names to the new format of the day. At least I’m confident there will be a physical medium by which people store data and need to copy it, so I feel confident this industry will continue on like the resilient CD and DVD who learned their lessons from the still not totally gone floppy disk and VHS.

I’m posting a picture of my son, not because it has anything to do with the Duplication industry or anything related to my previous blogs, but because I’m a proud father. However it’s important to note that everything we do in life has an impact on the next generation and we are very conscious of this. That is why we take it upon ourselves to run a “green” business where we recycle nearly all waste possible as well as try to reduce our carbon footprint whenever possible. At Vinpower, we care about the environment and want to leave the world in better shape for our children!

Every year during the Ghost Festival, (dated July 15 on the lunar calendar), many companies, households, and temples will prepare lots of food items like fruits, drinks, cookies, etc. to “sacrifice” for our ancestors as well as those who have died unjust deaths so they can rest in peace. We worship in the hope that society and households can be at peace and healthy.

Therefore, you could see our President –Mr. Chang lead Vinpower’s members in a ritual ceremony to offer our “sacrifice” sincerely. At the end of this ceremony, we burn paper money, light firecrackers and pray for our ancestors so that our business can be more successful and profitable in the coming year.

In addition, there is a big traditional public event related to this festival which is held in Keelung, Taiwan every year. People will release water lanterns carrying their prayers of well-wishers one by one into the water. As the lanterns sail into the ocean they will light up the Keelung night.

Even though Southern California is often a paradise for those who want year round warm weather, amusement parks, sporting events, nightlife, etc. we are often reminded that there is a price we pay for living in this desert oasis, occasional brutal natural disasters. By now most everyone around the world has seen images or heard about the “Station Fire” in Los Angeles County and it has become the largest fire ever in the county. Even though our office is over 10 miles away from the southern most portion of the fire, the below images taken from atop our building show how massive it was.

I love shopping, especially shopping on-line because it is very convenient. Moreover you can take your time, fool around and not be disturbed. We all know e-commerce is getting more and more popular nowadays but only few are really successful in this retail environment. Recently I saw an article about an analysis of the two hottest e-commerce websites (target.com & Walmart.com) and what made them successful which attracted my attention.

First of all, let’s take a look at the following graphs which indicate the level of various customer interaction on these sites.

According to the above charts, there are three different major points to consider when deciphering whether a website resonates with the customer.
1. Shows the data related to viewed products – turns out that Wal-Mart is ahead.
2. Shows the data related to items placed in the shopping cart –turns out that Target is ahead.
3. Shows the data related to completed purchases – turns out that Wal-Mart is the big winner!

Why do customers appear to prefer gathering product details and information on Wal-Mart’s website more so than on Target’s website? Why will customers add products to the shopping cart after browsing the product page(s) on Target more so than on Wal-Mart? Yet despite that fact, why do customers prefer to make their final purchases at Wal-Mart more so than at Target? Let us propose our theory for the answers to these questions.

1.

Looking at the Wal-Mart website, you’ll find that it’s easy to navigate and allows customers to easily find what they are looking for which further encourages the customers to click on the item for more details. Site navigation is critical for ecommerce websites as the more complicated it is to find an item the less likely a customer is willing to stick around and search for it, rather than just move on to another and easier to navigate website.

2.

Adding items to their check out cart is where Target excelled over Wal-Mart. In this case, Target makes it easier for the consumer to add items to their cart by placing the “Add To Cart” button right next to the product image and making it very obvious to see. In contrast, Wal-Mart places the “Add To Cart” button on the bottom right hand side of the page and can be easily overlooked by perusing customers. So Target is more likely to get clicks from those who are just casually browsing than Wal-Mart is.

3.

Finally, and most critically is the final sale. Why is it that almost 50% of customers decline to finalize their order transaction on Target compared to only 30% of customers on Wal-Mart?

Possible explanations could be:
First, there are only 4 steps for the payment procedure on Wal-Mart’s website compared to 6 steps on Target.
Second, there are many customer fill-in block designs on the payment page of Wal-Mart. This allows the Wal-Mart Customers to easily comprehend what needs to be filled in during the payment procedure with less confusion. On the other hand, Target emphasizes more on esthetic design than ease of use. Without the easy to identify boundaries and blocks to guide the customer through the check-out process, it’s easier for customers to get confused or loose track of what needs to be filled in when they need to pay more attention on what and where to fill in.

These are based more on our opinion than actual research studies, but dealing primarily in an ecommerce world where a majority of our products are sold online, we have a strong understanding of what it takes to successfully sell items online.

The key points to focus on are:
How to develop the click through rate from the product page and eventually to the shopping cart? How to attract customers and prevent losing them? How to avoid customers losing their way in your e-commerce site? If you focus on those details, it will save you a lot of money on Internet marketing tools turning your website into a good and successful e-commerce site. It’s the little details that make all the difference!!

去る6月5日、6月6日、台湾の台北で開催されたCOMPUTEX2009に行ってきました。
COMPUTEX行くのは2年振りだったのですが、去年から新しい会場が増えて
一段と規模が大きくなっていました。

ストレージ関連のブースが集まっている南港ホールの1階を中心に見て廻りました
が、
気になるデュプリケータ関連の展示は2年前より確実に増えていました。
今年はCD/DVD等の光学ディスクデュプリケータに留まらず、SDカード、USBメモリ
等の
フラッシュメモリーデュプリケータの展示も各所で見られ、新しい市場を予感しま
した。
また会場が広くなったことで、各ブースの大きさも2年前より大きくなっており
この分野の成長を感じました。

VinpowerDigitalのブースでは、従来からある、CD/DVDデュプリケータ、オート
ローダ、
盤面プリンタ製品に加えて、今年は新たにBDデュプリケータ、USBメモリデュプリ
ケータ、
HDDデュプリケータ、そしてコピープロテクトデュプリケータの展示デモが行われ
ていました。
コピープロテクトデュプリケータに関しては、従来のデュプリケータでコピープロ
テクト
が出来ることと、互換性が高いとのことで、まだ詳細は明かされていませんでした
が、
製品化されれば非常に魅力のある製品になるでしょう。

ところで、一般客に無料解放される最終日といえば、ショータイムに
コンパニオンが舞台の上からノベルティグッズを投げまくる
「ばらまき（と呼ぶのかどうか分からない…）」が名物となっています。
今年もあちらこちらのブースでばら撒き目当てに黒山の人だかりが出来ていまし
た。
例えば、Microsoftのブースではこんな感じです。

1. ショー開始、コンパニオンのダンス
2. 製品説明（中国語、ハイテンションで）
3. グッズばら撒き開始
コンパニオンの「Windows?」の問いかけに、聴衆、「S E R V E R !!!!!」と拳
ã‚’
振り上げ叫ぶ。（音楽ライブのような感じで）

どうやら、声のデカイ人にノベルティグッズ（ボールペン、LEDライト）
が配られたり、投げられたりするようで、一段とデカイ声を出した人には
USBメモリが手渡されました。

「これは手ぶらでは帰れない！」
2列目に陣取っていた私も意を決して、「S E R V E R !!!!!」
叫びまくり……

結局、何もゲットできませんでした。

ほかのブースでも
「Nvidia?」という問いに「No.1!!!!」と叫んだり（もちろん拳も振り上げ）
しましたが、やっぱりダメでした。

全体的に、会場が広がったせいか、来場者の少なさが少し気になったものの、
ゆったり見学できたので良かったです。

I went to the 2009 COMPUTEX TAIPEI in June to look around and see the new products. This year’s COMPUTEX TAIPEI was different from the last time I attended, 2 years ago. With the completed new hall that has been incorporated since last year made the overall exhibition hall feel as though it was built on an enormous scale.

The majority of my time there was spent walking around booths related to Data Storage located on the first floor of the Nangang exhibition hall. I was quite impressed by how many more duplicators were shown this year compared to more than 2 years ago on my last visit. Besides optical disc duplicators, I also saw many flash memory (SD card and USB memory) duplicators within the hall. With new products constantly coming out and many booths increasing, I felt this field’s growing.

Vinpower Digital Inc’s booth has especially grown in comparison to the last time I attended. Besides the CD/DVD duplicators and Autoloaders as usual, Vinpower had a lot of new exhibits, such as BD duplicators, USB memory duplicators, Disc printers, HDD duplicators and copy protect duplicator for the ultimate security.

The Copy protect duplicators prevent unauthorized copying of protected discs, yet retains the recorded discs strong compatibility. If you ask me about the units detailed operation principles, I still have no idea. But I believe it must be very attractive to many people.

On another note, visitors could get free gifts within the exhibition. Guiding girls threw free gifts from stage to the visitors. It was very interesting.
For example, many people gathered in front of Microsoft’s booth.
1. Show began with dancing from the guiding girls.
2. Product explanation by Chinese.
3. Began distributing the free gifts. (Atmosphere looked liked a Rock concert.)
When the guiding girls asked “Windows?” the visitors raise their fists and answered “S E R V E R !!!!!” together. When the audience would respond, the loudest voice could get a special ballpoint pen and LED light. Then the loudest voice could get a USB memory device.
All right, I said to myself. Plus, I made up my mind do not return empty-handed. So I joined the crowd and stood in the second row.
「S E R V E R !!!!!」
I used my loudest voice and tried my best ……

Finally, I got nothing.
Then I tried another booth. Similar to the Microsoft booth
「Nvidia?」
「No.1!!!!」
I failed again.

On the whole, the increased size of the exhibition hall made me feel as thought there were visitors less than before even though I knew that to not be true. It’s good for me to see around at a leisurely pace. Hopefully I can attend again and see how the trade shows evolves.