Chapter 678 (1/2)
Instagram's launch ceremony was very simple.
After confirming the opening of the website, we opened a few bottles of champagne in the office building of instagram team, and the staff began to open the website. In order to protect their own interests, igritte company has various explicit or implicit restrictions on users' recommendation of other websites on its own platform.
Now, instagram, which has nothing to do with igritt's equity, has just been launched. What it gets is the treatment of the company's direct investment website at the level of its own daughter.
On the other hand, Simon left instagram headquarters and went to Tinkerbell with C girl.
The popularity of personal computers and digital cameras is the most basic condition for instagram to develop.
However, neither is a problem now.
In the first half of 1994, global PC shipments reached 26.3 million in the first six months of this year, compared with 20 million in 1990. Although the rise of the Internet in the world has led to the increasing proportion of overseas PC shipments, at this stage, North American PC shipments still account for 41% of global shipments, reaching 10.9 million units.
It is estimated that in 1994, the global PC shipment will be about 55 million, of which North America will not be less than 22 million.
The number of PCs in the world has exceeded 230 million.
In terms of digital cameras, in the first half of 1994, tincobail's digital camera shipment reached 3.27 million units, still successfully holding more than half of the global consumer digital camera market share, accounting for 53% of the market. It is estimated that the annual shipment is expected to reach 8 million units.
At the same time, worldwide, the total shipment of consumer digital cameras in 1994 is expected to be about 16 million.
As the world's largest consumer electronics market, the popularity rate of digital cameras in North America, like the growth of video recorders in recent years, far exceeds that of overseas countries, with 16 million digital cameras, of which more than 70% are in North America, reaching 11 million.
Even if we don't talk about the accumulation in the past few years, we don't consider the overseas users for the time being. It's just that the 11 million digital camera users in North America increased in 1994, which is enough to ensure instagram has a broad user base.
What's more, as long as instagram can be popularized, which in turn stimulates user demand, the shipment of digital cameras will only further increase next year, and the two complement each other.
Simon arrived at the headquarters of tincobail company, and was first taken by C girl to check the digital camera prototype of tincobail company.
The company has applied for a full range of trademarks in advance, and still starts with ”I”, which means ”record”. Tincobail's digital camera series will be named IREC.
It's easy to remember.
”We have tried CD, flash memory, tape and other storage media. In the end, it is the same as what our boss said. At this stage, the only suitable storage solution for us is micro hard disk. However, although the prototype has been completed, there are still many problems to be solved. At the same time, we need to wait for the hard disk manufacturers to develop a micro hard disk with larger storage capacity. Therefore, IREC will be released as early as next autumn, when we can launch IREC with 250m storage capacity, and the cost can be controlled within a reasonable range. ”
In dinkober's lab, c-girl introduces Simon as he plays with the apparently rough prototype of the digital camera.
Simon took a video with IREC prototype in his hand. When he played it back directly on IREC small screen, he obviously felt stuck. This is probably one of the problems c girl said.
Claire also asked people to bring a new IBM laptop, connect IREC to the USB interface of the laptop, and begin to transfer the video file Simon just shot.
This IREC adopts 240p video definition, which is enough to meet the needs of users at this stage.
The one minute video just shot, according to the definition standard of 240p, is only 2.2m in size.
The 2.2m MP4 format video will be transferred by USB in ten or twenty years, which is absolutely just a flash. This time, however, Simon found the problem again. The usb1.0 standard has been popularized since last year, and the transmission speed is only about 90K per second.
At this stage, it takes about 25 seconds to transmit 1 minute of 240p video.
In this way, if one hour's video is transmitted, it may take half an hour, which greatly affects the user experience.
Claire, who is close to Simon, is obviously satisfied with this. Noticing the change of men's expression, she said: ”the 1.5mbps transmission speed of usb1.0 standard can meet the needs of users at this stage. Theoretically, the transmission speed is equivalent to 180K per second. However, due to hardware reasons, we can only achieve half of the transmission speed for the time being, and we can make further progress when the product is launched next year One step optimization. ”
Simon nodded.
Indeed, the road has to go step by step.Compared with the USB standard in memory, it took shape in 1995, which is very advanced.
I have read the statistics in advance. With the vigorous promotion of westero system, USB interface began to be promoted at the end of last year. In the first half of this year, Tinkerbell released U disk as a turning point. Now, the proportion of PC manufacturers' latest personal computers with USB interface has exceeded 20%, and next year, the proportion will exceed 50%.
Not only that, including the personal computers without USB interface in the hands of home users at present, if you want to use the USB function, you don't need to replace the expensive PC equipment, just need to purchase a transfer interface worth dozens of dollars.
Since USB began to be promoted at the end of last year, igrit, Microsoft, Intel and other companies have set up venture funds to invest in USB peripheral products to support start-ups to develop hardware products such as mouse and keyboard with USB interface.
With the popularity of USB interface, the digital cameras, digital music players, digital cameras and other products planned to be released next year will be converted to the use of micro hard disk and USB transmission format.
However, the current floppy disk digital camera will still be upgraded next year. In addition to the icam-50, the icam-40s floppy disk version will continue to be released next year as a transition.
After seeing the IREC prototype, Claire took Simon through some other products under development.
Including the iBook, which has not been leaked at this stage.
This is a concept that Simon has given for a long time. IBook is also one of the earliest trademarks that tincobail hoarded.
Apple released its first Newton tablet last year, the predecessor of Apple's iPad, with a very advanced touch screen design.
It's a pity that Apple didn't pinpoint the positioning of this product, just used it for personal digital assistant. And because of the high price of this product, which is up to $900, there are few users.
In fact, even e-book readers already have similar products in the market at this stage. However, due to the limitations of storage capacity and content resources, there is basically no good development.
Tincobail's iBook, which is quietly researched and developed by tincobail, has no plan to launch a finished product in the near future. The main reason is that the price of small LCD screen is too expensive at present, and it can't be as delicate as a book for the time being.
Plan, the real launch of this product, at least until 1996.
Simon also hopes that this product can be integrated to a certain extent, cooperate with the digital music player, and even further, increase the function of digital camera, and adopt the touch screen design.
At that time, it will be the prototype of tablet computer.
In the lab, after listening to Simon's idea, Claire said, ”if so, our product may be more expensive than Apple's Newton tablet, and not many people can afford it.”