Chapter 130: Q.W.A.S.P.P.: World Of Light (1/2)

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”Let's move onto the next product, shall we?” said Quinn after the film-developing potion and the new color printing press pitch was over. ”I've another market-dominating product that has the potential to replace the existing product and replace it till it no longer has a market share.”

”That sounds promising,” commented Lia. Her confidence in Quinn was at an all-time high. In Lia's eyes, Quinn was the treasure chest that would give out precious treasures when opened.

”I have been using this since my second year,” spoke Quinn while taking out a thin metal strip with a rune etched onto the surface. ”I've been using this in office and workshop at Hogwarts. It's also everywhere in my suitcase.”

Lia and George stared at the hexagonal plate of metal the size of a drink coaster. They could see a rune cluster of shallow depth etched across the surface; they couldn't recognize the function of the runes from a first glance, so they looked up at Quinn for an introduction and explanation.

The window in the room that let in sunlight, lighting up the space in natural light, turned opaque, blocking the majority of the light from entering inside and plunging the room into darkness.

”When the sun sets, the source of light in all buildings across the globe are ever-lasting (long-lasting) candles.” Quinn's voice sounded in the dark as he introduced the product. ”Be it rooms without windows or underground areas, you would find ever-lasting candles or torches lighting up the room. It's a household item that people probably couldn't live without, but what if I told you that I have created something that could replace something as prominent as ever-lasting candles.”

Around this time, Lia and George's eyes adjusted to the light, and they could see a faint smile across Quinn's face.

”I present you M.L.E: Magical Light Emitter,” spoke Quinn as he said it; the hexagonal metal plate glowed up and bathed the room in a faint white light. As Quinn continued to talk, the light from the M.L.E. got stronger. ”An amalgamation of light-based runes, integrated together to produce light rivaling a well-executed and boosted Lumos charm and perfect for lighting up rooms.”

Just before the light got uncomfortably bright to directly look at, Quinn took out a glass hemisphere from his pockets and fixed it above the hexagonal plate. The glass worked as an excellent buffer and diffused the light from the runes to create similar effects to an electric light bulb.

The M.L.E floated up as Quinn levitated it with his magic, and soon it was at the ceiling, dome side down, dispersing clean white light to a part of the room.

”Now the question is why should we switch from ever-lasting candles to M.L.E,” spoke Quinn, bringing to attention the biggest challenge to the success of a product. ”I would say that because of the nature of an open flame, the setting of candles and torches is limited. The number of candles needed to properly is large. But with M.L.E, that number is cut short by a lot.”

He pointed at the M.L.E on the roof and pointed out. ”This one is the simplest model that I have created, and it can light up a third of a fairly sizeable room. I have stronger models and can be used in different scenarios: ambient indoor lighting, ambient outdoor lighting, task lighting, accent lightings. In short, I have different a line of products that have been optimized to work in different scenarios. Unlike the massively inefficient ever-lasting flame products, I have created products that target efficiency and would be massively better than the current ever-lasting products.”

Quinn clapped his hands, and the white light turned to yellow, then to red, purple, green, blue, and multitudes of colors. Lia and George stared above to see the color of light change with every second, and under Quinn's command, the intensity and warmth of the light also switched with the second.

”I can do all this with just one prototype, so think what I could do with things that created to fit certain needs,” spoke Quinn.

What had started as 「Project: Edison」 in his A.I.D project files had become so big that it had turned into a vast array of applications. And because Quinn lived in Hogwarts for most of his year, he saw different types of rooms and spaces requiring different lighting types. Somewhere along the line, Quinn started to analyze areas in terms of lighting, and soon, he had a line of products that he could use to light any place he desired.

”How about I give you a little demonstration about what I am talking about. Something that will exactly show you what I am talking about,” spoke Quinn, and the M.L.E on the top dropped down for Quinn to catch it and place it back on the table. He also switched the M.L.E off, and the room went dark once again.

”This is what I saw when I say proper lighting,” declared Quinn, and suddenly the room was lit up like it was a non-magical conference room. The M.L.E Quinn had hidden in the ceilings using illusion charms became visible and lit up according to the configuration he had pre-determined. The room was lit up evenly and clearly, while the table area was slightly brighter than the rest of the room.

George looked at the room and felt more impressed than anyone because he was used to candle lighting, which always left parts of the room in darkness. But currently, every single corner of the room was lit. And he felt the new white hue much better than the yellow light that he was used to; grandson and grandfather both preferred white to yellow.

”We can install these in our stores, and it will attract more customers,” spoke up George as his mind started to turn on applications. ”Just by using these lighting, our stores would stand out more than any other store in the area.”

”And if we can get more people in the stores, the chances of them buying something would increase, meaning more sales,” concluded Lia as her mind too made connections.

Quinn nodded as he had first-hand seen the effect of lighting. When he had changed the lighting in his office, it created an impressive impact on every student that ever visited the office. For an entire year, students would stare at the lights before talking about their problems. And it extended to every new student he served this year. Just one little change made the students think that Quinn's office was unique and reinforced a positive impression of A.I.D as a service.

”... There is one another thing that I would like to discuss with you two,” spoke Quinn, and he wasn't sure how Lia and George would react to his upcoming suggestion.

”What is it?” asked George, still staring at the lights on the ceilings.

”Would you like me to build a planned obsolescence in the various M.L.E products?” spoke Quinn, hesitant about adding something in his products that would knowingly limit the actual capabilities.

”Planned obsolescence?” questioned George, not familiar with the term. Even Lia didn't understand the word.

”Planning or designing a product with an artificially limited useful life or a purposely frail design, so that it becomes obsolete after a certain pre-determined period upon which it decrementally functions or suddenly ceases to function,” explained Quinn and introduced his family with the new concept. ”The rationale behind this strategy is to generate long-term sales volume by reducing the time between repeat purchases. It is the deliberate shortening of a lifespan of a product to force people to purchase functional replacements.”

Quinn tapped the M.L.E on the table and continued with context, ”My current designs of M.L.E have a life expectancy of a hundred thousand hours (100,00 hrs). After those active hours, the runes on the metal would stop working... but I can add some runes that would reduce the life expectancy to say something like... ten thousand hours (10,000 hrs). That way, the customers would have to buy new ones after those ten thousand hours (10,000 hrs).”

Contrived durability was a strategy of shortening the product lifetime before releasing it onto the market by designing it to deteriorate before the actual lifespan. The idea of planned obsolescence was something Quinn thought of because of its occurrence in non-magical history.