Chapter 444 Amazing MP Three Players

Jonathan Ivey is the soul of Apple's industrial design. He has been the chief designer since the iPod era. After experiencing iMac and iPad, he reached the peak of his life in the iPhone era. He is known as the smartest designer in the world. Competing company's most wanted secret weapon. For a long time, he was one of the most powerful industrial designers in the world.

If it weren't for Apple's great success, Li Mu might not even be able to remember the designer's name, so he also doesn't know how much Arya has achieved in the field of industrial design in her previous life, but from her one night alone Judging from the sketches he had drawn, Li Mu felt that this woman's achievements would not be bad.

What Li Mu didn't know was that Arya and Jonathan were alumni of the same school. Both graduated from the School of Design, Northumbria University. In the future, Arya joined Apple in 2003 and became Jonathan's most popular student. Powerful assistant.

After Arya showed Li Mu several design sketches, she asked him, "Mr. Li, which one of these sketches is closer to what you want?"

Li Mu thought for a while and said, "I think the last one still in the painting is closer."

"Really?" Arya hurriedly turned to the last page, the sketch above was just a simple line, at this time, Li Mu pointed to the sketch of the upper and lower cross-sections she drew and said, "But here I hope that the two sides can be closed. , becomes an oblate shape."

Arya nodded, quickly erasing the cross-section sketch with the eraser, and then redrawing a flat circle.

Li Mu was basically satisfied and said to her, "It would be nice if the design could be lighter and thinner."

Arya said: "It's just a sketch now, you can draw any sketch, but I still have to refer to the hardware configuration, including what kind of screen you are going to use, what kind of buttons, what kind of memory, the most important thing , it is what kind of battery you want to use, if it is a lithium battery, the design is more flexible, if it is an ordinary AA battery or AAA battery, the design is more limited, because the thickness of the battery is relatively big, so..."

Only then did Li Mu think that there is no problem with MP3 using the similar design of iPod-nano4, but the most critical issue is hardware and craftsmanship. If you want to use the flat shape of nano4, the biggest problem is the battery. AAA, that is, the seventh battery, its thickness will also be greatly affected.

If a lithium battery is used, the thickness problem can be solved very well, but the cost will naturally be much higher. Now it is 2002, and the cost of a lithium battery can be said to be surprisingly high. A mobile phone battery can easily cost hundreds of dollars. MP3 with lithium battery, the cost will exceed the user's ability to bear.

At present, the purchasing power of domestic users is indeed still at a relatively weak stage.

Li Mu must consider the issue of cost, otherwise, if he really comes up with an MP3 like IPOD that starts at two or three thousand yuan, it will completely disrupt his plan.

This also made Li Mu realize the one-sidedness of the layman's consideration of things, and he hadn't thought of such an important matter in advance.

Li Mu smacked his lips and asked Arya, "If you use ordinary batteries, do you have any good design suggestions?"

Arya said: "Most MP3 players are powered by ordinary dry batteries. There is only one disadvantage. The overall design should be based on the battery. However, if a single AAA battery is used, the controllability in design will be greater. I It is recommended to use this power supply method. In this case, I can use the design of the triangular cross-section just now. I can make the front as wide as possible, reduce the thickness, use an isosceles triangle design, and make the angle of the top corner as large as possible. This makes it thinner and more prominent on the front of the player.”

Li Mu nodded and said, "You can change it and try it out."

Arya immediately turned to a new page, pencil in hand and began to draw lines.

The front of the fuselage is quickly outlined, and then Arya begins to outline the cross section, first she draws an isosceles triangle with a large top angle.

Li Mu put forward his own suggestion: "Can the three corners of the cross section be designed as circular arcs? In that case, it should look more natural."

The pencil in Arya's hand tapped lightly on the sketchbook, her eyes lit up: "What a great suggestion!"

After all, Arya began to process the edges and corners on the basis of the isosceles triangle, and designed the edges and corners to be more smooth and natural. Similar to the four-arc design of the iPhone 6, the cross-section was processed into a triangular arc. In this way, the overall The sense of design has also improved a bit.

The design of the battery compartment is properly arranged in the top corner of the equilateral triangle. The protruding arc edge can just fit the battery inside, and the narrowing on both sides can give people an overall thinner illusion.

Unknowingly, nearly an hour passed, and more and more lines were drawn by the tip of Arya's pen. The blank paper was gradually covered. A design sketch like a sketch appeared in front of Li Mu, and Li Mu was asked to do it. Amazed.

The overall functional layout of this product is similar to that of the iPod-nano, but the difference is that Arya has added a lot of her own design elements, although the middle position is thicker than the nano due to the battery compartment, but the overall It still looks very nice, much better than all MP3 players of this era.

The design of the back cover of the battery compartment is relatively traditional. It is a battery cover that is not much larger than the AAA battery. At the bottom of the entire back of the player, there is a recessed card slot for fixing the battery cover.

Li Mu was a little dissatisfied with this design. He said to Arya: "Can the entire back be designed as a detachable battery cover?"

Arya asked in surprise: "The whole back is one piece? Wouldn't it be too troublesome to disassemble in that way?"

Li Mu said with a smile: "If it is to be disassembled as a whole, there is a different way of doing this kind of snap. Hidden snaps should be used, that is to say, the back cover should be designed in a push-pull mode. Push the snaps open to remove the cover. No gaps or marks can be seen on the entire rear."

This kind of design is still very novel now, but in the future, almost all remote controls of electronic products will adopt this hidden snap method. The biggest advantage of this method is that it is beautiful and integrated, not like the traditional The battery cover is so awkward.

Although Arya had never seen this method, but after listening to Li Mu's introduction, she immediately understood exactly what Li Mu wanted. In ten minutes, she drew an overall sketch of the back cover. , looks and feels very good.

This also makes Arya look at Li Mu with admiration. Although he has never studied design, his inspiration for design seems to surpass that of many others, and even he seems to be very avant-garde.

Regarding the design of the earphones, Li Mu's request was also to be as concise as possible while ensuring the sense of design. Arya changed the design draft several times under Li Mu's instruction, and finally came up with a design similar to the iPhone earphones. Li Mu also I am very satisfied with this version, there is no way, who made Apple's industrial design recognized and affirmed by the world in the last life, the only industry representatives Li Mu can think of are them.

After the sketch of the overall design was finalized, Arya herself was in love with the effect of the final design, and she sincerely said to Li Mu: "Mr. Li, in fact, most of this player is your creativity, and the cost we set earlier, I think it's more appropriate to lose half of it."

Li Mu said sternly: "This is a different matter, even if part of it is my idea, you are helping me to improve it, there is no reason to discount the cost, and besides, if you cooperate with other companies, the other party puts forward some requirements for you to follow. His needs change, do you still want to give him a discount? This is not like your professional style."

Arya hurriedly said, "I didn't mean that..."

Li Mu smiled and said, "That's fine. Although we haven't signed a contract, the money issue has been discussed before. You and I have to abide by the spirit of the contract, so that if there is another opportunity for cooperation in the future, we can develop it better. "

Arya's design talent is very high and very professional, but she has never entered the workplace after all, and she is somewhat subjective when it comes to cooperation. She feels that she has done much less work than expected, so she is embarrassed to take more from others. However, after Li Mu took out the signboard of the contract spirit, she no longer insisted, and said to Li Mu: "Mr. Li, I will start rendering renderings and formal design drawings today. When the official drawings come out, I will There will be a design standard for the internal hardware such as the screen, motherboard, buttons, jacks, etc. You can communicate with the foundry and let them design the internal hardware according to the standard.”

Li Mu nodded, looking forward to the effects of the renderings and design drawings. This is a major strategy for Taobao and Yiting.com in the future. As long as this MP3 player can be successful, Taobao can save at least a year of struggle. Ting.com can sell hundreds of thousands of MP3s in the official flagship store of Taobao Store within a year, so it can start a B2C platform similar to "Tmall Mall" in 2003, and can make a product online. Hundreds of thousands of sales volume, I don’t know how many companies that are deeply tortured by traditional sales channels and costs will break their heads and find their own cooperation.

...

Three days later, Li Mu got a full set of design materials for the MP3 player from Arya, including the precise design drawings of each component, as well as the overall explosion and rendering.

Li Mu asked Arya to make a stunning rendering of himself. There are nine newly designed MP3 players in one picture. Although the models are all the same, the colors of the color shells are different. There are nine colors of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and silver and black. The nine colors are displayed at the same time. This is also an imitation of nano's route. On the one hand, it enhances the style of its product group, and on the other hand, it is also to cater to more people. aesthetic.

Li Mu was very satisfied with Arya's design, and the rendering was so good that Li Mu thought he had leapt over five years.

After confirming that there was nothing to modify in the design, Arya said goodbye to Li Mu temporarily. She planned to take a month or so to take a look around in Huaxia. Li Mu wanted to take her to Yanjing as much as possible. After playing around, she refused. She yearned for the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, so she bought a train ticket from Yanjing all the way to the southwest. After Li Mu settled the cost to her, he asked her to keep the mobile phone he gave her, and Tell her that if something happens in the country, call yourself in time.