Chapter 131: Q.W.A.S.P.P.: World Of Light

"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.

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"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.

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On 23 December 1924, a group of leading international businessmen gathered in Geneva for a meeting that would alter the world for decades to come. Present were top representatives from all the major lightbulb manufacturers, including Germany's Osram, the Netherlands' Philips, France's Compagnie des Lampes, and the United States's General Electric.

As revelers hung Christmas lights elsewhere in the city, the group founded the 「Phoebus Cartel」. This supervisory body would carve up the worldwide incandescent lightbulb market, with each national and regional zone assigned its own manufacturers and production quotas. It was the first cartel in history to enjoy a truly global reach.

The Phoebus Cartel's grip on the lightbulb market lasted into the 1930s. The cartel's far more enduring legacy was to engineer a shorter life span for the incandescent lightbulb. By early 1925, this became codified at 1,000 hours for a pear-shaped household bulb, a marked reduction from the 1,500 to 2,000 hours that had previously been common.

Cartel members rationalized this approach as a trade-off: Their lightbulbs were of higher quality, more efficient, and brighter burning than other bulbs. They also cost a lot more. Indeed, all evidence points to the cartel's being motivated by profits and increased sales, not by what was best for the consumer.

In carefully crafting a lightbulb with a relatively short life span, the cartel thus hatched the industrial strategy known as planned obsolescence. They reduced the lifetime capacity of their bulbs from 2,500 hrs to 1,000 hrs and thus ensuring that their profits would increase due to the demand they had artificially manufactured.

And Quinn stood in the same position as them. His M.L.E were better in every single aspect than the current products, and that included the lifespan. If Quinn was to release the M.L.E as they were, they would last forty-five years with an average of six hours of daily usage. That meant buying M.L.E would become a once or twice in a lifetime purchase, meaning that the West profits see explosive profits, but they would subside when the demand would be fulfilled after a single purchase.

"What do you suggest?" asked Lia; she calculated the lifespan from what data Quinn had given and understood what it entailed. "If what you suggest is true, then we might eradicate the lighting industry upon the release of these."

"From a business point of view, I would suggest that we cap the lifespan of M.L.E products according to their use. Like, personal home bulbs go bad after ten thousand hours (10,000 hrs), and for products like large floodlights that might be used in underground places like the Ministry of Magic, I could design them to last longer because those work all day round. In short, we can decide the lifespan according to the use of a specific product," suggested Quinn.

Lia thought for a second before turning to George and asked, "What should we do?"

George moved his eyes between his two grandchildren, and after thinking for a good minute, he turned to Lia and announced his decision.

"You decide."

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Lia blinked a couple of seconds, and after comprehending the short sentence, she inquired, "I decide?"

"Yes, what you decide will be the path of the company. This decision is solely for you to take. I am leaving this up to you," clarified George. This was the best opportunity to test Lia's progress and her decision-making abilities. Lia had been working under his mentorship for nearly seven years, and George thought that this was the correct time to see how she would perform when faced with a vital decision.

Lia briefly glanced at Quinn, who looked at her without any change in expression, before turning back to George to see if he was serious. The older man was entirely serious and looked at his granddaughter, waiting for her decision.

Lia West, a seven-year career woman, turned her eyes to the M.L.E on the table before looking up at M.L.Es on the ceiling. She thought hard and long about the decision that had been placed on her. The decision that could change the lives of many and transform the lifestyle of millions of people.

"We will go with the planned obsolescence like Quinn suggested," started Lia as she gazed at Quinn. "We will decide the lifespans later on, and you will give me a write-up on your recommendations. I want to know what do you think the lifespan should be. This is what we're going to do. When we sell the M.L.Es, we will say that runes wear off after the time that we're going to decide. We're going to offer the customers an offer: when the M.L.E dies, they can bring in the old rune plate and deposit it to us for a discount for the new M.L.E."

She turned to Quinn and asked, "If you plant planned obsolescence into the M.L.E, what are the chances that someone will figure out what we're doing? Do you think someone will decode the runes while trying to figure out how to make the M.L.Es?"

"No, unlike this one," pointed Quinn at the M.L.E on the table. "The designs that I will pass onto you won't have the runes carved on the surface for everyone to see. I took planned obsolescence into account and designed the entire product line with an anti-piracy design approach. If they open the product up for any reason, the rune cluster will break down and become gibberish."

"That's great; one less worry to stress about," nodded Lia in appreciation. "On the production side of things, we're going to divide the production between different groups. No single worker will know how to carve the entire runic cluster. I'm going to go on a limb and say that we're going to split the production process between countries. Every stage of the process would be in a different factory. It will up the cost by a level, but I think I can figure out a way to cut costs... grandfather, you will have to help me out on this one. I'm not experienced in the multi-country production process."

"Don't worry, I will guide you through the process," smiled George, satisfied with the decisions that Lia was making. The decision to split the production to keep the trade information a secret had impressed George, given that Lia only had a brief time to come up with a base strategy.

Quinn silently watched as his sister and grandfather bounced ideas back and forth on a product that he created. His worries about introducing something that could eradicate an entire industry was relieved seeing his family's initiative and response. Quinn had taken out the M.L.E with the full expectations that it would be rejected by them and had set his expectations accordingly: he would've been satisfied with creating M.L.Es for family and friends and no one else.

He didn't have the desire to make everything he made to become popular and be available to the public. The products that he mad were foremost just a way to solidify and check his learnings. The decision to sell them was because he came from a business family and if he could help them grow, then that would be a thing that Quinn would gladly help in.

The second Q.W.A.S.P.P ended after Quinn, the inventor, introduced two lines of products that had massive market-changing potential to his investors, Lia and George.

Quinn West - MC - Conscious about the potential of his products.

Lia West - Career Woman - Somethings are too good to pass upon.

George West - Big boss - Proud granddaddy.

FictionOnlyReader - Author - Read some interesting history and had to share it with you all.

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