Chapter 10: 10. Product Launch Preparations
For the next 1 month, he busied himself in creating the magic phone. The biggest obstacle wasn't making the device but figuring out how to have connectivity. It was 1991 and the world was advanced enough. He could hire NASA to send a satellite but he dumped that idea as he didn't know if it would work.
Later in his research, he found out that the world was different than his world. The air particles were different on a molecular level. There was magic in it. They were extremely small circular particles. He then traveled a bit and found out that some places had more particle density than others.
For example, Hogwarts had a very high density. Most of the muggle world had very small. All the major areas with high density already had buildings related to the magical community. Though he couldn't understand what brought this new particle. All he knew was that magic existed because of this and magic had existed even before pyramids were built and they were surely made with the help of magic.
With this discovery, he found a way to use these magic particles for data transmission. In the end, he designed a magic tower with a 5000-kilometer range. Its purpose was to manage the data transmission.
The main device was just like any other modern smartphone. A 6-inch touch screen, back and front camera with 4K capabilities. automatic rechargeable batteries with the use of magic particles. It was much sturdier than a normal phone.
It comes with a variety of apps. Such as caller app, video calling, camera, messaging, browser, news, social networking called Unibook, video-sharing app called Unitube. The price of the device was set up at 15 galleons(100 US dollars at the rate of 1 galleon = 6.53 US dollars). The box will include the device, wireless earphones and a full manual on how to use it and its apps.
The monthly service charge was priced at 5 Sickles(3 US dollars). The service included everything. From call to messaging. However they'd still need to pay a subscription fee for news, the fee was also 5 Sickles. He had also planned to start e-commerce but for that, he'd need to have a chat with Gringotts' higher management.
The prices of all these would be revised each year to stay consistent with the exchange rate. He had estimated that his new business would bring him an immense amount of money.
He also created a flat television with variants of 22-inch, 32-inch, 42-inch, and 52-inch screens. The starting price was set at 5 galleons with an increment of 3 galleons on bigger sizes. Such that, the price was 5 galleons, 8 galleons, 11 galleons, and 14 galleons. They would be available in the same stores as the magic phones. The most magical thing about phones and T.V.s was that it could produce smell. Which means that people could smell food on a certain cooking show.
Considering that he would divulge himself in many other businesses, he decided to create a parent company. He named it Universe Industries.
Now, all that was remaining was to start the production and advertising. But first, he needed a famous ambassador. For this, he selected himself and Dumbledore.
By the end of February, the galaxy tower was completed. All that was left was to introduce security features and portkeys. He had also bought shops in every major magical community market in the world and had created a lavish-looking 2 story shop. They had nothing in them except a huge video advertising panel with the product advertisements, a reception desk, and 3 portkeys.
The Galaxy Tower was also covered with various panels. For now they would only show his advertisements and some news. Later it would be open for rent by any business. He was very busy with all the work. He had also managed to convince the other shops in Diagon Alley to open a shop in his mall. They were reluctant at first but when I told them that wizards and witches from all over the world will be coming there, they happily accepted. Not just them. It happened with all the magical market places in the world where his shop was present.
By the end of March, all the shops on 5 floors of the Mall had been booked. He had strategically placed his shop on the ground floor as well as the 5th floor. Due to too much rush on the ground floor, people would surely go to the higher floor while passing by other shops. This would give other shops more exposure.
Also on the main hall on the ground floor, there was a food court with many food shops, varying from magical cuisine to muggle cuisine. A shop for the Daily prophet was also set up on the 1st floor. They also acted as the reception desk for the main office above.
Barnabas Cuffe, his editor in chief, was a very competitive man. He had already hired 500 new correspondents. That kind of competence was expected from Barnabas Cuffe, after all, he was a part of Horace Slughorn's slug club.
All the new correspondents had already been sent to various countries from where they had started sending the latest news. Video media had also been set up. The staff had been selected. Rita Skeeter was promoted to being the head of the department. She has quite the talent of talking. She was going to be the first anchor of the news channel. Not just that, many news anchors from various countries were hired. The news would be recorded in various languages but they would be automatically converted into the viewer's preferred language though magical translators.
A cooking and lifestyle channel was also created as people would grow bored with just news on T.V.
Now, his main task was to have a chat with Dumbledore. He stored an extra unit of Magic T.V. and Magic Phone. He went to the terrace of the Galaxy Tower and flew towards Hogwarts.
He headed straight to the headmaster's office. Thankfully, he didn't have to try to guess the password as Mrs. McGonagall was coming down the spiral stairs.
"Oh, Mr. Universe, what a surprise seeing you here. I heard that you'd be teaching here next year. I can already see children getting excited about your classes."
"haha... Thank you for your encouraging words professor McGonagall. I will try not to disappoint my students. By the way, I had something important to talk about with Albus. Can you tell me the password?" he asked.
"Absolutely, it's sweet lemon peanuts."
"Thank you, if it weren't for you then who knows how long it would have taken me to guess that password. Albus and his fetish with weird passwords." Alexander said jokingly.
"Haha... *ahem* I will not take more of your time" she chuckled and left.
Alexander said the password and entered the office.
"Hahaha... Alexander, my friend. What brings you here today" Dumbledore warmly welcomed him.
"You can call me Alex, Albus. Alexander feels a bit too formal," he said.
"Alright then. Alex, what brings you here? And congratulations on buying the Daily Prophet"
"Thank you. I want to internationalize the newspaper. Also, I have other plans..."
He then told him about his new company, Mall and products.
"This is a magic phone. I've named it Uniphone. This is a magic T.V and I've named it Uni T.V. Read the manuals and understand how to use it." he said and silently waited.
It took Dumbledore an hour to completely understand how to use the things. Unitube had some nature videos from the Muggle world. On Unibook, only he had an account. The T.V had already 2 running channels, news, and a cooking/lifestyle channel.
"My friend, this is revolutionary. This could change the whole magical community," he said with an excited face.
"Yes, and this is just the beginning. I believe that we can bring the whole world's magic community closer with this." Alexander said.
"YES, but I have a question. The Uni T.V is good but Uni mobile can be used for wrong purposes," he said. He understood the usefulness of the device but also the possible danger.
"No need to be anxious. I had already thought about this. There is a thing called firewall on these devices. Any message, image or word having the mention of words such as dark lord, the 3 unforgivable curses, other dangerous dark curses, dark rituals, wanted criminals will be red-flagged. Later they will be personally reviewed by the staff. If it is anything dangerous then it will be reported to the ministry. But I need trustworthy men for this job and I think maybe you can recommend some from the order of the phoenix." he said.
Dumbledore thought for a bit and finally named a guy.
"What do you think about Remus Lupin? He has no job because of his identity. But I can assure you that he's an honest man," Dumbledore said.
"Yes, truly bad luck for that child. Okay. Tell him to meet me at my office. It's on the top floor of Galaxy tower. I also want you to be my ambassador. You are the most famous wizard in the world so I want to use that. Don't worry, I'll just record an advertisement with you and me in it. You will be paid for it and I'll also gift Uniphone to every teacher in Hogwarts." he offered.
Dumbledore happily accepted his offer. Alexander then shot a video of Dumbledore sitting in a comfortable room by the fireplace, watching the food channel on television. Then suddenly his Uniphone would ring. It was a call from Alexander.
"Alex, my friend. What happened?" He asked on the phone.
"What! you forgot? we were supposed to meet today and discuss about my new job at your school." Alexander annoyingly said.
"Oh, sorry about that. I am very busy today, you know." Dumbledore said while looking at food with stary eyes on T.V.
"Okay, fine, I'll meet you tomorrow I guess," Alexander said and hung up the phone.
The scene changed from Dumbledore to Alexander. Surprisingly, Alexander also cozily sat on a couch in his funny pajama, looking and drooling over food shown on T.V.
Suddenly the screen split and showed Dumbledore and Alexander ordering food from Phone simultaneously. Then the screen went dark and a white infinity logo(company logo) came up with the tagline.
"Makes life easier"
The screen would then change again, showing the deliveryman on broom with food in his backpack at the door. That was the end of the advertisement.
Alexander was pretty satisfied with it. He decided to polish it a bit more and then start showing it at the panels on his shops around the world.
"Here, these are 30 units of Uniphone. Distribute them to teachers. I'll take my leave now. Be sure to visit me at my office sometime." He said and left.
Later he shot 2 more ads. One had 2 young couples. They were talking to each other through owls but many times the stupid owl would lose the letters by bumping into something. Later the boy bought a Uniphone for himself and his girlfriend. Then they started talking to each other on video call. The other advertisement has a boy watching the news on his phone when he receives a conference video call. It was his quidditch teammates. They talked and planned for the practice session.
The advertisement went really well with the company tagline, as the Uni T.V and Uniphone would really make life easier.
Now all that was left was to launch the product. The date had been set to 15 July. That was when Hogwarts announces its exam results and also sent letters to new students.
The ads were rolled out in every newspaper in the world. People were getting excited to see the magic artifacts described in ads. Also, the concept of the Mall seemed interesting to them.