Jan 29
The first thing I did when my family finally broke down and purchased internet service was disobey my mother. I’m sorry, Mom, but I made a ton of internet friends.
Jan 29
Interview with Huawei CMO Shao Yang
Posted in: Today's Chili
Despite shipping 20M smartphones per quarter, Huawei remains a phone maker that few people in the United States are familiar with. We sat down with Huawei’s chief marketing officer (CMO, Consumer Business Group) Shao Yang in Shenzhen/China, for an interview. We have previously met Mr. Shao Yang at Mobile World Congress, and he once again answered a host of questions going from Huawei’s brand and product strategies to more direct product-related questions (including Windows Phone 10). We got an interesting glimpse into how Huawei thinks, and what it is up to. The crunchy details are presented below, but it comes down to three words: Differentiation. Innovation, Focus.
Would Huawei commercialize the MediaPad X1 in the U.S as WiFi-only?
The context for this question is that a number of Huawei products are not available in the U.S because their modems have not passed the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) certification. There’s actually a WiFi-only version of the MediaPad X1, but at the end of the day, Huawei believes that customers were happy with it because they were able to use it mainly as a (huge) phone. It’s not for everyone, but this is the best user experience for that device, and one that is not really prevalent in the West because people don’t like to make phone calls with a very large 7-inch device.
What is the strategy to sell more products in the U.S?
“DIFFERENTIATION. INNOVATION, FOCUS” Huawei fundamentally believes that it has to get “closer to the customer”, which means that it is currently trying to avoid carrier sales channels for its Premium products. “Traditional channels don’t like new stuff”, says Shao Yang. This means that Huawei will continue to push its most innovative products via its website, and provide support directly (Huawei still has entry level products as part of its mix).
“e-commerce provides more speed and flexibility” he adds, and this will allow Huawei to innovate at its own rhythm, without the inherent lag induced by having carrier partners approve software updates etc. Huawei could provide faster OS updates because of that.
Yet, Huawei realizes that the strategy will take time: “quality and user experience at an affordable price, is where the value is created” according to Mr. Shao. At no point did Huawei hint that it will start competing in the absolute high-end spectrum represented by $700 phones. Instead, it wants to bring a Premium quality in mid-ranges prices where it can have the most impact (understand “more people can afford it”). The Huawei Mate 2 is sold in the U.S for $299 unlocked, and without a contract.
People need to see and touch products. What is Huawei’s retail presence?
“Premium” quality and design is a concept that is difficult to grasp when you can’t see and hold a device. In the West, most people would think of “Premium” as “high-end”, but it really means great quality for the price in Huawei’s mind.
Huawei recognizes that it is better if people can see and play with the devices to have a feel for them, but it is not about to open stores worldwide. That’s why it had partnered with Walmart last year to promote the Huawei Mate 2 in the U.S market (arguably not the classiest retailer, but it does have reach). At the moment, there is no other partner to be announced, but this is something that Huawei would probably like to expand.
When asked if the company would build “experience centers” of sort, the response was rather indirect and suggested that no such centers are officially in the works.
What about Windows Phones and Windows 10?
Huawei thinks that Android offers a better differentiation opportunity, and that’s why Windows Phone was on standby. Right now, Huawei will not build another Windows Phone device, but is interested by the idea of a tablet that could run on Android and Windows in a dual-boot configuration.
Since Android is the platform of choice for Huawei, what about a “Pure Android” device?
This is a fair question, and since other Chinese phone makers (or even Motorola, NVIDIA…) are doing this quite successfully, would Huawei do it?
Once again, it comes to differentiation and the answer is “no”. Huawei believes that it can bring enough to the table with its Emotion UI graphical interface to please users. Huawei doesn’t take the pure Android option off the table, but for now, Emotion UI remains their primary UI platform.
I personally think that Emotion UI as seen in the Mate 7 still has some ways to go in terms of design, but after talking to the Huawei design lead and after seeing some of the things they are working on in terms of UI, this is going to an interesting place. Much like LG has managed a huge UI design jump from the G2 to the G3, Huawei is poised to make an even bigger jump in their next line of products.
How will Huawei shake off its image of budget phone OEM?
Like other OEMs, Huawei has traded in the budget phone market and in the U.S, this may be how most people know the brand – if they know it at all. Ultimately, this is something that Huawei wants to shy away from (“high sales of bad phones can destroy your brand”, says Shao Yang), and the only reliable way to change the brand perception by making products that people love [instead of spending in marketing], says Shao Yang.
“HIGH SALES OF BAD PHONES CAN DESTROY YOUR BRAND” Although Huawei’s marketing budget has increased with their overall growth, Huawei is often seen by observers as “not spending enough”. This is a highly debatable question, but Huawei thinks that their “marketing investment is at appropriate levels for now”, and they are probably right that they cannot brute-force their way out of this. Just look at the final Palm ad campaign to be convinced that this is no silver bullet.
At the moment, and in the U.S market, the FCC approval process for their modems remains the main roadblock. In time, this will go away, and with brisk sales of the Mate 7 smartphone in China (it is out of stock), the company seems pretty busy at home.
What areas does Huawei need to innovate in? 4G? Chips?
Huawei Campus in Shanzhen
Huawei is quick to remind us that 50% of its employees are working on R&D projects, and that its huge campuses are buzzing with engineers trying to solve all kinds of technical challenges. In the Shenzhen campus alone, there are 33,000 employees working on R&D activities. Fundamentally, Huawei started as a network company, so it says that it wants to be the best there. “There’s no excuse for not having the best 4G connectivity” he adds.
However, they simply listen to customer feedback and solve problems as they go. Shao Yang was candid in saying that the mobile phone road has not been an easy one. Huawei’s products started with their share of criticism: too big, too slow, so-so design, cheap materials… but in only a couple years, they have invested heavily in overcoming these problems with a nearly fanatical “bang for the buck” mantra: Adding Value.
The thing that Huawei is interested by the most, however is “synergy” – something they recognize Apple is doing extremely well. Since they build so many technologies from the networks to smart home electronics, they would like to see a way to make this work together better. This is not unheard of for a company of this size, and we will have to see if Huawei can create enough synergy to make a huge difference in actual user experience.
Processors, modem and system on a chip (SoC)
Huawei builds their own SoC, which compete with phone chips like the Qualcomm Snapdragon for example. Shao Yang explains that since Huawei is deeply involved in the wireless networks (they claim nearly half of the LTE infrastructure installation worldwide), building their own phone chip with an integrated modem is vital to the synergy that the company is looking for.
Its subsidiary HiSilicon is tasked to produce these, and the Kirin 925 is seen as a cornerstone product since it integrated Huawei’s latest communication technologies and provides a satisfactory level of performance.
At the same time, Huawei reminds us that it still works with Qualcomm in many phone designs, and that it is not just about competing with Qualcomm and others in the chip market, but it’s about the synergy between the phones, the chip, the network and their brand of Android OS. Having control of the chip is a must-have.
The Premium phone market is so tough, why even go there?
Shao Yang’s answer is absolute: “Huawei would lose by doing that”. “we’re not a low-cost company”, he adds, pointing out that with half its staff working in R&D, it would be impossible to sustain its phone business by building low-cost products. It’s just math if you think of it: 10% of the company’s revenues go back to R&D at Huawei, and that’s more than the gross margins of real low-cost players.
How important is the wearable market to Huawei? What about Android Wear?
Huawei says Wearable Tech is important to them because Wearables could be a good medium for innovation and synergy between Huawei products. To them, the phone remains the most personal device of all, and adding a single thing to the mix is already difficult, if one wants to add meaningful value.
When asked if they would use Android Wear, Shao Yang replied that his company is focused on “being different”. While not answering directly to the question, it’s fair to interpret that as a “no”, for now. The company plans to have Wearable announcements for MWC 2015, which is just around the corner.
Would Huawei enter new product category? What about a GoPro Killer?
“BRANDS WILL DISAPPEAR” This is a question that comes often because Huawei can build a lot of things that could compete with GoPro, Dropcam etc… which are seen as “easy” higher-margin plays.
Shao Yang points that the phone market is huge but also very dangerous. There are tectonic changes and players will rise and fall, sometime quickly. “There will be very few survivors” he says, and to be one of them, Huawei needs to focus.
“In the next few years, my guess is that you will see (established) brands will disappear” he says.
Conclusion
It was interesting to catch up with Mr. Shao Yang. We have observed Huawei for a few years, and the evolution of their product line has been surprisingly fast.
Huawei feels that its worldwide strategy is working, and it intends to carry it on in the West, including the United States. I suspect that you will hear more about them once the FCC certification process is done.
Although many companies are focused on quick growth and heavy marketing budgets, Huawei has decided not to follow this route. It is an company with an engineering mindset that has grabbed a near-majority of the world’s LTE infrastructure with a simple strategy: add value, make customers happy.
Everyone agrees that this is an uphill battle, but with phones like the Huawei Mate 7 offering a tremendous value for the price (killer battery life, light weight, large display), the Honor series being a hot product in Asia, and a host of new products being planned for 2015, it’s worth keeping an eye on what Huawei is doing.
Interview with Huawei CMO Shao Yang , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Jan 29
Remember earlier this week when the folks at Cyanogen said that they wanted to take Android away from Google? It is an ambitious plan and it isn’t so much Cyanogen buying Android, but more like creating a version based on Android that’s so different that users would much rather use that version than Google’s.
The question is, how are they going to do that? Perhaps with a little help from Microsoft. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, word on the street has it that Microsoft is planning on taking part in an investment round in Cyanogen to the tune of around $70 million which would make the Redmond company a minority investor in the company.
Microsoft is said to be one of the several investors interested in the company and that the other interested parties are also looking to diminish Google’s hold over Android, but so far Microsoft is the only company that has been named. Unsurprisingly both Microsoft and Cyanogen have declined to comment.
Is it surprising that OEMs are starting to feel a bit suffocated with Android? While Android is technically an open source system, OEMs need to meet certain requirements before they are allowed to install Google’s services on their phones. Google also has a fair amount of say in how OEMs mod Android too, like last year when they reportedly told Samsung to scale back on the modifications they were making to the platform.
In any case take it with a grain of salt for now, but it will be interesting to see what Microsoft’s alleged investment in Cyanogen would yield – more forked versions of Android in Microsoft’s future, perhaps?
Microsoft To Invest In Cyanogen Inc. [Rumor] , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Jan 29
What does the Samsung Galaxy S6 look like? Last we heard, the Samsung Galaxy S6 could feature a combination of both metal and glass and will feature a new design thanks to the new direction Samsung is heading in. While that remains to be seen, case manufacturer Spigen has recently unveiled (via Droid-Life) cases which they claim are for the upcoming Galaxy S6.
Within those cases are renders of what they claim is the Galaxy S6. Interestingly enough Spigen’s designs are in line with an earlier alleged prototype leak that we’ve recently come across, so we can’t be sure if Spigen is basing their renderings on those images, or if Spigen has their own source which basically confirms that the prototypes are the real deal.
So should you trust Spigen’s renderings? Perhaps not especially given that Samsung has yet to officially announce anything just yet, however we should point out that Spigen has in the past revealed renderings of upcoming phones like the iPhone 6, and from their renderings it looked like they were pretty much on the right path.
The renderings weren’t 100% accurate but they were pretty damn close, so perhaps Spigen might get lucky again with the Galaxy S6. In any case take it with a grain of salt for now, but what do you guys make of the rendering? Yay or nay for the Galaxy S6’s design?
Spigen Hints At Galaxy S6’s Design In New Cases , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Jan 29
When we think of electric cars, we don’t really think of them as speedsters. Such cars are best left to manufacturers who still focus on gas-powered vehicles, but yet Tesla has proved us all wrong with the Tesla Model S P85D which managed to clock an insane time of 0-60mph in a very impressive 3.2 seconds.
If the reaction of its passengers are anything to go by, this is a very, very fast car. However it seems that clocking 3.2 seconds was not good enough for the folks at Tesla because they are planning on rolling out an OTA update to the car that will make it even faster. In a tweet by Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk, “Tesla P85D 0 to 60mph acceleration will improve by ~0.1 sec soon via over-the-air software update to inverter algorithm.”
Essentially what this means is that the update could technically make the car even faster and clock a time of around 3.1 seconds. Now the 0.1 seconds might not necessarily be too obvious to the driver or the passenger, but it certainly makes for some great marketing material, not to mention bragging rights as an electric-car company.
It also seems to highlight just how awesome it is for a car to be able to receive an update to its firmware without the need to take it to your dealership to get an update. In fact it almost feels like receiving updates for your phone and could set a new standard in the future amongst car manufacturers.
Tesla Model S P85D To Get Software Update That Makes It Even Faster , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Jan 29
We still don’t know everything about the information Google handed over to the government about three WikiLeaks employees, but a lawyer for the search giant has answered one question about the incident. While a gag order prevented Google from the thr…
Jan 29
Reddit may not be subject to as much legal scrutiny as tech giants like Google or Microsoft, but there’s enough of it that the internet community has published its first transparency report. The site says that received 55 demands for user info throug…
Jan 29
Though they face pushback when it comes to getting cars to potential owners via less-than-traditional retail means, Tesla is still on a tear. Their Model S is still in high demand, and CEO Elon Musk recently admitted they’d already sold through stock for their Model X. The Model 3 is coming soon, too. So are battery swapping stations, as well … Continue reading
Jan 29
Cory Gardner's Wind Hypocrisy
Posted in: Today's Chili
Do you remember the worst words your mom could say to you when you were a kid? I do. She’d look down at you and her eyes would be devoid of anger. In its place would be a kind of sad pity as she said, “I’m disappointed in you.” Well, Sen. Cory Gardner, I’m disappointed in you.
I keep looking at this image from Sen. Cory Gardner’s campaign ad of him in the middle of a wind farm claiming that he supports the next generation and suggesting that he’ll support clean energy. And then I think about how he voted this week. This week the Senate is considering its very first order of business – S.1. And the first chance Sen. Gardner had to do the right thing, he failed.
The picture above shows a guy who looks like he supports wind energy. And, while he definitely wasn’t the Running Clean candidate in his Senate contest, the picture seems to speak for itself. Why would you trot around a wind farm if you don’t support wind?
Yet, twice in the past 24 hours Cory Gardner has voted against wind energy. Last night he voted against a nonbonding sense of the Senate resolution offered by Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, a conservative Democrat from the fossil fuel-heavy state of North Dakota. The Heitkamp amendment would have done nothing more than express the viewpoint that wind energy tax incentives should be extended. Today he voted against an amendment from Sen. Tom Udall to create a national clean energy standard, which would have given wind energy a huge boost without requiring taxpayers to pay a dime.
Gardner has tried to justify his anti-wind vote on the Heitkamp amendment. He argues that extending the wind tax incentive should be paid-for, should be part of a larger overhaul of the tax code and should include a plan to phase-out the incentive. While Gardner’s concerns might be valid questions to address in the context of an actual bill that would have the force of law, they are a bit overblown on a simple sense of the Senate resolution. Don’t you think a supporter of wind energy could set aside these details in order to vote on the “sense” that the incentives should be extended? Even Sen. Heitkamp, a supporter of plenty of fossil fuels, managed to do it. Why can’t Gardner?
Even after these anti-wind votes, Gardner still likes to claim he’s pro-wind. He must know that being pro-wind is good politics because the public supports clean energy. But his claims are nothing but wind. He just voted to undermine wind development, and he can’t deny that.
I don’t know how his mom feels, but I, for one, am disappointed.
Jan 29
Family Outraged After Girl With Autism Leaves School In Middle Of Day Unsupervised
Posted in: Today's ChiliA Florida mother is outraged after her 6-year-old daughter showed up at her door in the middle of a school day on Monday. Zoe Maglio, who has been diagnosed with autism, left her school and walked about half a mile to her house in the Miami suburbs without adult supervision.
“We get a knock at the door and my sister-in-law saw Zoe standing there alone. No adult, nobody was there,” Zoe’s mother, Danielle Maglio, told CBS Miami.
Zoe walked out of Everglades K-8 Center and was assisted across the street by a campus security guard, CBS reports. She reportedly told the guard that she was not feeling well.
After Zoe got home, her aunt went to the school and found school personnel driving around the neighborhood looking for Zoe, but the school had not contacted the family to tell them she was missing, according to Local 10.
For now, the Maglios are keeping Zoe enrolled at the school, but demanding that an assistant be with Zoe at all times when she is on campus. They are considering legal action, CBS reports.
The school district has apologized to the family and fired the security guard who let Zoe leave.
“Miami-Dade County Public Schools has strict guidelines in place to ensure student safety,” the district said in a statement obtained by The Huffington Post. “Today, there was a breach of protocol by a school employee who did not follow those guidelines. The employee has been terminated and will not be rehired.”
Zoe was diagnosed with autism last fall. A 2012 study by Autism Speaks found that nearly half of children with autism wander — defined in the study as leaving a supervised, safe space and thus “exposing him or herself to potential danger.”
When children with autism wander, they may not recognize potential dangers. “In some cases they can’t communicate that they’re lost or in trouble,” Lisa Goring, executive vice president of programs and services at Autism Speaks, told HuffPost.
Goring said parents of children with autism and a history of wandering should tell the child’s school about it and ensure it is noted in the child’s Individualized Education Program. “That way the entire school staff can meet and understand the program and put a plan in place,” she said.
Last January, U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) proposed “Avonte’s law,” federal legislation that would provide tracking devices for children with autism. The bill was named for Avonte Oquendo, a 14-year-old boy with autism who walked out of his school in Long Island City, New York, and was found dead three months later. The 2014 bill never moved out of committee, but Schumer reintroduced legislation this month in the new Congress.
However, a different law named after Avonte was signed by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio in August. The law calls for the city’s Department of Education to install audible alarms on the doors of public school buildings that serve special-needs students where it is determined they are needed.
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