Former Apple CEO Creates an iPhone Competitor

An anonymous reader links to Fast Company's profile of Obi Worldphone, one-time Apple CEO John Sculley's venture into smartphones. The company's first two products (both reasonably spec'd, moderately priced Android phones) are expected to launch in October. And though the phones are obviously running a different operating system than Apple's, Sculley says that Obi is a similarly design-obsessed company: "The hardest part of the design was not coming up with cool-looking designs," Sculley says. "It was sweating the details over in the Chinese factories, who just were not accustomed to having this quality of finish, all of these little details that make a beautiful design. We had teams over in China, working for months on the floor every day. We intend to continue that process and have budgeted accordingly." Obi is also trying to set itself apart from the low-price pack by cutting deals for premium parts. "Instead of going directly to the Chinese factories, we went to the key component vendors, because we know that ecosystem and have the relationships," Sculley says. "We went to Sony. It’s struggling and losing money on its smartphone business, but they make the best camera modules in the world."

Comments

Re:Sony makes the best camera modules?

[nitehawk214]

Many DSLRs use Sony CMOS sensors. They are also the king of low-noise CCD sensors.

Re:So I guess CEO's don't get hit with non-compete

[nofx911]

Non-Compete Clauses are illegal/void in California:
http://californianoncompete.co...

Re:So I guess CEO's don't get hit with non-compete

[aitikin]

I've never seen a non-compete that was even remotely enforceable for more than a reasonable time frame (ie 2 years). This guy hasn't been CEO of Apple for 20+ years.

Re:Not used to quality details?

[DNS-and-BIND]

You HAVE to ride Chinese factories on details. They simply don't understand why they're important. They'll do the work according to your standards as long as you're supervising, but as soon as you think they've got it and you don't need to watch them any more, bam, it's right back to the old way.