Challenging Apple by Imitation
By SUE-LIN WONG
Published: October 29, 2012, NY Times
BEIJING — When Lei Jun, the head Xiaomi, one of the fastest-growing smartphone companies in China, talks about Steven P. Jobs, he is full of praise — and a hint of envy.
“When Steve was alive, he was the best,” Mr. Lei said during a recent interview. “Nobody could surpass him. Nothing could surpass the iPhone.”
Apple and its late co-founder have no shortage of challengers — not to mention emulators — in China, a country that analysts expect will overtake the United States this year as the world’s largest market for smartphones.
Chief among the rivals is Xiaomi, whose newest smartphone has been expected to go on sale this month for 1,999
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Nokia did nothing. Mr. Lei points to that experience, combined with the realization of “the potential for smartphones to replace computers,” as inspiration for him to set up Xiaomi.
Xiaomi differs from other smartphone companies in that it allows users to help design their operating systems. Every Friday at 5 in the evening local time, Xiaomi releases a new round of software updates for its own Android-based operating system — MIUI — to users in China and in Western countries. Within hours, thousands of fans are on Xiaomi forums to describe bugs and give feedback.
In the past, fans have been asked to weigh in on how much memory they want in their phones, how thick the next generation model should be and whether there should be a flashlight on the back of the phone. “Apple is very conceited,” Mr. Lei said. Their attitude is, ‘I don’t need any feedback.”’
Mr. Lei’s bet on smartphones has attracted big-money backers. A fund- raising round from major venture capital investors in June valued the company at about $4 billion, a little less than half the current market value of Nokia ($9.57 billion) and on par with that of Research In Motion ($3.49 billion), the maker of BlackBerry phones. The company’s institutional investors include Temasek, a Singaporean government-owned investment vehicle, and the Chinese venture capital funds IDG Capital and Qiming Venture Partners.
“Xiaomi has exceeded our original expectations,” Hugo
Steve Jobs was like the Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell and the Albert Einstein of our time. He not only innovated personal computing, but personal media and communication, iTunes which became one of the most popular music and video retailers and Pixar which was one of his side projects had become one of the greatest animation digital movie creators and software. But all that is a just part of the list of his legacy, because in the end he still left behind Apple which is world’s most valuable company, which is valued at $350 Billion Dollars.
Given the task of conceptualizing a man who truly changed the realm of technology as we know it today, my mind secludes one person. That person is Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Computer, now known simply as Apple. For this rhetorical analysis, I will be using three biographies/profiles about Jobs including “The Real Genius of Steve Jobs” by Malcolm Gladwell with The New Yorker (June 19, 2017), “Jobs’ Biography; Thoughts on Life, Death, and Apple” from NPR (October 25, 2011), and “Steve Jobs” from Biography.com (April 28, 2017). Precise attention to the audience, purpose, and tone, allows all three of these profiles to vividly explain and represent Jobs as the truly exceptionally minded man that he was.
Executive summary Raising smartphone estimates Forecasting smartphones based on TCO Linking our TCO analysis to the addressable market Smartphone volumes to grow at CAGR of 26% Price point work also shows 1.1bn units long term Significant growth being seen in the low end A specific growth opportunity within China LTE could be a game changer Improving device availability LTE speeds could drive new services Coverage expansion of LTE networks Aggressive rollout plans in US and China An upgrade cycle like none before A war of ecosystems….. Apple – the iOS and Mac ecosystem Google/Android – a one trick pony? Windows 8 – what about the upgrade cycle? Developer dynamics are critical Smartphone economics Carriers have seen margin pressure Smartphone economics What can carriers do? Smartphones – winners and losers Apple scope for share gains exist on multiple fronts Samsung – a strong second Nokia – heading for third position in smartphones Multiple Android vendors may struggle HTC – still bleeding share Motorola Mobility/Google – losing steam in the US Sony – change of
Edwards, J. (2015). The iPhone 6 Had Better Be Amazing And Cheap, Because Apple Is Losing The War To Android Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/iphone-v-android-market-share-2014-5#ixzz3YoonFpp6. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/iphone-v-android-market-share-2014-5
Steve jobs demonstrated to the world just how fundamental technology is in our developing environment. He exemplified a successful and innovative leader, especially in the face of failure. One could argue that although Steve Jobs was an extremely influential businessman of his time, he had numerous tragic flaws. Egotistic is a word that describes this illustrious worker. Credit for ideas were never given to the instrumental “behind the scenes” intellectuals, and without the them, he may never have been so successful. While he was working for Apple, people would always struggle with the individualistic approach he had and would often times complain about his boastful nature. He exhibited qualities that made his dislikable, however without Steve Jobs the iPhone, a
One of the worlds most valuable company is Apple. Apple leads the world in innovation with iPhone, iPad, Macs and many other devices. It all started when the 21 year-old college dropout. It was no straight path for him to get to what he created. It was more like a windy road. It was evident from his early years that he had no grand plan to do what he has done. However, Steve’s windy road growing up, jobs found inspiration and creativity and most
Chinese smartphone makers are slowly but surely conquering the world so to speak. Chine smartphone maker Meizu is another addition to the list. Meizu recently released its budget smartphone, Meizu M5.
Mr. Jobs responded with“Those jobs aren’t coming back.” He said that because 700,000 people engineer and build and assemble apple parts, in addition to the 43,00 people apple employs in the United States and the 20,000 they employ overseas. Nearly none of those 700,000 people live in the United states, they work in other countries. Some part of the iPhone are American. The software for the iPhone, for instance, and its marketing campaigns were created in the United States. Apple recently built a $500 million data center in North Carolina.“Also another advantage for Apple was that China provided engineers at an extent the United States could not reach. Apple’s executives had estimated that about 8,700 industrial engineers were needed to oversee and guide the 200,000 assembly-line workers eventually involved in manufacturing iPhones. The company’s analysts had forecast it would take as long as nine months to find that many qualified engineers in the United States.”
Given the task of conceptualizing a man who truly changed the realm of technology as we know it today, my mind secludes one person. That person is Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Computer, now known simply as Apple. For this rhetorical analysis, I will be using three biographies/profiles about Jobs including “The Real Genius of Steve Jobs” by Malcolm Gladwell with The New Yorker (June 19, 2017), “Jobs’ Biography; Thoughts on Life, Death, and Apple” from NPR (October 25, 2011), and “Steve Jobs” from Biography.com (April 28, 2017). Precise attention to the audience, purpose, and tone, allows all three of these profiles to vividly explain and represent Jobs as the truly exceptional man that he was.
The first article chosen about this event was focusing on the iPhone’s newest features and how it compares to the last release of iPhones. The newest iPhones are faster, have better camera quality, and feature a structure made out of complete glass. What strikes me is that our society has taken this phone and given it such high regards so that we feel we NEED it. In the article, Manjoo quotes “And while experts said Apple’s lead might slip over time, for now, its advantage remains enormous enough to make the iPhone a must for people who think of their phones as their most important computing device — in other words, you and me and everyone we know”. This symbolizes iPhones in our culture as a cultural object, something we have highly regarded, and by definition is something that has a creator, and “has a shared significance; it has been given a meaning shared by members of the culture” (20). We feel as though we cannot live without our phones, making it a part of our daily lives, and leaving Apple with the upper hand on us.
In 2012, President Obama asked Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, “ Why Don't we make iPhones here in America”? It is inferred that Obama was asking Steve Jobs this question because he , Obama, would like these jobs to come to America. Steve Jobs responded to the President by saying “ Those are not coming back [ to America]. After some research, it is very apparent as to why Apple Produces their iPhones in China rather than producing them in America, which can be seen by looking at opportunity costs of moving to America and labor productivity.
Today, you proudly honored me by watching the release of the iPhone. I sincerely believe, that this solitary device will change the phone industry for years to come. Owing to the fact that you were my inspiration throughout the project. While I watched you use many of your talents all together, I realized phones needed to do the same.
As millions around the world swipe through their iPhones today, not much thought is given to the visionary man who played a pivotal role in the development of this innovative device. Steve Jobs, the man behind the development of iPhone and multiple other devices such as the iPods, iPads etc., was the backbone of Apple Inc. (CNBC Titans: Steve Jobs, 2011). Under his guidance and supervision, Apple Inc. has achieved new heights by re-defining the manner in which we, as consumers of electronics, interact with technology (Kane & Fowler, 2011). Apple Inc. not only introduced new and innovative devices into the market but also fulfilled Jobs vision of taking complicated technologies and simplifying them so that they can be used as consumer products (CNBC Titans: Steve Jobs, 2011). Jobs’ technology company was unique from others as it was the “one that developed tightly integrated packages of hardware and software.” (Steve Jobs: Insanely Great, 2011). Jobs creative ideas and visionary thinking enabled Silicon Valley to transform from a fruit orchard into the technology industry’s innovation center of U.S. today (Kane & Fowler, 2011).
“Motorola was a true pioneer in personal communications. We introduced the world 's first commercial portable cellular phone. We even invented the groundbreaking Six Sigma quality improvement process, which became a worldwide standard for excellence”(Motorola.com). Motorola is a proud and well known technologies manufacturer and has been in the cell phone industry from the start. In fact, Motorola manufactured the first commercial cell phone in 1984, produced mainstream and very popular cell phone designs,specifically the Razr line, and is about to release the nexus 6 which will be the first nexus phone to be manufactured by Motorola. Even though Motorola is owned by Lenovo they still retain their creative and innovative qualities.
It quickly became apparent that the best way to sell its firmware was to incorporate it into a smartphone. One year later it created the Mi One phone which was “a top spec phone with a great price way ahead of its time, this has remained Xiaomi’s philosophy from day one.” (Ahmad, 2014) The following year the MI-2 was launched on August 2012 with a revolutionary chip from Qualcomm called Snapdragon, which had unmatched performance at the time. “The device sold close to 10 million units within the first 11 months of its inception, thus allowing Xiaomi to gain a foothold in markets such as Australia, United States, Europe and New Zealand.” (Success Story) From there it began to constantly evolve its product line and make improvements from direct customer feedback, something that Lei Jun was adamant about incorporating into all of the designs.