

With Obi Smartphones, John Sculley Takes Old Lessons From Apple and Pepsi - kanche
http://www.fastcompany.com/3050377/tech-forecast/with-obi-smartphones-john-sculley-takes-old-lessons-from-apple-and-pepsi-to-ne

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iSnow
I don't exactly see what they are bringing to the table that Xiaomi hasn't
covered already, they design is somewhere between Xiaomi, htc and Nokia.

And have fun in Germany with obi.com. They are in a different sector but are
such a strong brand over here, they might litigate.

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rffn
Yes, I found the name Obi for a world phone an odd pick. OBI is a strong brand
in Germany and has also presence other European countries (Poland, Czech
Republic, Hungary, etc.).

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dublinben
When I think of "Obi" and phones, I think of this VOIP hardware company that
has been around for several years.[0] This new venture really didn't do their
due diligence on the name.

[0] [http://www.obihai.com/](http://www.obihai.com/)

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annnnd
> And though other companies—such as Xiaomi—sell models at the similarly
> aggressive price points, Obi aims to offer a better phone for the price.

> ...

> 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.

So, how long do you think it will take the other (Chinese) companies to reach
the same level, given that you teach them?

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glibgil
Months, it will take months.

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jhancock
I'll put in a plug for Fairphone 2
[https://www.fairphone.com/](https://www.fairphone.com/)

There is so much to love about what these folks are doing.

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Tomte
I can highly recommend Sculley's book about his time at Pepsi and Apple.

I've read a German translation with a totally different title, but I think it
is "Odyssey: Pepsi to Apple".

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harigov
I am not sure I see the differentiation in design that is highlighted so much
in this website. The phone looks pretty similar to Nokia (now Microsoft)
Lumia's, and the UI doesn't look much more fancier either. Am I missing
something? And why is "Designed in San Francisco" such a huge thing?

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meric
"Designed in San Francisco"

Instant brand equity in some markets.

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Nerdfest
... the hipster market.

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Animats
The new design breakthrough: two rounded corners and two square corners.

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kanche
N9 meets HTC One :)

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dang
We changed the URL from
[http://www.obiworldphone.com/](http://www.obiworldphone.com/) because the
current article contains background info.

Also,
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10127139](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10127139).

