As you probably know, Disrupt Beijing is happening next week and I’ll be heading south from Beijing after the event. I would love to hang out with folks in Shenzhen and Hong Kong. As it stands, I think we can put together a meet-up in Hong Kong on Wednesday Night (November 2nd) and another meet-up in Shenzhen on Friday night (November 4). I welcome recommendations for spots and I’d love to talk to… → Read More
Foxconn is planning on replacing many of it’s hard-working human manufacturers with about 1 million robots, a number that, if you think about it, is a very telling comment on the current state of electronics manufacturing.
There are apparently 10,000 robots at the factory now and that number will increase by 300,000 next year. Foxconn CEO Terry Gou plans another million robots by 2014. The… → Read More
The first part of this video talked about the problem of counterfeiting in the Shanzhai markets. But not everything is fakey fakery – this is serious business.
The thing that’s most striking about this video is the fact that Shanzhai phones are made not in someone’s kitchen but in multi-story buildings by trained assemblers. It’s an industry and the same folks who make the iPhoney are probably… → Read More
It’s hard to believe, but 1 out of 5 phones in the world is counterfeit and the vast majority come from Shenzhen. This ten-minute video explores the Shanzhai phenomenon and the “mobile phoney” market, a wild west sort of world where counterfeit iPhone 4s are hard to tell apart from their real counterparts.
The Shanzhai market sees the sale of these phones as a sort of a system of liberation that… → Read More
A Chinese games company, ShunXiang Technology, has created a four-player, arcade version of Plants Vs. Zombies. “Great,” you say. “I love PvZ!” But wait, there’s more! → Read More
http://player.youku.com/player.php/sid/XMjUyOTYwMjI4/v.swf A video making the rounds on Chinese websites shows a young student being picked up from the University in Shandong province in a little red helicopter. The chopper lands in a field, she hops on, and flies away. I, for one, consider that a pretty bad ass way to get too and from school, ostentation be damned. → Read More
The first half of Going it Alone, Part III: Inside the Factory Walls appeared on CrunchGear yesterday. We pick up our survey of how consumer electronics are made with … Injection Molding “One Word: Plastics”. Injection molding is the process by which hot, liquefied plastic is injected into steel (or sometimes other materials) cavities called moulds, under high-pressure. There is a… → Read More
Adam Hocherman, 34, is an entrepreneur and founder of the consumer electronics company American Innovative in Boston, MA. Adam founded the company in 2003 with the help of the US Government’s SBA loan program and is currently the 100% owner. He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA, both from Cornell University. Adam’s writings can be found on his blog at DesignTheatre.net… → Read More
The cellphone market in Shenzhen is like a flea market where everyone is selling the same thing. If it looks like an iPhone, it’s here. There are hundreds of models, hundreds of odd names, and hundreds of people arrayed along the inside of a huge room. There are four or five floors of this mess. This is the Shanzhai market. → Read More
I’m sitting on a darkened patio of a club called Viva in the Futian district of Shenzhen. It’s not too late – about 1am – and the place is busy but not full. It’s mostly ex-pats here, folks who work at the various sourcing companies nearby. This place is so anti-China that it almost looks European. Techno is blaring out of the bar and there’s a pool table. Down… → Read More
For a long time my concept of sourcing – basically order fulfillment – was all wrong. When I ordered a USB charger or headphones for my phone or MP3 player, I thought some little old lady in Texas headed over to a warehouse, put the item in a box, gummed on a few stamps, and sent the item posthaste. I’m sure there was a computer in there somewhere, but it was a pure transaction… → Read More
Greetings from sunny Shenzhen, just north of Hong Kong. I’ve spent some time in Asia – at least the tech centers – and have never found a place like this. It’s like Blade Runner meets 1990s Prague meets the end of the world. I’m here to report on what’s going on here in terms of electronics and how it’s changing the way we think about price, cost, and… → Read More
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