倪飞专访：2014年努比亚的两件大事

要在拥挤且竞争激烈的智能手机市场建立一个没人知道的新品牌好像是件傻事，但中国通讯设备大厂中兴(ZTE)还是以大无畏的精神在旗下创立了“努比亚(Nubia)”；这个在2012年10月底诞生的新品牌定位高阶市场，目标是在中国与美国两地打出知名度与销售通路。 中兴的手机业务近几年来欣欣向荣，是根据电信营运商规格打造手机、并在营运商通路贩卖；而即将在近期发表最新款智能手机X6的努比亚，则是将产品的未来握在自己手中，所凭借的是在电信领域累积数十年的技术经验与专业。 据了解，努比亚已经找到一个合作伙伴提供新型DSP组件，为即将上市的X6智能手机添加媲美专业摄影机的功能；此外还与高通(Qualcomm)协商，开放Snapdragon 800绘图处理器(GPU)核心的一个接口，好让努比亚以自定义协议与GPU通讯。努比亚的X6还有一个特色就是单一款手机支持中国所有通讯频段，用户只要换SIM卡就可以通话。 虽然对努比亚来说，前方的道路仍然充满艰险、不保证其努力一定会获得成功，这个新品牌的经验以及学习曲线，或许可作为未来其他中国智能手机业者的借镜。 努比亚首席执行官倪飞(Ni Fei)在日前接受了EETimes美国版编辑的专访，他表示，努比亚自2013年秋天就尝试进军美国市场，而且已经小有斩获。而努比亚母公司中兴在美国 电信营运商之间已经是众所周知，且在市场营销方面砸下重金，让中兴成为美国职篮休斯敦火箭队(Houston Rockets)的官方智能手机伙伴。

努比亚首席执行官倪飞(Ni Fei)，手下放着的是尚未发布的全新旗舰智能机努比亚X6
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除了透过亚马逊(Amazon)在线商店直接向美国消费者贩卖努比亚智能手机，倪飞也打算说服美国的电信营运商搭售该公司的产品，但他表示：“我们与美国电信业者的洽谈并不顺利；”主要是彼此之间在认知上有很大的差距。 倪 飞指出，美国电信营运商都知道中兴的廉价手机，但却发现努比亚的定位是高阶品牌：“这让他们产生一些认知上的不协调，但我们无法改变他们的想法，毕竟没人 知道努比亚。”不过对他来说，这并非不可能的任务，苹果(Apple)也没有先跟电信业者建立关系，而是透过直接面对消费者建立了品牌知名度。 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 第2页：2014年的机会与挑战 第3页：即将上市的X6和中兴自己开发的手机芯片WiseFone

相关阅读：
• 独家报道：中国正通过品牌产品战略崛起
• 中兴推全新手机品牌nubia，目标智能机销量全球前三
• [图文报道]中兴发布新旗舰Nubia Z5S，传承招牌功能全网通briesmc

{pagination} 中 国另一个智能手机品牌小米(Xiaomi)──被认为是中国的苹果──也是一样，这个品牌主要是靠因特网与中国本地的网络社群扩展市场并打响知名度。 不过努比亚毕竟不是苹果，甚至在中国市场也还没站稳脚步。倪飞表示，2013年努比亚的旗舰智能手机Z5销售量：“非常少；而且很少有消费者直接到我们的官网订购智能手机。” 不过在2013年11月，努比亚发表了两款新机Z5s与Z5s mini，透过中国最大的在线购物商城京东贩卖；这两款新机总计在京东获得了350万支的预购，上市第一个星期就卖出了50万支，在该线 上商城的销售排行榜名列第一与第二，“比iPhone还受欢迎；”倪飞表示，“随着努比亚品牌知名度上升，直接透过努比亚官网的产品销售量也开始起飞。” 2014年的机会与挑战 倪飞认为2014年对努比亚来说有两件大事，第一是京东预计在今年公开上市，如此双方能相辅相成；第二则是中国移动(China Mobile)的4G LTE网络布建，这家中国最大的电信营运商光是在今年就预计向所有的手机供货商伙伴采购1亿支4G LTE智能手机。

努比亚首席执行官倪飞(Ni Fei)
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倪飞表示，苹果已经与中国移动建立新合作关系，他估计中国移动所采购的LTE智能手机中，有三成是来自苹果与三星(Samsung)，而其余的七成则是来 自中低阶智能手机供货商。而努比亚的产品与苹果、三星并不完全在同一个级别，因此仍有机会在中国移动估计有7,000万支的LTE智能手机采购量中分 一杯羹。 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 第3页：即将上市的X6和中兴自己开发的手机芯片WiseFone

相关阅读：
• 独家报道：中国正通过品牌产品战略崛起
• 中兴推全新手机品牌nubia，目标智能机销量全球前三
• [图文报道]中兴发布新旗舰Nubia Z5S，传承招牌功能全网通briesmc

{pagination} 在第一代Z5系列智能手机成功上市后，努比亚稍后将在本月发表的新产品是一支“phablet” (屏幕约6吋)；倪飞强调，发表新机对努比亚来说很重要，能保持该品牌在消费者心目中的新鲜感。而为了让新产品与其他高阶智能手机差异化，努比亚特别强 调其技术实力(基于母公司中兴的多年经验与身为电信设备领导供货商的地位)，以及对各家电信业者的熟悉度。 倪飞表示，即将上市的X6将配备“非常强大的摄影功能”以及“单机能就支持不同电信业者所采用的不同网络频段”，消费者只要换SIM卡，就能用同一支手机使用全世界所有电信业者的网络服务：“我想我们是第一家能提供这种功能的智能手机业者。” 倪 飞进一步解释，就算是智能手机内所使用的芯片组具备多模功能，也并不一定表示该款手机能支持所有频段：“首先，因为手机外型强调纤薄，当手机的背盖以及 各个侧边都是金属材质时，你必须知道该在何处以及如何放置天线，以支持所有不同的频段；你还得知道RF的设计，才不会有干扰的问题。” 并 非每一家中国电信业者会乐意看到智能手机供货商给予使用者在频段选择上的自由度，而且只要换SIM卡就好；不过倪飞表示：“这才是消费者最终想要的。” 而且中国第三大(用户数)电信业者中国电信(China Telecom)，也表示将标准化其智能手机、让手机支持所有的调制解调器与频段：“这对他们来说没有损失。” 努比亚的X6将配备Sony的1,300万画素CMOS影像传感器，可支持高画质影像拍摄；此外倪飞表示，其摄影机应用程序提供对焦、曝光与白平衡独立控制，只要轻触屏幕上的控制功能，用户就能实时调整每一张照片并预览。 为了实现实时图像处理功能，倪飞表示努比亚是与一家不能透露名称的伙伴合作，为新产品添加了支持媲美专业相机功能的DSP。此外他还亲自前往高通美国总部，与该公司洽谈开放一个Snapdragon 800的GPU核心界面，让努比亚能用自定义的协议与GPU通讯。 倪 飞也谈到了中兴自己开发的手机芯片 WiseFone ，表示该款整合了LTE调制解调器以及CPU的处理器是采用 28nm制程技术，但其他技术细节则未透露。他指出，努比亚近期并未打算从高通Snapdragon改用WiseFone，但有一个备用计划也不错：“我 们认为它会是个开始。” 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 编译：Judith Cheng 参考英文原文：ZTE's Bid to Go Upmarket via Nubia，by Junko Yoshida

相关阅读：
• 独家报道：中国正通过品牌产品战略崛起
• 中兴推全新手机品牌nubia，目标智能机销量全球前三
• [图文报道]中兴发布新旗舰Nubia Z5S，传承招牌功能全网通briesmc

{pagination} ZTE's Bid to Go Upmarket via Nubia Junko Yoshida Nubia negotiates with Qualcomm to open up GPU interface SHENZHEN, China — Attempting to establish a brand that nobody's ever heard of in a market as crowded and cutthroat as the smartphone industry is a fool's errand, but one that Nubia, a newborn sub-brand of China's ZTE, has fearlessly decided to try anyway. Nubia is ZTE's vehicle to go "upmarket." Its mission is to establish a viable consumer brand and consumer channels -- in both China and the United States. This attempt represents a significant commitment by ZTE, whose mobile handset business has thus far thrived by building handsets according to operator specifications and selling them through operator channels. In designing Nubia X6, the company's unannounced smartphone scheduled for launch later this month, Nubia is taking its handset future into its own hands. The company's ace in the hole is its decades of technical expertise in telecom. Nubia has gone out of its way to find a partner to add a new DSP to enable professional camera-like features on its smartphone model X6. It also negotiated with Qualcomm to open an interface to Snapdragon 800's GPU core, allowing Nubia to use its own protocol to communicate with the GPU. In the X6, Nubia also designed a single handset that can support all modulation schemes in all frequencies -- simply by switching a SIM card. While the road has been treacherous so far for Nubia, with no guarantee of success for its efforts, Nubia's experience and learning curve could become the template for other Chinese smartphone vendors to follow in years to come. EE Times caught up with Ni Fei, CEO of Nubia Monday at his office in Shenzhen. It has been a year since we met him for the first time. Ni openly acknowledged that its Nubia push in the US market since last fall has yielded little results, despite ZTE's strong presence among the US operators and the company's marketing campaign to turn ZTE into the official "smartphone" of the Houston Rockets. Nubia CEO Ni Fei in Shenzhen. (Source: EE Times/Junko Yoshida) Besides selling Nubia smartphones directly to US consumers through Amazon, Ni's plan was to convince operators to carry his company's products. He said, "Our discussions with the US operators didn't go well," largely due to a huge perception gap. While the operators know ZTE for its low-cost phones, they saw Nubia pitching itself as the high-end brand. "There was a mismatch. We couldn't change their mind. After all, nobody knew who Nubia was," Ni said. But in Ni's mind, this isn't the Impossible Dream. Apple did it by going straight to consumers, he said, without any prior relationships with operators. And so did Xiaomi, often known as China's Apple, largely by leveraging the power of the Internet and going viral on social networks in China. However, Nubia is no Apple. Nubia hasn't even won its home front in China. In 2013, Nubia's flagship smartphone Z5 only sold "in very small volume," said Ni. "And very few consumers came to our website to buy our smartphones." Nubia's break didn't come until much late in 2013, when the company launched its two new models -- Z5s and Z5s mini -- in November through JD.com, China's largest business-to-consumer e-commerce company. JD.com got a preorder of 3.5 million units for Nubia's two new smartphone models combined, and actually sold 500,000 units in the first two weeks, said Ni. Nubia's new smartphones were ranked at number one and two in JD.com last November, "more popular than iPhone," he added. With increased brand awareness among Chinese consumers, "sales at our own Nubia website also got off the ground," Ni reported. Opportunities in 2014 Ni sees two things going for Nubia in 2014. First, JD.com is reportedly planning to go public this year. "JD.com can use Nubia's momentum. But we also need JD.com for our success," said Ni. Second is China Mobile's 4G LTE factor. In its efforts to compensate for its spotty TD-SCDMA-based 3G coverage, China Mobile is rushing to roll out 4G networks. China's largest operator has pledged to buy 100 million units of 4G LTE smartphones from all its partners in 2014 alone. Noting Apple's new relationship with China Mobile, Nubia's CEO speculated that China Mobile would procure roughly 30% of LTE smartphones from Apple and Samsung, and the rest -- 70% -- from mid- to low-end smartphone vendors. Nubia, whose high-end smartphone aren't exactly in the same league with Apple and Samsung, still hopes to generate volume sales among the 70 million LTE smartphones China Mobile said it would buy. Meanwhile, Nubia isn't standing still after the success of its Z5 models. The company will introduce later this month a new phablet (screen size around 6 inches). The new model is important to Nubia, "to make noise" and to keep the Nubia brand fresh in the minds of consumers, Ni explained. Knows RF and chip designs To differentiate its new model from other high-end smartphones, Nubia is emphasizing its technology prowess (based on years of experience at ZTE as a leading provider of telecommunication equipment) and its familiarity with operators. The new X6, according to Ni, will come with "very powerful camera functions" and "a single handset body that can support all of the operator networks' different communication modulation schemes at different frequencies." Simply by swapping a SIM card, customers can use the same phone with any operators' network anywhere in the world, Ni said. "I think we are the first smartphone vendor to do it." Ni made it clear that even if a chipset used in a smartphone is multi-mode, it's not certain that the handset can support all frequencies. "First of all, a handset needs to be slim," said Ni. "When the back of the smartphone and all of its sides are metal, you must know where and how to place antennas supporting all the different frequencies. You also need to know your RF design, so that there will be no interference." Not every Chinese operator might be happy with a smartphone that offers subscribers so much freedom, allowing them to switch operators with just a SIM card. "But this is eventually what consumers want," said Ni. On the other hand, China Telecom, ranked in third in total domestic subscribers, is talking about standardizing its smartphones with those handsets supporting all modems at all frequencies, Ni explained. "They have nothing to lose." Nubia X6 comes with Sony's 13 Megapixel CMOS image sensor capable of taking high-resolution pictures. Even better, its camera application offers independent control for focus, exposure and white balance. By simply touching on-screen controls, a user can adjust each element and preview, on-screen in real time, his or her exact photo, Ni explained. To enable such a real-time image-processing, Ni explained that Nubia has worked with an unnamed partner to add a DSP that runs professional camera-like functions. Ni also went to San Diego and got Qualcomm to open an interface to the GPU core used inside Snapdragon 800, allowing Nubia to use its own protocol to communicate with the GPU. Ni also discussed ZTE's own chipset development. Called "WiseFone," the processor integrating LTE modem with a CPU is ZTE's home-grown smartphone chip, manufactured by using a 28-nm process technology. Without going into details, Ni said that while Nubia doesn't have an immediate plan to switch from Qualcomm's Snapdragon to its own WiseFone, it's good to have a back-up plan. "We think it's a start," he said. Nubia CEO with his hand covering its yet-to-be-announced Nubia X6. (He showed us the live demo with it, but he didn't want us to photograph it before the official launch.) (Source: EE Times/Junko Yoshida)