The seven misunderstandings that internet people do to create a hardware business easily

Absrtact: I share in the first article why I think the internet is now a good time to do hardware entrepreneurship, but we also see a lot of internet background classmate really to do hardware, encountered a lot of their own did not think of the problem. In my opinion, a lot of

I share in the first article why I think the internet is now a good time to do hardware entrepreneurship, but we also see a lot of internet background students really to do hardware, encountered a lot of their own did not think of the problem. In my opinion, many of the problems are actually caused by the Internet people do not have "what they should do" the matter to think clearly, the result failed, and then the matter produced a wrong understanding, back to the Internet domain to spread these misunderstandings.

Today I would like to share with you the reasons why we have these misunderstandings and what we should do.

One misconception: Making hardware is a difficult task

A few days ago I was in a Forbes forum on intelligent Hardware, a lot of people in the forum told us that hardware is difficult, where is it? There are a few:

recruitment of electronic design in the electronics industry consumes a lot of time and resources factory production yield is very low

Sometimes I feel that our internet this generation always feel that they know everything, do not know Google will know, so running to do hardware does not go first with the traditional industry to learn, the results make a lot of jokes. Why is the above difficult?

E Daniel is not recruited, the question is why does Daniel want to do it with you? Last year I received a lot of internet friends call, said to venture to do smart hardware, can you introduce me a hardware Daniel? I said, how much are you going to invest in this hardware? Millions of. Millions of how to hire an electronic Daniel? People are either in the big companies, Intel, Marvell, or in the front-line to do things, monthly shipments of KK-class. You pay no temptation, do not challenge, how do you find e Daniel?

Why does electronic design cost a lot of time? Because you can not recruit electronic Daniel, had to find the Second Army. In fact, the two armies also refused to come, the last came are the armed forces, four army, such as Master's degree two or three years, electronic design does not debug for a while is out, how can not slow.

As for the low yield of factory production, this involves more, simply because you look for the PCB board, looking for the ID design is just graduated apprentice. Perhaps you look for the board to put the top of the chip, the results of the SMT boiler to two times, the second time when the chip burned. ID design, made a surface, prototype proofing when it looks like the case, after the marketing has finished to find a factory, a go, people's factory said, you this is a curved surface, you know now the curved surface of the yield is only 10%? And you're talking to people outside. The surface of the table is sold for 500 pieces, cost 2000 pieces, and out of the goods.

Therefore, the Internet enterprise began to engage in vigorous, the result of energy are used to pay tuition. Products do not come out always to give someone an account, said it is hard to do hardware. Every failed intelligent hardware in China basically has such a process.

But is it really hard to do hardware? Interestingly, the problem is just as contradictory as the following:

Myth two: Doing a factory is a job with no technical content?

Now a lot of internet people do the hardware business, always feel like jobs, go to others factory feel do not know what the factory, they are small business, we are the Internet, I got 5 million VC money, look down on the factory.

But there is a background. Over the past 20 years, the focus of the world has been on the internet, and the aura is on us, but we forget that our tertiary industry is a peripheral industry, forgetting the second sector--the manufacturing industry--how big. Is it a small business to be a factory? I have a mobile phone board friend, he said his business in Shenzhen is in the middle. What is in the middle? 2 million pieces a month, 40 dollars. Calculate, this is 80 million dollars of water, a year of water has billions of dollars. Factories of this size, many in Shenzhen, and most of them are not listed companies, unlike Foxconn or Taiwanese factory.

Think back, internet companies do not say 100 million of the U.S. dollar water, even if 100 million of the yuan water, has long been a blessing heaven. You take this mentality to go in, actually did not want to understand oneself with other people boss scale disparity, this is also many internet people to go into after cannot succeed the reason.

To what extent is the strength of Shenzhen factory? I saw a 5-inch screen engineering machine a few weeks ago. It is the same as the current design of millet, hammer, iPhone4, two pieces of glass, no border, the core is Quacomm, the middle is structural parts. You can say that by putting iphone5s next to it, you'll think it's the next generation of the iphone, IPhone5S looks like the previous generation. The engineering machine is a Shenzhen factory owner showed me that his factory does not do assembly, but the phone inside all the parts are done-including the screen. I asked him who he was working for, but he said he was not a foundry.

How does this phone work? He said he got up one day three months ago and suddenly came up with a question: "Can I make a phone of my own?" "His factory, although large, has tens of thousands of people, but he himself is the majority of shareholders, as long as no impact on customers, his production line can do what you want to do." So he found two people in the company, and told them, you go up and down the company to mobilize resources, make a mobile phone out. In this way, three months to make such a, you can say he has no technical content? In Shenzhen, there are many companies with such resources.

Perhaps the Internet people still say factory people do not understand the Internet thinking, do not understand the Internet. It is true that they do not understand. The first thing they do not understand is that a little income is not the company, how can there be VC crazy Chase? The company's value is 1 billion, the company's finances have not received money? Second, do not understand is to do hardware so easy things, why can not do it, why will not be able to ship? Third, do not understand is, such as the hand ring this kind of thing is who will buy, this year up to sell hundreds of thousands of pieces of the market in the end who will pay attention to? But they've been watching the internet and trying to figure out what's going on.

Misunderstanding of the third: manufacturers are unwilling to do small-scale production?

Some entrepreneurs say they want the next thousands of pieces of the list, the manufacturers do not give them. Indeed, most manufacturers are unwilling to do small scale, because production is already large-scale.

But it's got to be two things, too.

Recently, France has a mobile phone brand called Wiko, very hot in France, did three years, 2013 to achieve 18% of the smartphone market share, annual shipments of 2.5 million units, is expected to surpass Samsung in the next two years. If you ask the Frenchman if he knows Wiko, he will be proud to say that it is a French brand. And you open it up, you will find that 90% of things are from a company called Tianlong.

How did you get this phone? These French market research, found in France, 100-300 U.S. dollars This file of the smartphone has a vacancy, no special brand, they decided to do a company to do this dan. They ran directly to Shenzhen Huaqiang North, the market first look at the style, and then go straight to talk to the company, found the day. Dragon a listen to feel good, let this team back to France to do the market, the following all things Day Dragon arranged. You think, the day of the year's shipments are 10 million, 2 million for him is also a small amount, but why did he do it? Because he is the shareholder of Wiko 90%. Wiko is his own thing.

Today, a small company ran to Shenzhen and put on a "I am jobs" look, the other people as an outsourcing plant, do a mere 5,000 of the volume of the amount of work down, of course, no one dumped you. The so-called not small amount, not really do not do, but the biosphere to reorganize. 100 million single with 5k, can not enjoy the same treatment. This year some manufacturers are also thinking how to intervene, like Foxconn announced in Beijing to do a proofing center, specialized services small team. This is the next few years need to running-in, both sides to let one step.

Misconception four: The future of smart hardware in big data?

Now a lot of countertops do smart hardware, smart hand ring, you see their ppt, all mentioned large data.

As far as I'm concerned, it's mostly hopeless to mention big data. Why? You enlarge the data on the PPT, it is equivalent to say: Sorry, I do not know what my bracelet can do. First, all of China's 100 million of people walk a few steps every day of data, you can't sell money, can't let users buy more things, this data is basically rubbish. Second, the recent announcement of Apple's HealthKit, basically, is that all the big data in the future is irrelevant to you. If you don't give me the data, don't use my HealthKit. So the apple that data is really big, can say is big data, the other is even.

It's another big problem with the Internet, it's that the heart is too big. Of course, there are reasons for this, because the company can not get the next round of VC died, so to be fooled.

The next ten years are very interesting. We need to use the right things to guide the Internet into the smart home, rather than be confused by the "General direction".

Myth Five: The Internet of things will be as unified as the Web, because this is what developers want?

Recently, I heard that a friend of intelligent hardware business is working on the unification of things networking standards, so I can share what I see.

2003-2005 I was a consultant in Japan, when open source hardware into the Japanese market, the back of the company is to do high-end chip, they go to the world to do chip design companies get plans, and then go to Panasonic, to Sony, Hitachi, to show them which chip they need, if the company said, he ran to Taiwan to open their own shop, Do chip-level supply chain integration. They had a plan to push Zigbee--zigbee in 03. It just became the standard of IEEE, so everyone was excited: Smart home to Unified Jiangshan. Results The sales team went to Panasonic to talk about the benefits of ZigBee, introduced a few programs, Panasonic very interested, feel ZigBee very good, we want, but there is a condition: I want a incompatible with Sony ZigBee.

This is a battleground, and no one wants to be compatible with rival brands. Sony is the same, to be incompatible with Panasonic zigbee--This is the world standard of IEEE Oh. In fact, the Internet is the same, how much time do you want the entire world Wide Web to write soap? Who cares, and finally a bunch of savages run to use JSON, and we end up with JSON. This is the reality, that is, if we need to connect, no matter what method can always be achieved, if we do not want to connect, the promotion of the Standards Committee will not play a role. Compatibility can be expensive, and it can be cheap, but no one will play and do it seriously when there is no profit.

China has a smart home standards committee, the United States, Haier, anyway suning stroll around a lap you can see all the brands are sitting inside. The objective of this Committee is to ensure that the standards of smart homes in China will never come out. You these "commissioners" in the past, is on behalf of the Big Electric Company, and the Big Electric Company culture is very heavy, all things exist for the interests of the group: refrigerators to take care of air-conditioning, air-conditioning to take care of washing machines, we have to protect each other. Inside the company is our own, outside is a competitor, if you go out and say that you can be compatible with others, back to the company to say you are a traitor. So the person who wants to go to the meeting is to make sure the meeting is aborted.

So how will the interconnection of smart home be achieved? First-line factory is impossible, I think it will be from the Internet companies and second-line manufacturers to produce Internet-standard home appliances. China's current second-line factory is a lot of ODM, for him, whether the listing he does not care, as long as the money collected on the line. This cooperation is promising if it can introduce better refrigerators and experience better washing machines. In fact, the current millet TV, music video TV, is not the Internet companies and television factory cooperation? This model already has, the Internet company does the upper layer software, the brand, the market, the sale, the second line factory does the production and the Post-sale service.

You can't actually expect to hold a line of factory thighs, because they won't do it with your thousands of units. Because the market is small, they will not run to compete with you, and small factories will cooperate with you. Your top software can make the washing machine experience better, the washer core is provided by the second-line factory, the shell can go to Kunshan, the team may need 10 people, so it may cost 2000 to build a washing machine. Such a manufacturing background of intelligent television, intelligent washing machine, intelligent refrigerator, to realize the possibility of interoperability.

But there are two points to think about:

First, the mobile phone can communicate with the route, can communicate with the washing machine, can communicate with the fridge, what?

Second, developers will not develop applications for your smart hardware. You sell hardware, you cash it, he helps you develop apps, what does he sell? So developers are going to make their own smart hardware and sell their smart hardware.

I would like to extend the 2nd.

Why is Google's Android Wear no one care in Shenzhen? Because someone else had android on their watch three years ago. For the "Smart Hardware development platform" this thing, I can see is in the next three months, more likely to exert a company is MTK. They now have a wearable platform called Linkit, the platform's information is now in Shenzhen hundreds of Idh hand inside, including 20 different models, hundreds of different boards, small to be able to do hand ring, large enough to do high-end 4G communication. You just write Linkit program, in the future you have to do your own hardware, only to choose a public board can be very convenient. This thing is not open now, I believe that the day he opened the curtain, is the good times of the software people came.

If you want to make smart glasses, you can also pay attention to another one to do the senior public Board of the company Jorjin, they will come to Qcon Shanghai. The glass that you can see now on the market are ODM except Google Glass. They will announce their SDK in September, which is different from Google. Google Glass is, you buy 1500 beautiful knife glasses back, Google said I let you do you can do, do not give you do not want to do. and jorjin Their SDK is this: You see this is MCU, this is the WiFi module, this is the optical part, the above is Linux, all the code for you to take home, to do whatever you want to do! All you need is someone to help you make a spectacle frame.

Myth Six: Will my mom use your smart hardware?

Now the idea seems pretty popular, and that is, "There's no future for my mom's smart hardware."

I can only say that I do the internet for 20 years, my mother until 5 years ago to find out what I really do. In the early 15, if everyone asked the question, the Internet was dead.

Myth VII: Do hardware like Steve Jobs learn?

From now on the table to do the hardware start-up, it is not difficult to see the impact of jobs: whether it is the style of the conference, or his own electronic design from the beginning to find Daniel to do the idea of hardware, all in the same way as jobs.

I think it's probably because the internet people are going to do hardware startups, but the only thing Google can find is a copy of "Steve Jobs." But in this way, but a big detour.

Just like you are going to do a website, what is the first thing to do? It doesn't have to be rewriting one of your own Web servers anyway. Then why do you do this when you do the site, running to do the hardware when the first to do this thing? and which website will come out and say, our competitiveness is that we have the world's best Web server? Not at all. Then why do you do this when you do the website, when you run to sell hardware?

Besides, even the study of jobs, did not learn in place. Apple's hardware is not what designers say how to design Foxconn, in fact, their designers are basically in the Foxconn, out of the design can be direct trial production test yield, good rate is bad to take back to change. This is an interactive process, not to say that the previous things are done before the factory.

The next 10 years of intelligent hardware is the world of software, but can be sure to open, play their own software, in the Internet thinking, in the interactive design of the advantages of electronics, hardware design to find a good partner to a good, equal cooperative mentality to talk about cooperation. China currently leads the world in mobile phone applications, plus the world's largest production system, the future of smart hardware is bright!

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Li Davi (David LI), who has been involved in the open source movement since 1990, has been a member of the Free Software Foundation (Software Foundation), ObjectWeb board member, and participated in the Apache project operation. Over the past 20 years, David has launched and serviced many Open-source software projects. In 2010, he founded the new workshop, China's first create a guest workshop, and in the country to open the trend to follow the culture of creating a guest. In recent years Li Davi has begun to pay attention to urban agriculture and explores how to integrate open source into agriculture and gardening. In the October 2014 16-18th Qcon Shanghai Conference, Li Davi will act as the producer of smart hardware, showing you what the core of the group of people are doing.