JOHN Wang, the MIT-educated chief marketing officer of HTC, carries with him what he calls his 'wizard' business card. On this card his designation is given as 'Chief Innovation Wizard' - MAGIC Labs.
Created in 2005, MAGIC Labs, which stands for Mobility Advancement Group and Innovation Centre, is the innovation powerhouse of HTC — a piece of America within the company as Wang describes it. A group of 50 people with backgrounds as diverse as hardware and software engineering, jewellery design, graphic design, human psychology and even writing work together on the next big idea. Wang admits that hundreds of ideas whirl in the air on any day and many are doomed to fail.
The focus of innovation at HTC is to use technological advancements to bring simplicity to human experience in using gadgets. MAGIC Labs looks for simplicity in the next breakthrough technology. The reason why HTC is into touch phones is because it believes that touch, a simple primary function, is innate to human nature. Wang uses the 'baby analogy' to describe how technology should be simplified. The baby, he says, when she has to turn a playing block, she just picks it up and turns it. The HTC Touch uses this baby analogy as a thinking framework.
HTC was always at the forefront of making phones more powerful. But it noticed that as phones become more powerful they were also becoming more complicated. 'About two years ago we realised that this was a big problem. It's like the digital camera. More mega pixels do not necessarily mean better pictures. It actually makes lousier pictures when you have too many mega pixels. Similarly phones were getting complicated by being loaded with features and the thinking arose that is this really what people want?' Wang says. Then the company came around to the realisation that technology must be applied to simplicity, not features.
'The way to have a breakthrough technology was not just to have a product which entails less learning but zero learning,' he adds. The Touch epitomises this principle — simple to use and rich in functionality.
The HTC Touch is powered by Windows Mobile and features a user unique interface called Touchflo. Navigation is done by sweeping the finger over the screen. HTC sees competition from Apple's iPhone as having a positive impact. 'If I have to be on stage with someone, it's much better to be with Apple than anyone else,' says Wang. HTC also doesn't believe in the 'perfect product' philosophy where on style fits all. It recognises that the human race is not homogeneous and so follows the 'perfect match' philosophy. The company realised that there would be people who would want 3G, fast data speed and a keypad. So it has launched an improvised version of Touch.
Since June, more than one million units of HTC Touch have been sold. The company recorded a net income after tax of NT$7.4 billion in the third quarter of 2007, a 10.79 per cent year-on-year growth over the corresponding period in the previous year.
If HTC swears by simplicity, Asus believes in making things easy to do to gain market share. Asus has introduced the Eee PC, a small inexpensive laptop that doesn't compromise on most important functions. The name Eee is derived from 'easy to learn', 'easy to play' and 'easy to work'. Asus plans to sell at least three to five million Eee PCs next year, apart from the 200,000 to 300,000 it hopes to sell in 2007. However, they are confident of exceeding the target. Apart from the models using Linux, a version with Windows XP would also be available. The Eee PC has a flash drive which saves on power and is more durable. In 2006 Asus made revenues of $17 billion and expects around $22 billion for 2007.
Eee PC, says Jonney Shih, chairman and chief executive of Asus, is intended to make digital convergence a reality. Asus is eyeing leadership in digital convergence. Though the Eee PC comes cheap, it is targeted at the mature markets as it is at the emerging markets. For government programmes the company has a version for $199. For the mature markets it is not being positioned as a second PC option, but the extra mobile computing line.
Apart from the one billion people in the world who have access to computers and internet, Asus would like to develop the next one billion market which is now out of the loop. 'In the past we cultivated the sophisticated PC user. But when the internet experience with youtube and Web 2.0 becomes so good, we thought why don't we make it more simple, more easy?' says Shih. He identifies a second group of people — those who do not want surprises when they use the PC. People who might be wary of something unexpected that pops up when they only want to browse, see their videos or listen to music.
This group is quite big and they want something easy to use, he reckons. The Eee PC is made easy to use to bring the unsophisticated user on board.The design is done in such a way that it will not be identified as a 'toy' and will attract the sophisticated user too.