Kogan Agora Android is interesting, not a major breakthrough
The press is all atwitter about the Kogan Agora Android phone. (That is a mobile phone that uses the new Google Android operating system.) Sneak pictures of it are around and it will be released at the end of January.
Kogan is a small company in Australia. What it does is sell, not make, electronic gadgetry.
On its site, referring to the Kogan Agora Android phone, it says:
Hi everyone,
Just to whet your appetite for the imminent Kogan Agora phone – here are some of the interesting apps you’ll be able to use.
Fast Company has published the top ten most popular apps from the Android marketplace.
As you can see there are a lot of multimedia/gaming apps being downloaded, but people are also developing some fantastic business tools, like DataViz Documents To Go.
Also, it looks like I’ll be heading to CES this year so if I can have a prototype of the Agora with me, I’ll make sure some of the keen bloggers and journalists out there can have a quick play with it, take some photos, and give you some first impressions ahead of more detailed reviews.
No doubt. Well how does a small Australian firm make a breakthrough phone like this? And the answer is it doesn’t. It goes to China and gets someone to make it.
How do you find such people?
You do not even have to go to China. Go to Alibaba at http://www.alibaba.com and then work your way through the menus. Go to Consumer Electronics then to Mobile Phones.
Start scanning down and you will see a load of knock-off devices plus some quite genuinely innovative machines. The majority of the good stuff is made in Shenzhen, which is near Hong Kong, so you can confine your searches to there.
You will see all sorts of gear like:
A newly waterproof watch mobile phone. MP3,MP4, Hand written, bluetooth, 1.3 n cameras.
No, I am not quite sure precisely what that does but it would be interesting. Now sort out something that looks a bit like the Kogan Android and drop them a line saying you want an unique machine and your initial order will be 1,000 units and there will be a bank guarantee. Having done that you are a breakthrough Android mobile phone maker. No risk.
Android is merely the system created by Google. A mobile phone designed to use it is not a major breakthrough. A mobile phone with Android and a lot of other gubbins thrown in is not difficult if you have a contact in Shenzhen and if you have built up a relationship — very, very important, called guangxi in Mandarin — with the manufacturer.
If you look at the pictures appearing on other sites you, too, will come to the published conclusion that: ‘the Agora is a little bit Blackberry, a little bit Treo — with a decent looking QWERTY keypad and square screen. In other words, quite different to the G1.’
True, it is a little bit of a lot of things. But mostly it is Chinese.
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January 10th, 2009
You mean “guanxi”, not “guangxi”. A small difference in English, but crucial in Mandarin.
January 13th, 2009
What he said. Huge mistake in spelling.
But to make a more legitimate point: aren’t many well-reputed manufacturers outsourcing their manufacturing to China?
Hell, since we’re discussing smartphones, why not mention the iPhone? It’s made in China.
Now are we nitpicking the fact the Agora is “Designed in Australia?” while the iPhone is “Designed in California?”
Certainly, there may be a league of difference between Kogan, whom presumably engages in contracted manufacturing as opposed to Siemens, for example, who owns and operates a plant outside of Shanghai, but at the end of the day, how justified are you in dismissing the Agora as simply “Chinese,” while you neglect the precedent established by the competition?
January 13th, 2009
Yeah originally scanning through I thought you meant the GuangXi region, next to ShenZhen.
I agree it’s curious that an Australian company would design and “manufacture” (let’s face it, everyone manufactures out of China) electronics. But I think it’s also quite lateral and refreshing.
I think it’s great that the world (and Australians, in particular) get to be the first to get their hands on a cheap, unlocked android-driven device that at first glance seems rather well-spec’d.
I’m not sure why you feel the need to warn (or indeed, to be dismissive) just because it’s made in China. Isn’t everything else?