Chinese Smartphone Brands Push Into U.S.

A host of Chinese smartphones have big ambitions for the U.S. -- but don't expect a flood of marketing from them.

Just a few weeks ago, research firm IDC declared that Xiaomi, a four-year-old Beijing company, had stormed to third in the worldwide smartphone market based on units shipped. Only a day later, it was leapfrogged when Lenovo completed its Motorola acquisition. These companies now aim to replicate industry leader Samsung's rise, parlaying success at home to go global.

Realizing this goal, however, could be an expensive marketing proposition for brands that are obscure outside of China. U.S. carriers are reluctant to carry the political risk (and marketing weight) of selling Chinese devices. That puts the onus on the smartphone brands themselves.

"Chinese brands don't do a great job of brand building," said Ben Bajarin, an analyst with Creative Strategies. "The cost to invest and build a brand in the U.S. seems a bit too daunting for them."

Daunting but tempting. Western markets still hold the industry's best margins -- and its prestige. "To be a truly global brand, you have to be in the U.S.," said Lawrence Lundy, a Frost & Sullivan analyst. He expects that some Chinese brands will follow Samsung's strategy of investing broadly in media; others will attempt to sell devices without spending big, like Apple. Here's what to expect from the top five. >>

Smart Toilets Arrive in U.S.

Like iPhones, app-packed commodes are objects of desire in Mr. Fujimori's Japan. The lids lift automatically. The seats heat up. Built-in bidets make cleanup a breeze. Some of them even sync with users' smartphones via Bluetooth so that they can program their preferences and play their favorite music through speakers built into the bowl.

Three-quarters of Japanese homes contain such toilets, most of them made by one of two companies: Toto Ltd. , Japan's largest maker of so-called sanitary ware, or Lixil Corp. , where Mr. Fujimori is the chief executive.

Now Mr. Fujimori is leading a push to bring them to the great unwashed. In May, Lixil plans to add toilets with "integrated bidets" to the lineup of American Standard Brands, which Lixil acquired last year for $542 million, including debt.

While bidets have often served as a byword for Old World debauchery in the U.S., Mr. Fujimori said Americans would welcome bidet-equipped toilets into their homes once they see them sold under a familiar name. Few people realized they needed smartphones until Apple's iPhone came along. So it will be in the U.S. with American Standard's new toilets, Mr. Fujimori said.

"Industry presents iPhone—industry presents shower toilet," Mr. Fujimori said in an interview at Lixil's headquarters in Tokyo. "We can create the same type of pattern."

Toto and Kohler, a U.S. manufacturer of bathroom fittings, have been selling toilets with bidet functions in the U.S. for several years. Beyond a niche market of Hollywood celebrities and early adopters, however, they feature more prominently in American bathroom humor than American bathrooms. The price, which can range up to more than $5,000 for high-end models—more than 10 times the price of some conventional toilets—is only one reason.

In a 2011 appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," the actress Whoopi Goldberg called her Toto Washlet "the greatest invention on the face of the earth." Homer Simpson, on the other hand, merely looked bemused when, during a 1999 episode of "The Simpsons" that was set in Japan, a hotel toilet announced: "Welcome. I am honored to accept your waste."

Toto, which pioneered bidet-style toilets in Japan in 1980 with its Washlet line, entered the U.S. market in 1993.... Please read the whole story at WSJ.

Photo :A Toto Washlet alongside Meiji-era toilets in Toto's company museum. Toto entered the U.S. market in 1993. Eric Pfanner/The Wall Street Journal

Smart Guy

Luo’s Smartisan handset

In 2011, when Luo Yonghao thought his fridge door wasn’t shutting properly, he made several complaints to Siemens, the manufacturer (see WiC132). When the German firm said that it didn’t see any problems, Luo brought the fridge to the firm’s head office in Beijing and smashed it to pieces with a sledgehammer. It’s one way to make a point…

But when Luo decided that China’s smartphones weren’t up to scratch, his response was a little more constructive – he decided to design a model of his own.

Last week Luo unveiled the Smartisan (‘smart’ and ‘artisan’) T1 smartphone. Luo describes it as “the easiest-to-use smartphone in the Eastern Hemisphere” with “the best screen” and “the fastest mass-produced mobile CPU”. It runs on Smartisan OS, a variant of Android, Google’s mobile operating system.

Unlike Xiaomi, a domestic smartphone maker with a reputation for low-priced handsets, Smartisan’s T1 doesn’t come cheap. The basic version starts at about Rmb3,000 (about $480), which is high-end by Chinese standards. Xiaomi’s Mi 3 – which has a slower processor (1.8 Ghz vs. Smartisan’s 2.5Ghz) – is priced from Rmb1,700.

“If you can’t afford it, it just means that you’re not our target customer,” Luo told the Beijing Times.

Industry commentators havebeen sceptical about Luo’s ambitions, asking how a former English teacher has been able to design and manufacture his own brand of smartphone. But Luo isn’t unique in braving a completely new industry. “Xiaomi’s charismatic co-founder Lei Jun had little or no background in smartphones, and his company has become one of the hottest names in the area in the last two years. So perhaps there’s some hope for Smartisan,” says Doug Young, author of Young’s China Business Blog.

How Luo is funding his new ventire isn’t clear but he hasn’t been working alone. The T1’s minimalistic and sleek design was conceived by Apple’s former lead designer, Robert Brunner, who now runs Ammunition in San Francisco (the same studio that designed the Beats headphones). Even the packaging box for the T1 is custom-made, by James Cropper, a 169-year-old fine paper specialist from the UK.

Engadget, a tech blog, is impressed by Luo’s efforts: “We can go on and on with the list of features. What’s certain is that an insane amount of thought has been put into both the hardware and the software, making the T1 a truly unique and passionate product,” it commends.

China Science Daily is also a fan. “Smartisan fully embodies the ‘artisan spirit’. Every detail of the phone and small innovation demonstrates the thoughtfulness and hard work of Luo and his team,” it gushed.

Read more at Week in China.