M8 frame: is Meizu reselling it or using standard part?

gkai

Just something that crossed my mind when looking at some new chinese PMP (portable media players): The front of some of those looks incredibly similar to the m8, especially the mate aluminum front bezel. It is difficult to guess absolute dimension, but form factor looks also the same.

I wonder if Meizu is re-selling the aluminum frame/ screen or even some part of the m8 board, or if they get some elements from a factory that also produce frames for other companies....

Here are some examples:


Energy Sistem annonce son MP5 ENERGY 60xx | Generation MP3 : le blog des baladeurs MP3

http://www.generation-nt.com/onda-vx...ite-70278.html

http://www.mp4mp3.fr/PBSCProduct.asp?ItmID=2689369

In fact, most new pmp from onda looks exactly like the m8, sometimes scaled down...

Really surprising, what are the connection (if any) between onda and meizu?

If this is true (m8 is more part of a product family than a single device designed from scratch and independently of anything else), we may have a flood of cheaper phones and pmp with an m8-like design and with various specs and OSes...

chengdude

First, companies like Onda (and Teclast and Energy Sistem) don't build their players; they have one or more OEM suppliers. If you have enough money, you could sell your own version of the VX777: The gkai XL3000.

Second, the dimensions are different; the M8 is 10-16mm longer than the VX777 & Energy 6030 and I'm guessing a bit shorter than the VX767.

Third, Jack Wong did say how difficult it was getting the bezel on the M8 made to precise tolerances via CNC process, so believe him or not, that part is being custom manufactured for Meizu.

Fourth, this is China. Among the countless number of faceless & nameless OEM mills all across the Pearl River Delta, there is so much synergy it's hard to keep up...and on those occasions when synergy isn't quite how to describe it, cloning or ripping off will do nicely instead.

anxiousone

Well, a while back i had read about a company which did the desgining and manufacture of most of the laptops for some of the big three (HP, DELL, IBM); not a new story that there are only a few companies that manufacture the plasma/LCD display panels and others that simply brand or package them (Same was the case with the CRT manufacturers).

I would imagine, MEIZU is 'building' the 'firmware' of the device themselves primarily the modifications to WinCE and the module logic/protocols. The modules themselves are from third parties. and the molds/CNC work for the case would be farmed out (IMHO) otherwise the expense is enormous to do everything inhouse.

They probably invested in the modules and the evaluation boards/SDKs of the modules; had to design (or have designed) the master circuit board (on that big board they used at one of the tradeshows to show off the phone and its inards)... Basically to put together the phone they would have to source all the seperate components and put them together, their own work would be the hardest in some respects in getting everything to work properly in a user friendly manner.

Anyone know which modules (for GPRS, etc) they are using... i would imagine it would be samsung, but their is a chinese competitor SIM.com which is making some modules now that could compete well with samsung.

In the long run its not an issue if the phone hardware (least important of which is the case - in technical terms) could be duplicated... it is the Meizu specific stuff that would be the key in the phones success and distinction of being either an iphone knock off (like the hi-phone!) or an iphone competitor like the HTC Touch HD.

anxiousone

The biggest hurdle i think Meizu have had is that from day one they were branded as an iphone clone/knock-off rather than a competing touch-based phone. I would imagine it was not just a little bit of arrogance on Meizu's part and uneducated guessing as well (also on Meizu's part)... The premise was that Apple as an MP3 manufacturer can launch a phone so can we... (not to mention Apple as a market heavy weight in personal computing OS development and marketing).

Then they had the audacity to release the looks etc off of iphone above all that being from 'clone central' country did not help and is what has participated in the marketing and public relations problems of meizu.

Sorry, i don't have exact time lines and information going all the way back to the initial launches and am not well versed with either company (nor the handset market) - just my point of view.