Personal Dork Assistant

Wired on Wireless

Wired is running yet another parable about the vagaries of doing business in China. In this case, it's Motorola in the crosshairs. Once again, the home-grown company started at the low-end, then climbed the price scale as the cell phone market exploded in China, until they can now take advantage their broader distribution channels even as they chase down the Western company in technological innovation. Not all the Chinese innovation is in code and chipsets, though.

It's a safe bet that Hattie and her friends would have been smitten with Ningbo Bird's recently announced 5100 (price still to be determined) if it had been on the shelves when we were shopping. This is the his-and-hers phone set for young lovers. Hers comes in a lavender hibiscus-blossom pattern with cubic-zirconium highlights; his is a little more, well, masculine. A commitment, yes - and yet easier to get rid of than a tattoo.

Tailoring the product to the local market is a great business idea, but sometimes I do wonder what the hell is wrong with Asian people.

Hattie's guy friends think Sony Ericsson is really cool - great for games, with sound quality that's good enough for karaoke (cell phone karaoke is almost as big in China as in Japan).

I'm not a big fan of karaoke, but at least the people singing are usually in their own homes or in some soundproof booth at a KTV. Combining crushing crowds, jabbering cell phones, and bad singing just seems like the most awful idea in the world. I wouldn't mind picking up a Sony-Ericsson phone, though, if only for the cool value of controlling the Mac through Salling Clicker.