back to article Ex-HTC execs launch UK-based smartphone maker Kazam

As struggling smartphone maker HTC continues to reel from what looks like a mass exodus of executives, two former HTC execs have announced that they are forming their own smartphone company with the goal of "disrupting the status quo." The new outfit will be called Kazam, will be based in the UK, and will focus on the European …

COMMENTS

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  1. annodomini2

    Setting up your own company I get

    Needs a better name, sounds like a kids board game.

  2. Matt Bryant Silver badge
    Mushroom

    No tech knowledge.

    The marketing guy and the head of sales - so about zero actual tech knowledge then! Crash and burn in five, four, three....

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: No tech knowledge.

      Yes, because companies setup by techies are always a roaring success. I worked for a startup and the Marketing guy and sales guy kept the company afloat, the both had a little technical knowledge but not particularly much. The tech guys however, knew absolutely noting at all about building a product for sale. If it were down to them, we wouldn't have a product, because it would have never passed their QA, what we did have would be broken half the time because they got excited and hacked the latest UI idea or what have you into the product. That's not to mention the utter lack of willingness to actually document their work.

      A tech company needs sales guys and marketing guys as well as techies. A sales guy can hire techies, techies more often than not don't understand that they don't have the ability to do this work, even if they did it would detract from the product because you've got your techies working on things they aren't skilled at neglecting the things they are.

      1. Don Jefe

        Re: No tech knowledge.

        There's no such thing as a product that sells itself. Even with 'must have' items like tampons, beer and pasta there's a sales guy back there somewhere, selling. Gotta be strong in sales or even the best product isn't worth the paper all the unsigned contracts are printed on.

      2. Matt Bryant Silver badge
        FAIL

        Re: No tech knowledge.

        "Yes, because companies setup by techies are always a roaring success....." Bill Gates might choose to disagree. What you are trying to talk about is a balanced structure. Now, go back, read the article, and see if it names any tech design or research bods in the package..... Companies built around sales and marketing are only good at reselling other people's products, not innovating new ones. All they will be able to "innovate" on will be the go to market strategy, probably like Carphone Warehouse did back in the day.

        1. Don Jefe

          Re: No tech knowledge.

          Bill Gates was and is a salesman first and a geek second. Same with Jobs. Their technical abilities took a backseat to their sales skills, that's why they are household names and technical geniuses like Wozniak are known only among groups who frequent sites like El Reg.

          1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
            FAIL

            Re: Don Jefe Re: No tech knowledge.

            "Bill Gates was and is a salesman first and a geek second....." Sorry, but that's just complete male bovine manure. Bill Gates was actually a quite accomplished coder and has often been accused of being a bad salesperson. There are some fun tales about Bill and the early days, when he would often work most of the night on a coding problem and then turn up for a meeting with customers the next morning in the same rumpled clothes, unshaved and unshowered! What Bill did do was realise the hole in the market and plug it with a product, but he only saw the hole because he was technically adept.

            If you don't believe me about Bill Gates' coding ability then please feel free to pointlessly argue with El Reg (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/05/15/could_bill_gates_write_code/).

            1. Don Jefe

              Re: Don Jefe No tech knowledge.

              Nobody said he wasn't an accomished coder, just that those skills took a backseat to sales. Point me to a book Gates has written about coding. I can show you several he's written about sales and business management. He doesn't speak about C# practices, he speaks about sales.

              1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
                FAIL

                Re: Dumb Jefe Re: Don Jefe No tech knowledge.

                Ah, look, more pointless arguing and splitting of hairs because Dumb Jefe just hates to admit he was wrong.

                "......Point me to a book Gates has written about coding. I can show you several he's written about sales and business management....." What was he writing when he STARTED Microsoft then? Because that's what we are talking about, you clueless moron. He wasn't writing ANY books when he started the company because he was too busy coding. Now, GO BACK AND READ THE ARTICLE! - see the bit about how they are STARTING A NEW COMPANY? Now actually try and let the words sink in, understand what they mean - STARTING A NEW COMPANY - now, go back and read your Microsoft history and check out what Bill was ACTUALLY DOING when he was STARTING A NEW COMPANY. Here's a clue, you monumentally clueless clown - he was writing code!

                Take your time, I'll still be here laughing at your stupidity when you get back.

  3. Anomalous Cowshed

    Wow a UK based mobile phone maker

    What part of the mobile phone are they going to make in the UK? The box? The user manual? Or are they just going to design the logo?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Wow a UK based mobile phone maker

      I hope nobody does to them what HTC and Microsoft did to Sendo.

    2. Frank Long

      Re: Wow a UK based mobile phone maker

      The UK has a strong mobile phone industry still based around the Thames Valley.

      10 years ago, Nokia, Motorola, Vertu, Panasonic, O2, Ericsson, NEC, Sharp and more I'm probably forgetting were all designing phones within 30 miles of Reading.

      Nowadays, it's not quite as strong in the handset area (although Huawei, Vertu and Motorola are still going), but a significant amount of other telecoms work is done, Chipset vendors such as Qualcomm, Ericsson, Renesas Mobile, Icera/NVidia, Wolfson are still in the area, and the the UK currently leads in mobile processor architecture. ARM has over 90% of the CPU market and Imagination is the No. 1 mobile GPU vendor globally.

      Then there's the UK's lead in mobile networks, and the other clusters, such as that around Cambridge. Personally, I'm only really familiar with the Thames Valley, so I'll pass on commenting there.

      In summary, it's not difficult to get every single bit of a mobile phone designed in the UK.

      Manufacture? Leave that to the Taiwanese companies who have the economies of scale.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Phone for grown ups

    Please can we have a phone for grown ups and businessmen, and not regard us as being some after market of teenage fashion accessories. I really, really want a new phone and will pay for it, but every phone I look at and try is just a POS.

    Please develop an OS designed for a phone, to make phone calls with, not something like Andriod which is designed to give Google a hook into everyones lives and nothing more.

    Touchcreen is great for sliding things around - like maps or web pages, or pinching/stretching, but is crap for many other things. Please lets have some sensible hard keys for dialling/clearing calls, going through call histories, etc.

    Lets have a proper numeric keypad with hard keys to make dialling easy and reliable, not a touchcreen where it takes 3 or 4 attempts to dial a number correctly

    A proper slide out QWERTY keyboard, again, to make typing easy and reliable - like "smartish" phones used to have.

    A battery life meaured in days or weeks, rather than hours. I don't care how slim or light, or rounded your phone may be, if I can't go away from home for 2 or 3 days without having to take a charger, it's cr@p.

    No loaded bloatware like facebook or twitter or other worthless sh!t. If I want something like that I can load it as an app. Everytime I see a phone advertised as being ideal for facebook or twitter I immediately drop it from my list of possibilities as it is obviously designed as a teenagers toy.

    Thank you [end of grumble].

    1. turkey
      Go

      Re: Phone for grown ups

      Sounds like you want a BlackBerry Bold? (or Q10, but haven't seen one in action yet so can't match against your request).

    2. Mark Jan

      Re: Phone for grown ups

      Just about any Nokia over the past 5-10 years running Symbian would fit the bill then.

    3. csumpi
      Happy

      Re: Phone for grown ups

      Blackberry Q10. Seems very close to what you want.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Phone for grown ups

      Have I got the model for you! Sorry, no QUERTY, but apparently refuseniks and extreme/winter sports people like them as well as seniors ...

      :)

      http://www.just5.eu/

      No, I''m not affiliated, I just like the loud colours and cheerful big keys...

    5. Vision Aforethought
      Happy

      Re: Phone for grown ups

      We're working on it (as in, my ultra stealth team), and I'm willing to guarantee here and now, no one else will deliver such a product before we do, because few 'get it' with regards product design - else it would have been done already. The last person to get it was Jeff Hawkins who created the Palm Pilot.

      Hang in there, we care!

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    own goal ..

    "...goal of "disrupting the status quo." .."

    This will be easy, making money tho', that will be hard.

    1. Don Jefe
      Happy

      Re: own goal ..

      Yeah, I saw disruptive but I'm not feeling any synergy. Ultimately their success will depend on how they segment the market and maintain a laser like focus on low hanging but high growth verticals while still providing partnership opportunities for non traditional horizontally integrated vendors. Someone is going to have to reach out and find someone who has that killer instinct to step up to the plate and run with the ball the full distance. This will be a marathon, not a sprint.

      1. Intractable Potsherd

        Re: own goal ..

        Yes, no, absolutely!

      2. Richard 116
        Thumb Up

        Re: own goal ..

        Agreed. Now let's run it up the flagpole and see who salutes it.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Surely there is a market now for devices that put privacy first?

    Beyond this gadget... Following the NSA's crimes alongside general privacy invasion by tech giants Ad-engines, surely now there is a market for devices that put privacy first? But is there no digital entrepreneur that wants to create a phone that never tacks your movements or phones home or serves up ads?

    A Phone that at the very least defaults to Duckduckgo or Startpage as a default instead of the usual suspects... And has Tor and other tricks built-in... After that, what about a global Social Network or Search Engine that doesn't conspire to be world's biggest Ad engine...?

    1. Vision Aforethought
      Happy

      Re: Surely there is a market now for devices that put privacy first?

      Working on it!

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