原创 也谈中国设计的未来

中国人喜欢讲“30年河东，30年河西”，不过美国的半导体技术产业的发展不幸应验了中国人的这个说法，从60年代末Intel等一大批半导体公司成立，到2000 年正好30年，现在看来，2000年美国的NASDQ股市的狂泻无疑是21世纪全球半导体发展的分水岭，过去的风光难再，新崛起的意气风发。全球进入了更加动荡且充满变数 的21世纪，G7难再挥斥方遒，指点世界江山，“粪土”世界了，中国、印度、巴西这些新兴国家象雨后春笋一样茁壮成长，成了新时代的主角。如今，7年过去了，中国的股市已 经冲上了5400点，而NASDQ还在2500点徘徊。面对中国、印度这些崛起的新贵，山姆大叔是什么心情？郁闷、艳羡、酸楚还有一点愤怒和几丝不平吧。

近 日，电子工程专辑合作伙伴美国CMP两个资深记者的一篇关于评论中国设计的文章把这种心情表现的淋漓尽致。虽然目前中国设计确实存在一些问题，但是瑕不掩瑜，未来中国设计 必然走向世界甚至超过美国，这是谁也阻挡不了的趋势。不管两位记者如何用几近恶毒的字眼来分析中国设计，谁也改变不了联想收购IBM PC业务，宏基收购gateway的事实，而这才仅仅是个开端，未来还有什么变迁，我们无法想象，但是中国设计中国企业走出国门走向国际的趋势是肯定的。21世纪属于东 方！

附：两位记者的原文

Comment: Knock off the Asian knockoffs

 
Mark LaPedus, Rick Merritt  
EE Times
(09/10/2007 12:00 H EDT) 

 
China wants to establish itself as a top player in electronics with brand names like Lenovo, Haier and Huawei, and it's pushing harder toward that goal as the 2008 Summer Olympics approach. At the same time, Chinese companies continue to copy Western products ranging from Callaway golf clubs to Apple's iPhone. Cloning won't advance China's standing in the global technology race; in fact, it's a setback.

China's primary investor, Taiwan, is in the same boat. It wants to emerge from the high-volume, low-margin jungle and move up the electronics food chain. What both powerhouses are learning, or need to learn, is that in the end it's all about innovation.

For now, it appears that Chinese companies will seek to buy market share. Lenovo, which made international headlines with its recent purchase of IBM Corp.'s PC business, had been in discussions to acquire Packard Bell as part of its global expansion plans.

In 2005, Chinese appliance giant Haier made headlines when it attempted to buy U. S. appliance maker Maytag. The bid failed, but it won the once-unknown manufacturer some U.S. mindshare. Cheap Haier air conditioners are even showing up in American grocery stores.

What's clear is that China wants more than to be a high-tech power; it seeks a global brand-name presence. The question is whether it can shed its image as the knockoff capital of the world. A running joke in some high-tech circles is that the Chinese are not interested in R&D, but rather D&D--duplicate and design.

These days, the big OEMs are increasingly crafting unique products by developing good in-house software running on off-the-shelf chips. That was the case with the Apple iPod and iPhone--and there's the rub for the clone industry in Taiwan and China. You can make something that looks like an iPod or an iPhone, but you can't make it run like one. Any 13-year-old user will detect the difference in five minutes. There will always be markets hungry for affordable products that look like a status gadget. But that's a flimsy basis for market domination.

Asian cloners have been stuck in the low-margin business since both of us were junior reporters in Hong Kong and Taiwan nearly two decades ago. People like Stan Shih of Acer have spent their careers trying to build Asian brands with novel designs for sale in developing countries. So far, the strategy hasn't panned out.

But that doesn't mean it's time to quit trying. Taiwan and China are home to plenty of bright, ambitious developers. What they need are equally talented executives who can encourage designers to define real hardware and software innovations around products they dream up themselves.

Memo to Asia Inc.: Let some other chump do the clones. Get yourself a few more Stan Shihs, and regroup for another charge.

— LaPedus reported from Taiwan for five years; Merritt was for five years EE Times' bureau chief in Hong Kong.