Zhang Yaqin: Kinect is more fire than iPad

Microsoft has a different competitor every five years, but Microsoft still has Microsoft's limelight despite its frequent corporate takeover. However, in today's world, Microsoft is still a well-deserved IT leader. In the past few quarters, Microsoft’s core data was very powerful. In the first quarter of fiscal year 2011, it had a net profit of 5.4 billion U.S. dollars and revenue of 16.2 billion U.S. dollars. In fiscal year 2010, the net profit of 18.76 billion U.S. dollars was almost the apple that was in full swing. Google's sum. The long-lasting vitality of Microsoft comes from innovations in technology and models, which are not particularly deceptive, unlike Apple and Google.

Zhang Yaqin is currently the highest-ranking Chinese in Microsoft. He has more than 3,000 scientists and engineers under his command. It can be said that this is Microsoft's "most important asset." He and the Asia Pacific R&D Group he is in charge of are the absolute main force of Microsoft's entry into the PC market. On January 16, 2011, Microsoft’s senior vice president, who had just returned to Beijing from the United States headquarters the previous night, and Zhang Yaqin, chairman of Microsoft’s Asia-Pacific Research and Development Group, accepted an exclusive interview with “Manager”.

Three industry trends "Manager": In the next few years, what technologies and products are very worthy of attention?

Zhang Yaqin: I attended this year's International Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The technologies and products that can emerge at CES generally represent the next five years. Otherwise, these manufacturers will not do it. There is no need to expose the results of the research to the exhibition in advance. This shows that they have promised to bring the product to the market. This year's hot tablet PCs, 3D and content integration. However, I was still a bit disappointed. Some feelings that should have become mainstream were not recognized. For example, mobile micro-projection technology should become a big market. In addition, Windows support ARM is a very big industry news.

"Manager": Some technologies are not very new, but now they have become mainstream applications. However, some good technological innovations have not been widely used. Where are the problems?

Zhang Yaqin: This is a good question. Sometimes, technical or user needs require an optimal blasting point. For example, 3D, it will definitely appear. It started 3D 20 years ago. It takes a long time to accept technology, price, content, and people. Tablet PC is popular, there are technical factors, there are product factors. The iPad makes good use of multi-touch technology on tablet computers and makes good products, creating a blast point for the industry. The same is true of Microsoft's newly introduced Kinect. There are some technologies in the game for some time, but it has not been a product acceptable to consumers until Kinect.

Kinect is more fire than the iPad "Manager": Kinect is said to have sold out of the country, and part of the R & D and manufacturing of this product is in China, but in the country, it does not form a high degree of attention like the iPad, which is why?

Zhang Yaqin: 80% of the design and development of Kinect was done in the United States. There are three parts specifically made in China. The first one is 100% made in China, 8 million units, followed by many million units. In Zhuhai and Shenzhen, 40,000 people in two factories are doing this, and this year there are almost 5 billion US dollars in procurement and exports. Kinect was listed for the first time. I don't know if it was sold well. I originally wanted to produce less, but I decided to increase the quantity to 8 million units. However, many markets are now out of stock. The second is the basic R&D. The important function in Kinect is that after the person goes up, it knows who you are. It knows that there are several people, that is, the identification of the identity. This is a particularly difficult technique, and then there are some actions to identify. The third is the test process of the product, and various kinds of action tests, including the design of various aspects of electrical appliances, machinery and optoelectronics. This kind of test is dynamic. How to design the test process automatically is difficult. Some problems were encountered at the beginning and a little resolved. Kinect was about two and a half years old from R&D to mass production. It took a long time to do basic research before.

"Manager": I heard that you went to the United States to buy Kinect in a retail store. How do you feel?

Zhang Yaqin: It's very hot, it's hard to buy, it's hotter than the iPad.

Five-year competitors "Manager": In different areas, Microsoft's competitors are very powerful, Microsoft has had a lot of strategic mistakes in the past, was overtaken by opponents, how does Microsoft view these failures?

Zhang Yaqin: I think this is where the IT industry is more interesting. Every five or six years, there will be a new round of technology and innovation to change the pattern of this industry. No one can truly monopolize it. Search, tablets, mobile, we did it all very early, but then was ahead of Apple and Google. This is also normal, and it can be delayed if you are behind, as long as you realize the importance of the industry. So, Windows8 will have great competitiveness if it wants to support ARM. On the mobile side, we made some mistakes. We originally had a large market share. Our strategic direction was correct at that time, and some mistakes were made in implementation. Microsoft has different competitors every five years, but Microsoft is Microsoft.

"Manager": Some companies have a strong ability to correct errors. How does Microsoft do this?

Zhang Yaqin: Microsoft has such a culture - constantly denying himself and constantly adjusting himself. As long as you think that one thing is correct, you will invest, and you will vote until you have a result. Like XBOX, Microsoft entered the XBOX 11 years ago. This was a particularly big strategic decision. It was almost cut off several times after entering. Afterwards, Gates thought that the family's terminal competition must be entered, so he invested heavily in the capital, and after so many years, he finally became a very profitable industry. Last year earned $1 billion and will be more this year. More crucially, after this business is done, its technology and ideas can affect Other aspects, such as the natural user interface can be put on TV, PC. The XBOX is more than just a game. Now XBOX is the largest social media in North America, with more than 30 million people playing games on top of each other and recommending movie recommendations to each other.

“Manager”: When Apple was going bankrupt, Gates invested a sum of money to save Apple. Many people did not understand why they supported their competitors.

Zhang Yaqin: It invested 150 million U.S. dollars. This is a very interesting scene in the high-tech field. Gates and Jobs are similar in age and background experience. They are both heroes and heroes of the heroine. They also benefited Microsoft by helping Apple overcome financial difficulties. For example, at that time, Apple used Microsoft's office. Until today, office is still Apple's largest application. Enterprises must compete so that the entire industry can improve.

The bottleneck of China's corporate innovation "Manager": After the iPad, the domestic emergence of dozens of tablet computer brands, most of them belong to the pseudo Pad, how do you see this trend?

Zhang Yaqin: Any product must meet the needs of users. Our domestic innovation has not yet formed a sustainable thing. It's all about which point to look at first, which product can make money, and rarely think of strategies for years later. Apple's strategy is very clear, from iPod, iTunes to iPhone, iPad, not a product or two well done, but a set of strategies, into a model, a service, an industry chain. Microsoft's strategy is also very clear, Microsoft's Windows can be so many versions, one by one can be compatible with the upgrade, which is also a strategy. The XBOX began to lose money in the hardware, rely on games and services to make money, you can continue to add new things inside, this is sustainable, if you simply make some money on the XBOX hardware, over two days the new XBOX out is dangerous.

"Manager": What are the suggestions and reminders for independent innovation of Chinese enterprises?

Zhang Yaqin: The first is to market, let the company make its own decisions, the government to promote the establishment of a fair market mechanism; the second everyone is still impetuous, entrepreneurs should have a sense of ideal and mission. Like Gates, including now Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook), when they founded the company, they thought that it might not be a short-term commercial interest, but that if I did this myself, would it change the world? Is it possible to realize your own value? They rarely talk about how much this thing can make, can it be IPO?

The hottest thing in China now is to take the American model to China. I am the Amazon of China. I am Google of China and venture capitalists are willing to vote for this. On many occasions, entrepreneurs are talking about business models and business models. They talk about how to go public. They rarely talk about how good my technology is, how cool it is, how to change the world and change lives. But when you look at the Internet conference in the United States, few people talk about business models.

Management should be simple and transparent. "Manager": What is your new move this year?

Zhang Yaqin: It is still undecided that Ballmer has great confidence in China and may have more investment in research and development.

"Manager": Now the investment has turned many times more than in the past?

Zhang Yaqin: The earliest was 5 million US dollars, now almost 500 million US dollars, 100 times.

"Manager": At present, the key direction of R&D investment is in the cloud?

Zhang Yaqin: There are more clouds, including Shanghai's cloud computing center. In addition, Ballmer is very concerned about the cost of China. Never before had I asked about the appreciation of the renminbi. This time he went to the United States and he first asked me about it. Now that the appreciation of the renminbi is no good for multinational companies, our manufacturing costs will obviously increase, and eventually it will be more expensive to sell after the increase.

"Manager": In the future, has Microsoft ever thought about making hardware such as tablets or mobile phones?

Zhang Yaqin: Xbox is a very successful home terminal hardware, we also do small cameras, mouse keyboards we also do. In other areas, there is no plan yet. Tablets and mobile phones will not be used in the future. This is still unknown.

"Manager": Microsoft has a strong brand and technical advantages, it will be easy to do?

Zhang Yaqin: There is a business model to choose from. If you want to be a platform, it will be hard to do hardware. Because you do the hardware will compete with your partners. XBOX is only done by our family. We will not let anyone else do XBOX. Just like Apple's iPad, let others do it, others can't do it.

"Manager": Asia-Pacific R & D Group has more than 3,000 engineers, manage these very smart people, what kind of experience do you have? Which piece of business management do you think is the hardest?

Zhang Yaqin: Management must be transparent and simple. Everything must be in the sunshine. To understand your weaknesses, then complement each other within the team.

My toughest decision is to cut people. This is the most difficult decision I can make in my life, and the decision I don't want to make. However, in any company, the system must always be eliminated.

Other

SWT Smart Technology Co., Ltd. , http://www.fuding-sound.com

Posted on