Former CEO Of Apple John Sculley Debuts Two New Android Phones
John Sculley was the CEO at Apple from 1983 to 1993. Under his leadership, the company’s profits increased from $800 million to $8 billion. Now, Sculley is launching his two new Android phones with some pretty decent specs. The phones are being made by a startup Sculley co-founded, called Obi Worldphone.
As CNN Money explains, during his time at Apple, Sculley was criticised by Steve Jobs and others for being too sales-focused. He’s now recognized as a marketing expert.
The new startup Sculley’s working on is not going to be an Apple competitor. The phones are going to be targeted at developing markets.
“The Obi Worldphone no-compromise design and aggressive pricing makes it very appealing to this audience as the market for smartphones expands and the upgrade market for smartphones accelerates.”
The cheaper phone is called the SJ1.5 and it will cost consumers only $129. It will have a colorful polycarbonate body, 5-inch display, 1GB of RAM, 8 megapixel camera, and 16GB storage (upgradeable to 32GB).
“We’ve obsessed over every detail of the Obi experience — from industrial design, user interface and packaging — to deliver inspiring products that overturn the misconception that great design has to come at a high price.”
The other phone, called the SF1, is slightly more expensive at $199. The SF1 will have a unibody with metallic accents. It will feature a 5-inch display, 3 GB of RAM, 13 megapixel camera, and 32GB storage (upgradeable to 64GB).
One major feature of the SF1 is its floating screen. The floating screen gives the SF1 a unique look that sets it apart from a lot of other phones in its price range.
Both of Obi’s new phones are designed to be beautiful. In their announcement made on Wednesday, Obi said that their phones were going to fill the void between high-end, well-designed phones and low-end, generic ones.
That idea is a smart one, as many low-end devices are lacking in their appearance and in their hardware capabilities. The hardware specs of the Obi phones are not anything really special, considering the rest of the smartphone market, but they’re better than most phones in their price range.
It’s unclear whether U.S. customers will be able to purchase the SF1 or SJ1.5 online. But U.S. consumers will definitely not be seeing the phones at a retail store come October.
“Obi has taken the best of Silicon Valley—innovations in design, state-of-the-art technology and high standards for manufacturing—and fused them into beautiful, powerful tools at attractive prices.”
Obi’s new phones will target developing markets in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
[Photo via Obi Worldphone]
