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Uber executive reshuffling drops its COO and CMO
In an email that went out to employees on Friday, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said that because of progress made over the last two years, he now has more time to oversee day-to-day operations. Post-IPO, that will mean some reassigning of roles, and as a part of that, Chief Operating Officer Barney Harford and Chief Marketing Officer Rebecca Messina are both stepping down. Neither will be replaced directly, instead the heads of Uber's core businesses (Rides and Eats) will report directly to the CEO, while the marketing, communications and policy departments will be combined into one, all under former VP of communications and public policy Jill Hazelbaker. What impact will this have on you pressing a button and getting something delivered or hopping into a stranger's car for a ride? We don't know yet, but now that the company is public at least a few things are going to change.
HTC senior execs resign ahead of smart wearable launch
HTC may be back on its road to recovery thanks to its One (M8) flagship phone, but it's now facing yet another managerial change. According to Bloomberg's Tim Culpan, the phone maker's marketing chief Ben Ho has just resigned, making it a rather short stint since he joined a little over a year and a half ago. Our own sources implied that this had been expected for a while, and that the $1 billion "Here's To Change" marketing campaign was the main culprit, as it failed to get its money's worth in return (despite chairwoman Cher Wang being a big fan of the hipster trolls featured in the ads). While Ho has already been relieved of CMO duties, he will remain at HTC until end of this year.
Huawei outlines plan to regain its share of European smartphone market
Last year, Huawei's Device Business Group set an ambitious goal of shipping 60 million smartphones, but managed only 32 million, keeping it out of IDC's top five smartphone vendors in 2012. That said, for Q4 that same year Huawei did finally break into top three, but it didn't change the fact that it had been a tough period for Huawei's smartphone division, especially for its CMO Shao Yang (pictured above with his 6.1-inch Ascend Mate). At the 2013 Huawei Global Analyst Summit in Shenzhen yesterday, the exec was kind enough to share his side of the story about the hurdles his team faced last year -- the period when Huawei was transforming from an original design manufacturer (ODM) to serve others, to an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) in order to build devices according to its own specifications.
CE-Oh no he didn't!: HTC's CMO Ben Ho says the Galaxy S 4 is just 'more of the same'
First it was Apple, then LG, and now we have HTC also trolling Samsung's Galaxy S 4 launch in New York. Before the doors opened at Radio City Music Hall, the Taiwanese company kindly gave out hot cocoa and snacks while showing off the One to folks lined up in the cold outside, as well as to the public in Times Square (see video after the break). This was followed by HTC's complementary entertainment during Samsung's event with a series of surprisingly relentless tweets -- one of which even bore the hash tag "#theNextBigFlop" to mock Samsung's "The Next Big Thing" slogan. Ouch. To wrap up the day, HTC's fresh CMO Ben Ho got in touch (by way of a PR agency) to say that the again-plastic Galaxy S 4 is just "more of the same," and that his company's "all-aluminum unibody HTC One" with "original cutting-edge technology, mouth-watering design and a premium feel" is really what people are after. Here's his full statement: "With a continuation of a plastic body, and a larger screen being the most obvious physical change, Samsung's new Galaxy pales in comparison to the all-aluminum unibody HTC One. "This is more of the same. HTC remains the best option for those people looking for the best technology wrapped in premium design. Our customers want something different from the mainstream, who appear to be the target for the Galaxy. "Our customers want original cutting-edge technology, mouth-watering design and a premium feel from their mobiles, which is why we created the HTC One." Looks like "quietly brilliant" is no more for HTC then? Update: Ben Ho got back to us with another nugget, this time taking a quick jab at the software features on Samsung's latest flagship device. It's short and sweet (and also spicy): "Looking at the software features of the S4, we think Samsung spent more on marketing than innovation."
Live from the Engadget CES Stage: an interview with Huawei's Richard Yu (updated x2)
This may not have been a huge mobile show for most companies (what with MWC just over the horizon), but Huawei certainly has lots to talk about. The CEO of the company's consumer business group Richard Yu will be hitting the stage today and bringing along some goods to show off, too. Update: Unfortunately Yu had to pull out at the last minute, so instead we will be meeting Huawei Device CMO Shao Yang at the same time slot. Stay tuned! Update 2: False alarm! Richard Yu will be joining us, after all! January 10, 2013 5:30 PM EST Check out our full CES 2013 stage schedule here!
RIM continues the executive shuffle with new COO and CMO
Changes are afoot at Research in Motion. The Canadian smartphone maker today announced the addition of two new names to top executive slots. Former Sony Mobile Communications executive VP Kristian Tear will be taking on the role of the company's chief operating officer. RIM's new chief marketing officer Frank Boulben, meanwhile, comes over from Lightsquared, after having worked for the likes of Vodafone, Vivendi and Orange. The news comes on the heels of word that new CEO Thorsten Heins has been "clearing house" at the ailing phone company.
Interview confirms World of Darkness dev team, predicts DUST 514 sales
When CCP Games laid off 20% of its worldwide staff back in October of last year, the World of Darkness dev team bore the brunt of the cuts while DUST 514 continued on course for its launch later this year. In an interview over at TenTonHammer today, CCP's new Chief Marketing Officer, David Reid, joined CEO Hilmar Petursson to discuss the development of both games. Hilmar reveals that a team of 60 developers are currently working on WoD, and that DUST 514 will be playable at this year's EVE Online fanfest event in March. Despite acknowledging that the entire PlayStation Network comprises a total of 60 million users, Reid asserts that DUST will bring "tens of millions of people that play shooters on PSN into the New Eden universe," going on to make the bold statement that "EVE could be the biggest game in the world at the end of 2012" as a result. Reid also claims that "EVE Online is the only game in the West that has shown consecutive growth year after year," a statement that's sure to upset RuneScape developer Jagex and others. The statement also comes with a slightly bitter note as this year EVE may have lost its record of continual subscription growth during the summer drama.
Netflix is looking for a new Chief Marketing Officer, if you think you can do better
Considering how 2011 progressed for Netflix, it's not entirely surprising to hear some changes are in store at the top when it comes to marketing and communications. The video rental giant announced that its Chief Marketing Officer of the last dozen years, Leslie Kilgore, will be taking a position on its board as a "non-executive director", replaced in the interim by Jessie Becker as it conducts an external search for a permanent replacement. Also shifting positions is Jonathan Friedland who will be the new Chief Communications officer, and both Becker and Friedland will report directly to CEO Reed Hastings. Netflix's relationships with its customers were definitely damaged by last year's price hike and the shocking Qwikster spinoff announcement / unannouncement that followed, with a slate of original content on the way and some changes in store for its content licensing, we'll see if it can get the magic back in 2012 -- we're not so sure that the latest round of ads featuring beavers and hamsters (one's embedded after the break) are the way.
RIM's chief marketing officer resigns
We won't read too much into this, but it comes at an interesting time -- with only a month left before RIM is expected to debut the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, the company's chief marketing officer has resigned. The Wall Street Journal reports that RIM CMO Keith Pardy (formerly with Nokia) will leave due to "personal reasons" after a six-month transition period is up. The publication's anonymous sources add that Pardy actually made the decision a month ago, and that the move "reflects larger turmoil" within RIM -- as opposed to any sort of knee-jerk reaction over the iPad 2 launch, we suppose. To be frank, we're a little worried about the fate of the PlayBook if it's indeed close to launch -- when we tried a prototype at the Game Developer's Conference this past week in San Francisco, the hardware was still pretty solid, but the software was a bit sparse, and what was there felt like it needed more than a few coats of polish. [Thanks, Jonathan W.]
Former Nintendo VP Denise Kaigler joins 38 Studios
It appears that Denise Kaigler has returned to Massachusetts, as the former Nintendo VP of corporate affairs has announced that she's taken a position as chief marketing officer at Curt Schilling's 38 Studios. The notably vocal ex-Nintendo exec vacated her position at NoA late last year, saying then that she wished to spend more time with her family. Kaigler told us in an email this morning that "While at Nintendo, I was commuting regularly between SF, NYC, Seattle and my home outside of Boston. But we're all together now." In her new position, Kaigler serves as lead coordinator for all (but not thirty-eight) development studios operated by 38, including Big Huge Games and the team working on the "Copernicus" MMO. As CMO, Kaigler will also lead the publisher's marketing charge, we presume. Given her outspoken nature in the past, we also presume we'll be hearing more from Kaigler in the not too distant future.
CCP Games to present at Game Developers Conference 2009
CCP Games, the developer of EVE Online, has announced that they'll have a presence at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) next month. The company's CMO, Ryan Scott Dancey (aka CCP RyanD), is slated to speak about how CCP uses social network engineering to reach out to more subscribers. Specifically, he'll describe how the company puts Tipping Point theory (about how information spreads) into action. That session is titled: "Network Marketing: Leveraging Social Networks to Grow an MMO".On the technology front, CCP's CTO Halldor Fannar will speak at GDC 2009 in a session geared more towards programmers and technical artists, "From Evolution to Revolution: Upgrading the Graphics Engine of EVE Online". Fannar will lay out the issues CCP has faced with upgrading EVE's graphics engine, and explain how their ideas went from being on paper to a shipping game. His presentation will show the tools in action that allowed them to "take the required generational leap in art production." Game Developers Conference 2009 runs from March 23-27 at the Moscone Center, San Francisco, and as we've mentioned previously, will have a lot to offer MMO fans of all genres.
Chi Mei Optoelectronic votes "no" to cutting LCD production
With practically every other flat-panel maker out there cutting back production like it's going out of style, it's no shock that rumors were a-flowin' that LCD maker Chi Mei Optoelectronic would soon be following suit. After suffering a $125 million loss in Q3 and facing a grim Q4, the outfit has proudly proclaimed that it has zero intentions of shutting down factories or otherwise lowering production in order to counter the slump. 'Course, CMO did trim output by around 20% last quarter, but in an official filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange, it clearly stated that it currently had "no plans to close factories as reported by the media." So, what exactly is it doing? Encouraging employees to take unpaid vacations. Interesting.[Image courtesy of UberGizmo]
CMEL shows off 1mm-thick 25-inch HD OLED panel
Call us crazy, but we're thinking the OLED battle is totally on. With the novelty of Sony's XEL-1 behind us and the lust for bigger screen sizes completely consuming our minds, we're drooling at the mere thought of a 25-inch OLED panel that checks in at just 1-millimeter thick. Taiwan's Chi Mei EL was caught showing off the long-awaited display at the FPD International exhibition in Japan (last year's image shown), where it explained to onlookers that the marvel featured a native resolution of 1,366 x 768 and was capable of displaying 16.7 million colors. Regrettably, there was no mention of an expected release date, but we'll be watching at CES 2009 just in case (one of our) wildest dreams come true.[Via OLED-Display]
LCD maker Chi Mei Optoelectronics suffers $125 million loss in Q3
Chi Mei Optoelectronics, one of the world's leading manufacturers of TFT-LCDs, is licking its wounds after announcing a staggering $125 million loss in Q3 of this year. Of course, it's not like this was difficult to see coming -- after all, those plummeting LCD prices that we consumers love so dearly have to be detested somewhere along the supply chain. At any rate, CMO's profit suffered a " three-fold decline compared to that in the same period last year," and there doesn't seem to be any end in sight for the free fall of LCD panel prices. President Ho Jau-yang asserted that the company would "review and modify its operational orientation" while "safeguarding liquidity" as it rode out the storm. We could be badly off, but we'd say the real beatings are yet to come.[Image courtesy of GigaComputers]
ASUS readying touchscreen Eee PC and laptops for 2009 Windows 7 launch?
With HP's touchscreen laptop looming on the horizon, out come the leaks of an ASUS touchscreen lappie scheduled for launch in the first half of 2009. Touchscreen Eee PCs too (finally, right?) if DigiTimes' sources at panel makers are correct (which they tend to be with regard to ASUS). According to the Taiwanese industry rag, ASUS will likely use either a 12.1-inch or 11.6-inch touchscreen panel developed by AU Optronics (AUO) or Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO). What's odd here is the claim by sources that the touch-panel notebooks "are expected to take advantage of Windows 7" and presumably the new Microsoft OS's multi-touch capabilities. Strange, since Windows 7 isn't officially expected until sometime in early 2010 -- a date looking more and more like a publicly padded goal to avoid the bashing Microsoft received for its Vista delays. The whispers certainly add a bit more credence to rumors of a 2009 release as expressed by Bill Gates himself, or more specifically June 3rd, 2009 as allegedly marked in the internal Microsoft calendar.
7.6-inch OLED displays go mass production, next stop UMPCs and Kodak photo frames?
Sometime shortly after Philips introduced it first digital photo frame -- let's call it CES, January 2006 -- something happened to the industry: it went to crap. Instead of focusing on quality displays vendors started tossing in gimmicks to sell their goods. This might change now that 7.6-inch OLEDs are going mass production. Already, Kodak is rumored to have placed an order for the medium-sized panels set to roll off the lines in September at CMO's Chi Mei EL (CMEL) factory. That should mean incredibly vibrant, thin, high-contrast frames with 16.7 million colors spread across 800 x 480 pixels just in time for the holidays. While dropping these pricey displays into low-cost netbooks would be a stretch, we wouldn't be surprised to see a few of those 7-inch UMPCs make the move to OLED as well. [Via OLED-info] Read -- Kodak rumor Read -- CMEL 7.6-inch specs
LG to cut LCD production, Samsung plans to keep its lines humming
That glut of LCDs sitting on the shelves has some manufacturers at odds on how to react, with world #2 LG cutting production by 10% (with plans to raise it again in September), while the number one manufacturer Samsung is going to keep pushing them out as fast as it can, aiming for double digit sales growth this year. That doesn't mean it's not concerned about falling demand and too much supply, but it looks like all those partnerships mean its going to have someone to sell all its screens to at the end of the day. Don't expect that attitude to crash prices anytime soon however, as OEMs like AUO and CMO are following LGs lead and cutting production temporarily.Read - Samsung Elec says has no plans to cut LCD outputRead - LG Display to cut output by 10 pct in downturn
Motorola's Chief Marketing Officer takes a hike
Could this finally spell the end for Motorola's well-worn FOUR LETR marketing campaign? Hard to say -- Chief Marketing Officer Casey Keller didn't invent it to begin with -- but for what it's worth, he's gone. It seems Keller left under the cover of night last Friday, while Motorola put off announcing his departure until Thursday of this week; whether that's an indication that he left of his own volition or was shown the door, we don't really know. Interestingly, the company says that it won't be replacing him, instead moving his responsibilities down to his underlings in the B2B and mobile divisions. Knowing what we know of executive compensation packages, that's got to save a buck or two.
Chi Mei tosses in an Xbox 360 with its LCD HDTVs
Enticing consumers to pick up a new HDTV by throwing in a fairly attractive bonus is quite an antiquated (but still incredibly effective) trick, and it seems as if Chi Mei is resorting to such tactics to move its 42- and 50-inch 1080p LCD HDTVs. Reportedly, the group is bundling the aforementioned sets with Xbox 360s during the 2008 Taipei Game Show, but we've no idea if it plans on keeping the promotion alive after January 28th comes and goes. Now, if only there were an HD DVD add-on thrown in, we might consider ourselves sold.
Get to know Nintendo's new marketing chief
With the Regginator busy being all presidential, Nintendo's been in bad need of a new chief marketing officer to take names and kick ass. That new officer is Cammie Dunaway, who will officially start directing the company's $80+ million annual marketing budget on Monday.In honor of the transfer, Marketing Daily has a quick profile of the former Yahoo! and Frito-Lay marketer, who's wasting no time in spreading the message that Nintendo products are fun for the whole family. "I've seen the excitement on my nine-year-old son's face when he's playing a Pokemon game on his DS and spots someone else at the airport playing, too," Dunaway said. "Then I see my mom, who's in her 70s, having fun playing Wii bowling. Myself, I've started to play brain-training games." Take it easy, Cammie ... you don't start for three more days.The article also details some of Dunaway's previous marketing efforts for Yahoo! Answers, which included building a giant purple brain in New York's Times Square. Here's hoping that a giant, polygonal Dr. Kawashima head is forthcoming.
