Former Apple execs launch low-cost “design-led” smartphones
Former Apple chief executive John Sculley has teamed up with the company’s former design boss Robert Brunner to launch Obi Worldphones.
Former Apple chief executive John Sculley has teamed up with the company’s former director of industrial design Robert Brunner to launch Obi Worldphones, a company selling low-cost “design-led” Android smartphones.
Obi, which is based in San Francisco, has launched two models – the SF1 and the SJ1.5 – which will reportedly retail at $199 (£129) and $129 (£84) respectively.
The SF1 features a 5-inch HD display, a 13-megapixel camera and uses the Obi Lifespeed custom user interface for Android. The 8mm-thick unibody phone weighs 147g.
The SJ1.5 meanwhile is 8mm-thick and weights 131g. It also comes in a choice of four colours.
It features a 5-inch HD screen, an 8-megapixel camera and also uses the Obi Lifespeed user interface.
Obi co-founder John Sculley was chief executive of Apple between 1983 and 1993. Since leaving Apple he has invested in a number of businesses in the tech sector.
Sculley says: “Obi Worldphones is a design-led company with beautiful, organic Silicon Valley original design.”
Scully says he brought in Brunner – who was Apple’s director of industrial design between 1989 and 1996 – because “there was no-one I wanted more in terms of his ability to make technology beautiful or make it invisible”. He adds: Design really does define change.”
Since leaving Apple Brunner has been a partner at Pentagram’s San Francisco office and in 2007 set up Ammunition Design Group.
Brunner says of the Obi phone: “The entire design experience has been orchestrated. Everything has been thought through, everything has been detailed and everything has been done in a way that just creates a really compelling experience for the people that are using it.”
He adds: “What we wanted to do was create a beautiful set of tools for a generation that uses mobile technology like never before.”
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