Tencent, as A Hardware Player
As you may have heard, the new leader of China’s ruling party Xi Jinping vistied Tencent on last Friday. What do you think Tencent showed him? WeChat, Google Street View-like maps, and, QYing, a portable interactive projector under QRobot project (report in Chinese).
Tencent management made it clear that they’d not produce smart phones, but the company has rolled out a few hardware devices, for sale. Based in Shenzhen, an electronics manufacturing base in China, the company can leverage the convenience for producing any hardware — unlike companies such as Xiaomi, whose CEO has to fly down from Beijing to work out the supply chain for its long-waited new phone model. Also, different from hardware companies, Tencent has all kinds of content, music, video, news, e-books, games, software and so on, to feed devices.
QRobot
Partnering with SIAT, the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tencent initiated the development of QRobot, a penguin-shaped small robot that can interact with people, in 2010. The first ones were shipped in August 2011 and sold on the company’s e-commerce platform.
The robot can have simply conversations, by audio or video, with people, responding with information of news, weather, stock market, etc. Software inbuilt enables it to tell stories, read text or conduct a Q&A game. Its head, body and wings can move accordingly.
Over three thousand were sold in the launch month for a price of 1188 yuan ($190). Now it’s priced at 1398 yuan. A kid’s edition, education-oriented, was launched together with QYing in last month.
1体1188元（190ドル）で、販売が開始された最初の一ヶ月で3000体以上が売れた。現在の値段は1398元と設定されている。教育指向の子供向けバージョンが先月、QYingとともにリリースされた。
QYing
QYing is released as a new generation of QRobot. It’s Android-based and smaller than a fist. Not only can it projects content on a computer screen through USB cable, or a smart phone screen through HDMI cable, to a wall, but you can also interact with the projected image with a stylus or a remote control pen, triggering clicks on buttons, opening links or drawing on the image, among other AR technology-driven functions.
Video content from QQ Video and games from QQ Games and 3366 Casual Games (Tencent’s partner) have been built in — sounds like a set-up box like Xiaomi’s, right? It’s priced at 1999 yuan ($322), over one thousand pieces have sold out as the official online store shows.
The company would like third-party developers to build applications for it as it’s Android-based.
Weixin Earphone
Weixin, or WeChat, delivered a number of custom-made earphones for media and industry people to try out. Functions only include sending and receiving voice messages and adjusting the sound level. Currently it’s not for sale.
Tencent is also partnering with hardware makers in certain sectors to do customized devices, such as having QPlay, a specially designed QQ Music solution, built in all kinds of music playing devices. It is reported that over ten device manufacturers have reached deals with QPlay, including professional music player makers like Sonos and smart TV makers like TCL (article in Chinese).
Weixin、Wechatはメディアや業界関係者の試用に多くの特注イヤーフォンを納品した。機能は音声メッセージの送受信や音声レベル調節などが腹案れ手いるだけだ。現在販売はされていない。
TencentはQPlayを内臓した製品やQQ Music solution用に全種類の音楽の再生端末を内臓した製品などの端末を特別注文できるよう、特定のセクターのハードウェアメーカーと連携しようとしている。報道によると、プロ用音楽プレーヤーメーカーSonosやTCLなどのスマートTVメーカーを含む10社以上がQPlayとの契約に合意した。
Weixin、もしくはWeChatはメディアや業界の人々が試してみることができるよう、カスタムメイドのイヤホンをたくさん配布した。機能は音声メッセージの送受信、および音量調節に限られていた。今は販売されていない。
Tencentはさらに、ハードウェアメーカーのある部門と提携して、カスタマイズされた端末を提供しようとしている。たとえば、あらゆる音楽再生端末を内蔵しており、QQ Music向けに特別にデザインされたQPlayといった端末だ。10以上の端末メーカーがQPlayとの契約に至ったとの報告がある。その中には、Sonosのようなプロ向け音楽再生機器メーカー、TCLのようなスマートTVメーカーが含まれる（中国語の記事）。
