Qualcomm let Xiaomi rename a chip to avoid negative market perception
Hugo Barra · Hugo Barra: How I Built Hardware for Android, Xiaomi, and Oculus | 20VC #947 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings · Nov 9, 2022 · at 34:39
Hugo Barra, former VP of Global at Xiaomi, describes convincing Qualcomm's Cristiano Amon to rebrand a chip to avoid association with the poorly received Snapdragon 615 prior to Xiaomi's Redmi Note 3 launch in India.
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“I said to Qualcomm, look guys, we cannot tell a story for this product, right? This product will be received as the same stinky dead fish as Snapdragon six 15 was, so we have to somehow change this game. If you allow me to change its name, Then I think we can tell a good story. So, you know, Cristiano, who's a good friend you know, at the time he wasn't yet CEO of Qualcomm, but he led, you know, their chip business unit, said, you know, okay, well, let's try. What do you want? So we came up with a new name for the product. We made it the Snapdragon, six, 56, five, zero.”
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