Many competitors have incorrectly regarded and described Quectel as a competitor who is gaining market share through a low-price strategy. Price is not everything; we provide good product planning, innovative technologies, reliable products, a differentiating marketing strategy, fast delivery cycle, effective risk management and other benefits.
As must be applied in certain application markets, especially in South Africa, there is a high demand on product quality and designers are understandably cautious about choosing ‘just any’ module, so we understand it will still be some time before our product advantages and brand values are accepted by customers.
We will enhance and improve Quectel‘s brand recognition in South Africa via our local office, partners, professional exhibitions and all kinds of media. As to our price strategy, since we are a new player in this field, we need to have a price advantage to become accepted by customers, which is exactly what customers are expecting.
After our visits to South Africa we have concluded that most customers usually place an emphasis on product quality, and in general have long-term R&D cycles for product development. Keeping this in mind, as well as price degradation in the GSM markets, we have opened an office in Gauteng to offer local support to both customers and distribution channels.
Our R&D staff accounts for 70% of our total number of employees, with diverse experience in wireless module R&D and management. We are the first company to implement MediaTek chipsets into the M2M application markets and we follow extremely strict processes and standards on requirements analysis, product definition, project approval and initiation, preliminary design, detailed design, product development, hardware test, software test, stress test, external field test, trial production, small scale production, mass scale production, etc.
Quectel has an R&D centre in Shanghai as well as a second one in Hefei which opened at the end of last year. Our investment into product development allows for our customers to implement and deploy their projects with ease.
In order to effectively partner with South African clients, we offer a complete array of services, including circuit schematic review, PCB layout review, open laboratory testing, design optimisation assistance, rapid and effective communication and technical support, timely and short delivery cycle, long-term product supply assurance, localised communicative collaboration and an agile business pattern.
Everybody in the company – including me – has the responsibility and duty to help customers. Not only do we supply modules and products, but we also cooperate with our partners to offer reference designs to our customers, which promotes customer design and development processes. This improves our service capacities and partners will also help us to better understand the local requirements and policies to make sure that our products are innovative and in line with market needs.
On business ethics, Quectel complies with local legislation and laws. We will leverage our advantages and compete with other companies in an orderly and fair market. When it comes to product management, before we make any decision on element selection, we will assess and investigate the vendors’ comprehensive capabilities and the elements’ life cycle. We try to reduce the possibility of change of any element, to protect our customers’ benefits. On the capital and repository aspect, we’re backed by a powerful venture-capital firm.
For some customers whose products will lead long life cycles, we can make the promise to offer mainstream products like the M10/M12/M95 for more than eight years.
Over the past few years, we have developed a competitive and extensive product portfolio. Our focus is on the wireless M2M application sectors. At the present, we have two main product lines: wireless cellular modules and GPS/GLONASS products. Wireless modules include GSM/GPRS modules and WCDMA/HSPA modules.
In our product specification phase, we address vertical market requirements, i.e. in an automatic meter reading vertical the application will only require data and SMS. This approach allows for stringent design specifications and a customer-focused solution, as well as shortening their development cycle.
The M10 and M12 are the first cellular modules launched by our company, which are designed to meet almost all customers‘ requirements. We have reserved space for an MFF SIM IC in the design of these devices, which is applicable for mobile operators‘ customised applications.
We have designed the M72 module with high quality for data services, e.g. smart metering and point-of-sale. Featuring a simplified hardware interface, it will greatly facilitate customers in product development and design. The M85 and M95 are two newly launched GSM/GPRS modules, which feature smaller packages; they are mainly targeted at telematics application. The M80 supports CMOS cameras, and is particularly suitable for security equipment; the M80 will soon support dual SIM cards.
WCDMA/HSPA technology is ideal for home monitoring. For this market we will soon be launching the U10, a 3G module that supports uplink speeds up to 7,2 Mbps and downlink speeds up to 5,76 Mbps, as well as supporting a camera interface up to 8 Megapixels.
Our GPS module family incorporates the L10, L16, L20, L30, L50 and L70. They can support Glonass and GPS, and we offer a range of footprints and built-in or non-built-in antennas.
Through Quectel’s remote upgrade software, customers can upgrade their own application programs. Our modules feature the lowest standby power consumption in the industry and excellent RF sensitivity. They also have leading advantages in outline dimensions, with support for rich features like SD, USB interface and dual SIM cards.
We have the unique camera supported GSM/GPRS module in this area, and have 3G modules which support a camera interface with 8 Megapixel JPEG and H.264 video recording, plus video streaming technology. These modules have an assortment of ESD protection and support wide temperature ranges.
Our products also boast GSM scan-network, lock-network and lock-area functions. We have applied the GPRS positioning function into our modules and integrated text-to-speech; all of these innovative ideas have been aimed at meeting market needs.
Quectel has cooperative local agency partners around the world to promote and sell our products. We have a strict agency partner audit and management system. Our area marketing managers will collaborate with the local area agency partners to conduct market promotion and customer follow-ups. We will periodically schedule for the management team, technical support and the R&D team to visit and support customers together with our partners, to improve communication and collaboration with our customers.
For more information contact Mark Coxen, Quectel, +27 (0)16 366 7998, [email protected], www.quectel.com
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