The Android Wi-Fi tablet market has been fairly stagnant for the past 3 years.  With less consumer demand for these products, there are less IC manufacturers designing new chips for the market and those which are still making chips are updating less frequently. Below is a list of selected popular chips from the leading China […]

Simple, and then increasingly advanced, electronics manufacturing started moving from the US to Japan in the 1960s as brands searched for lower costs.  Subsequently, suppliers in other developing Asian countries provided even lower costs. Labor intensive manufacturing moves like water. Water settles in the lowest point that has the fewest holes.  Manufacturing settles in the […]

Coming out with a new Android device requires the Android product vendor to consider whether or not they need Google Mobile Services (‘GMS’) certification on their hardware.   Devices intended for standard consumer use generally require GMS since so many popular apps fall under the GMS umbrella.  This includes all the standard Google apps that […]

Let’s cut to the chase, everyone knows about user testing, but no one thinks enough about the impact it has on a Custom Android Development timeline. When I suggest this to clients they initially unintentionally ignore the suggestion until the benefit becomes apparent during prototype testing.  Rarely do companies realize how important this is until […]

In October we got an email from a company, Peppercorn (not real name), that had reached out to Hatch over a year ago about making a custom Android tablet for them.   The project itself, from a technical standpoint, was perfect for Hatch, but the company wasn’t mature enough to commit to the volume we […]

  This article provides broad and firsthand information about the certification process for FCC, CE, and similar certifications useful to anyone manufacturing Android hardware like tablets and phones.  It includes the most relevant details you should know from before, during, and after the certification process.  Note that Hatch handles certification for our clients that as […]

The process of making any custom Android device with the sophistication of a tablet or smartphone takes a multi-discipline expert understanding of technical engineering For example, there must be a hardware architect with knowledge of: the hardware at the component level  the parameters around firmware and OS  what customizations are possible the amount of work […]

This is a continuation of last month’s article, Juggling Curve Balls: Electronics Manufacturing in China – Part 1. Surprise problem delivers a blow to plans Word comes back from our engineering team that there was a miscommunication between the head engineer and the project manager. The PCBA is missing 2 little passive components that regulate […]

This article gives insight into the previously untold story of many businesses that push through defining moments to create their destiny. It should also provide an education of how companies succeed with Electronics Manufacturing in China that isn’t written about in business school textbooks. Three simultaneous truths existed in 2004.   One, I was competent […]

Out-Sourced Development Usually, companies that contact Hatch to make custom Android device, custom tablets or phones, have more in-house expertise with software than hardware since the core value of their product comes from the software (front end and/or backend) that’s interfacing with the Android device. The end product, often with a custom case design and […]