Ying’s Blog

How time flies. It was two months ago when I set to fly to China to launch LA YIN in more cities.

Upon my arrival in China, I decided to set up some meetings down the road with Professor Kristina Köök who has been doing exciting researches in the mobile life. And I got an email back and said she’d be in Hangzhou the next day!

I don’t remember how many times I’ve been amazed by how small the world is!

So, in a raining afternoon, I sit down with Kia and her dear husband in a rustic cafe at the west lake shore. We discussed China and mobile life and etc. Everytime I discuss with Kia about her researches I get excited and inspired. Hope one day we get to work together!

I was waiting for the latest Apple creation with full anticipation!! I felt like a kid waiting for Santa to arrive!

As always, Steve Jobs presentation was great and inspirational! I fully appreciate the notion of focusing on a few tasks and make them outstanding. Apart from the designs, there are two things  I love about Apple stuff. First, they perform the major tasks way superior than others on the block and second (more important for me) is that they create a seamless eco system surround modern beings who have modern needs such as multimedia consumption, mobile computing, and ubiquitous and all-the-time connection: my apple gadgets are synced seamlessly (I don’t need my engineering Ph.D degree to do this), I navigate through my computing tasks at a much more efficient pace (if compared to my many years experience with PCs), I got connected to my iPhone/Air, or multimedia contents, or people wherever or whenever I want (most of the time depending on network coverage).

Recall my passionate years at Motorola’s research labs, we were plotting the dream of a seamless and connected world. Now I see my dream unfold through Apple’s eco-system. iPad is what I have been wanting for our home, a great link between iPhone and MacBook. Now I’ve got a five year old girl, I can see it’s also a great thing for young kids who want to share photos, music, videos with friends and browse web to satisfy their curiosity. My daughter already asked one for her birthday! Certainly, I’m obliged to book one for her. I know I’ll borrow from her to show recipes on the kitchen bench when I cook up new dishes.

Now having said all the great things about Apple stuff, they are not completely perfect without any default. This morning, I couldn’t help noticing the article: iPad name draws feminine hygiene jokes. People reasoned that no women was involved in the marketing team. I don’t have any problems with iPad, however I was indeed made to wonder the same thing but for another feature in iPhone. The virtual keyboard on the iPhone is virtually impossible for women with long finger nails. Some of my friends who own iPhones had to give up for alternatives. If the developers were women, would they come up with the same virtual keyboard solution? Even with a great company like Apple, we still need No Pink Phone movement, don’t we!

It has been a great pleasure working with various Telia stores, in particular the flagship store. I enjoy very much going there and getting first hand customers’ feedback. A couple of days ago, I dropped by the store again and took a photo of a wall full of colorful LA YIN computer bags, along with LA YIN USB flash drives. Those are beautiful and functional bags.

I’m pretty happy that we launched LA YIN in June 08 and now our products are on the wall of the Swedish largest telecom stores.

We’ll make sure to keep this wall alive and keep the No Pink Phone movement alive!!

I completely agree with the blog by Stacey Higginbotham .

The Telia’s new show case boutique had its grand opening yesterday the 25th. The store is very tastefully presented. Our colorful & stylish bags give a fine balance to the wood/nature theme of the deco. The store is located at Ringvägen, Södermalm, Stockholm

I can’t help of noticing that most are women who serve customers in this shop. This is great! It is very encouraging to see telecom stores are becoming more women friendly.

The collection will be available later in other Telia shop across Sweden.

Life is beautiful and life is too short not to make things beautiful!! As much as I can from my busy schedules, I dress up my little girl (lucky me, I’ve got a girl to dress up, haha!) with care according to occasions. And I dress up my favorite technology pieces, naturally my computer! Many computer sleeves for career women out there are rather too serious, others are rather cheap looking, in particular those for mini computers. It’s just a pity that one buys a stylish mini PC but without a matching bag.

Why don’t we throw some colors and some good fashion into the bags. Apparently many customers to our partner stores are asking the same thing. Now, in our store, you can find stylish bags for mini computers. They are also very practical - in memory foam material and with good protection to shock. Chanel once said ‘fashion has to be comfortable’. Similarly I believe fashion for technology has to be practical.

I call our beautiful computer bags:

Prêt-à-porter for computers

Fashion mini pc bags

It was a delicious excitement when I learned later, the display has drawn much attention from the people. It’s great to chat with the boutiques staff. They have their fingers on the customers pules. It’s amazing.

Telia is the biggest mobile phone operator in Sweden. I have been following this company very closely since moving to this country. My impression in the first few years was a company with conservative and boring image. I thought 3 was a more upto date player.

Starting from late 2007 and early 2008, I saw a transformation was happening in Telia. Now, its transformation has made a positive impact in many women’s perception. Some of my girl friends and LA YIN panelists recently commented on how refreshing the Telia stores have become. I spoke to a number of people working in Telia stores as well as other parts of the organization, many expressed the excitement about the new Telia and their more interesting jobs. It is also acknowledged that much more has to be done and will be done to make the offerings more relevant and exciting for women customers. I think what’s happening is great.

I’m very pleased that our LA YIN products are now available at Telia’s two butiks in Stockholm: the flagship store at Kungsgatan and the relatively new store in a historical building on Norrlandsg. 2.

I love the expression YIN CHIC! I’m truly flattered that ‘Yin Chic: Cool USB flash drives for women!’ appeared in ‘Grade A Entrepreneurs‘ blog by Marylene Delbourg-Delphis, a true grade A entrepreneur and business leader!

Mind you, we might do a YIN CHIC collection soon!

Many have been asking me since our launch in June 08, so what’s the next?

The next thing will be coming to public soon, hopefully before Christmas. You can contact me if you wish to have some presents that are never seen before.

We’ll have a new print design for our computer sleeves. And we’ll extend the sleeve to different PCs.

Here is the next print design: email me at store@la-yin.com if you want to secure one before Xmas.