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Rising company

Winners of d&i award:innerexile capsule & cylinder

By Korbin Lan
Published: Jun 04,2014

As an accessories and peripheral products design company, innerexile makes an effort to go the extra mile. Their pickiness about product details and user experience not only vexes manufacturers but also makes their competitors’ products seem laughable. However, it is this attentiveness that makes their products remarkable and has enabled them to become the winner of a COMPUTEX d&i award 2014.

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According to General Manager Liming Hu, innerexile combines the words “inner” and “exile” to signify their pursuit of the most intelligent level of freedom and their desire to return to the most basic level of value.


This basic value of product design is user experience, and consequently innerexile places a great deal of importance on this. Liming Hu learned this from his personal experience as an Apple employee, and he inherited this concept of prioritizing user experience from Steve Jobs. This has enabled innerexile to become an extraordinary design company.



Figure I: Capsule has decorative aluminum alloy rings as its exterior with an inclined cut surface design that is in compliance with ergonomics
Figure I: Capsule has decorative aluminum alloy rings as its exterior with an inclined cut surface design that is in compliance with ergonomics

As an intern at Apple, Liming Hu participated in the development of the iPod, and he was responsible for the client end market and consumer research. It was during this time period that he was exposed first-hand to Steve Job’s insistence on paying attention to product details and thinking about products from the perspective of consumers. He learned that if products do not meet the consumers’ needs, they definitely should not be sold on the market. This spirit of emphasizing user experience is also reflected in innerexile’s attitude towards product development.


Liming Hu emphatically states, “It is incorrect to just talk about design. You must also incorporate user experience into design.”


Innerexile’s first product was a protective case for the iPhone 4; however, because of their insistence on using lightweight metal materials while also being both perfectly spliced and easy to disassemble, innerexile missed the opportune moment to get the product on the market. Unfortunately, this caused both discontent among their employees and made the manufacturers that they were working with feel that their demands were unreasonable.


“At the time, every day was a struggle for the sake of integrating industrial design, organization, and user experience,” stated Liming Hu.



Figure II: Cylinder is an aluminum alloy cellphone rack, which is innerexile's most important product for this year
Figure II: Cylinder is an aluminum alloy cellphone rack, which is innerexile's most important product for this year

Although innerexile missed the ideal window of time for selling the first product, thanks to this experience of developing a product for the iPhone 4, innerexile was easily able to successfully develop a protective case for the iPhone 5. This outstanding product quickly won the good graces of distributors and became well-known in the Chinese and Japanese markets. Even today it is still the number one name brand for related products.


“It was OK to fail … we were training our troops,” said Liming Hu proudly.


This year innerexile has two products that are winners of computex d&i awards. One of the products, called “Capsule,” is a sloped double-input electrical charger for cars, and the other, called “Cylinder,” is an aluminum compound metal phone rack for cars.


Capsule flawlessly combines industrial design and user demands, and its research and development was carried out from three dimensions: exterior appearance, specifications, and intuition. This has enabled innerexile to create an electrical charging equipment product that gives consideration to road safety. Capsule also features a unique exterior and a structure that is integrated with ample functionality.



Figure III: Under the leadership of General Manager Liming Hu, innerexile have awarded a number of international design prizes, including iF, red dot, and d & i award
Figure III: Under the leadership of General Manager Liming Hu, innerexile have awarded a number of international design prizes, including iF, red dot, and d & i award

Capsule has decorative aluminum alloy rings as its exterior with an inclined cut surface design that is in compliance with ergonomics. This allows for a better visual experience and an effective plug-in angle that prevents drivers from being distracted. In addition, Capsule also has a dual USB 5V/4.2A high output current format, which diminishes charging time. It is even possible to charge two devices simultaneously. Capsule’s “short-circuit proof electronic IC” has been substituted for a traditional safety fuse, and it can automatically detect the working voltage to prevent damage to components in the car’s interior.


Cylinder is an aluminum alloy cellphone rack, which is innerexile’s most important product for this year. It completely redefines the concept of the cellphone rack, and its exterior design features both an aluminum anode and a durable universal metal hinge, which facilitates use from a number of different angles. The product’s most important feature is providing a very intuitive and easy to use operating experience for the user.


There is also stationary soft rubber inside Cylinder that protects the cellphone surface, and it is broadly compatible with the 3.5 to 5 inch hand-held devices currently on the market. Cylinder’s base is equipped with reusable sticky suction cups that even in bad road conditions will not detach.



Figure IV: Their work environment is comfortable and relaxed, the GM attaches great importance of the living environment, therefore create a special outdoor garden.
Figure IV: Their work environment is comfortable and relaxed, the GM attaches great importance of the living environment, therefore create a special outdoor garden.

Innerexile’s insistence on paying close attention to product details has enhanced the manufacturing technology of supply chains in Taiwan. For instance, their metal mold factories are already capable of manufacturing a wide array of metal external frames with precision, and they were even selected by HTC to manufacture the HTC M8.


Looking to the future, Liming Hu states that innerexile will continue to uphold the spirit of innovation and acquire the capacity to develop more products from the research and development of Apple accessories. Innerexile will also continue to specialize in team organization and machinery that integrates software and hardware. In doing this, it will gradually expand its reach to the development of other industry domains and create a valuable brand name that is capable of generating profits.


“We have already taken a step from being an ODM to being an OBM (brand) but still strive to take another step to become an OXM (UX),”states Liming Hu.


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