let's start by bringing in cory johnson and brad stone who will be with us for the hour. brad interviewed the company executives. "bloomberg businessweek" takes an in-depth look at technology companies outside of silicon valley. you spent 10 days there, that is a long time. this company is called the apple of china. is it really? >> in a lot of ways, it is. it is a relatively new company that has built a brand that consumers love. the remarkable thing is it has grown really fast. it has left a lot of customers disappointed. their primary challenge is building and growing the supply chain. at these events, customers are hanging out outside. they are drawn to the company and the star power of the executives. the founder has a long career in chinese technology. he was a prolific angel investor and is really a star in the chinese technology scene. >> they brought together seven tech titans to found the company together. they have been called the avengers, the dream team. >> four years ago, starting a mobile phone company was very expensive and difficult to do. a lot of people

enough to be a big threat to both. >> for more on the ban -- man behind xiaomi i want to bring back brad stoneith us. brad's article is the centerpiece of bloomberg business week, which looks at companies out -- outside of silicon valley. also is early xiaomi board member robin chan, c.e.o. operator. thank you for joining us. i have to talk about the t-shirt because he used to wear the black t-shirt all the time and now he's not is that on purpose? >> it's definitely on purpose. i think a lot of positive and interesting press have come out and the comparison of steve jobs was too much. >> he didn't like the comparisons? >> he revered steve jobs very much and he didn't want people to think he is the next steve jocks. >> who is lei jun. he could have retired 10 times over. he was already wealthy but he decided to start a smart phone maker. why? >> when i first got to know him and learn the scale of his ambitions -- most interrupt nurse talk about going to washing -- entrepreneurs talk about -- think about going to war with one weapon. he said i'll have an entire eco system of taking advantage of

cory johnson and redstone -- brad stone.cingo talk about because, obviously come in china, they are happy cost. phones are half the cost. let's take a listen to the cofounder of xiaomi. how he describes their pricing model. >> the way we price our handset is almost like any other handset before. -- and crewprove othercosts -- incrue costs. the price is right at the rock-bottom price. the build of the material. >> i don't get it. how do they make money? >> do they? we don't know what the margins are. do marketing. those are expenses. the cost curve down. and start selling the mi3 break even. the phone has a year-long lifecycle and by the end of it, they are making a 15% margin. as those component costs fall among margins start to appear. they also try to make some money from different types of services and so on and use software phones to make the current. softwareelease a update every friday. >> they love to try out new things and look for bugs. they help the company develop new features. maybe that's the microsoft inspirati

also with us, brad stone. brad, i will start with you. how would you rate today's conference compared to prior years? >> there was no blockbuster hardware announcements so perhaps disappointing in that respect. it was a genuine developer event. major advancements with ios 8, with yosemite. opening up aspects of the iphone, that touch id so any developer can come. the swift programming language. not as much raw meat here for consumers, but we will be using these services by the fall. it is the way we are going to live. >> gene, how important are these new features they rolled out? >> it is critical for the hardware that comes out to have exciting features. the three areas that people really want to see is payment, health, and home automation. there wasn't a lot of sizzle for the average consumer, but if you look at the substance of what they are trying to do, they're trying to make cool features in the products. i think there was a lot there today that i think a lot of investors do not fully understand. >> do you agree with that, cory? we

. >> i want to bring in brad stone. also, joe brown and a managing partner at venture firm s k ventures. thank you for joining us. i will start with you. your first day? >> this is a phone that is going to help you buy stuff. the coolest thing was firefly. you can look at anything and it will say we sell that and that is a way to buy it. it maps it out with its camera and then it looks it up on amazon.com, the everything store. >> i already buy a lot of stuff on amazon. do i want a phone that will make me spend more money? >> how will retailers feel? you're not going to win much for doing that. the phone is need. kudos for getting it out the door after five years of development and coming up with something that is a little bit new with the firefly app. this is a hypercompetitive market. it is priced conventionally. $200 for the two year contract. >> it is not super cheap. what is your first impression of this phone? the 3-d feature, the six cameras? is it more than a gimmick? >> i got motion sick looking at the pictures

steve jobs never would've done that. >> cory johnson and brad stone.s a cultlike following in china and has been compared to steve jobs. who exactly is lei jun and how has he been able to wow the chinese market? that is still ahead on the best of "bloomberg west." ♪ >> welcome back to the best of "bloomberg west." i am emily chang. on a special mission of "bloomberg west" we looked at the rapid rise of xiaomi. the driving force is ceo lei jun. he is called the steve jobs of china. he has a cultlike following. who is he, and how has his personality driven their success? >> lei jun may not like for his company to be compared to apple, one look at him onstage and you can't help but think of steve jobs. it is not an accident. lei jun read a book about jobs and decided to emulate him in style and substance. >> he has his hands in many places in the chinese technology community. he understands the holistic view of what consumers want. >> lei jun spent six years at a chinese software company. he worked his way up to ceo while at the same time founding and e-c

i have brad stone here with me in the studio, author of "the everything store," a book about amazon. and i want to get to some breaking news coming out of the sea, where general motors ceo ise vara -- mary barra holding a press conference. investigation on safety issues based on those tips for the plex -- raised on those tips. >> there have been dozens. i cannot tell you where they all are, but we continue -- consider them to be a threat to safety until we have got with them. making sure we go back to the employee and they understand they were heard, we acted, and they feel good about it as well. >> how do you respond to the e-mail that it now says it was a safety issue? report undermine the that g.m. never considered this a safety issue? >> this is very difficult. if you are talking about the e-mail that they put in front of me, that was not referring to the [indiscernible] it was a different situation. we consider stalls to be a safety issue, and it is because of a defect. we are going to take action. we are demonstrating that through our action. that is an important message we're

also joining us is "wired" deputy editor joe brown, bloomberg "businessweek's" brad stone, author of "the everything store: jeff bezos and the age of amazon," and from san diego, paul kedrosky, the managing partner at venture firm s.k. ventures and bloomberg contributing editor. i started by asking joe what he thought of the phone. >> i mean, this is a phone that is going to help you buy stuff. the coolest feature to me was firefly. this button you push on the side and you can look at anything. it will say oh, we sell that. here is how to buy it. it indexes what you look at because it maps it out with its camera and looks it up an amazon.com, which, as brad will tell you, is the everything store. >> i already buy a bunch of stuff on amazon. do i want phone that makes me spend more money on amazon? >> how will small retailers feel when they see you buying stuff online instead of in the physical retail space they have paid for. look, the phone is neat. kudos to amazon for one, getting it out the door after five years of development and two, coming out with something a little bit new wi

. >> brad stone talks about this, this was the publishers struggling to respond to amazon and his strong-armactics. they are asking for payments to appear on the shelf. >> amazon's model is all about taking margins and putting the pressure on the suppliers to cut costs. that works in a lot of businesses but it does not work as well in publishing. the publishers created amazon and created the amazon problem. what amazon is doing is commoditizing book publishing. and saying that all of these books are interchangeable objects and it does not matter what the consumer buys. there are some any great books worth reading it does not matter. they are putting pressures on the publishers to give them what they want. the publishers make a big decision. are they going to give in or are they willing to pull their books from the stores? the publishers need to do a few things to preserve their businesses. they need to diversify so they are not dependent upon amazon. amazon has shown that they are not just predatory toward the publishers but a lot of publishers are seeing amazon as a rabid dog. someone they

brad stone, author of "the everything store." you are going to be in seattle tomorrow. >> what is it about? > he plans a pine tree and it turns his house into a different house than the others on the street. brad's book is better. >> you know bezos better than anyone else out there. what clue does this give you? howt is a metaphor for amazon wants to be viewed. very phones look and work much alike. he wants to do something different. this phone is going to have a 3-d screen. it has four cameras that are there to him for ed -- bounce infrared signals off your eyes. that is going to differentiate the phone. >> do you think amazon can do this well? >> amazon has a building in orzon headquarters they have been working on harbor projects for quite a while. we have seen the kindle in many iterations going back five years now. we have seen the success they have had with those different devices, it is unique to the kindle. we see their attempt television. i think they are willing to accept their the only business in the world where they

. >> cory johnson bloomberg "businessweek," brad stone. t mobile's outspoken c.e.o. john ledger is attracting some attention for some curse words. i speak with ledger next. ♪ >> welcome back to the best of "bloomberg west." i'm emily chang. john legere is taking aim at verizon with some new programs and some choice words. >> every time we do something, people don't tell me, hey, that is a great idea. they say well, how were you able to do that? because the assumption these high and mighty duopolists that are taking all the money you have -- >> controversial comments aside. t was quite the event. maclemore and ryan lewis headlined. they got to hear about tmp mobile's free trial program where potential customers can get a free iphone for a eek to try it out. it is setting up its own music streaming service partnering with rapsody. i spoke about it with t mobile c.e.o. john legere himself. >> we announced the availability of wideband lt in 16 markets in the u.s. already, which gives you up to 150 megs of speed, that is a 90 minute hd video in three minutes, and in about

. >> yeah, and they quote this famous thing from brad stone's book how we're the cheetah and the publishersk gazelles. we basically do feel like the weak gazelles, but they are doing something here. they have power, they control the contents like the cable standoffs, and you get a big seller like rowling, next week patherson, and we'll see. >> i wonder what you think of the amazon move into the phone business? everyone seems to have an opinion here. >> i wrote a lot about people moving into phones, and they all pretty much failed so far. the idea you point the phone at a product and immediately buy it on amazon is amazing and clever, but, look, the google people, the androids and iphones will get that. you don't just get amazon, but everyone else too. i don't see the competitive advantage lasting long. >> thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >>> shares of garden hit after earnings, red lobster sale, of course, the question, will it help the turn around? dissecting the numbers in just a moment. >>> garden restaurantings earning 84 cents a share, 10 cents short of estimates. revenues down

of his book on the whistle blower. 67 year-old stone says this is one of the greatest stories of our time >>: and a prankster who took a swing that actor brade actor. he said he was just trying to give the actor a hug and a movie premiere. if it was at this or red carpet even with his partner angelina chihli of her movie maleficent last week in l.a.. you could see him lunch. he tried to push him and then he had classes got knocked off. it's a red carpet tragedy. it is. coming up bigger news that affects you. all have to cover continuing of the many sent out. and also what tennis star selena williams is doing on the beach in a bathing suits or next to a bride in full wedding regalia. as we take a bud at the trans bay terminal following the♪ ♪est with thank you! thank you! dedicated bankers born to go the extra mile. you've been such a big help. it's what i like to do. so you can choose a bank where helping people comes first. chase. so you can. right here. my parents were immigrants. and they taught me that with hard work, anything is possible. i earned a scholarship to mit. and worked across party lines to get things done. i'm alex padilla.