Party and State: TIm Cook

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

That Was the iPhone Event that Wasn't

Reactions to the new iPhone have been lukewarm at best. In America, it was a bit ho-hum, and Chinese netizens wanted to tear Tim Cook a new asshole when they found out how much the phone would cost. The new handset, hyped up beyond recognition as the "cheap one" that would go up against Xiaomi's 1999rmb smartphone is only marginally cheaper than previous versions, attracting a large number of negative comments on microblogs across China.

"I thought the cheap 5C version would be priced at one thousand or two (yuan)... I can't sell my kidney for this much," said one poster on Sina Weibo, China's hugely popular Twitter equivalent, referring to a teenager who sold a kidney to buy an iPhone and iPad last year.

"So this is the so-called cheap version? The 5C starts at 4,488 yuan in China. Haha, they treat the Chinese as peasants," said another.

Boasting support for China's TD-LTE, a deal with China Mobile is possible, but hasn't been sealed yet. With a four thousand kuai price tag, Apple seems hell bent on shutting out a large number of CM's subscribers, giving added impetus for consumers to spend their cash on the local boy made good, the Mi-3.

The only silver lining on this particularly grey and uninspiring cloud is that with the rollout happening in China and the US, Hong Kong, UK and other countries on September 20th there'll be fewer shady characters skulking outside of universities offering foreigners clammy grey-import iPhones. So yay for that. Kinda.

China web users say new iPhone 5C is too expensive

Unannounced China version of the iPhone 5S and 5C will support TD-LTE

Apple's no-news Beijing event leaves it adrift in China

Apple goes for higher margins with iPhone 5C, but may miss the mark in China

Five million iPhones to return, or stay rather, home

Monday, August 26, 2013

Could Apple Succeed Where Google Failed?

Doing business in China isn't exactly easy. With the protectionism, lack of any kind of copyright law adherence, and rabid, disgruntled Weibo users who take to the Interwebs every time a warranty isn't honored, you'd think that international brands would steer clear of trying to sell anything to anybody in China.

Since Google's unceremonious exit from the country in 2010, western brands have been having one hell of a tough time. The Chinese government would rather see Chinese brands being sold to the Chinese, mostly because it bolsters their image of driving the economy to greater and greater heights, and not many of the people who control the real money have enough foreign business experience to make deals with the tech giants of Silicon Valley.

Apple has been having a hard time of late, with a laughable attack from the National Consumer Day Gala, and a number of anti-Apple editorials in state-media, USA Today examines if the grovelling apology from CEO TIm Cook will be just enough to shore up Apples sales for the foreseeable future.