iPhone and Apple in China
David over at Silicon Hutong, makes a good case for why the Apple iPhone is not a very good match for China, despite some high profile analysts thinking it would be wonderful here.
I would love to have an iPhone in my hands. But I have to agree that the iPhone, at least this incarnation, will be a sexy toy for the elites who know English, who need to have the latest gadget. But it won’t make a huge splash in the near future. The comments section has a vigorous debate on this, but here’s my take:
- Apple has never made a commitment to good Chinese input. I own a Mac and run Windows as well, and the Chinese input options for the Windows are far superior to the Mac. I had a friend who had to stick to MacOS 9 and Quark for years because the Chinese input on MacOS X was so terrible. So without more evidence, the Chinese input woes will likely carry over to the iPhone. The iPhone could do quite well as music player, video player, image viewer, web browser, but it will have one hand tied behind its back with the input.
- Some commenters there mentioned that the stores selling Apple in China are adequate. As Danwei pointed out earlier this month, this certainly not the case. There is a HUGE difference between an authorized reseller of Apple and a real offical Apple Store. A real Apple Store has a Genius Bar that gives free technical support and sports a professional staff with fully stocked shelves and all the expertise in house to solve any problem. That isn’t going to happen anytime soon.
They do not even have full official Apple Stores in Hong Kong or Singapore at this point, where there are lots of high-end and wealthy Mac users. China is not going to get it before those two places, so we’re in for a lot of waiting. Last year I talked to one of the Apple representatives in Hong Kong and they said it takes a LOT of resources and local expertise (tech support wise) to open an Apple Store, so they are not in shape to do so.
Myself? I’ll go for the next best thing in the LG Prada, which is very iPhone-like, doesn’t pretend to do everything and will be unlocked. Plus, I will get fashion street cred with my wife, who usually turns up her nose at my tech purchases. Got to love the chick magnet.
February 6th, 2007 04:06
Apple China reality check:
http://it.sohu.com/20060825/n244994326.shtml
February 6th, 2007 05:08
Thanks for that pointer to the article. It’s even more bleak than I had imagined.
October 16th, 2007 11:30
actually I’m not sure if that is true anymore. Apple stores will be in China before the Olympics hit.
October 17th, 2007 01:07
Scot, not likely. There are Authorized Apple resellers here already, but no prospects for a fullblown Apple Store.
November 21st, 2007 01:04
Actually, Apple recently stated that they will be opening their first Apple Store in China in 2008. It will be in Beijing.
November 28th, 2007 13:04
i don’t think mac is inferior to window on support of chinese input. your claim of mac os x sucks on chinese is way off. as far as i know the problem is on applications. your friend is stuck to os 9 because that is the mac os which supported by adobe on chinese characters. i don’t think adobe or any other app vendors are spending any efforts to include chinese support because the piracy is so rampant there that they are not making any money out of it. meanwhile local chinese company never ever work to provide chinese support on a MAC. they only care about window support.
December 11th, 2007 05:59
Andrew wrote:
“Apple has never made a commitment to good Chinese input. I own a Mac and run Windows as well, and the Chinese input options for the Windows are far superior to the Mac.”
Can you be serious???!
I switched to a Mac in 2002 precisely because Chinese input was such a nightmare on my Windows PC (in French version since I live in Paris)! In fact, after spending thousands of $$ on Windows & Chinese software upgrades, I made the leap when a friend who works at… Microsoft in Seattle told me that the Office Suite for Mac was actually a superior product to that for Windows.
Given my experiences on various PCs (with Windows in Chinese, in English and in French) and then Macs (with OS X in both English and French), I can say unequivocally that Chinese input in Mac OS X is FAR superior to Windows.
What’s more, in the French version of Mac OS X, I can even convert instantly between simplified and traditional Chinese.
Does Windows offer such a useful tool, which is necessary for my work?
July 19th, 2008 07:47
Nice blog, i have added it to my favourites, greetings