Tim Cook May Not Know Why, But Samsung Is Winning in China 327
An anonymous reader writes with this interesting snippet about the state of mobile tech in China: "Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook believes that 'over the arc of time' China is a huge opportunity for his pathbreaking company. But time looks to be on the side of rival Samsung Electronics, which has been around far longer and penetrated much deeper into the world's most populous country. Apple this week said its revenue in Greater China, which also includes Hong Kong and Taiwan, slumped 43 per cent to $4.65 billion from the previous quarter. That was also 14 per cent lower from the year-ago quarter. Sales were weighed down by a sharp drop in revenues from Hong Kong. "It's not totally clear why that occurred," Cook said on a conference call with analysts. Neither is it totally clear what Apple's strategy is to deal with Samsung – not to mention a host of smaller, nimbler Chinese challengers."
"It's not totally clear why that occurred" (Score:5, Interesting)
actually it is, Tim. The Chinese want cheaper phones, and they want phones you can put pirated warez on. Apple doesn't score well in either category.
Live in HK (Score:2, Interesting)
I live in HK and can pretty much afford any phone. I use Android base phone. More freedom, more options and customisation features and plenty of Android devices to chose from. Most HK people are smart enough to use Android. Hence, Android phones win over here.
Re:Here's the reason... (Score:5, Interesting)
It's an asian company. While they might hate Koreans, they hate US people even more.
I don't know where you get this. In my experiences, the Chinese like US people, and Korean dramas are popular in China.
Also, I'm not sure how a pressure sensitive stylus makes any difference for writing Asian languages........I haven't found any difficulty writing Chinese on an iPhone.....
Re:Here's the reason... (Score:4, Interesting)
Yep, better product, better price and you can install Cyanogen/AOSP to clear any backdoors. With Apple products you're stuck with your OS spying on you.
why do you think cyan/aosp isn't spying on you? And what about all the malicious apps? if i lived in china, home of the filthy filthy app store, I'd want some protection.
Re:Better Value Phones to Americans (Score:2, Interesting)
Even if they offered a cheaper iPhone, they still wouldn't be able to install pirated software on it. It's beyond second nature there...it's almost a pathological need to install unlicensed software. We have an off-shore team in China and we realized that they were using pirated versions of Windows, Office and a whole host of other very reasonably-priced applications, most of which we had enterprise-wide licenses for. We asked them to go through our IT department to get legitimate versions and they agreed. Six months later, we discovered that they've yet to request a single install and are still installing new pirated software. The whole concept of buying software seems alien to them.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Too much of a good thing. (Score:5, Interesting)
The irony is, Samsung phones aren't marketed as "special" as iPhones, and that's why the Samsung phones are winning.
To elaborate:
Any relatively affluent Chinese national who's had the privilege of making a trip to the states and is returning to the motherland will most likely have a top-of-the-line Samsonite suitcase full of Coach purses and brand new unlocked apple iPhone 5's (and maybe a couple of iPads), but how many Samsung products will they be bringing? Likely none.
The reason for this is that when quality is an issue, the Chinese have this adamant belief that anything created in China that is exported to be sold to Americans is, without question, of higher quality than the same item were it sold to Chinese consumers. This includes the same iPhone, made in the same factory, by the same people, the "better" one being shipped overseas.
That's why in the mainland, the spoiled middle-class children (starting at around middle school) with re-imported U.S. iPhones will actually look down on those who are using a "domestic" iPhone.
The fact that Samsung has been a major player in Chinese appliances still helps to set it apart from domestic (to China) brands such as Huawei in terms of overall quality, but because Samsung phones are marketed as largely being a different alternative to Apple phones (in terms of features, screen size, etc.), there's less of a need to re-import that je ne sais quoi from the U.S.
But Apple? Those phones are claiming to be the epitome of fit-and-finish, and that's just shooting themselves in the foot in this case.
Chinese phones and tablets (Score:5, Interesting)
I have a Chinese (LAVA-branded) Android tablet - it was a freebie from a vendor because I order so much from him (several years we were their largest account). He asked me for feedback on it after I had it for a few weeks. I felt bad but had not much good to say about it. It came with the Netflix preloaded (in their official firmware) and the Netflix app would not load movies. No update was available from Netflix at the time so I contacted lavatech. Their response was that they do not support it, that I should delete the app. WTF? Also, the manual clearly stated that the tablet charges via the mini-USB port. It doesn't. It only charges via the DC adapter port, and it uses a near impossible-to-find-size barrel connector.Lava Tech is uninterested in supporting their core products. Their response if something doesn't work according to their documentation, is to simply not use that feature, or they insist I'm doing it wrong (how can you plug in a mini-USB cable incorrectly?!).
I have a GS1000 dashcam (orange menu, a genuine GS1000 not a clone) - another cheap Chinese product. It has all the features I wanted but I ran into a bug. They quickly turned around and gave me a firmware update that fixed the problem I reported but introduced another problem. I emailed them again and they sent me another update (which I still have yet to test because I have been in the middle of moving to New Hampshire). Excellent customer service for a cheap product.
Support from Chinese companies ranges from completely sucktastic to fantastic. Unfortunately the former is far more common. I think the way Samsung and Apple actually stand behind their products, both will take the Chinese market by storm. I wouldn't buy a smartphone from a Chinese company because there is too much risk that the most basic features won't work (like, not being able to make phone calls) and the company will just say "don't use that feature then."
Re:I was in China last month, and asked... (Score:5, Interesting)
I have to agree with this... When my girlfriend broke her iPhone 4, she tried to decide which phone to get. Basically, it came down to the iPhone 5 (with it's tiny screen) or the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 (with it's ginormous screen). She ended up with the Note and was happy, especially after all her friends were jealous. After all, creating envy in friends is one of the prime purposes of a premium phone!
Re:Here's the reason... (Score:4, Interesting)
What war did the US wage against China?
Estimates of Chinese casualties in the Korean war range up to 900,000. Accepted level seems to be around 700,000 with 180,000 fatalities.
I appreciate that the action was UN-flagged but the majority of forces were US.
Re:Here's the reason... (Score:4, Interesting)
The US supplied funds and aid and instruction during WWII to what would become the National Liberation Front (Viet Cong) when the war ended. That conflict started against the british when soldiers where sent in to accept the surrender of the Japanese troops and police the region until france could handle it them selves. This started the First Indochina War.
There are lots of reasons for this. The primary being that not all allies had quite the same goals in the second world war. America was working towards undermining the european colonial powers (post war). Other of the allies wanted to resume their empires. This partially determined which insurgents where sponsored by various allied powers during the war.
History is never simple.