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China to Hit 246 Million iOS and Android Devices in February, Becoming World's Largest Market

Sedulous

Sedulous

macrumors 68030
Dec 10, 2002
2,530
2,577
coolspot18 said:
Your facts are a bit sketchy. China and Japan both hold about 1 trillion in US debt, but it is acknowledged widely that China is the largest foreign holder of US debt.

Foreigners hold 47% of US debt while Americans hold 53%. Not such a wide margin - 6% in the grand scheme of things isn't much.
Click to expand...

Not sure how my facts are sketchy. The governments of China and Japan may each hold around 1 T each but Japan as a whole holds more US debt. Again, US citizens are by far the majority holder of US debt. Closest is Japan who holds around 13% of that debt.

Anyways, back on topic. China's population is actually going to decrease significantly because the 1 child policy. They will have a large elderly population, many of whom do not have retirement savings of any kind and likely will depend on their child for support. This will cut deeply into China's appeal as a rich target market. Furthermore, with fewer workers, labor costs will go up just when companies are realizing it may be cheaper to on-shore jobs back to the US.
 
C

coolspot18

macrumors 65816
Aug 16, 2010
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Canada
D

devianter

macrumors member
Feb 21, 2010
94
0
coolspot18 said:
Your own link proves that I was correct... There are already more Chinese than English speakers in the world... And by 2050 there will be even more.

And that slide is a joke... 2011 - 1 billion broken english speakers. 2015 - 3 billion. Yes, in the span of 4 years 2 billion people will learn English - I think not.

Thank you??? :confused:
Click to expand...

This is actually a research done by a university. Not the slide, the info it contains. Wikipedia has zero credibility for me. Also, WHERE do you exactly see 1 billion? It says TWO. Open your eyes. In the span of 4 years one billion will learn English on SOME level, we're not talking about native speakers or very competent speakers. English is taught literally EVERYWHERE, why does that come to you as a surprise? Think about how many indians will speak English 4 years from now. Imagine how many chinese will. Impressive. Chinese will never be an international language. It's too difficult. English (spanish could be too) is a perfect example of a reasonable choice for the international language since esperanto failed its expectations. Life is more and more digital nowadays. English is there too. Internet, like you said. Business, media. Think about television (sports fans (nba, nfl, nhl) movies, tv shows. What about traveling? English is a MUST today.
 
H

HarmoBoy

macrumors newbie
Feb 2, 2013
9
3
devianter said:
This is actually a research done by a university. Not the slide, the info it contains. Wikipedia has zero credibility for me. Also, WHERE do you exactly see 1 billion? It says TWO. Open your eyes. In the span of 4 years one billion will learn English on SOME level, we're not talking about native speakers or very competent speakers. English is taught literally EVERYWHERE, why does that come to you as a surprise? Think about how many indians will speak English 4 years from now. Imagine how many chinese will. Impressive. Chinese will never be an international language. It's too difficult. English (spanish could be too) is a perfect example of a reasonable choice for the international language since esperanto failed its expectations. Life is more and more digital nowadays. English is there too. Internet, like you said. Business, media. Think about television (sports fans (nba, nfl, nhl) movies, tv shows. What about traveling? English is a MUST today.
Click to expand...

As a Chinese I don't agree (at least not fully agree) with you said.
Firstly, India has 2 official languages: Hindi / English but China has only one, which is Mandarin.

In China, it is a respect to this country / culture that you should speak Mandarin as much as possible (I think it also works for Japanese) so you won't see two Chinese talking to each other in English even they are actually capable of. But in South Asia, I noticed in countries like Singapore or India, people speak English as much as they can in working environment and considered it as "professional". There is a culture difference. I'm not sure whether you know any Chinese in your country but if you know probably you'll noticed that most Chinese parents will force their children to learn / write Chinese and ask them to speak in Chinese at least in home even everyone in the family can actually speak in English ... it is all culture difference buddy.

Back to the topic, i don't surprise at all to see that China is becoming the biggest market to use iOS. One of the reasons is that people (esp old people) don't use computer a lot because its really hard / painful for them to type Chinese characters. You'll have to learn how to use English alphabet to present the pronunciation of Chinese characters, and then you will be able to type Chinese characters. But with an iPad... boom... you will be able to write directly on the screen, and for those who haven't used computer to check out internet it becomes so easy with ipad as what yo u need to do is just tap here and there, enlarge it if you are old and cannot see the word / picture clearly.

I'm not very weathly but I bought iPads for my mother, my father / mother in law, and they just love it so much. After my uncle see my iPad he bought one for himself... and then some of them start to use iPhone and un-surprisingly they finally learned how to send SMS. Apple really changed their life...
 
C

coolspot18

macrumors 65816
Aug 16, 2010
1,051
90
Canada
devianter said:
This is actually a research done by a university. Not the slide, the info it contains
Click to expand...

Which university? Looks like you whipped up the slide yourself. At least on Wikipedia there are some citations. And you're quite naive to believe 1 billion people will learn English to have a basic understand in 4 years ... that's a very tall order.


devianter said:
Chinese will never be an international language. It's too difficult. English (spanish could be too) is a perfect example of a reasonable choice for the international language since esperanto failed its expectations. Life is more and more digital nowadays. English is there too. Internet, like you said. Business, media. Think about television (sports fans (nba, nfl, nhl) movies, tv shows. What about traveling? English is a MUST today.
Click to expand...

French was the lingua franca up until World War II... in a span of 80 years it was replaced with English.


But maybe in another 80s years we won't need to know any other languages... because we'll have a universal translator in our pockets :D
 
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D

devianter

macrumors member
Feb 21, 2010
94
0
HarmoBoy said:
As a Chinese I don't agree (at least not fully agree) with you said.
Firstly, India has 2 official languages: Hindi / English but China has only one, which is Mandarin.

In China, it is a respect to this country / culture that you should speak Mandarin as much as possible (I think it also works for Japanese) so you won't see two Chinese talking to each other in English even they are actually capable of. But in South Asia, I noticed in countries like Singapore or India, people speak English as much as they can in working environment and considered it as "professional". There is a culture difference. I'm not sure whether you know any Chinese in your country but if you know probably you'll noticed that most Chinese parents will force their children to learn / write Chinese and ask them to speak in Chinese at least in home even everyone in the family can actually speak in English ... it is all culture difference buddy.

Back to the topic, i don't surprise at all to see that China is becoming the biggest market to use iOS. One of the reasons is that people (esp old people) don't use computer a lot because its really hard / painful for them to type Chinese characters. You'll have to learn how to use English alphabet to present the pronunciation of Chinese characters, and then you will be able to type Chinese characters. But with an iPad... boom... you will be able to write directly on the screen, and for those who haven't used computer to check out internet it becomes so easy with ipad as what yo u need to do is just tap here and there, enlarge it if you are old and cannot see the word / picture clearly.

I'm not very weathly but I bought iPads for my mother, my father / mother in law, and they just love it so much. After my uncle see my iPad he bought one for himself... and then some of them start to use iPhone and un-surprisingly they finally learned how to send SMS. Apple really changed their life...
Click to expand...

i play basketball with some chinese friends. i know what you mean. you didn't get me. i'm saying people learn and "know" english, not use it instead of their mother tongue. i'm talking about L2 and how it's easier to live when you know english. i'm from italy though. apple stuff is awesome, agree.

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coolspot18 said:
Which university? Looks like you whipped up the slide yourself. At least on Wikipedia there are some citations. And you're quite naive to believe 1 billion people will learn English to have a basic understand in 4 years ... that's a very tall order.




French was the lingua franca up until World War II... in a span of 80 years it was replaced with English.


But maybe in another 80s years we won't need to know any other languages... because we'll have a universal translator in our pockets :D
Click to expand...

i'm sorry but i have nothing more to say to you. you bring nothing new to the discussion and just trying to diminish what i'm saying. that's not how it works. if you noticed, i'm not talking about what i believe. i give you facts. actual work, research and studies done by a university of verona in collaboration with british council. if that's not enough i'm sorry. have a good day.
 
cosmichobo

cosmichobo

macrumors 6502a
May 4, 2006
963
586
Sedulous said:
Not sure how my facts are sketchy. The governments of China and Japan may each hold around 1 T each but Japan as a whole holds more US debt. Again, US citizens are by far the majority holder of US debt. Closest is Japan who holds around 13% of that debt.
Click to expand...

Was always under the impression that if Japan or China had major internal issues and needed to call in their US-based debts, that the US would be wiped out...

13%... Well, that's not much... only around $2,211,765,200,952. I'm sure the US could come up with that kind of money when the next big quake wipes Japan out...
 
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