I think that is the most asinine thing I have ever read on MR
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Apple Facing Struggle to Convince Chinese Smartphone Users to Switch Allegiance [Updated]
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I think that is the most asinine thing I have ever read on MR
Like Rome.. they copied their enemies and outlived most of them. Ex. like when they found a Carthaginian trireme and made 100 copies and defeated them in battle. Everyone copies each other it's pretty much how you adapt or survive, Apple, Google etc they all do it. With most of the parts being produced in China and them cornering the rare mineral mining required for electronics (I think like 90%+) it's kinda expected. In addition they are very protective of their businesses. One Chinese company copied the Segway and guess what, they actually ended up buying the original company.
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I'm not sure you realize this, but your quote says more about your family than it does about what the general populace understands. I mean, either they are exceedingly dense or you're not really good at anecdotes.
Why would they be buying knockoff Samsung phones? The dogs, I understand - ya' know the whole not being able to read and all. But one would think your family could differentiate Samsung from Samesong. Then again, that could be the reason they thought the Samsung was cheaper... since I imagine the Samesong knockoffs probably would be. Ya know, as I type this I keep coming back to something. I don't think it's your family. It's your anecdote. It needs work. Too much "unbelievable", not enough "makes sense".
There is this great search engine called "Google". I highly recommend you give it a try:
https://9to5mac.com/2017/03/08/aapl-iphone-profits-profitability-2016-strategy-analytics/
http://fortune.com/2016/11/04/apple-smartphone-profits/
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/07/apple-makes-92-percent-of-all-smartphone-profits/
https://techcrunch.com/2015/02/26/apple-eating-all-the-profits/
http://www.androidauthority.com/apple-has-95-of-smartphone-profits-656093/
THIS.
The people who actually build the iPhones in the Chinese factories don't have a salary that would EVERY allow them to buy one of the phones they just assembled. And let's face it: The Chinese Android-based smartphones offer a lot of bang for the buck and come with a decent quality. There's no justification to drop four times the money for something that doesn't actually do anything more or even better.
Never heard that. However, it _is_ often called the "Apple of the East" for its stage loving CEO and innovations.
While Apple and Samsung together do average 90-95% of the total industry profits, that still leaves up to 10% (like four billion a year) for the other ones who are making money, including many smaller firms where even a million dollars is nice to get.
For example, Huawei "only" makes a little over 3/4 billion dollars a year. True, that is only 2% of the total industry profits, but it is definitely not a loss either.
And the amount of money to live well in China is much less than for those living in Cupertino
I think the Chinese government is waking up to that themselves, as it even deeply affects their own.
For example, there's a famous case of a Chinese firm making wind turbines for an American company, who bribed an American engineer to give them the critical control software. They then started selling the turbines on their own, leaving the American company out of the profit loop.
So it was hugely karmic that not long after, that same Chinese turbine maker went out of business because OTHER Chinese companies stole both the turbine and its software, and sold them even cheaper.
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QR codes are pretty popular in China for mobile payments and such due to the advancement of the smartphone coming before the popularization of credit card or card payment terminals.
They don't need to make them cheaper, just competitive. The iPhone 8 is extremely similar to the $725 Galaxy S8. Even at $799 the benefits of Apple's mature ecosystem and stable environment would make it a good deal. $1,000 is way too much in the long-term though.
Apple's market share has been pretty flat for the last four years. The issue they are going to have to deal with is the cheaper Android phones (sub $500) are getting better at a rapid pace. No longer is an off-the-shelf phone pretty much crippled by performance limitations, we are reaching the same point as PCs where the processing power at the low end of the market is sufficient to provide a good experience. This can't help but benefit the app developers for Android as more people can use their creations which will also encourage further app and OS development. Just like with PCs, the OS is going to become less of an issue and the apps themselves will drive hardware purchases. There isn't much point for a general consumer to purchase a $1,000 phone when Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat look and work just as well on a device that costs half that amount.
Apple is still operating on its reputation as the premier smartphone manufacturer. Inevitably though, others will improve and close the gap. Apple is going to have to make a choice between being the best value overall in order to secure the greatest market share or continue its push to become a high-end niche manufacturer. The middle ground it is trying to walk now isn't going to last long at all.
Oh, I dunno, maybe Chinese people are intelligent and enjoy the practicality of having a headphone jack and/or a non-proprietary USB port on their phones? Just a thought.
I would love the 'iPhone 8' to be called the 'iPhone Tenth anniversary, eagerly hope'.
'Pry' has two meanings though - in addition to meaning 'snoop', it can also mean more or less the same as 'prise'. So although 'pry' would be a perfectly reasonable word to use, 'prise' was a better choice of word (IMHO), as it left no room for doubt as to the intention behind its usage.
Why not just use the word "pry?" Did someone get a new word of the day calendar?
'Pry' has two meanings though - in addition to meaning 'snoop', it can also mean more or less the same as 'prise'. So although 'pry' would be a perfectly reasonable word to use, 'prise' was a better choice of word (IMHO), as it left no room for doubt as to the intention behind its usage.
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I used the word "nascent" in a post. I had to look it up to make sure I was spelling it correctly and that it meant what I thought it meant. So give me a cookie.
I think "prise" was the better word choice here because it is more closely associated with imagery of pulling something loose from another's hand than "pry", which is more closely associated with loosening one object from another. At least it seems that way from how I've come across the usage of those words in my reading.
Yeah, I'm a word nerd too and like the subtleties one can achieve with a specific word choice. I was really just teasing.
Someone caught me using a nonexistent word in a post the other day. For some reason I wrote "piffy" when I was thinking of the word "pithy." I need an editor
Hmmm.... When Apple struggles in China, people say:
1. Stolen IPs and designs make knockoff phones!
2. Government protectionism!
3. Chinese people are too poor to buy iPhone!
4. Chinese people are nationalists!
I would save a valid point might be some kind of copy of designs and features, (not to defend infringements - they should be sued) but every single manufacturer does it anyways. Samsung copies from Apple, Apple copies from jailbroken software, etc.
People who assemble the iPhones may have to save two or three months salary to afford the iPhone, but they are not the target audience anyways. Do Lexus factory workers all buy Lexus? There is still a huge population that could afford iPhone but choose not to, simply because not everyone is willing to spend 1.5x of the money for something they don't feel the difference.
If anything else I would say Chinese people are probably the most foreign-admiring consumers, from the time I spent in China. Most of them naturally consider foreign brands as superior. German and Japanese cars, Japanese and Korean cosmetics, New Zealand dairy products, UK fashion, Southeast Asian fruits, American electronics... If Chinese people are 50% as "America First" and "MAGA" minded as American people I guarantee you the market share data will be completely different.
1. Stolen IPs and designs make knockoff phones!
2. Government protectionism!
3. Chinese people are too poor to buy iPhone!
4. Chinese people are nationalists!
I would save a valid point might be some kind of copy of designs and features, (not to defend infringements - they should be sued) but every single manufacturer does it anyways. Samsung copies from Apple, Apple copies from jailbroken software, etc.
People who assemble the iPhones may have to save two or three months salary to afford the iPhone, but they are not the target audience anyways. Do Lexus factory workers all buy Lexus? There is still a huge population that could afford iPhone but choose not to, simply because not everyone is willing to spend 1.5x of the money for something they don't feel the difference.
If anything else I would say Chinese people are probably the most foreign-admiring consumers, from the time I spent in China. Most of them naturally consider foreign brands as superior. German and Japanese cars, Japanese and Korean cosmetics, New Zealand dairy products, UK fashion, Southeast Asian fruits, American electronics... If Chinese people are 50% as "America First" and "MAGA" minded as American people I guarantee you the market share data will be completely different.
Pry has a (more common?) definition that fits as well. Pry can be used in most contexts for which prise would be appropriate. In any case, I was just teasing the author about using less common verbiage.
18 of my 19 core family members on one side have Apple devices, and we can have an entire group iMessage, airdrop to everyone and more. It's delightful
18 of my 19 core family members on one side have Apple devices, and we can have an entire group iMessage, airdrop to everyone and more. It's delightful
That's all Apple has now, iMessage lock-in. That doesn't exist in China.
Prise is definitely the more common verb for extracting and certainly not unusual in any way. In fact, never heard of pry being used in place of prise before you drew my attention to it. Must be a regionalism or something. I knew you were only teasing but it just came across as unnecessarily snarky.
You are both so right, and stolen everything. I certain and it would visable to anyone educated on the china problem that Apple and others sold out to, are deliberately being held back and pushed out of that market, just look at Uber.
An iPhone in China is the equivalent of a month's pay, give or take a little. That's a tough sell. Especially when you can get an "equivalent experience" for a quarter of the price. I bought a Meizu phone for the year I spent in China. It ran some Chinese flavor of Android, and had a horrible camera, but it was a good phone.
Everything happens/works in WeChat. That's where you contacts are, that's where payments are, there's the only "app" you "need." Switching phones is easy, and the app performs the same on every phone. So when you break your phone screen, you can just grab a new phone and pick up where you left off... in some ways it's really nice.
Also, every third storefront is a phone shop. You can literally have two stores selling basically the same phones across the street from each other, and another one two stores down. Most of these shops are selling Oppo, Huawei, Xiaomi, and/or Meizu phones. Few, if any, sell iPhones. So not only is price a tough sell, accessibility to buy is not in Apple's favor either.
Everything happens/works in WeChat. That's where you contacts are, that's where payments are, there's the only "app" you "need." Switching phones is easy, and the app performs the same on every phone. So when you break your phone screen, you can just grab a new phone and pick up where you left off... in some ways it's really nice.
Also, every third storefront is a phone shop. You can literally have two stores selling basically the same phones across the street from each other, and another one two stores down. Most of these shops are selling Oppo, Huawei, Xiaomi, and/or Meizu phones. Few, if any, sell iPhones. So not only is price a tough sell, accessibility to buy is not in Apple's favor either.
Definitely didn't mean to be snarky. Must be a regional thing, perhaps British vs US English? I can't recall ever having someone in the US use prise in informal conversation.
Possibly, from this old article.
https://9to5mac.com/2016/11/04/appl...profits-in-q3-according-to-analyst-estimates/
Huawei Lg making 1.6% profit recently
As you can see by the years and de numbers they're both in decline. This will be happening even faster in the near future until the point Apple will stop making iPhones. Apple is all about profits these last years. They've milked their customers too much that even die hard Apple fans, like me, are looking outside the walled garden Apple created. And guess what... there have never been that much good alternatives around and seeing Apple's progress these last couple of years, I'm very confident the alternatives will get better by the day.
Will Apple go out of business? No. Are they the much admired brand they used to be? Hell no! They're becoming a plague of locusts in search of food. In Apple's case it's the customers money. Once they've milked one category enough they'll create another category and start milking and dropping their pevious products and drop their dry milked customers like garbage. It happened with the Mac, FCP, and many products they were in.
That's why I predict Apple won't make iPhones anymore in 5-10 years of now. 2017 will be remembered as the year Apple lost its crown in mobile phones. The competition is ahead in 2017.
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I think you missed my point. But the cultural lesson was interesting. I don't consider the OS being unimportant, so cool to know there are place where it really isn't.