Apple to Launch Wi-Fi iPad in China on September 17th

[NebulaClash]

What puts a smile on my face is the chest beating before the iPad was originally released, nobody has been successful with a tablet computer, it's going to be nothing but a big iPod Touch, it's too big, it's too small, it is going to suck........etc. After release it doesn't do flash, doesn't print, doesn't start my car....no wait the Chevy Volt, well it is just crummy.

Yeah, the iPad had to face down a wall of hate on these forums, and it did. What was striking to me was how quickly potential competitors either withdrew or went back to the drawing board to find a way to compete against the reality of the iPad. After a decade of Microsoft trying to jump start consumer use of tablets, Apple does it instantly on its first attempt.

 

[guzhogi]

The Chinese people as a whole is still very poor but there is a growing wealthy part of the population in the cities. The Chinese people outside the cities are not at all close to could afford an iPad.

I wonder what the exact numbers are of people in China who can afford one and how many people have cheap knockoffs.

I agree, that's anti-Apple nonsense. OS X (or its descendants) will always be around just as Windows (or its descendants) will always be around in the sense that there will always be a need for a full-blow OS. While I believe that 80-90% of the population will be using iOS-type devices ten years from now, there will always be a professional tech class that will want the full OS, whether it's Linux or OS X or Windows.

Computing in a decade will be mostly tablets, because most people do not look under the hood and will like a device that just works. But some of us do look under the hood, and for us there will always be OS X. Or Linux for our friend Winni.

I don't know how much nonsense this is. While iOS is still very lacking when compared to full Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, etc., don't forget that Apple did push back the Leopard release for the original iPhone.

I could see Apple being more and more lethargic about Mac OS X and eventually say, "While Mac OS X had a good run, but it's now time to move on." Or something like "Mac OS X is in such bad shape, and iOS is doing so well, we'll be replacing Mac OS X." I admit, I'd hate to see that and I'm sure there'd be an uproar from the Mac crowd, but look at how much into the iOS Apple seems to be now, especially compared to everything else Apple sells.

I can see Apple adding more features to iOS so that people, for the most part, wouldn't need Mac OS X. It already has iWork and iMovie. Now we need xCode or something.

 

[Full of Win]

I agree, that's anti-Apple nonsense. OS X (or its descendants) will always be around

I and everyone else saw Wall-E. Just because it was in a movie does not make it a fact.

 

[thelookingglass]

People need to understand that while China is on average very much a developing country as far as per capita GDP is concerned, the sheer number of wealthy people is astounding. This is a country of contradictions. Many recent college graduates make no more than $500 a month. Yet, iPads have been flying off the shelves since APRIL, typically at a $2-300 PREMIUM. These things have already been selling like hotcakes in the gray market in China. Same goes for the iPhone. China may not be a wealthy country yet, but when your population is 1.3 billion, you are bound to have a boatload of rich people.

 

[kernkraft]

iPad's coming home! Or going. Staying, actually...

It's a shame that the device is out of reach of those who manufacture it. I don't mean the fella at the top of Foxconn who have been featured here a few days ago. I mean those ordinary lineworkers who occasionally smile at you from your iPhone (OK, it only happened once).

 

[Jacquear]

Gosh

Gosh iPad isn't global yet?! Wow got mine months ago funny how it's made in China but not at stores there yet,

Love you 

 

[Ping Guo]

I wonder what the exact numbers are of people in China who can afford one and how many people have cheap knockoffs.

It's a good question and one that churns up a lot of different opinions, mostly because there's no clear definition of what constitutes a middle class in China. A lot of white collar workers in cities like Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, etc struggle to afford a small apartment, health care, and dream of someday buying a car and sending their children to study overseas. CNY3988 for a base model iPad is a month's salary for a lot of urban Chinese, and we're talking white collar, not factory workers.

The myth of the Chinese market has been around for centuries. The reality is that 2/3 of Chinese still live under the U.N. poverty line, and the gap between rich and poor is only getting wider.

It will be a toy for rich Chinese and their kids.

 

[bananas]

Gosh iPad isn't global yet?! Wow got mine months ago funny how it's made in China but not at stores there yet,

Love you 

It's not available in Scandinavia either. Most likely due to lack of Nordic keyboard layout, which won't arrive before iOS 4.2.

Keyboard layout and translations might be the reason for the late launch in China too.

 

[C00rDiNaT0r]

It's not available in Scandinavia either. Most likely due to lack of Nordic keyboard layout, which won't arrive before iOS 4.2.

Keyboard layout and translations might be the reason for the late launch in China too.

Apple released it in Hong Kong with only Simplified Chinese input methods, while HK people use Traditional Chinese. And HK got it way before China..

 

[darrenbeige]

I hope the Chinese hate them.

(So the 2nd gen upgrade is a good one!)

 

[SockRolid]

What does Lenovo's chairman think now?

A few months ago, the chairman of Lenovo said this:

“We are lucky that Steve Jobs has such a bad temper and doesn’t care about China. If Apple were to spend the same effort on the Chinese consumer as we do, we would be in trouble.”

He said that before Apple opened their spectacular Shanghai Apple Store. And before iPad was released for sale in China. I wonder what he thinks now.

http://blogs.forbes.com/velocity/20...esnt-care-about-china-lenovo-chairman-taunts/

 

[lawrence.b]

<sigh> only have to work 590 hours at Foxconn to get 16gb Ipad.

 

[gatearray]

Good, hopefully this market will buy up current stock, to help push the next revision out.

Really want one of these for showing off my photgraphy on the go, I just want to get the 2nd revision with whatever innovation Apple introduces in that model.

That's an interesting interpretation, and some very wishful thinking.

Current stock? You make it sound like Apple is sitting on hundreds of thousands of iPads collecting dust in a warehouse somehwhere, just waiting to sell them off so they can clear 'em out and release v2. It doesn't work that way.

Keep waiting for it, I predict April 2011.

 

[Super7668]

How can anyone in China actually afford this?

If you ask this question in 15 years ago, I will say you asked a good question;

Now? are you kidding me? Or should i ask how old are you?

 

[Super7668]

exactly... and most of the rich in the cities are the ones that own the factories and pay their employees next to nothing to churn out products like the ipad etc.

This is not a political forum, find somewhere else to fight.

 

[fivenotrump]

IPad in Peking

Saw several earlier in the summer, some tourists, some locals.

 

[SeattleMoose]

More Appropriate Title....The iPad Come Home....

Besides doesn't everyone China already have their crack version of the iPad?

 

[karatekidk]

Glad to hear people in China finally are seeing the iPad.

Knowing there still is a lot of people in different countries who is still waiting, I guess it's going to be a while until Apple introduces iPad II...

 

[psalazarc]

WoooOOOoooOOOOooo

iPad in Chile this friday =)

Weird though, as there haven't been any TV spots or ads, which are normally pretty "in your face" when something from Apple arrives.
Mmm should I buy it? Im still dying for a FaceTime equipped one. Hmm.

 

[Daniel B]

Sweden?

No love for Sweden?

Come on, it's one of the countries with the highest Mac penetration.

/Daniel

PS. Got my iPad in the US back in April.

 

[twoodcc]

well it appears that apple is getting the iPad out everywhere soon. great for apple and the iPad. should sell millions more. i just hope they update is early next year though

 

[japanime]

or how poor most of them still are.

Unfortunately, the same thing could be said about the United States — or just about every other industrialized nation.

 

[singe]

who do you think owns the U.S. national debt!

How can anyone in China actually afford this?

http://en.expo2010.cn/

 

[hkechoes]

You can get an iPad in Hong Kong at the same price points in HKD.

According to Google, 1 Chinese yuan = 1.14892229 Hong Kong dollars; 1 Hong Kong dollar = 0.870380887 Chinese yuan.

So the iPad is cheaper in HK by about 13% or so. Depending on where you are in China, it might be cheaper to commute to HK than traveling to Beijing/Shanghai's Apple stores.

This explains why it's nearly impossible to buy one during Hong Kong iPad's launch in late July earlier.

Maybe resellers just hold off the units and sold to China with 20-30% mark-ups instead in selling them to ordinary people.

 

[zxcvb]

How can anyone in China actually afford this?

how can they afford $500,000 apartment there? the number of people in China who have over 1 million dollars asset is almost twice as that in the US. (well, China has more population but still)

seem like some Americans are still dreaming