Lenovo CEO on Steve Jobs and Apple's Efforts in China

[bniu]

You are hugely mistaken. Many people who live in those cities are on average richer than those who live in the San Francisco Bay Area. Now I am not talking about China as a whole (as some don't have access to free running water) but for the ones that can afford it.... they certainly CAN afford Apple products.

I am more surprised at the fact that there isn't an Apple store in Hong Kong yet (7 million people in a place smaller than San Francisco, and a place where both Westerners and Easterners meet)

lack of running water is certainly true, I was shocked while visiting my relatives that there were still places with no running water, and ironically, lack of any sanitary standards in a hospital in rural china. In my student job, I can make more in a day than most of my relatives in a week.

Another thing many don't consider is the chinese attitude of "what does it NOT do?" With that mindset, most chinese ppl will be quite dismissive of apple products in general, especially the fact that many of them still remember the apple of old, and continue to blow off the apple of now thinking that not much has changed since the apple of old. It took a lot of convincing on my part to get my cousin to get a macbook pro (which she fell completely in love with after my dad brought it to her, and saved her quite a few hundred USD by having me purchase it in the US)

Can the chinese afford Apples ridiculously priced products?

sure, through overseas relatives in the US. Relatives go buy on amazon.com, or in tax free states and schlep them over on their next visit.

 

[zukernik]

The tough laws in China are only tough for people outside of government/communist ranks,

http://page.renren.com/600002333/note/458747155

China is a bubble and most economists would tend to agree, only thing that hides that fact is the Chinese government with creative accounting and manipulating of currency.

Are they the same economists that saw nothing wrong with subprime markets? Are they the same economists that think your stimulus package is creating jobs and that printing a lot of money is good for Europe and the US? And for your information a few street sellers illegally selling bootlegs to tourists doesn't make it a copyright free place, more and more western companies are winning patent infringement lawsuits in China than ever before. There are a lot of innovative Chinese companies despite them having "no incentive to innovate": Lenovo, Hutchison (aka Three), Alibaba, Acer, ASUS, HTC, etc. The United States also went through a phase when they were bootlegging other nations' products and it stopped when they became wealthier.

 

[G58]

One last thing: can someone explain to me why Apple needs to open an official store when there are authorized resellers everywhere? What's the difference between these 2?

Surely that's obvious. Apple's profits from Reseller sales are diluted by the Reseller's share.

But much more importantly, Apple has built it's brand over the past few years very much on the strength of its own very stylish presence in the 'High Street' all over the world. To not open up in China would be plain dumb.

Remember Apple hired the guy who ran The Gap to do the stores. Not just any company or any brand could do this. No other tech company could offer the range or attract such a broad audience.

Sony, Bose and Bang & Olufsen are noted exceptions. But I doubt their stores pay for themselves, where as Apple Stores contribute a massive amount to their bottom line.

Microsoft have also announced they too plan to open stores, but mainly to, yet again, follow Apple's lead - without ever understanding the game or the rules. And where Apple Stores are always crowded with people checking out hundreds of products from Apple and others, Microsoft are going to really struggle to find enough items to generate any real interest, in my opinion.

Finally, if you know Apple's attitude towards Resellers, you'll know that they barely tolerate them, and generally give them a raw deal.

 

[zukernik]

Will there be any special event when they open? I will try to go and post some pictures if it's not too crowded.