On Monday, we told you that Tim Cook was taking his first tour of China as Apple's CEO. Although we've heard some gossip about Cook's intentions for the visit, the nature of the trip is still somewhat of a mystery.
Well Apple helped fill in a couple of blanks for us this morning, as it told Bloomberg that the CEO spent part of his time in China visiting Foxconn's new Zhengzhou manufacturing plant...
As we reported on Monday, Apple CEO Tim Cook was on a China tour recently. He posed for iFan shots at the company's retail store inside Joy City, a Xidan, Beijing shopping mall. While the real purpose of his visit to the 1.33 billion people country (emerging as Apple's most important market) remains shrouded in secrecy, it does coincide with the Proview situation and an upcoming iPad launch in China.
According to a pair of news articles, Cook also met with local politicians to talk "intellectual-property issues". The meetings were "great", a spokesperson for the company said. However, Proview representatives were quick to slam Cook for conducting a “political public relations campaign”.
As you know, the embattled display maker Proview is suing Apple over the rights to use the iPad moniker in China, where Apple has yet to introduce its third-generation tablet. Shenzen courts are expected to rule on Apple’s latest appeal on the iPad trademark within 90 days.
Earlier this month, Apple's 25 billion app countdown contest came to an end. The winner, a Ms. Fu Chunli, was awarded a $10,000 iTunes gift card for downloading the 25 billionth app from the App Store — Where's My Water.
Up until now, not much was known about the China native. But that quickly changed this morning with a report from M.I.C. Gadget, which gives an in-depth look at the contest winner and how her life has changed in the last 20 days...
Apple debuted its third-generation iPad two weeks ago and announced shipments of three million units during the launch weekend. Although the tablet is not yet officially sold in the 1.33 billion people Chinese market, Apple has just been granted a certification for the device, an important pre-requisite for having the new iPad appear on store shelves.
While the company did not yet indicate where it will launch the gizmo next, the new iPad originally hit ten major markets, including the United States and Hong Kong, one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China (the other being Macau) .
The second phase of the aggressive roll out has brought the iPad last Friday to 24 additional countries, but not mainland China. Thanks to Apple’s ability to keep up with consumer demand this year, some unauthorized Chinese resellers are already seeing smaller return on their investment.
Though Apple's late co-founder Steve Jobs never visited China (so says the official biography), the new CEO Tim Cook has been spotted at the company’s Apple Store in Joy City, a shopping mall located in Xidan, Beijing. A local news article included pictures of Cook posing with fans, snapped at the store. However, the real purpose of the executives's visit to China is shrouded in secrecy.
Remember, Cook also visited China last year and was photographed at China Mobile's headquarters in Beijing. China Mobile, the nation's largest wireless operator and the world's largest carrier with more than 600 million subscribers, does not yet carry Apple's handset. Nonetheless, they are already hosting some 15 million iPhones on their network, up from 10 million back in October.
Is Cook in China to cut that long-expected iPhone deal with China Mobile?
Apparently China is a hot topic today in the smartphone world. Earlier, we reported that the country's Android and iOS device activations finally passed up those in the US. And now it looks like Microsoft wants in.
The company's chief executive officer for the greater China region, Simon Leung, told Bloomberg this morning that Windows Phone will surpass the iPhone in smartphone market share in China by 2016...
With over a billion wireless subscribers, China is certainly one of the most sought-after mobile markets. Heck, China Mobile (the world's largest carrier) alone has over 650 million customers.
Now it looks like that market just got even more valuable. According to Flurry, a mobile analytics company, China is now the world's fastest growing smart device market as well...
Apple's iPhone is now available on the second and third largest carriers in China, China Unicom and China Telecom. Both carriers combined give Apple access to 34% of China's whopping 988 million mobile users. However, like in any market, Apple is competing for those sales.
According to a new report from Bloomberg, quoting Gartner, Apple's iPhone is having trouble gaining marketshare in China, while Samsung's lead has tripled...
The iPhone 4S is popular everywhere it is sold, and China is certainly no different. While previously only available to buy from China Unicom, China Telecom is now also offering Apple's latest smartphone for sale.
Available through any one of the 2,850 China Telecom stores across the country or via Apple's online store, the iPhone 4S is proving hugely popular amongst punters, just as it has elsewhere.
The release has been so popular, breaking China Unicom's 18-month stranglehold on iPhone availability in China, that China Telecom has announced that it received over 200,000 pre-orders for the device. This almost two months after the device was made available through China Unicom. Demand, it seems, has not slowed.
Now there's a shock...
China Mobile is the world's largest wireless carrier, by almost any measurement, with over 650 million mobile subscribers. Its sheer size has made the operator a prime target for Apple partnership rumors, but the two companies have yet to ink out a deal.
But that hasn't stopped folks from using the iPhone on China Mobile's gigantic network. Last fall the carrier announced that it was tracking more than 10 million unlocked iPhone users. And today, just 6 months later, it says that number has gone up 50%...
Apple has been the subject of much ire and speculation over its perceived lack of support for the United States and its scarcity of jobs, but now the company is hitting back with a few choice numbers it believes shows that the opposite is in fact, true.
Apple notoriously gets all its products from Foxconn in China, with Brazil now also becoming a source for all those devices with an Apple logo on the back. This has led to Apple being on the receiving end of much bad press over labor conditions at Foxconn's factories as well as the question being raised of why doesn't Apple build its products on US soil.
But as Apple is keen to point out, the iPhone and iPad maker does actually have its fingers in many US-based pies, creating and sustaining over 500,000 jobs in the process...
I've heard the expression, "fake it 'til you make it" but this is a bit ridiculous. The Financial Times is reporting that a new trend is starting to catch among China's mobile users — fake iPhone signatures.
I know, an Apple-related knock off in China, big surprise. But this might actually be taking things too far. Apparently users are willing to pay money for services to auto-add 'sent from my iPhone' to all of their messages...