Tim Cook has said that China will soon become Appleâs biggest market, but the government is not as besotted as Chinese consumers. Chinaâs state-run media has taken several swipes at Apple this month, moves which may be part of a (heavy-handed) public relations strategy to pave the way for locally grown operating systems as the Chinese government seeks to move its IT industry away from Western software. But if popular response to the anti-Apple articles is anything to go by, Chinese consumers and their iOS devices wonât be so easily parted.
Earlier this week, Peopleâs Daily, the Chinese governmentâs official newspaper, published articles calling Appleâs customer-service practices arrogant. The Peopleâs Daily article followed a story earlier this month by official government press agency Xinhua, which blamed Apple for an increase in high-interest loans taken out by students to buy âfancy electronic products, most Apple devices.â And just a few days prior to the Xinhua story, China Central Televisionâs investigative program â3.15â³ criticized Appleâs warranty practices, saying that the Cupertino company discriminates against Chinese iPhone owners by offering shorter guarantees than in other countries, using refurbished components, and refusing to honor after-sale obligations.
China observer Gordon G. Chang wrote in a Forbes opinion piece that âexecutives in Cupertino should get worried that the 3.15 show is not a one-off.â Whatâs at stake for the Chinese government is its efforts to decrease dependency on foreign software by upping the profile of locally developed operating systems. Apple is just one of several foreign tech companies targeted by the Chinese government. Earlier this month, for example, Chinaâs Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a white paper declaring that China is too reliant on the Android smartphone operating system (though it overstated Googleâs power in China).
The Chinese government is building its own Ubuntu-based open-source OS in partnership with Canonical and Chinese developers. The Linux-based OS, called âUbuntu Kylin,â is set for release next month, and a China-specific version of Ubuntu Touch for smartphones and tablets may also be in the works. Most of Huawei and ZTEâs handsets are Android-based, but both Chinese companies are working on their own smartphone operating systems. Huawei Device CEO Wan Biao told Reuters last September that the company is âdevoting resources into coming up with a phone operating system based on our current platform in case other companies wonât let us use their system one day.â Though ZTEâs operating system was built with Mozilla, itâs also meant to help the company move away from Android. Other major Chinese tech companies creating their own OSes include Alibaba and Baidu.
The Chinese governmentâs PR tactics have been too over-the-top, however, for consumers to swallow. After the CCTV program, actor Peter Ho posted to his 5.3 million Weibo followers: â#315isLive# Actually, Apple has so many tricks in its after-sales services.  As an Apple fan, Iâm hurt. Have you done right by your founder Jobs? Have you done right by the young people who sold their kidneys? Itâs really true that big stores bully customers. Post around 8:20.â
The strange last sentence of Hoâs post was proof to many observers that he had been instructed to post that message at a specific time. In response, Ho claimed his Weibo account had been hacked. Very few people believed his story and the backlash quickly spread to CCTV.
Furthermore, when independent financial magazine Caijing decided to follow up the Peopleâs Daily story about Appleâs customer service by asking readers on Weibo âwhich arrogant company or companies do you want to smash?,â the Cupertino-based company didnât even crack the top of the list. Instead, the top offenders named by respondents were mostly state-owned monopolies, including Chinaâs three major telecom-service providers (China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile), three largest oil companies, and its four major banks.
Many of the complaints called out the irony of criticizing Appleâs customer policies when most state-owned companies arenât exactly known for their friendly service. The Wall Street Journal quoted one user writing under the handle Planet Virus, who said âIf we say Apple is arrogant, then most state-owned enterprises are shameless.â
April 1, 1976
NASDAQ:AAPL
Started by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, Apple has expanded from computers to consumer electronics over the last 30 years, officially changing their name from Apple Computer, Inc. to Apple, Inc. in January 2007. Among the key offerings from Appleâs product line are: Pro line laptops (MacBook Pro) and desktops (Mac Pro), consumer line laptops (MacBook Air) and desktops (iMac), servers (Xserve), Apple TV, the Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server operating systems, the iPod, the...
No comments:
Post a Comment