Slashdot Mirror
Tim Cook May Not Know Why, But Samsung Is Winning in China
An anonymous reader writes with this interesting snippet about the state of mobile tech in China: "Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook believes that 'over the arc of time' China is a huge opportunity for his pathbreaking company. But time looks to be on the side of rival Samsung Electronics, which has been around far longer and penetrated much deeper into the world's most populous country. Apple this week said its revenue in Greater China, which also includes Hong Kong and Taiwan, slumped 43 per cent to $4.65 billion from the previous quarter. That was also 14 per cent lower from the year-ago quarter. Sales were weighed down by a sharp drop in revenues from Hong Kong. "It's not totally clear why that occurred," Cook said on a conference call with analysts. Neither is it totally clear what Apple's strategy is to deal with Samsung – not to mention a host of smaller, nimbler Chinese challengers."
You're mixing up "casing shininess" and "quality". I have a $200 cheap Chinese phone and a $600 (at the time) Galaxy Note (v1), and there's no doubt which is higher quality. The Samsung has a much better screen, camera, sound, buttons, touch reactivity and precision, extra apps. Both are wrapped in plastic though. Both do the job, though.
The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
Almost everyone I asked said that the iPhone screen was too small.
They also said⦠"Why is the iPhone so expensive when it has such a small screen?"
You can buy an Android phone with a gorgeous 5.7" display for half the cost of the iPhone in China. That was the biggest screen I found and it looked more vibrant than the screen on my iPhone 5.
If Apple wants to keep selling phones in China, they need bigger screens. Therefore, you can expect there will be a big screen iPhone. The Chinese market is too big for them to ignore. There's lots of competition now and Chinese consumers have zero brand loyalty.