China Bans iPad, MacBook Pro, Other Apple Products For Government Use

MojoKid (1002251) writes "China seems to be on a mission to isolate itself from the world, at least in terms of technology. After banning Windows 8 on government PCs and raiding several of Microsoft's offices in China as part of an anti-trust investigation, Chinese officials have now prohibited purchase of several Apple products for government use. The list of banned Apple products include the iPad, iPad Mini, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and half a dozen other items, all of which were left off of a final government procurement list distributed in July. This is a potentially big hit to Apple, which generated around 16 percent of its $37.4 billion in revenue last quarter from China. Apple saw its iPad sales jump 51 percent and Mac sales boosted 39 percent in China."

Comments

Seriously can you blame them

[Anonymous Coward]

Blame the NSA

Re:Seriously can you blame them

[Skarjak]

Good point. How can anyone trust hardware and software coming from the states? Although when it comes to software, I'm sure that the NSA's people will be quite busy with trying to find security holes into whatever the Chinese decide to go with.

Re:Seriously can you blame them

[rogoshen1]

They aren't banning apple products; just not buying them for government work. It would be akin to federal/state/local governments saying that all government owned vehicles have to be made by a domestic supplier. (that does happen doesn't it?)

This is the price you pay...

[Meditato]

...for cooperating with the Machiavellian pro-war, pro-surveillance, pro-torture old boy's club in the federal bureaucracy.

Re:This is the price you pay...

[Anonymous Coward]

Who? China or US?

"Isolating" by choosing open source?

[Skarjak]

Up to now, they've been banning proprietary products for the benefit of more open ones. I know that we like to show China as a country with isolationist tendencies, but I'm not sure the glove fits on this one. I don't think choosing not to get screwed by Microsoft or Apple is such a bad thing.

Re:"Isolating" by choosing open source?

[erikkemperman]

Presumably they are choosing not to get screwed by NSA, through proxies such as Apple and MS. But otherwise I agree entirely.

I wish headlines such as

China seems to be on a mission to isolate itself from the world, at least in terms of technology.

Would more often be accompanied by its root cause, something along the lines of

America seems to be on a mission to antagonize the rest of the world, not least in terms of technology.

Nonsense

[xfizik]

"China seems to be on a mission to isolate itself from the world, at least in terms of technology."
Why would they want to isolate themselves from the world? They may be looking to increase security (with the whole NSA mess, I wouldn't blame them) or trying to cut a better deal with Apple. There may be other rational reasons too.

Re:Nonsense

[steppin_razor_LA]

Agreed. The US refused to purchase equipment from Chinese technology companies because of security concerns. Now the tables have turned and we mock them for being isolationists?

Re:Nonsense

[mspohr]

Apple and Microsoft (and most other corporations) pick manufacturing locations based on price and quality. They choose China because it offers the lowest cost and good quality. They aren't going to pick up and move (even if they could find another capable manufacturer) for political reasons.
China is taking this step not to isolate themselves from the world but to isolate themselves from the NSA.

Is it a big hit to Apple's bottom line?

[93 Escort Wagon]

Since this only affects government purchases, we'd have to know whether a significant part of last quarter's Chinese sales involved government entities purchasing these products.

I'd expect government sales - especially to China - aren't a huge part of Apple's business.

Re:Is it a big hit to Apple's bottom line?

[SuperKendall]

Imagine you can't bring apple devices into your local government-operated buildings like library or DMV.

All you can do is imagine that since it's not what China did. They banned government procurement of those devices.

Since when have Chinese been great followers of government rules anyway?

Fatal flaw: China can't adapt

[misosoup7]

China has always been controlled from the center. In past eras, China has had technological and exploration advantages over the West that were wiped out by intrusion and isolation commanded from China's locus of concentrated power - whether via emperors, or the current regime.

Long run (maybe, even near-long-term) this does not bode well for China's prospects, because when one is sealed off from outside ideas and innovation, one will ultimately fall behind and adapt only in suboptimal ways. What results is a waste of social and intellectual capital.

That makes no sense. China just banned its government from using Apple products, not Apple products in general. It hasn't sealed itself from outside ideas and innovations at all. Chinese citizens can still buy iPads and iPhones so Chinese smartphone manufactures still has to compete.

Another reason why this may have happened that most people probably wouldn't think about is that this might be a move to fight corruption. iPads and iPhones have been vastly popular as "gifts" within the government. Banning the government from purchasing them as gifts would help to fight some of the corruption problem they're having.

Re:Article is false and misleading

[Wingsy]

This is Slashdot. A false and misleading article is as good as the truth.