Unauthorized Apple outlets proliferate
Jinan, Shandong loves Apple. So much so that more than half of the city’s 80 Apple retailers are unauthorized. With only 8 stores nationwide and measured expansion plans, Apple distributes products...
View ArticleLenovo restructures, new “Think” group
Lenovo just announced a corporate reorganization which split business activities under the company’s “Lenovo” and “Think” groups. The Lenovo group will focus on mainstream and lower-end product...
View ArticleMillionaires heart LVMH
Hurun, compilers of the perennially interesting China Rich List, are back with results from their luxury survey. Millionaire males top three brands in 2013 are LVMH, Apple and Hermes. Moutai, famed...
View ArticleApple, Samsung popular during CNY
According to telecommunications chain Dixintong, Apple and Samsung made up 60% of smartphone sales during Chinese New Year. Apple’s sales during the holiday exceeded 20% of all transactions. Chinese...
View ArticleSamsung top selling smartphone
According to recent market research, Samsung is the clear winner in China’s smartphone market with 22% market share. With low prices and smart engineering aimed at mid-market buyers, Lenovo, Huawei,...
View ArticleNokia flagship: bye bye, China
Nokia recently shut down its flagship store in Shanghai. The company’s largest flagship worldwide, the Shanghai location was victim to the leathal combination of low rent/high prices. Nokia has taken a...
View ArticleDangdang: new Doukan reader in May
Dangdang will launch a new version of its Doukan e-reader in May. While Dangdang has yet to reveal pricing, CEO Li Guoqing has told the media the new version will be more expensive than the first...
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Back to the Future: Xiaomi’s ROM Machine
Waiting for mobile revolution? Smartphones are changing China: used by nearly 50% of China’s 1.3 billion, 70% of mobiles sold are smart. China’s smartphone market, however, might be changing even...
View ArticleApple gets special treatment
With Apple official retail outlets still sparse on mainland China, Apple has set about installing special zones in other chain retail stores throughout Beijing. In an effort to cozy up to local...
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Retail Megatrends: Online Rise, Foreign Fall
China: center of retail universe Retail in China increasingly means online retail. So says the “China Retail 100”, a report produced by the China General Chamber of Commerce. 2012 was the first year...
View ArticleAnother Apple-related accident
Days after an iPhone came under scrutiny in Chinese media for potentially causing a fatal electrocution, Apple is back in the news behind a similar story. Apple user Wu Jian Tong was taken to Beijing’s...
View ArticleApple service gets scalped
While Chinese consumers are less likely to queue up for new Apple products now that cheap alternatives are plenty, the wait to repair previous purchases is still long. Apple’s in-store service desk is...
View ArticleSamsung chargers trouble, too?
After recent weeks of allegations in the Chinese press surrounding the safety of Apple phone chargers, is Samsung next in the media cycle? Recent news of a fire caused by a Samsung handset certainly...
View ArticleApple: (almost) free chargers
Apple phones combined with unauthorized third-party chargers have led to a spate of accidents in recent months. Apple is now responding by cutting out the middle man: from August 9 to October 18, iPod,...
View ArticleApple chargers find more consumer scorn
Apple, armed with a low(er)-priced strategy for mainland China, still finds the local media market unreceptive to new PR. After reaping scorn when grey market copycats caused fires for iPhone users in...
View ArticleXiaomi gets “golden” markup
Xiaomi has long been accused of scarcity sales, or releasing smaller batches of its handsets to engineer “sold out” headlines. Whether the ultimate cause is manufacturing scale or canny marketing, the...
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Vente Wenti: CCTV Roasts Starbucks
CCTV roasts Starbucks. CCTV has struck again. After tough coverage for Apple, another bastion of bourgeois consumption is in the cross-hairs: Starbucks. A hot summer for foreign firms left fines,...
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Lift Off: Xiaomi Sales Up, Up, Away
Is Xiaomi ready to take on the world? Xiaomi is an upstart no longer. With an expanding line of products and foreign management material, the company has their eyes on China’s top-5 list of smartphone...
View ArticleiPhone attracts more safety concerns
The iPhone and safety of Apple products are back in the news again behind a story in which a Beijing man has alleged his Apple handset exploded. Previous reports from 2013 highlighted fears of...
View ArticleLei Jun: iPhone still the best
In a recent interview with the Beijing News, Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun–angel investor in Chinese tech notables like Kingsoft, Joyo, and Vancl–admitted that, despite Xiaomi’s increasingly global...
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