

Apple expects Chinese sales 'to overtake US' - w1ntermute
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20983689

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kercker
I will not be surprised if China overtakes US to become apple's biggest
market. iPhone is so widely known across China that people in the village I
was born can speak something about it.

iPhone is showed off by many as a symbol of wealth and social statue, so they
all want to possess one and many high schoolers in my school in China use
iPhone as their phone.

However, I'd rather like to see Xiaomi, an Android phone made by a Chinese
company, to develop well, and eat most of Apple's share.

Apology for my poor English.

~~~
gebe
Much like in the rest of the world then, the status thing that is :)

~~~
nolok
Which is sometimes funny because in the west it feels like everyone who wants
an iphone has one, yet they keep judging status on it.

This reminds me of how everyone on reddit still think they are part of a small
and secret elite community.

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jupiterjaz
Well duh. With 4x the population of the US why wouldn't Chinese sales overtake
the US's?

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ceras
China is a lot poorer.

~~~
InclinedPlane
There isn't one China, there are at least 2, maybe 3 chinas. Coastal China is
industrialized, urbanized, modern, and wealthy. Inland China is poorer and
less developed, and the remote provinces like Yunnan are just a few steps
above seriously poor countries like Afghanistan or Haiti.

~~~
ced
Have you been to Yunnan? I lived there for a year. The two cities I've seen
the most of were about at east-Europe levels of development, surprisingly (to
me). The rural areas fare worse, obviously, but I wouldn't expect to meet that
much Haiti-level poverty. Wikipedia pegs the "absolutely poor rural
population" at 3 million - out of 46 for the whole province. For Haiti, there
is 54% of abject poverty.

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rogerbinns
Asymco has a good posting on this, also comparing to prior US growth and
Microsoft's comparable performance: [http://www.asymco.com/2013/01/11/when-
will-apples-china-reve...](http://www.asymco.com/2013/01/11/when-will-apples-
china-revenues-overtake-the-us/)

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leoh
Interesting. It seems to me that in the United States, many people have
relatively advanced cell phones and a computer. But in many places in China,
this isn't yet the case. So while Apple might sell more products in China in
the short term, it's hard to say that this will be the case in the long term.
For example, Apple will never sell so many iPods as it did in the past, since
so many people these days have an MP3 player or a phone that can do the job--
or even an old iPod.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
Someone made this same argument to me 4 years ago when the first apple store
opened in Beijing. Deja Vu I guess. Maybe apple is really a fad that will just
die out on its own, but they've been saying that for years now.

~~~
martinced
_"Maybe apple is really a fad that will just die out on its own, ..."_

Well... Android can give iOS a run for its money.

But there's no way Windows users who switched to an Apple laptop are going to
switch back to a PC running an OS made by Microsoft.

Most people _love_ their Apple laptops and they are now so entrenched in
schools and amongst devs that there's no way Apple is going to "die" anytime
soon. They could stop selling iPod, iPad, iPhones and whatnots that there
would still be a market for laptops. It would be back to the "old" Apple
selling, well, computers. But dying? Apple existed before I was born and I
think they'll still be there long after I'm dead, just like IBM.

For what it's worth I'm no fanboy: I'm using a PC running Linux...

~~~
seanmcdirmid
Are we still talking China here? Many Macbooks were running Windows 5 years
ago, and now they have mostly transitioned to OS X (its rare to see a Macbook
running Windows now). I don't think there are so many Macbooks in schools
though, its mostly a thing in the young professional crowd.

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taligent
For those that want to see how China is changing: Don't visit China. Visit
Hong Kong.

No other place exemplifies the rise of the Chinese middle/upper class like it
does. The size and popularity of the high end boutique labels e.g. LV, Hermes,
Zegna, Gucci far exceeds that of Tokyo, Paris, London, New York. If Apple does
cement the iPhone as a status symbol alongside the LV bag it is going to soak
up a tremendous amount of profit.

~~~
dasil003
> _If Apple does cement the iPhone as a status symbol alongside the LV bag it
> is going to soak up a tremendous amount of profit._

This idea fascinates me because tech brands have always been commodities or at
best trendy. If Apple can achieve long-term status along the lines of upscale
fashion labels that will be absolutely amazing and yet not undeserved.

~~~
taligent
The interesting thing is how much the retail strategy has played into it.

If you walk down the high street in Ginza, Tokyo you see the Apple Store
(which is always packed to capacity) just down from Chanel and Cartier. Which
with its strong architectural design really makes it feel like it belongs
alongside those other brands.

What's telling as well is that the Sony HQ in Ginza feels so dated.

