Skip to footer

In China, a slow shift away from Apple's iPhone, iPad

According to a new report, Chinese customers seem to be moving toward devices made by Samsung and other manufacturers – and away from the Apple iPhone and iPad. 

|
Reuters
People walk past a mobile phone store selling Apple and Samsung products in Wuhan, China, on April 18, 2013.
  • By Matthew Shaer

For months now, Apple has lost ground in the Chinese tablet and smart phone market to competitors such as Samsung and Lenovo. 

And now local manufacturers that make accessories for the iPad and iPhone are starting to inch away from Apple. According to a new report in Bloomberg, "thousands" of Chinese companies are diversifying their offerings, concentrating in part on accessories for more affordable hand-held devices. 

"The market is now moving toward Samsung and brands from China, so we’ve enlarged our product line," Vincent Kwok, chief executive officer of a Chinese-based accessory maker called Magic Kingdom, told Bloomberg. "Expanding our product line has reduced the risk for us. To focus on Apple is too dangerous."

Apple's problems in China are indicative of a wider issue for the company, which has been accused of not innovating fast enough under the direction of CEO Tim Cook. Last year, Apple released the iPhone 5 – a critically-acclaimed, top-selling device that still managed to miss many analyst estimates. Next month the Cupertino company is widely expected to release a pair of new iPhones: A new flagship device and a cheaper handset, possibly called the iPhone 5C. 

But there remains concern that the phones, which would likely resemble the iPhone 5, may not be enough of a step forward for Apple.

Which is not to say that Apple doesn't still have a few tricks up its sleeve. Reports in recent weeks have indicated that the company may release a gold-colored iPhone – in the past, iPhones shipped only in either black or white – or even an iPhone 5C with a scratch-resistant exterior.

Whether that will be enough for consumers in China – or the rest of the world, for that matter – remains to be seen.  

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to In China, a slow shift away from Apple's iPhone, iPad
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2013/0823/In-China-a-slow-shift-away-from-Apple-s-iPhone-iPad
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe