China 48th To Get iPhone 5 中国成为第48个发售iPhone 5的国家
Some 2 and a half months after the rest of the world got its first chance to buy the newest iPhone, Chinese consumers will finally get their chance to buy Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) latest smartphone starting in mid December. Apple formally announced the iPhone 5 will officially be available in the world’s largest mobile market starting December 14, marking the end of a long and convoluted odyssey that saw the country receive its iPhones months behind the rest of the world. No reason has been given for the huge delay, but the signs indicate the big amount of extra time was created by a massive Chinese bureaucracy and ineptitude by the nation’s 2 carriers who will formally offer the iPhone 5, China Unicom (HKEx: 762; NYSE: CHU) and China Telecom (HKEx: 728; NYSE: CHA).
Interestingly, neither Unicom’s nor China Telecom’s names were present on the formal iPhone 5 China launch announcement from Apple, most likely because the US tech giant was trying to be impartial towards these 2 partners that are both critical to its success in China despite. (company announcement; Chinese article) I also suspect that Apple didn’t want to get involved in a race between the 2 companies to see who could offer the iPhone 5 first in China.
Regardless of who is first, this new launch means that China will become the 48th country globally to receive the iPhone, behind such other “powerhouses” as Lichtenstein and Slovenia. Certainly if such small countries with infrastructure similar to China’s can be part of the iPhone’s global launch, then China should be able to also participate in this worldwide event that happened back in September. (previous post)
Let’s take a closer look at Apple’s new announcement, which says the iPhone 5 in China will have similar suggested retail prices to the US market, starting at $199 for the cheapest model with 16 GB of memory and going all the way up to $399 for the 64 GB model. That’s slightly surprising, since iPhone’s typically sell for quite a bit more in China than they do in the US. Perhaps this is Apple’s way of apologizing to Chinese consumers for this big delay, which undoubtedly will cause the iPhone 5’s China launch to lose much of the buzz it would have created if it was part of the global launch.
In addition, Apple also announced a December 7 China launch date for its iPad mini, a scaled-down version of its popular iPad tablet computer. In this case China is only a little more than a month behind the rest of the world, since the iPad Mini formally went on sale in the rest of the world on November 2. (previous post)
Frankly speaking, I’m not sure why the iPad Mini has been delayed so long in China, since only a wi-fi version is being offered that wouldn’t require technical support from either China Unicom or China Telecom. But once again, I suspect that China’s massive bureaucracy was probably a major factor, and perhaps the telecoms regulator and other agencies all needed to provide various approvals and do testing before this tablet PC could formally be released.
Whatever the cause is for all these delays, it’s really rather disgraceful for China that they are happening at all and that Chinese consumers can’t get their newest gadgets at the same time as everyone else in the world. I don’t know or really care too much anymore who is to blame, since the bottom line remains the same. China needs to learn to streamline its bureaucracy and bring it to levels more similar to other major global markets. Otherwise, it risks become a permanent global follower in the latest industry trends, including this latest launch for the world’s newest iPhone and iPad.
Bottom line: China’s massive bureaucracy appears to be the main factor delaying the launch of the newest iPhone and iPad, boding poorly for the country’s aspirations to become a technology leader.
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