People’s Republic of Mac: It’s Apple’s China, right?

Posted by Daniel East Mar 14, 2006 at 5:19am

It’s Apple China, right? When I say that, you’re possibly thinking: OK, our favorite fruit company, only in a version that’s in line with 1.3 billion …

And that’s the point. Apple China, to be a successful Apple China, needs to be in line with 1.3 billion Chinese. Apple China must understand that it’s not an alien firm in China; it must spread the faith, the Apple faith, the Chinese way.

The Good: China-flying, otherwise U.S. prezos

I went to a recent Apple China event in Beijing, and I was positively surprised at the fact that the speaker actually took the trouble (even for about “only” five minutes) to “China-fy” the presentation. He actually went to pains to tell people about Chinese input and demonstrate simplified-to-traditional character translation. And to prove that this was indeed an Apple event in the PRC, he even stuck a Dashboard widget from Sinomac, a mainland Chinese site, and he played a song from a mainland Chinese singer in Front Row.

This is great! Back in 2002, when Apple opened its Oriental Plaza store, they had some Taiwanese presenter who obviously didn’t give a whatever-you-wanna-call-it about making his presentations Chinese, as in PRC-friendly (or PRC Mac user-friendly). This guy let some odd J-Phone ad rip in QuickTime and did all kinds of outlandish, non-Chinese “stuff” with his presentations. He’s a Mac expert, yes, but we need Mac experts that understand the mainland Chinese market.

It’s not going to help if you’re going to start off in Taiwanese or Hakka in the hutongs of Beijing. I think there’s this localization-related proverb … ruxiang suisu (which means: move into a new village, and assimilate into its culture)

The bad: Ads with that crazy iPod silhouette

Ever wonder why you hear of traffic jams and car crashes in Beijing? Ever wonder how that kind of fits with those abstract, crazy iPod ads with nothing less and nothing more than that internationalized silhouette?

People actually want to understand a bit more about iPod & Co., and Apple kind of helps them by sticking those huge iPod ads in Beijing. Sadly, people don’t get them—they’re too abstract—and those who want to get to know them—don’t. In three seconds, they see—and forget the iPod ad—or stop dead in the dead center of the beltway and try to “get it”. Meanwhile (and if that was really to happen), traffic piles and we can’t rule out a few unruly cars causing a crash or three.

Actually, I’m overdoing this. I’ve yet to hear of a case of car crashes just because of an iPod ad.

And get this—I’ve heard from people who said that 1 Infinite Loop “China-fied” the ad by allowing Apple China to stick in the Apple China URL and the hotline number. Give me a break. That is not localizing the ad to Chinese Mac taste-buds.

The Good: Cheap-o prices

The next time you hear someone go, “Macs are expensive!”, tell them this: until March 31 (but only with a “special dealer”), iWork, iLife and .Mac go for only CNY 300 a pop. That’s less than US$40—cheaper than the US prices!

Meanwhile, CNY 690 is all it takes to get an iPod shuffle, and an iPod with a display (that’s the nano at 1 GB) will go for only CNY 1,500.

So long for the days of the mid-1990s, when a good Mac would set you back with a negative account balance—six figures in length (before the decimal point).

The bad: What’s missing

As Mac people in China, we’re missing out a lot. No Chinese iTunes Music Store (and although yes Chinese iTunes songs, no iTunes Music Store purchases unless your credit card has a US billing address or an address in the other 20-or-so countries), and no iPhoto print ordering services. No .Mac in Chinese, and no Apple Store at all (except for the Hong Kong online store).

I’m not even going to restart on that 1.3 billion thing. If Apple misses out on China, that’ll be—just too bad.

The funny thing

And here’s something funny.

The last time Apple China held an event to introduce a new product to people not affiliated with the press was back in November 2004. Apple then went on a one-and-a-half year hiatus, throwing no parties in 2005 (with all that personnel rejuggling, they couldn’t if they tried). And finally, about six days after the BeiMac meeting on March 4th, they’re back—with two meetings in the course of five days. (Even funnier: they announced their first, i.e. March 10 event, two days before the BeiMac March 4th meeting.)

(Meanwhile, BeiMac has all of its meetings until March 2007 set in stone…)

Maybe it’s just me, but I can’t but help wondering if Apple’s actually chasing after us—as in if we don’t do an event, they won’t bother?

I care less if we’re the only group in Beijing doing Mac meetings. What I care about is that there’s someone—be it Apple or someone else—keeping the Mac flame alive in Beijing, and in the rest of China.

Those meetings help a lot, regardless who does them. Because what these meetings help to spread is information. If more and more Chinese are informed about the presence of the Mac, and if they can get their hands on more information or best—the Mac itself—there’s a bigger chance they’ll switch.

Making themselves the newest citizens of the People’s Republic of Macs—projected population: 1.3 billion.

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