Apple is on a campaign to conquer the technological world, with the iPhone leading the charge. For all its global success, however, the iPhone faces a formidable challenge breaking into the Chinese market.
Security Concerns
With its GPS-savvy technology, the iPhone has furrowed the eyebrows of security-conscious top brass in the Chinese governments. In most Western cultures, knowing where everyone is-at least where their phone is-isn’t that big of a deal. It’s really more of a novelty thing. To the Chinese, however, it poses an understandable concern. Apple’s way around this barrier would be to introduce an iPhone divested of GPS capability.
Bogged Down Talks
China Unicom is the primary telecommunication provider in China. As such, it is a mammoth organization, servicing the majority of China’s immense population with telephone service. Obviously, talking to an organization of such magnitude takes time, lots of it. The larger the organization, the slower the wheels grind. ‘Talks,’ whatever that means, between Apple and Unicom have been going on for months, and so far, no earth-shaking news items have been released. The fact that China Unicom is heavily influence by government leadership also compounds the issue.
An iPhone clone,
the CECT A380i
iPhone Knockoffs
Probably the largest foe to the iPhone’s takeover is the ubiquity of iPhone imitations in China. China is no stranger to technology. The country manufactures most of the electronic devices on your desk right now, but they also design and develop them. Chinese techies are some of the most savvy, innovative, and intelligent developers in today’s tech world. With their know-how, they have made their own iPhones-far cheaper, and just as cool-looking. To be sure, piracy and copyright laws are being broken left and right. But finding and prosecuting the copycats is a problem too big and expensive for Apple to mess with. If Apple can get past security and power through talks, they may well have an iPhone in China. But its success may very well be challenged by the fact that everyone already has an iPhone…kind of.
