Is Apple doing enough to reach Chinese customers? Not even close – if you ask Lenovo. According to Financial Times, Lenovo’s founder Liu Chuanzhi said Lenovo is “lucky that Steve Jobs has such a bad temper and doesn’t care about China. If Apple were to spend the same effort on the Chinese consumer as we do, we would be in trouble.”
It’s a bit odd for a company chairman to speak about competition in that way, and a Lenovo spokesman later said the remarks were uttered during a “relaxed” moment during a dinner interview. But is Chuanzhi right?
It’s true that it took several years for the iPhone to finally reach China (although the phone is actually manufactured there), and Apple only has a handful of stores in China, with the first one being opened only recently, in 2008. Furthermore, a lot of what Apple has to offer lies within its brand, and Chinese customers are all about value which, compared with the price of its products, is not one of Apple’s strengths.
Still, when your competitors claim you’re missing an opportunity to take away a piece of the market from them, it might be time to do something about it. Apple didn’t provide a direct answer, instead pointing out it’s opening a new store in Shanghai, with plans to have 25 retail outlets in the country by the end of next year. Slowly but surely, Apple is extending its reach in Asia; in its Q2 2010 financial report, Apple reported a 184% year-over-year revenue increase for the Asia Pacific region. If Apple’s revenues in Asia keep on growing that way, the folks at Lenovo might one day yearn for the days of Apple’s “neglect” of China.
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