Is Apple Having an Evil Influence on China?

Is Apple Having an Evil Influence on China?
Jul 09, 2011 By Joseph Christian , eChinacities.com

Is Apple Evil?

It might seem a bit harsh but the question has been asked before. For years privacy advocates have accused Apple of misusing customer information and even tracking the movement of iPhone customers. There have also been legitimate concerns surrounding Apple’s stranglehold over the online content business, and almost every major newspaper in the West has carried stories about suicides and poisonings at Chinese factories that supply Apple with parts.

Such reports have even driven some to confess of having developed gadget guilt for buying Apple products, though for the most part, the popularity and hip image of its products have earned Apple a pass from most people. Some even joke that with Apple products appearing to be the best thing since sliced bread, Steve Jobs and Apple are surrounded by a reality distortion field; if you get too close you might just start believing everything they say.

But that reality distortion field hasn’t just confined itself to Silicon Valley or the streets of New York; unfortunately, it has managed to cross an entire ocean to China.

When Apple’s iPhone made its official debut in China in November of 2009, sales were lower than expected. So low, in fact, that many analysts called it a disappointment. Less than two years later in the first quarter of 2011, Apple’s revenue in China was nearly 2.6 billion USD.

Into the Reality Distortion Field

The numbers alone prove that China has been bitten by the Apple bug, but they do little to explain just how Apple’s meteoric rise has affected the country. But before we can talk about that it’s important to understand just how China got bitten in the first place.

Some Westerners point to the ‘superiority’ of Apple products; some Chinese like to think it is just the result of a trend to ‘worship’ foreign products. The reality, however, is that Apple made a decision. Earlier this year Apple COO Timothy Cook told reporters that, “Several years ago, [we] identified China as our top priority, and we put enormous energy into China.”

They penned deals with China Unicom as well as giant Chinese retailers like Suning. They set up flagship stores in Beijing and Shanghai. But more important than anything else, they began a media blitz up and down the mega-cities that line China’s eastern coast. This last winter alone every other commercial on Beijing television seemed to be for an Apple product; the commercials got people’s attention.

The point is that while Apple's quality is something people can argue till they’re blue in the face, there are very few that would argue the Californian company's intelligence in how it positions and advertises products; it is all about niche appeal on a mass market level, a skill at which Apple excels in. They instantly realised that China's emerging middle class just didn't want a smart phone or computer, they wanted a status symbol, and that is exactly what Apple delivered. 

If You’re Cool You Have to Have an Apple

The results have been nothing short of a social phenomenon—everyone seems to want an iPhone or an iPad. Looking at it numerically, during the iPhone's debut in 2009 a mere 5,000 iPhones sold the first four days of release, while less than a year later before the iPhone 4 was even sold in stores, over 200,000 had been pre-ordered.

In September of 2010 when the iPhone 4 was finally released, there was pandemonium. Lines of eager and newly minted Apple fanatics formed snaking lines around Apple stores in Beijing and Shanghai and soon got into scuffles with scalpers who were buying up all the iPhones. Things got so hot that Apple had to limit customer purchases to two phones apiece. Still, supply couldn’t meet demand and that’s when the black market Apple trade turned Shenzhen housewives to smuggle iPhones into the mainland from Hong Kong. Many got through, but in December of 2010, 14 Shenzhen housewives were detained with over 300 iPhones strapped to their bodies.

When the iPad 2 hit China in May of this year, demand was so high people in Beijing beat down a suspected scalper that tried to cut in line. Things officially took a turn for the bizarre when a 17-year-old Chinese student from Anhui traveled to Hunan province to sell one of his kidneys so he could buy an iPad 2. If that is not enough, a few weeks later a young Chinese girl from Guangdong went on Weibo (China’s Twitter) and offered her virginity in exchange for an iPhone 4.

If this is all really about quality then why haven’t Chinese consumers offered various parts of their body for Japanese electronics or German cars?

Apple: the Measure of All Things?

But it’s not just Chinese consumers that have gotten into the act of following Apple like a carrot is dangled in front of them; even Chinese companies have gotten into the spirit. In early 2011, Lenovo Chairman Liu Chuanzhi threw down a challenge that shocked the IT world: Lenovo was going to try to give Apple a run for their money. Liu and Lenovo were feeling confident because the profits were rolling in and they were convinced that they, along with Apple, were the only high-end PC suppliers left in the domestic Chinese market.

While that might be true, they are making a serious oversight, as even the names of their products (LePhone and LePad) are phonological replicas of Apple. In all honesty, it appears they are just trying to keep up with Apple, rather than challenge it. Maybe Lenovo should put a little more market research into how they can differentiate themselves from Apple rather than just following them.

What about the Workers?

With the increased demand for Apple products, there has also been increased production in the Foxconn and Wintek factories that supply Apple with the parts necessary to create the iPhones and iPads that Chinese so crave. Tragically, the workers that sweat to make Apple’s products are literally spilling their blood.

In 2010, at least 10 workers committed suicide at a Foxconn factory that supplies Apple with parts, and in May of this year two workers died at an explosion at a Foxconn factory in Chengdu. Also earlier this year, Wintek had to deal with over 130 workers that were seriously injured from chemical leaks they were exposed to while making glass screens for iPhones.

As terrible as these accident were, the silver lining is that it has brought the condition of factory workers in China into the light. Both Foxconn and Wintek took a lot of flak and have had to make conditions better for their workers. It is not hard to imagine that if these factories had not been making parts for Apple, we might have never heard about these problems.

So is Apple really evil? To be fair, that is not a judgment anyone can really make, but it is beyond doubt that Apple has left a profound impact on China; one that might just be coming into focus. But for now it seems all most Chinese are thinking about is how they can get their hands on the upcoming iPhone 5.
 

Related Links
Global Competitors: China’s Top 5 Electronics Brands
1st Apple Store in Chengdu Unveiled on June 3rd
Suicides at Foxconn Reveal Woes

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Keywords: Apple China evil Apple influence China iphone China iPad China Evil Apple

1 Comments

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Steel Guns

Its all very well when things are booming...nobody can possibly envision a time when they mightn't be able to afford a warm coat for the winter, let alone a fancy piece of plastic that helps stave off the boredom whilst costing them so, so dearly. but when the shit hits the fan, it will be tales of regret everywhere, soulsearching, deep reflection on how I, we, everyone could be so stupid, how we all bought into this fantasy world, how we paid so, so dearly for things we didnt need, how nature finally caught up with us, and punched us so hard that we woke up to the nightmare that is the real, finite world that we must all try to survive in.

I am somewhat sceptical of the story about the boy who apparently sold his kidney. And I dont think Apple is instrumental in bringing about the current/impending malaise. It is actually the regime of communism with Chinese (free market) characteristics that is mostly at fault for standing idly by as the mega-corporations like Apple are given the freedom to brainwash the minds of the millions of young chinese. Who benefits in the end? Is it too late to stop the Juggernaut?

Jul 11, 2011 06:03 Report Abuse