We are 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.
These are the words of Lenovo CEO Liu Chuanzhi. Chuanzhi had a discussion with the Financial Times about his companies plans to enter the mobile market. The LePhone is Lenovo’s flagship device and will operate on the Android OS. Lenovo has high hopes for the device in China due to it’s high dominance in the PC market share (30%) and low competition from the iPhone.
The iPhone currently is not very popular in China, as it is in other parts of the world, due primarily to its high price tag. The device is also only offered via one carrier, and is limited to no Wi-Fi (mandated by Chinese law). Despite all this, Apple has seen some remarkable growth year-to-year. During the first half of the 2010 fiscal year, Apple’s revenue from China came to near $1.3 billion. That is a 200% increase from the year before.
Chuanzhi ended his discussion stating that Steve Jobs is a “genius” and the “exception to his rule”. He described China as the country to which every other country will follow. The global tech trend setter. Other tech companies will have to adjust technological roadmaps to Chinese tastes. This is to take the job currently held by the US. That is with the exception of Apple.