Apple is missing a huge opportunity in the Chinese market, according to Liu Chuanzhi, the head of Lenovo, the country’s leading computer maker. The company holds about 30% of its home market, which is one of the fastest growing globally and which is expected to become the world’s largest within a year.
Speaking of Apple’s chief executive, Lenovo’s founder and chairman, told the “Financial Times” (http://macosg.me/2/h7): “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.”
Apple’s products are proving to be as desirable for Chinese consumers as for their international peers, but official channels for their sale are extremely limited, the article adds. The company has only a handful of flagship stores and authorized resellers in the country’s largest cities.
However, as noted by “Financial Times,” Apple is set to open a new store in Shanghai this Saturday and is on track to have 25 retail outlets in the country by the end of next year.