Apple leaves troublesome past behind - Shaun Rein

+Shaun Rein 

For a long time, Apple did not get it right in China. Business analyst Shaun Rein notes that now the American giant is doing things right and ships more smartphones to China, even more than Xiaomi. From Mercury News.

Mercury News:

One gusher of growth the company has yet to fully tap is the Chinese market. The company raked in $16.1 billion in revenue there during the quarter, up 70 percent year over year. For the first time, Apple shipped more smartphones in China than any other manufacturer during the fourth quarter of last year, according to research firm Canalys. But Apple still has ample room to grow in the country, with smartphone market share of about 12 percent, according to Counterpoint Research. 

Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research Group, said Apple has come a long way in China, where it previously had struggled to compete without larger phones. "Now with iPhone 6 Plus, they have become the must-have item," he said. "It's really quite remarkable how much people are adopting it." 

Apple CFO Luca Maestri said the company is on track to have 40 stores in greater China by mid-2016. 

But Apple will need to step up the pace of store openings to make the most of the opportunity and give as much attention to the Chinese market as it gives to the U.S., Rein said. 

"Apple is succeeding in spite of itself in China because they have bad distribution," he said. "It's bigger, and people are willing to pay more." 

Analysts will also be closely watching the sales for other Apple products such as the Apple Watch, the company's first brand-new product since the iPad.

More in Mercury News.

Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´ request form.

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Apple sales are going to be strong - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein

No chaotic scenes today in China as Apple offered their latest iPad for sale, but business analyst Shaun Rein, and author of "The End of Cheap China" expects strong sales for the US company, he tells at CNBC.

From CNBC:

"Sales are going to be very strong. Everybody in China loves Apple products," Shaun Rein, Managing Director at Shanghai-based China Market Research Group told CNBC. "You've seen they've grown about 600 percent in the last two years in terms of sales." 

The company's gadgets are regarded as prestige items in China, which Rein says goes a long way for a population that places a huge emphasis on social status. 

"I interviewed a girl recently, who is 26-year-old. She makes $250 a month selling clothes and she had a $1000 iPad," Rein said. "I asked her how she bought it and she said she skipped lunch for six months."

More at CNBC

Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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Apple could have done much better in China - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein

Apple might celebrate a huge success in China, but the US company could have done much better if they had followed a 'China-first' strategy from the beginning, says Shaun Rein, author of the book The End of Cheap China: Economic and Cultural Trends that will Disrupt the World in SFgate and on Bloomberg.

 

More in SFgate

Shaun Rein is  the author of The End of Cheap China: Economic and Cultural Trends that will Disrupt the World. He is also a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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Apple is lagging behind Google's android - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein

Apple might look like the big technology winner, gaining unprecedented access to the Chinese consumer, but it is lagging as Google's Android moves ahead, tells business analyst Shaun Rein Bloomberg. Bloomberg:

The iPhone maker is only “scratching the surface” of Chinese demand after sales in the region surged six-fold to $3.8 billion last quarter, Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook said in July. Still, delays in store openings may give makers of smartphones and tablets equipped with Google Inc. (GOOG)’s Android software room to gain market share, said Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research Group. “In many ways they are still behind the curve, and they are opening stores too slowly,” said Rein, whose Shanghai-based company advises retailers and other clients about operating businesses in China. “Before, Apple had clear dominance in terms of technology, but now the gap is being lowered because of Android.” Apple is expanding distribution of its products including the iPhone and iPad in China as competition with Android device makers including Samsung Electronics Co. and Lenovo Group Ltd. (992) intensifies. Kristin Huguet, a spokeswoman at Apple, declined to give the company’s latest target for store openings in China.

 More in Bloomberg Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

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Apple: A loser turns into a winner - Shaun Rein

Entrance Apple store Shanghai by randomwire via Flickr

A visit to Apple's store in Pudong, Shanghai leave no room for doubt: the company is doing very well. Shaun Rein analyzes in CNBC how the laggard from 2009 turned into a winner in 2011, where other retailers like BestBuy, Home Depot and Mattel's Barbie retreat.
When selling the iPhone, Apple was the victim of its own appeal. Shaun Rein:

Originally, Apple waited too long to get the iPhone into the market. By the time the iPhone officially sold there, early adopters had already bought around 2 million cracked versions smuggled in from the U.S. and Hong Kong.

So for the iPad, Apple used a different tack. Instead of waiting years as it did with the iPhone, Apple waited only months after it came out in the U.S. to launch the iPad in China. Consumers did not feel the need to travel abroad to shop when they knew products were coming to them soon.

When a brand does not release its new products on time in the Chinese market, the 50 million Chinese who travel abroad will pick up the products there, making a launch in China a guaranteed failure. Offering a high-standard store, not selling through dodgy retailers, did the trick for Apple's products:

Image by Fantake via Flickr

Shaun Rein

Like in other markets, Apple’s new stores are fun to shop in, have great service, and consumers trust that they are buying the real thing. Unlike with Best Buy, which sold too many of the same products at higher prices, Apple is differentiating both its service and its products from other retailers while keep a uniform pricing scheme in the country. There is a significantly wider gap in the quality of experience between shopping at an Apple Store and a reseller in a dingy electronics mall than between shopping at a Best Buy and a Gome, China's largest electronics superstore chain.

More at CNBC

Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

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iPad a winner for Apple in China - Shaun Rein

Image via Wikipedia

Apple's iPad has arrived today in China and, says Shaun Rein in the Wall Street Journal, that is a smart move of the US company, as customers are waiting eagerly.

Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research Group, says the iPad could give Apple a boost. “I see the iPad as a major win for Apple in China,” he said. “There’s not much competition in the market” and consumers say “they can’t wait for it.”

Though there is significant interest in Apple products in China, the company’s release of the iPhone has been lackluster compared to its release in other markets, in part because it took so long to officially launch the device here. In the more than two years between the U.S. iPhone launch its official launch in China, the gray market for iPhones—including millions of iPhones that were hacked and packaged with pirated software—became well-established....

Apple launched the iPad in China “fairly quickly after launching it globally. It’s not like people have had years to go and jailbreak them,” Rein said.

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Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your meeting o

Image by Fantake via Flickr

Shaun Rein

r conference, do get in touch.

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