[gnrlist]

Chinese people want the Apple brand they don't care about iOS. If iOS was the status symbol it would get pirated and installed elsewhere. Apple has a strong brand because of it's history as a premium device company internationally, that's all. Their brand was their first mover advantage in China but now Chinese companies are closing that brand gap and since WeChat rules the software side Apple is going to have a hard time being a big player until it can differentiate itself on something other than brand.

[nullnilvoid]

Other than the brand factor, iPhone is actually a better phone. Before the current iPhone I have, I had always been an Android user. I used entry-level Android phones, high-end Android phones such as Samsung Galaxy, iPhone is clearly a better phone. iOS feels more smooth, reliable, battery-efficient in many ways than Android phones. Honestly, I have not looked back since the switch.

[blacksmith_tb]

Without wading into a my-anecdotes-against yours battle, I think most would agree that at this point Chinese smartphone shoppers have options from Xiaomi and Huawei among others[1] that are of equal quality to Apple hardware (and may be better designed for their market).

1: http://time.com/4547129/china-smartphone-market-oppo-vivo-xi...

[acchow]

I feel exactly the same way after switching away from top-tier Android. Never going back.

[unscaled]

> iPhone is clearly a better phone. iOS feels more smooth, reliable, battery-efficient in many ways than Android phones.

So what you're saying is that iOS is a better OS.

[Oletros]

> Other than the brand factor, iPhone is actually a better phone

But since a couple of years, any smartphone in a mid range price is good enough.

iPhones provide better experience and hardware? Perhaps, I won't debate that, they are premium and Apple does a fantastic job integrating their software with their hardware.

But to an average user, why pay +$700 when to their use case a $300 smartphone servers them well?

[otos]

iMessage is the only distinguishing benefit iPhone has. If WeChat or other apps are more popular in a market, I see Apple having a serious challenge.

The UI on the iPhone is incredibly challenging for me, especially web browsing.

I have a long list of criticisms on Android but both platforms seem incredibly flawed. The companies appear busy concoting marketing features and not with improving the functionality and experience.

I'm staying with the iPhone purely because of iMessage and Snapchat. I also don't want to waste time on the web, so the clunkiness is a benefit.

[stcredzero]

Chinese people want the Apple brand they don't care about iOS. If iOS was the status symbol it would get pirated and installed elsewhere.

There is still a significant difference in quality! My girlfriend's Samsung phone has a lot more battery problems. The interface for changing settings isn't as nice. Changing the battery in a Samsung is a bit of an adventure, even for someone who has serviced his own Macbook over many years.

In terms of experience, Apple still has it over Samsung.

[oflannabhra]

Yep, that is the exact point of the article, but much more succinct.

[gnrlist]

Aside from it's verbosity, the only nit I have with the article is that it muddles it's own point by talking about iOS as a monopoly.

[yogenpro]

Chinese consumers do care about iOS vs Android. It's just that the Android ecosystem has been much too horrible in China (Play being blocked, big-name companies have their own "app store", affiliated apps keep waking up each other in background to increase DAU). Those problems go away automatically if you pick iPhone.

The best-selling Android phones in China (Oppo/Vivo, Huawei, Xiaomi) have this horrible problem in control, by providing their customized Android with aggressive permission control, background apps cleanup etc. This also closes up the gap between iOS and Android without Google's presence.

[archvile]

How would iOS get pirated when the only way to install it is by using a certificate that only Apple holds? If it was easy enough to reverse engineer iOS and remove that install requirement, I'm sure it would have been done by now.

[zeusk]

not really, and it's been done (not entirely successfully though).

https://twitter.com/CotullaCode/status/352176812194922496

I worked with Cotulla in the HD2 community during the htc-linux days and we had iOS 5.x booting on the device up till springboard, there were definitely issues but not "impossible".

[linkregister]

Seriously? There is a thriving jailbreak scene for iOS. It doesn't sound insurmountable at all. I think the only reason there's no iOS analogue to the Hackintosh is because nobody has bothered.

[LiweiZ]

Consumers in China do know iOS and iPhone are better. As I mentioned in another comment, it's just very hard for an outsider to get into China market as a service provider.

[threeseed]

> Chinese people want the Apple brand they don't care about iOS

These kind of statements are ridiculous.

(1) There is no evidence. (2) It assumes all of the Chinese think and act the same. (3) It assumes brand is the only decisioning metric when design and implementation can equally be important.

> If iOS was the status symbol it would get pirated and installed elsewhere

The look & feel of iPhones and iOS has been pirated and reimplemented on Android since day 1. You can goto MBK in Bangkok or Shenzhen in China and buy dozens of different models. Guess what ? They are nasty and buggy as hell and so don't sell.