We have only just discussed Apples Chinese iPad rival ErenEben yesterday, so it is intriguing to see that Apple have stopped selling their iPad on the Chinese Amazon website, but why?

Could this be that the iPad 3 is on its way soon, or that Apple are in legal wrangles with the Chinese government over who owns the rights to the term “iPad”.

Apple in lawsuit with Chinese company Proview:

Apple are currently in legal dealings with a Chinese company going by the name of proview, this matter is related to the use of the term “iPad” which they claim Apple do not own the rights to as they bought it from a subsidiary who was not entitled to sell the name.

If a decision is made against Apple this could mean that they will not be able to sell their popular tablet in the China region, and will kick up quite a storm for the manufacturing relationships that Apple have with China.

Apple requested the pull:

It has been said in TechCruch that it was Apple who instigated the removal of the item from the store, which means that the whole situation is a bit of a mystery as proview have apparently not asked for Apple to stop the sale of the iPad in China.

With the iPad 3 release date imminent, and with proview rumoured to be seeking $1 billion to settle the dispute, there appears to be little trouble in big China right now.

We will be keeping a close ear and eye on this news.

With Apple being attacked about their human rights policies and lack of action at plants they use in China, run primarily by Taiwanese based Foxconn (yes its complicated).

And with the Cupertino based company now open to looking more closely to how they operate in this territory, it is interesting to note that a home grown tablet manufacturer is actually looking to outsell Apple’s iPad in their own backyard.

ErenEben

Have you heard of ErenEben?

Well you probably will have if you live in China as they currently hold the second largest tablet share in China, this is according to Analysys International, this figure is currently set at 6% which is a far cry from being a major threat to Apple but it is interestingly more than Lenovo or Samsung have in terms of market share in this vast country.

China not vast consumers of tablets yet:

Chinese gadget lovers bought around 5 million units last year and are expected to buy some 18 million tablet PC’s in 2012, a huge increase from 2011, and this is where ErenEben hope to tap into the latent potential in this niche.

ErenEben are hoping that unique hand writing technology will allow users to write on screen using a stylus which they are calling the “Mind Mark” feature, plus the installation of a Chinese copy book application that will appeal to an older, less tech savvy generation, and hopefully win hearts and draw in some more of the huge population of China that have not yet embraced tablet technology.

Writing in China different to the West:

Many of us do not think about how the East communicate in terms of writing but it is a totally different relationship than we have in the West, and for this reason ErenEben are proud to now be named the “hand-writing computer of the meeting” by the Chinese People Political Consultation thanks to there Mind Mark feature.

Not cheap:

With the tablet based on Google’s Android operating system, the actual cost for each device comes in at a considerably high 5,000 yuan compared to the base price of an iPad which is 3,688 yuan, but just under the current top priced iPad which costs some 5,288 yuan.

ErenEben’s Chief Operating Officer Fang Liyong told the South China Morning Post.

“Most government officials and business leaders are of the older generation and are used to writing in their own style. And they are the ones with strong purchasing power,”

He went on to say that these people were the ones with buying power so they believe they are pitching to the right audience with the right feature set.

Relying on one technology is dangerous:

The trouble with this new technology is that Apple will most likely just develop a fantastic Chinese application that offers exactly the same option of writing on the tablet in the Chinese style with a stylus, either that or many apps will emerge with a clear leader offering the same functionality.

Your thoughts?

As the New York Times slates Apple over their apparent lack of duty of care to workers at China’s Foxconn production plant within Apples enormous supply chain, and with Tim Cook coming out to defend all things Apple, as you would.

Can we all perhaps learn from this current upsurge in “Apple the bad man” talk?

When your at the top of the tree your easier to spot:

Yes we all know that any corporation, music act, TV show, etc that either courts the limelight or simply happens to be centre of attention in their industry and therefore often appears seemingly omnipresent while their crowning glory lasts, will attract critics.

One of the main reasons this happens is this, it sells papers and gets eyeballs.

China love to play with the big boys:

The truth may also lie in how a company gets to be so big, and this is where the murky waters of speculation crop up.

In the modern world, corporations such as Apple have choices on how to go about doing all parts of their production process right through to the sale and packaging of the goods they peddle us.

But what is perhaps unclear to so many of us who are not involved in acquisition, procurement, international trade, HR, logistics, marketing, hi tech manufacturing etc is just what choices we have in that massive selection process that ultimately produces an iPad or an iPhone.

What is clear to many is that China would appear to come out tops as the place to go for the mass manufacture of specialist technology, at least this was what we all believed until China started to flex its muscle a little, and scare some companies with its attitude to workers rights.

Now when you have a country the size of China, I for one am under no doubt that a form of dictatorship is probably the best way to be able to effectively manage such a vast amount of people, but I am unsure exactly what kind of “dictatorship” really exists in China.

China as cost effective as we think?

One thing is for sure, where once China was highly competitive to obtain cheap manufacturing in an outsourcing sense, I now know from first hand after looking into the cost of outsourcing work myself that after all associated costings and risks are taken into account, doing business with China is a lot less attractive than I once thought.

Now imagine having a publicly available ethics policy (other wise know as the Apple Supplier Code of Conduct) to ensure all suppliers were held to account to some degree, now this would add another layer of risk.

I am not for one minute saying that all Chinese manufacturing plants operate under barbaric conditions, I have no idea first hand whatsoever, but it would appear from reading around the lines that some would possibly be classed as less than perfect when ethics and workers rights are taken into consideration.

China in 2012 = UK in 1800’s

But you know what, this is China in its ascent, and here in the West we all have to take stock and look at what we here in the UK and the US have done globally to ensure we are competitive in marketplaces over the last 100 years in terms of a “get our own way” attitude we lead the world in barbaric acts and underhand tactics, we effectively teach the world to screw morals.

I am from the mill areas of the north of England and the stories that can be told of hate filled mill owners are possibly best left forgotten but are numerous.

This was in the days when we were the engine room of the world, and with China taking over that role and the west moving towards a knowledge and service based economy, where does that leave us when bottom lines need to be addresses and our shiny western corporations need to compete with other foreign upstarts?

It has to be seen as pretty rich when we come along and expect all countries we deal with to operate exactly as we want, when we have the benefit of massive GDP’s ensuring that 100 year old strategies and policies (fought and won) to gain supposedly better working practices are put in place.

So where does this leave Apple?

Now I am sure Apple have some pretty lucrative deals going on with their suppliers such as Foxconn, but where does that leave the Cupertino company if things start altering within the suppliers hierarchy and at what point do the Government of China step in to look into suspected employment issues for foreign companies who work out of China like Foxconn who are Taiwan based?

There is definitely some dodgy ground to be potentially navigated when looking to build a company that extol the virtues of high morals and yet wants to keep production costs down and as low as possible while still selling their products at premium prices on the basis of quality and a certain ethic that Apple proclaim they stand for.

Indeed as the article in the New York Times states, there are a number of areas that have more power than Apple currently has:

1 – Foxconn

2 – The Republic Of China

3 – The Consumer

So with all those variables in place (which are not unique by any means) Apple do need to ensure that they tread a path of pleasing a lot of entities all at once which can be very tough when you rely on foreign highly skilled workers and high tech plants which operate in very different conditions to what they would perhaps like them to do, but then again come 50 years time it will all shift anyway and we will see US and UK workers doing China’s and India’s bidding…..perhaps.

On the topic of China and the way Chinese industry treats their own staff who work for non foreign entities, one commentator Helena discussing the New York Times article states:

“In China, Foxconn is quite proper already. They don’t delay wages and provide insurance. A lot of people attack Foxconn for fun, but how do domestic factories treat workers? Some barely make enough to survive after working for months. They can’t get pay, and are fired for being pregnant. Our countrymen are so strict with foreigners, but can let our own misbehave.”

And some lay the blame at the Chinese government more than Apple:

A Caixin reader writes:

“While Apple’s supervision is important, the government’s supervision is key, because they should play the role of carrying out the law.”

Either way I think it is tough to slate one company when there are so many variables, and this is perhaps where the potential for Apples downfall could very easily stem from.

With a very late review of the iPad 2 coming soon, it is nice to look at news of the new iPad 3 and speculate on what areas it will improve on its older brother.

The iPad 3 is due for release in March, and Bloomberg seem to think that the new device will have a sharper screen courtesy of a High Def display and also feature LTE access which we expected anyway.

A speed increase will be delivered via a quad core chip, and while suppliers are not named in the article, it has been rumored that the ramp up in production will mean February is a key time period in the pre-iPad 3 calendar as full steam will be well and truly ahead on the production lines.

With Apple now selling more than 40 million iPads globally, the tablet has brought revenues of some $25.3 billion into Apples coffers.

LTE key to future of mobile devices:

With space running out on conventional network bandwidth, and a boom in smartphone and tablet use putting ever increasing pressures on data transfer via the traditional internet networks, LTE will bring two important new areas to mobile devices:

Speed and increased efficiency of data transfer.

Both will work together in helping the globe go more mobile, and stop further clogging up of the networks as more of the populations of the US, Europe, Asia and the world go mobile crazy and demand more bandwidth while out and about.

With China having their Lunar New Year holiday in February, and Foxconn being the main assemblers of the iPad 3, it is thought that the device will start being delivered to customers in March at the earliest.

With news on an Apple event to be held next week related to education, we are not expecting to hear the above information from the horses mouth any time soon.

So does this kind of news excite you about the new iPad or are they simply beefing up an already capable tablet PC, and if so, what do you think they should be looking at including in order to cement their status as the manufacturer of the best Tablet PC on the market?…Arguably.

This Friday, Apple published their 2012 “Supplier Responsibility Progress Report” which contains data from 229 audits taken from their supply chain in 2011. This figure is up from 127 audits conducted 2010.

In light of major issues reported about the Apple supply chain over the last few years, and a whole host of human labour rights and environmental practices of these companies, Apple has now finally published a list of suppliers that are involved with the manufacture of the iPhone, iPad and other devices that Cupertino design in California and manufacture in China. (by and large).

It makes for interesting reading and goes some way to showing Apple in a better light and understandably it is good to see that the company have indeed moved towards better ethics, this is not to excuse Apples bad choice of certain suppliers, and with the serious issues that have been going on in some of these places it is difficult to excuse.

Apples commitment to social responsibility:

Apple is committed to driving the highest standards for social responsibility throughout our supply base. We require that our suppliers provide safe working conditions, treat workers with dignity and respect, and use environmentally responsible manufacturing processes wherever Apple products are made.

The results of the report:

On reading the report it can be seen that the Apple Supplier Code of Conduct is essentially disregarded on many many occasions, this has to be an issue that Apple address and some would say that this has taken too long, we all know corporations can hide behind all manner of cloaks when it suits, and it would be pretty difficult to believe that no one at Apple knew nothing about these breaches of pretty key operating policies.

Apple Supplier Code of Conduct

The report highlighted many areas, and at 26 pages long, I am only summarizing what was said, suffice to say every part of Apple’s code of conduct was broken in some way or another at various times. Here are some main points from various sections:

Ethics:

There are a number of ethical violations committed by Apple suppliers according to the report and these include falsifying audit information, rosters, unsavory behavior towards foreign workers and other generally bad practices that are not nice to hear about in the workplace.

Environment:

Problems found at Apple suppliers in the report range from poor disposal of hazardous material to a lack of proper environmental impact assessments, air emissions, and other areas, it was seen that many of the suppliers in the audit appear to have breached various guidelines from the Apple Supplier Code of Conduct

Worker Heath and Safety:

Explosions that killed 4 at the Foxconn factory and another explosion at the Ri-Teng (a subsidiary of Pegatron) factory which injured scores, highlighted that there was a flagrant disregard to the health and safety of staff who worked with combustible materials and dust, and supplied Apple with key componenets.

Apple have gone on to say that they have worked with Foxconn who are a major supplier to Apple and have put in place various measures to help staff and the company comply better with Apples code.

Too little too late?

Taking a look at the amount of audits taken place over the last 5 years, it is quite shameful considering the attention that the Apple supply chain has had over issues such as worker rights, suicide and health and safety, that it has taken so long to finally do this PR..ahem, supply chain audit exercise, now they have got to the dizzy heights of success that they obviously wanted to achieve with the iPhone and iPad.

What do you think to Apples eventual audit report?

You can read the full Apple report here:

What with RIM having riots in Indonesia, it seems that the world of mobile tech they all copy each other, now its Apples turn to hit the headlines after a major situation occurred in China following the release of the iPhone 4S to the Chinese market at one of their flagship stores in Sanlitun, Beijing.

With thousands queuing up outside for a chance to get the device as soon as possible, it appears that Apple took the precaution of simply not opening up shop for fears that they could not manage the madding crowds effectively, this of course resulted in fights, eggs been thrown and calls of “liar” and “cheats” at teh Apple and staff on top of all this SWAT teams were called in to manage the violence, and effectively managed to disperse crowds by 10.00 A.M.

Scalpers to blame for iPhone 4S riots in China:

“Scalpers” are common in China, and it is reported in Reuters that gangs were employing hundreds of people to queue to get a chance to buy the new iPhone 4S stock and resell it at a premium once it had all been sold.

You can still get some phones from online stores in China:

Apple store online and China Unicom.

Other stores in Beijing and Shanghai opened and sold as usual.

Apples fear of losing control:

Could it be that Apple are simply so scared of not being able to micro manage all potential buyers, that there is a limit to how many people can actually consider coming into an Apple store?

On my estimation they would have need 30,000 Chinese Apple Store members to effectively “welcome”, in typical Apple style, this crowd of 10,000 strong Apple iPhone lovers.

Though, I have to say, if they were to ever deliver on this, they are surely in the best country in the world to try it!

Have you ever heard of Meizu?

Probably not, unless you live in, or come from, China or Hong Kong, and then you may well be aware that this manufacturer of rather sexy looking smartphones has just added another device to its range.

Who are Meizu?

Established in 2003, Meizu’s founder has been a keen tech lover for all his life, the company ethos quoted below shows the intriguing take they have on the corporate technology world:

In some ways, people are like computers with the similar configuration. Running at full capacity likewise, the computational load of those keeping a single task is far beyond that of those multitasked, ending and starting processes continually. Only when people remain devoted, we may suppress complicated interference, strive for our devotion consistently, and create greater value and wealth. The constant devotion is the dream!

So why was Meizu created?

Meizu was created for the dream. Devotion, perfection, concentrative and long-term pursuit shall bring out exceptional dream works of commercial products. Everything about Meizu shall transcend conventionality and imagination!

Now call me facetious but I genuinely love to read slightly “off” English translations of big corporate statements, they sound so cute dont they!

So why MX?

In keeping with the aspirational blurb above, the reason Meizu called the phone MX is actually because it is using the first two letters of the Chinese word for “Dream”, “Meng Ziang”.

Android based smartphone for Chinese market:

The new Meizu smartphone will be running Android and will feature a Exynos processor, with 1GB of RAM and 16 GB of storage capacity. The display is a decent sized 4 inches with a resolution of 960×640. It has an 8 megapixel camera that also offers panoramic shots. They also offer their own version of the Apple iCloud in FlyMe, though it does state on their website that this is only currently available in mainland China.

Queues of people waited for its launch:

In scenes reminiscent of popular Samsung and Apple product launches, there were queues of people waiting outside stores in some of the major cities in Hong Kong and China, all waiting to get their hands on the new Meizu MX device.

In fact the smartphone is so popular that it is genuinely seen as a fully blown iPhone rival in China and Hong Kong, and with specs to match, we can see why. I for one am always quite excited when a relatively new player enters a market with something worthwhile.

I wonder what Meizu’s plans for smartphone launches further afield are?

The launch of a Lenovo windows mobile phone is likely to be seen in the second half of 2012 according to sources, though there is no assurance that this release will go beyond a China only roll-out.

China market set to be crucial for Windows:

If Windows can crack the Chinese market with affordable devices running on Tango or Mango (Windows 7+ O/S), then the entry by Nokia to the Chinese market with their Lumia 800, could make for an attractive option to many who are currently out-priced by Android or iOS based phones, and let us not forget that this market is big, and one both companies have their eyes firmly on.

Mango update went well for Windows:

The new release of the Mango update has gone down smoothly, and with the Windows O/S being adopted by more and more manufacturers it looks likely that they have turned a corner now that the Windows 7 mobile operating system has some style and a growing application market.

Windows offers sweeteners to app developers:

In order to make sure that the growing adoption of the Windows Phone operating system by consumers is not met with disappointment when accessing the Windows application market. Microsoft have dished out thousands of Lumia devices to developers in order for them to start looking at the platform as a new means of revenue generation. This has seen a marked increase in the amount of applications available in their own marketplace and is likely to continue to grow.

So it seems like interesting times for both Lenovo and Windows, as both look to offer something new to a rapidly growing marketplace.

Alibaba is a strange beast, as anyone who has looked into packaging and trade internationally will have realised.

As a website it works as a kind of hub for manufacturers, suppliers, exporters, buyers, and providers of all sorts of s services to come together and pitch for business with would be traders globally.

Very powerful and very popular.

So how and why have Alibaba, a traditional e-commerce type business decided that a new mobile operating system based on cloud technology would be a good way to move forward?

Alibaba already have a mobile OS:

Firstly they have already got a Chinese version of the Aliyun OS working that has been trialled since July.

This version of the OS has currently only been available via one Chinese device manufacturer called TianYu, Dr Wang Jian the Chief architect of the project has stated that they are now..

“discussing with at least three global [hardware] vendors”

The time-scale for releasing the OS and accompanying smartphones and tablets to the global market seems to remain slightly unclear but very much the grand plan for Alicloud and Alibaba.

Wang Jian went on to say that an iPad rival will appear “in two month’s time.”..though there is no mention of the manufacturer or if this will be available outside of China initially.

The reason they have gone into this field is quite clear. After creating the Alicloud division a few years ago, the company has seen that more and more time is spent by users on smartphone and tablet devices connected to the Internet, as an internet based company now is the perfect time to devise a means of capitalising on their exiting traffic, size and power, with inherent ties with Chinese and global manufacturers and geographic base within an ever more powerful China.

Technical details of the Aliyun OS and Alicloud:

Currently the “Aliyun OS.” works on the K-Touch Cloud-Smart Phone W700 and is the only device that is offered currently.
Wang Jian, president of Alibaba Cloud Computing states that:

“Mobile users want a more open and convenient mobile OS, one that allows them to truly enjoy all
that the Internet has to offer right in the palm of their hand, and the cloud OS, with its use of cloud-
based applications, will provide that,”

Mobile developers helped also:

He then goes on to say that you cannot separate ‘mobile’ from ‘cloud’:

“One cannot succeed without the other. The mobile internet right now is just a structure. We now think we want to make the internet mobilized. Introducing cloud apps to mobile devices not only brings a whole new user experience, but also greater ease for third-party mobile software developers who will be able to use Internet technology
such as HTML5 and JavaScript to reduce the complexity in the app development process.”

With the Alicloud feature being at the heart of the Aliyun OS, users will require less need to download applications and it should ensure that data is safer and easier to transfer to other applications that are hosted on their cloud servers.

This could be something that Amazon, Apple and Google will look further into. Amazon already have their own very successful cloud based Amazon servers (EC2) and their new foray into a Amazon kindle tablet like device.

Aliyun users will be offered a 100GB of storage on their Alicloud servers and probably offer additional space if that is needed.

In design terms this should help reduce the overall size and processor power needed and could help to ensure that smartphones and tablets use less power and last longer once charged.

Wang went on to say recently that:

“Eventually all our services will be delivered on mobile. People will spend less time in front of their computer screens and more time in front of their smartphones,”

Recent reports suggest that the Aliyun OS is Linux based, dashing reports earlier that it was a tweaked version of the Android OS. All I can say to the Aliyun team is that I hope it is as clear of patent infringements as possible when related to Apple and Google, as the challenge of exporting a Chinese OS to Western Europe and the US will not be met without a filthy legal battle ensuing if a mere hint of a legal challenge is deemed possible.

Word of warning to Alibaba and Aliyun developers and device manufacturers of the future:

It appears that the tactic of late is quite simply to drag costly litigation out as much as possible in the hope a new device has chance to enter the market to reduce the chances that the competing device takes ground….see the ongoing Samsung debate in German courts.

I will keep you posted on what happens with this new OS as more reports come through regarding their unconfirmed talks with manufacturers of tablets and smartphones….interesting times ahead!

The Death of traditional PC’s seems to be coming true ever more!