China rips Apple out of govt IT mail-order catalogue – report

Apple's most popular products are set to vanish from Chinese officials' boardrooms after the People's Republic reportedly struck them off the official procurement list. Ten gizmos including the iPad, iPad Mini, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro can no longer be purchased for use by the Chinese state bureaucracy, Bloomberg reported …

[NoneSuch]

With China's track record of violating patents, trademarks, and stealing various IP, no western corporation should do business with their communist government.

At least a million Tibetans have died since the Chinese invasion. Their human rights abuses on the Chinese population is staggering. Just say no.

[Ilsa Loving]

Delicate balance

The chinese gov't clearly wants to nail the evil American companies where it hurts... but they don't want to piss them off to the point that they pull out completely.

I'm sure they're keenly aware of how many million people work (indirectly) for Apple in China, and if Apple threw up their hands and decided China wasn't worth it anymore, there would be some serious fallout.

[dogged]

Re: Delicate balance

Apple can't afford to lose China as a manufacturing base.

[DropBear]

Re: Delicate balance

Well, strictly speaking, I'd say they can plenty well-afford to lose that, but then they'd have to make do with the reasonable profit margins everybody else uses...

[Anonymous Coward]

forbidden city

Did Apple forget to make appropriate contributions to the right people?

or is this the warm up to a shakedown?

[Slx]

This could end badly if it turns into a tit-for-tat accusations of spying war hitting US and Chinese companies.

[Richard Jones 1]

Could There Be Something Deeper?

I suspect that this is not an Apple issue at all but a symptom of something else going on in China at the moment. They are organising something close to a witch hunt involving non Chinese businesses at the moment even though the indigenous lot are not squeaky clean. I suspect that there are economic motives and possibly something of a drive to close the bamboo curtain. We should watch and be ready, to re-assess our own desire to purchase from China if it is going to become a less than reliable open trader.

I am happy to sign up for free trade if is is free from restrictions but if it is to be free one way only then we need to look to see where the balance of advantage lies. We along with other countries have pleanty of unemployed people at the moment, do we need to continue to export jobs and import debts?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Could There Be Something Deeper?

Apple brought production of the Mac Pro back to the US, and there have been rumblings that this was just the beginning. If they bring all Mac production back to the US (or anywhere out of China) that's going to garner a lot of publicity, and it won't be favorable for China.

If they start making even some iPhones out of China, that's even worse for them, as that manufacturing adds billions to China's economy every year.

Other US companies (at least those not competing on razor thin margins) might say to themselves "hey, if Apple can make stuff here, we can too!"

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Could There Be Something Deeper?

It's likely they object to Apple products more because it comes preloaded with software that the Chinese does not, cannot control and doesn't trust not to route info to US servers (whether for supposedly innocuous reasons or not). Perhaps they don't care as much about other companies like HP and Dell because there is no OEM crudware slapped on the systems. But they will be apt to drop them too if there is a falling-out between the Chinese govt and Microsoft.

[Chas]

Err, no!

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=zh-CN&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fcompanies.caixin.com%2F2014-08-06%2F100713823.html

=:~)

[Anonymous Coward]

Frankly, I'm surprised

That Apple was ever on the list to begin with. I figured PCs were better for them because pirated Windows software is easier to come by...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Frankly, I'm surprised

As OSX and iOS are free, no need to pirate..

There is some sense to this though: OSX and iOS are entirely proprietary (even though OSX roots lie in *BSD), whereas all the other kit could in principle be powered by a Linux derivative.

Better still, the fruity firm might want to stop charging SIXTY-FIVE BLOODY QUID for a Macbook power cable

It is not credible that a fully paid up IT journalist cannot tell the difference between a power CABLE and a power SUPPLY so one wonders why that comment was added. Oh, sorry, click bait. I get it.

[P. Lee]

Re: Frankly, I'm surprised

>> Better still, the fruity firm might want to stop charging SIXTY-FIVE BLOODY QUID for a Macbook power cable

>It is not credible that a fully paid up IT journalist cannot tell the difference between a power CABLE and a power SUPPLY so one wonders why that comment was added. Oh, sorry, click bait. I get it.

It is a power supply, but the cable is attached, not plugged. My wife broke her cable and had to buy a new power-supply because you can't get a cable on its own. That's poor/greedy design.

I'm not sure if we should mention the $79 DVD drive. No, that ain't Super, that just makes me hate you more.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Frankly, I'm surprised

It is a power supply, but the cable is attached, not plugged. My wife broke her cable and had to buy a new power-supply because you can't get a cable on its own. That's poor/greedy design.

Oh, not only does the supply cable (the one going to the Mac) suck in both fitting and material, the whole external design is questionable apart from the magnetic plug. If you dare use the "wings" the power supply come with to store the cable instead of just rolling it up loosely, the supply cable won't last a year before the mantle breaks. The only thing that is well done is the power lead as you can slide off the plug and use a figure 8 power cable to extend it (not entirely legit - although the thing is double insulated, the T-shaped "pin" the connector slides in is actually earth).

However, show me a computer supply that hasn't got a fixed supply lead - and roughly costs the same. A branded aftermarket PSU tends to cost good money (example).

And it's still not a /cable/ :)

[Alan Denman]

Who jumped first ?

The US is happy buying cheap and selling expensive to the world, they draw the line at others using China to sell cheap to US consumers/businesses.

Retaliation then?

[Anonymoist Cowyard]

Buy Android

They can load audit the source code and have their own forked "ChinDroid" codebase that's free of Googly stuff (not that ASOP has much).

Got to be better than running closed iOS, with Apple's track record of backdoors and tracking.

[Steven Raith]

Re: Buy Android

ChinDroid is fine, but it might prevent Jimmy Hill from rolling his own AOSP project.

My puns are getting far, far worse.

Steven R

[tempemeaty]

Chinese believe in self dependence anyways...

The Chinese Gov has always been pushing China as a whole to use "Chinese" and support only Chinese products for the ultimate goal of total self dependence. So seeing them do this the moment some American/Western Corporations and Gov.s (as in the Windows 8 FUBAR and the NSA revelations) make them a little uncomfortable doesn't surprise me.

[Lars]

I wish

I wish my government did the same as I have to pay for those overpriced iThings.

[adrian727]

Re: I wish

Then you'd be allowed to only use phones from Vertu, because it's the only UK mobile brand.

Paris, because buying a Vertu isn't a problem.

[J__M__M]

relax

The Bloomberg "report" is not true. Or is the report I read about the report being not true not true?

You just never know... and nobody cares anyway.

[Oninoshiko]

why mention Lenovo?

They are a Chinese company. I'm surprised they aren't the ONLY ones on the list.