【10.07.08 纽约时报】苹果在中国开店，但生意依然难有起色
【中文标题】苹果在中国开店，但生意依然难有起色【原文标题】Opening a Big Store in China, Apple Remains a Market Underdog
【登载媒体】纽约时报
【原文作者】DAVID BARBOZA
【原文链接】http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/09/technology/09apple.html?ref=china
一名园丁在苹果上海旗舰店的外面工作。这家商店是苹果在亚洲最大的商店之一，即将在星期六开业。
尽管苹果在中国广受推崇，但是其狂热的爱好者们都是从地下电子市场的走私商手里购买iPhones、iPods和Mac电脑。
苹果公司在培养中国市场方面行动迟缓，它在这个国家只有极少的几个分销商和位于北京的一个中等规模苹果商店。
但是苹果即将在周日在上海开启一家旗舰展示店，这是其在亚洲最大的店面之一。公司正在采取一项新的大型举措来开发这个世界上最大的手机市场，在中国快速增长的电子消费领域中攫取更大的份额。
苹果的成功依然遥不可及，因为它在个人电脑和移动电话领域将面对规模巨大、根深蒂固的竞争对手。它最新的炙手可热产品iPad和iPhone 4还未在中国上市，也没有宣布具体的上市日期。
苹果在星期四邀请记者参观了上海的旗舰店。以这个16000平方英尺的商店为开端，它计划在两年内在中国开启25个零售店。
加利福尼亚的苹果零售业务副总裁Ron Johnson在记者参观日说：“我们把这个商店当作一个启动平台。”
苹果通过在中国开设零售店的方式来追随其它一些国际品牌的脚步，它迫切想进入这个13亿人口、阔绰消费者数量不断增加的国家。今年中国的零售业发展兴旺，Best Buy、Gap、耐克、星巴克、Zara和大部分欧洲大牌奢侈品都在中国开设了零售店。
关注苹果的分析人士说，中国对苹果来说是一个巨大的潜在商机，因为它目前的市场份额小得可怜——在消费大类中不到5％，包括个人电脑、音乐播放器和移动电话。但它一直在积极部署中国的授权销商，今年第一季度就增加了800家，总数已经达到了2000家。
来自Needham & Company的Charles Wolf是专门关注苹果的分析师，他说：“苹果在未来18个月或者两年的时间里会大举进军中国市场。”他认为苹果的零售店显著地提升了其品牌知名度，“到目前为止，苹果在中国尚未形成其影响力，但这是迟早的事。”
然而，另一些分析人士认为苹果会面临极大的障碍。找到一个中方的合作伙伴是一项严峻的挑战，必将延缓其产品上市时间。中国移动电话市场的服务合同都被紧紧地控制在国有公司手中。
官方分销商的销售渠道削弱了产品价格的竞争力，其大大高于产品在美国的价格。（3G版产品需要预先支付864美元，承诺一个长达两年时间的复杂通话约定，还有每个月的额外附加费。）这使得走私产品的地下交易更加活跃。
iPhone去年才在中国正式上市，比美国上市的时间几乎迟了两年。分析人士认为主要原因在于与国有电信公司马拉松式的谈判，以及限制哪些服务可以提供给用户。
分析人士说，在这段时间里，上百万部iPhones被游客和走私客带入中国，并被黑客解锁，用户可以不需要签订长期合同而自由使用。
苹果还在面临诺基亚、摩托罗拉、HTC和其它品牌的强势竞争，这些品牌都在使用谷歌的Android操作系统。它们已经积极地在中国市场运作多年，大约拥有6.5亿用户。
即使是中国的电脑制造商联想，也凭借它们称作乐Phone的产品进入智能手机市场。售价大约400美元，远低于iPhone在中国的价格。
联想总裁柳传志在星期一接受金融时报的采访时说，苹果已经错失了进入中国市场的大好时机，因为它没有在服务中国消费者方面花费足够的时间，也没有去了解他们的需求。
苹果拒绝对联想的声明表态，但是苹果的高层说，他们希望在中国建立更多的零售店可以让公司更直接地接触消费者，并给他们带来兴奋感，就像苹果在其它地方所造成的那种效果。如果苹果在2012年能够开设25家商店，分析人士说中国很有可能成为这家公司在世界上的第三大市场。
零售店同时可以帮到苹果在中国的合作伙伴——中国联通，这家国有电信公司获得了iPhone在中国多年的独家销售权。
两名苹果店员在苹果上海旗舰店的天才酒吧中。
分析人士估计中国联通自去年年底到现在已经卖出了大约100万部iPhone，他们本来期望销量应当更高，但是高昂的价格阻碍了销售量的上升趋势。
康涅狄格州斯坦福研究机构的分析师Sandy Shen说：“官方iPhone的售价相比于黑市高得太多，而且苹果的零售店在中国实在太少。希望购买iPhone、iPod或Mac的消费者很难找到经销商。”
中国电信刚刚把iPhone降价了147美元，分析人士说销售量已经回升。
黑市商人说，即使苹果开再多的零售店，他们还是有自己的优势。
一位销售走私苹果产品的非授权经销商杨子杰在上海的一家电子市场中说：“这不会影响到我们的客户，他们iPhone 3G版的售价太高。已经习惯了走私商品的客户不会去买他们的东西，而且他们根本没有iPhone 4和iPad。”
但是很多分析人士预测消费者还是会成群结队地涌入苹果零售店。苹果的产品在中国被大范围地仿造，有些仿造产品甚至滑稽可笑，比如iPed、iRobot、iOrgane和aPad等。再加上走私到中国来的大量苹果真品，说明这个国家存在被压制的消费欲望。
上海的苹果旗舰店位于浦东金融区充满时尚味道的购物广场，旁边是这个城市新落成的闪闪发光的摩天大楼。星期天开业的时候，苹果应当会更切身地感受到这种欲望。
这家店铺的造型是典型的苹果抽象、有光泽的风格，直立的40英尺圆柱状玻璃外墙，与苹果在纽约第五大道的玻璃立方体相呼应。
这家商店有大约175名员工。顾客通过螺旋形楼梯进入地下，这里销售电脑、智能手机和配件。和苹果其它的商店一样，这里有“天才酒吧”，顾客可以在这里得到技术支持。还有专门为商业研讨活动准备的“简报室”。
星期四，Johnson先生兴冲冲地向100余名中国记者介绍了商店的特色，他说这家商店提供了“全部苹果商店所特有的体验，甚至还有一些别处没有的东西。”
他的发言结束之后，似乎所有的记者都被苹果的光环迷惑住了，现场爆发了热烈的掌声。
原文：
A gardener working outside the new flagship Apple store in Shanghai. The store, which will be one of its largest in Asia, is scheduled to open Saturday.
SHANGHAI — Although Apple is widely admired in China, most fans of its products here have been buying their iPhones, iPods and Mac computers from smugglers who operate through underground electronics markets.
The company, which has been slow to cultivate the Chinese market, has relatively few sales outlets in the country and only one Apple Store — a modest branch in Beijing.
But with Apple set to open a flagship showroom on Saturday in Shanghai — one of its largest stores in Asia — the company is making a new push to tap into the world’s biggest mobile phone market and grab a bigger share of China’s fast-growing consumer electronics business.
Success is far from guaranteed, because the company will be going up against big, entrenched competitors in both the personal computer and mobile phone markets. And its newest, hottest products — the iPad and the iPhone 4 — are not yet available in China, and the company has not announced when they will be.
Apple intends to open 25 retail stores in China over the next two years, starting with the 16,000-square-foot Shanghai outlet that it previewed for reporters on Thursday.
“We view this store as a kind of launching pad,” Ron Johnson, a senior vice president based in California and the head of Apple’s retail operations, said at the preview.
By opening retail outlets in China, Apple is following other global brands eager to market to the growing numbers of increasingly affluent consumers in this country of 1.3 billion people. With retail sales booming in China this year, companies like Best Buy, the Gap, Nike, Starbucks, Zara and most of Europe’s big luxury goods makers are opening stores in China.
Analysts who follow Apple say that China is a potentially huge opportunity for the company because its market share here is tiny — less than 5 percent in big categories like personal computers, music players and mobile phones. But it has been adding authorized Apple dealers in China — expanding those ranks by about 800 in this year’s first quarter, bringing the total to around 2,000 locations.
“Apple plans a major invasion of China over the next 18 months to two years,” said Charles Wolf, an analyst who follows Apple for Needham & Company and credits its retail stores with significantly bolstering Apple’s brand. “To date, Apple has not been a force in China. But it will be.”
Still, other analysts say Apple faces significant hurdles. The challenges of finding Chinese partners has tended to delay product releases. China’s mobile phone market, for example, is tightly regulated and state-owned companies control service contracts.
And sales through official distributors have been weakened by prices that are substantially higher than in the United States (about $864 upfront for the 3GS model with a complicated calling plan requirement of a two-year commitment that involves an additional monthly fee), driving a brisk underground trade in smuggled goods.
The iPhone was not officially released in China until late last year, nearly two years after its introduction in the United States because of what analysts say were long-running negotiations with state-run telecom companies, and restrictions on what kinds of services could be offered.
By then, analysts say, more than one million iPhones had been brought into the country by tourists or smugglers and unlocked by Chinese hackers, enabling use without a long-term contract.
Apple also faces stiff competition from Nokia, Motorola, HTC and other mobile phone brands that use Google’s Android operating system. Those companies have been aggressively marketing their products in China, which has more than 650 million mobile phone users.
Even Lenovo, the Chinese computer maker, has entered the smartphone market by introducing what it calls the LePhone, which is priced at about $400, far below the iPhone in China.
In an interview published in The Financial Times on Monday, Liu Chuanzhi, the head of Lenovo, said Apple was missing a huge opportunity in the Chinese market because the company was spending too little time serving Chinese consumers and understanding their needs.
Apple declined to comment on the Lenovo statements. But Apple executives say they hope that building stores in China will give the company more direct contact with its consumers and duplicate the excitement Apple has generated elsewhere. If Apple opens 25 stores by 2012, analysts say China would very likely become the company’s third-largest market.
Retail stores could also aid Apple’s partner here, China Unicom, a state-owned telecom company that has an exclusive multiyear deal to sell the iPhone in China.
Two Apple staff members at the Genius Bar in Apple's new flagship store in Shanghai.
Analysts estimate that China Unicom has sold about one million iPhones since late last year. They say the company had expected to sell far more by now but that the high price of the iPhone has prevented stronger sales.
“The price of the official iPhones is too high compared to that on the gray market,” said Sandy Shen, an analyst at Gartner, the research firm based in Stamford, Conn. “Also, Apple has too few retail stores in China. It is inconvenient for consumers to find one when they want to buy the iPhone, iPod or Mac.”
China Unicom trimmed $147 from the iPhone plan, and analysts say that sales have picked up.
Black market merchants say that even with new Apple stores, they have an advantage.
“They won’t have any impact on our clients,” Yang Zijie, an unauthorized vendor selling smuggled Apple products, said Thursday at an electronics market in Shanghai. “Their price for the iPhone 3GS is much higher. Customers who already got used to the price of smuggled goods won’t turn to them. And they don’t have the iPhone 4 or the iPad at all.”
But many analysts predict that consumers will flock to Apple stores. Apple products are widely and even comically imitated in China — there’s the iPed, iRobot, iOrgane and aPad — and the large number of actual Apple phones smuggled into the country is an indication of pent-up demand.
Apple should get a better sense of that demand on Saturday, when the Shanghai flagship store is set to open in a fashionable mall in the Pudong financial district near some of the city’s gleaming new skyscrapers.
The shop is designed in Apple’s sleek, minimalist style and punctuated by a 40-foot-tall cylindrical glass shell that echoes the company’s glass cube on Fifth Avenue in New York.
The store has about 175 workers. Customers enter through a winding staircase that takes them into an underground area that sells computers, smartphones and accessories. It is outfitted with the company’s usual Genius Bar, where customers can get technical support, as well as a “briefing room” intended for business seminars.
On Thursday, Mr. Johnson was beaming as he introduced the store’s features to about 100 Chinese journalists, saying the shop offered “all the hallmarks of an Apple store experience plus a couple more.”
At the end of his briefing, even the reporters seemed to have been pulled in by Apple’s aura, breaking into loud applause. 我想把我笔记本换成MacBook 我不是苹果的粉丝，不感兴趣，也不打算去了解 Q44)嘎嘎 苹果的手机和IPAD都不错，但是好像对中国用户有歧视！总是把中国当成3流的市场，以为我们都是凯子啊！！ 对苹果没偏好的人飘过。。。 我的8250还在苟延馋喘......
赞叹满仓和rhapsody两位大神的译作总是如此流畅 Q67)高价的苹果不是我这种平民消费得起的东西 关电信什么事哈，不是联通卖的IPHONE么，而且联通IPHONE不是卖5000RMB么，差不多700美刀啊 实在用不惯苹果的操作系统。。。 对于学设计的来说，一台MAC是必须的
但是个人而言还是不喜欢苹果，就是买也只会买水货 还不如山寨机用起来舒服 联想Y460飘过！ 攒钱买macbook pro啊{:12_565:} 用PC惯了 MAC界面有点不习惯
{:12_548:}，不过还是觉得MAC界面漂亮
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