Tim Cook says Apple now factors Chinese tastes when designing products
Apple now heavily factors in the tastes of Chinese consumers when designing its products, including tailoring colors, CEO Tim Cook revealed in a new interview.
One example was the decision to offer gold versions of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, since gold is a popular color in the region, Cook told the Chinese-language version of Bloomberg Businessweek. He didn't say how else the company might be modifying products to suit China, which during the last quarter accounted for 29 percent of the company's revenue.
The CEO originally made the comments during a tour of the country last month, when he visited Apple's largest store -- located in Hangzhou -- and visited several schools. At the schools he spoke on the significance of education and said he was happy to see the students were eager to learn.
During the interview, Cook added that Apple is working on over 180 trial programs at local schools, covering areas like teaching music composition through GarageBand or helping hearing-impaired kids to use a phone.
By the end of 2015 Apple is hoping to grow the number of programs by about 50 percent, he said. The goal is allegedly to change traditional educational models and assist students in contributing to society.
In May, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claimed that Apple will be adding a rose gold option for its next flagship iPhone, paralleling one of the metals available for the Apple Watch Edition. Unlike the Watch, though, the new iPhone color will likely just be simulated, since rose gold Watches start at $10,000 and the amount of metal in an iPhone would make the product fantastically expensive. Apple could change the current yellow gold iPhone color (also simulated) to reflect Watch models as well.
One example was the decision to offer gold versions of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, since gold is a popular color in the region, Cook told the Chinese-language version of Bloomberg Businessweek. He didn't say how else the company might be modifying products to suit China, which during the last quarter accounted for 29 percent of the company's revenue.
The CEO originally made the comments during a tour of the country last month, when he visited Apple's largest store -- located in Hangzhou -- and visited several schools. At the schools he spoke on the significance of education and said he was happy to see the students were eager to learn.
During the interview, Cook added that Apple is working on over 180 trial programs at local schools, covering areas like teaching music composition through GarageBand or helping hearing-impaired kids to use a phone.
By the end of 2015 Apple is hoping to grow the number of programs by about 50 percent, he said. The goal is allegedly to change traditional educational models and assist students in contributing to society.
In May, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claimed that Apple will be adding a rose gold option for its next flagship iPhone, paralleling one of the metals available for the Apple Watch Edition. Unlike the Watch, though, the new iPhone color will likely just be simulated, since rose gold Watches start at $10,000 and the amount of metal in an iPhone would make the product fantastically expensive. Apple could change the current yellow gold iPhone color (also simulated) to reflect Watch models as well.
Comments
Why don't we have a ChiCom red yet?
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But seriously, they can even say it's (Product) RED.
Where's my Hello Kitty inspired iPhone?!
That's Japan.
They should add the Chinese cat clock face along with Micky Mouse to the watch
Quote:Where's my Hello Kitty inspired iPhone?!
You can get the case from Amazon.
That's obvious. Seems like Apple is so concerned with everything being thin, light, and tiny these days. What happened to the 17" MacBook Pro or the TANK Mac Pro? Were they just too big and bulky for Chinese customers? Yes, Apple is catering to them these days...
Look at the difference between Hello Kitty and Lucky Cat above. It seems almost impossible to design a product that both the Chinese and Japanese would like.
I guess the solution is to make something that's physically just a blank slate and then change the software.
Old news. The gold 5S was designed with China in mind.
And the 5C was a misunderstanding of the Chinese market.
Will they also make it dog flavoured?
Very doubtful. The 5C was based on an understanding of the world youth market. Seems to have worked well enough.
If the industry thought like you we would still be using these cellphones
Well, I am a bigger guy but not huge, and there is only one model of the Apple watch that fits my wrist, for instance. They are designed for smaller people.
I knew that when the Chinese scalper mafia showed up at the stores. I do have to say that it's disappointing to see Tim Cook put it in writing though. I had hoped that all customer populations were important to Apple; guess not.
It's all about the $$$ (don't have a yuan symbol).
That was apparent for some time now.
Tim Cook's publicized stance on this is to simply emphasize Apple's ongoing commitment to Chinese consumers.
Apple's commitment to other consumers is no less, but China being the important market that it is, it's often prudent to make supportive public statements about same. That's all that's going on here.
It doesn't portend any radical, "Chinoiserie" changes to Apple gear. It's a statement of commitment and support, that, while obvious and already implied, instills even greater confidence when declared (one way or another) openly.
Additional colours and styles, like rose gold and others, will not be radically out of line with Apple's usual attention to detail that suits consumer tastes at large. This too, should be obvious.
So, the Chinese must like ugly flat grey interface design, using translucent menus to make up for the utter lack of color or depth. Johny Ive must live in a cold grey world, along with the Chinese. They must also like glaring white backgrounds for things like photos too.
The iOS UI is beautifully simplistic and transparent (as in, it melts away to the point where it doesn't call attention to itself.)
The focus has shifted with iOS 7, from the prominent diplay of UI elements, to the prominent display of your content.
When the emphasis is on content, UI design and elements will be toned down and rendered as simplistic as possible without sacrificing functionality and ease of use. The current iteration of iOS achieves this in spades. That is the entire point of the design.