avon b7

Apple is beginning to have an 'image' problem in China in terms of technology.

Chinese brands have a complete suite of options that cover a very broad scope (truly smart homes, smart cars, folding phones of all kinds, folding tablets/PCs plus and endless list of wearables and home appliances etc). 

In the ultra-premium folding phone segment, it is not improbable that Apple is losing some top end customers who have the disposable income to be able to buy them. 

By not being able to offer a folding option Apple isn't in the game. The same can be said of the car situation and in wearables Apple has long had problems competing against what is available from Chinese brands. In battery life alone, if you only want to charge once a week, Apple is not an option. 

In that sense alone, an Apple folding phone offering would help a lot. 

iPhones are regularly discounted via  Chinese Apple authorised retailers (and have been for a few years now). 

All this without taking into account geopolitical issues which are undoubtedly spurring on sales of Chinese brands. On one side through patriotism towards China Champions and on the other through reluctance to buy American. 

Samsung may also be looking to step in on that last point as its rumoured tri-fold phone will only be released in China at first. 

IMO, this was a step too far. Visit, plaque, talk.

Obviously Apple was strong-armed into the investment against its business plans but an agreement and press release would have been adequate.

All of the manufacturering that results from these investments (and those from other companies) will be more expensive and less competitive than the same products made elsewhere. 

In terms of semiconductor production, the US will not see the cutting edge nodes manufactured on US soil unless a US company can top TSMC/Samsung.

Over 90% (98% the last time I checked) of chip production happens on mature nodes and no one is going to top China there. 

And after all the upheaval, stress and lost business for US companies, Trump will be gone, leaving a trail of broken deals, damaging tariffs and 'allies' who have been forced to treat the US as wholly untrustworthy. 

The EU and China will be far less dependent on the dollar and other dependencies are already being reduced.

This is overreach IMO.

The time to contest this was many years ago. Just because Apple has a film business now shouldn't affect the situation. They should simply do what they've been doing until now. Live with it. 

There may well be some confusion initially but that isn't the fault of the cinema. How much confusion has there been in the areas where these cinemas have existed for years now? Very little I imagine. 

Excellent news! 

I've argued for longer than I can remember for a real time question/answer system for support. Especially through Siri. 

That would be the lowest hanging fruit because Apple already holds all the data necessary to provide rock solid support solutions and once in use, user feedback would enable it to be polished quickly. 

Back in the day, iMac help systems held a wealth of key information right there on the machine. It was a joy to browse through and something interesting always popped up. 

Having all that information available through voice/text with real-time, accurate responses is exactly what is needed. 

The US, or more specifically, certain China Hawks within the US administration, are in a permanent state if paranoia with everything 'China'.

Yes, some elements of technology will be dual use. That has always been the case. It will always be the case. It's time to get over it. 

Nearly six years after the Huawei ban, the Pentagon is still applying for waivers (and getting them) because it cannot adequately source technology without Huawei being somewhere in its supply chain.

Yet, as soon as the US gets a sniff of an 'ally' using technology it deems risky, all hell breaks loose and the threats come flying in. 

Just look at the noise created over Spain's use of Huawei's OceanStor systems for wiretap storage.

It would be far better if the US took a more pragmatic approach with a large dose of common sense before the paranoia leads to even more silly decisions like the Nvidia H20 ban which seems to have finally been walked back after Jensen made a very level headed argument against it, even though Huawei A3 (Cloud Matrix all optical) SuperPoDs have now hit the market to compete with Nvidia's best offerings so the damage was already done.

And now to top it all off, China is fighting fire with fire by giving the US a taste of its own medicine by questioning the security of Nvidia chips. 

Jensen must be fuming by the damage done to his business by US policy.