Apple device changes lives, leads innovation
Though media reports that Apple Inc's iPhones might be losing sales momentum in China have emerged in recent months, the U.S. tech giant's revolutionary mobile device's impact on millions of Chinese lives and on the domestic industry that now poses challenges for Apple will last, domestic Apple fans and industry analysts said on Tuesday.
Apple on Monday celebrated the 10th anniversary of the launch of new iPhone, which is, in its iconic founder Steve Jobs' words, "a widescreen iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone and a breakthrough Internet communications device."
"In the 10 years since, iPhone has enriched the lives of people around the world with over 1 billion units sold," Apple said in a statement on Sunday. "It quickly grew into a revolutionary platform for hardware, software and services integration, and inspired new products."
Many iPhone fans and industry experts in China agreed.
"Whenever I leave the house, I basically rely entirely on my iPhone," Jiang Ying, a resident of Beijing who calls herself a die-hard Apple fan, told the Global Times. Jiang has been using iPhones since 2011, when the iPhone 4 was launched.
"Not just for communication, I use my iPhone for navigation, weather, business travel and more," Jiang said, adding she has every generation of the device.
If iPhones help Jiang when she is out, they help Hailai Xiaoping of Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province, to avoid going out at all.
"I can meet pretty much all my daily needs through apps without taking one step out the door," said Hailai, who started with the iPhone 4 and now has iPhone 7.
She is looking forward to the next generation of iPhones.
But these functions are not exclusive to iPhones anymore, according to Lin Zhuoxi of Beijing, who switched over to an Android phone from domestic brand Vivo last year. "Without further innovation, they are just like Android phones," Lin said.
Domestic brands such as Huawei and Xiaomi have been on the rise in recent years, with more and more advanced technologies and increasing shares of both the domestic and some foreign markets, said Wang Yanhui, head of the Shanghai-based Mobile China Alliance.
"However, it was Apple's role as a leader in innovation in earlier years that helped many domestic companies," Wang told the Global Times on Tuesday. "What these companies are doing now is advancing what Apple started and, in some cases, they are now willing to push it a little faster."
And Apple might need to step up its innovation pace to restore sales in the Chinese market because while some impact persists, "popularity comes and goes," Wang said.
