Stefan Mileschin

While the Tame Apple Press was trying to tell the world that Apple was going to do well in China, TechEye received a good kicking from Apple Fanboys for daring to say it was not going to happen.

Well it looks like we were right and anyone who invested in Jobs' Mob would have a case for suing the New York Times and its ilk for trying to talk up what was obviously false.

Apple is in trouble anyway - it had a disappointing March-quarter revenue forecast, coupled with surprisingly weak holiday iPhone sales, but what is interesting is how much the Tame Apple Press over-estimated initial demand from China Mobile's 700 million-plus subscribers. This 30 million units a year over-estimation pushed Apple's share price up 18 percent higher in the fourth quarter.

The shortfall raises doubt about the country's appetite for its devices as well as broader concerns about flagging global demand for smartphones and tablets. Apple and China Mobile struck their deal in December, and iPhones went on sale in January.

The reason for the failure however was obvious. Apple was going to trot out its same business model in China that it did elsewhere using products which were expensive and more or less the same as that which was already in the market. After all that works in America, where Apple Fanboys have dosh to spend and tend to fall for marketing easily.

http://news.techeye.net/mobile/apple-losing-in-china