Apples in India, Apples in China

Scott Carney of Wired talks about the state of Apple hardware in India. There are some striking similarities between Apple hardware in India and Apple software in China. Comparing hardware with software is not exactly apples to apples, but in the end they are all Apple related products.

It’s the same ritual every month. On the first, my wife sends the rent check to our landlord, a Punjabi cloth merchant with an enormous mustache. Five days later, he knocks on the door and tells us he never received it. As we fish around for the checkbook, he makes his way over to the couch and proceeds to lay down demands.

“When you go back to America I want you to send me a laptop. Get me a Macintosh like yours and I’ll take it out of your rent,” he says.

Never mind that the cost of a new MacBook is several times our rent; my landlord is just one of millions of Indians who have a taste for all things Apple. But it’s a taste very few can satisfy since all imported computer goods are so heavily taxed they are out of reach to all but the most affluent Indians.

While Windows machines enjoy low prices because they’re produced locally, Apple Computer products have to make their way from production facilities in China. Along the way, they pick up several cost-inflating customs stamps.

Shopkeepers have responded by smuggling huge loads of illegal iPods and MacBooks from Singapore, Dubai and Malaysia.

As a result, it’s now almost impossible to buy any Apple product legally.

China does not have any major problem with smuggled Apple hardware that I know of, but when it comes to illegal software you only need to ask. For example, when I asked an Apple authorized reseller in Qingdao about iLife ‘06 in April they told me a genuine copy costs 890RMB, about $110 (currently $79 in the US), but that I could get a pirated copy from them for about $20.

“There is basically no incentive to buy legal,” said Dina Mehta, a Mumbai-based blogger and marketing consultant. “They are launched officially late, and are often more expensive than what you find in the U.S., Singapore or Dubai.”

That is definitely true in China as well. I called the official Apple hotline in China about iLife ‘06 in late January and asked about the shipping date and price. Although iLife ‘06 had already been released weeks before in other countries, the Apple representative in China couldn’t even give me approximate answers to those questions.

Moreover, although the Mac Pro started shipping in the States over two weeks ago, they still aren’t even listed on Apple’s China online Apple Store. Ironically, they are made in China, so it certainly isn’t a shipping problem delaying the Mac Pro here.

I really wish Apple could figure out a way of lowering prices of hardware and software in China. I’ll be moving to Beijing in a week and want to make use of the wi-fi outlets around the city with my iBook G4. I held off buying an Airport Extreme Card when I purchased my iBook because Weifang has virtually no wi-fi outlets, and I hoped that the price of a card would go down before I finally had a reason to buy one, and it has. Airport Extreme Cards can now be had from the US Apple Store for $49. In China? 540RMB, or $67.75 at today’s exchange rate.

For that matter, I’ll probably want to purchase iLife ‘07 (I’m still using iLife ‘04, and iPhoto ‘04 in particular has some funky issues) and Leopard next spring, but when I’m faced with what will likely be $110 for iLife and $188 ($129 in the US) for Leopard, those fully functioning, easily obtainable pirated copies might start looking mighty attractive.

Finally, on a positive note for Apple Co. and Mac owners:

In India, Apple products are prestige items that broadcast your ability to recognize what’s cool outside the country.

Yup. True in China too.

Tags Apple, Mac, India, China, Pirated Software

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