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Eug Wanker · May 17, 2004, 03:48 PM

According to this post and also this thread, the www.apple.com url hasn't worked in China for the last three weeks (at least in certain regions). However, www.apple.com.cn does continue to work, but it's in Chinese and has different content.

Strange.

One thing I noticed is that the Chinese Apple website has no iPod/iTunes section. In its place is a Switch section.

djohnson · May 17, 2004, 03:51 PM

Interesting... I wonder why the commies want to block out Apple? Also, why no iPod? I guess they dont want their people listening to "hip" music.

Eug Wanker · May 17, 2004, 03:52 PM

Originally posted by djohnson:
Interesting... I wonder why the commies want to block out Apple? Also, why no iPod? I guess they dont want their people listening to "hip" music.

Actually, I just checked and the iPod is there, but it's just that there's no tab for it on the main page. It's at the store too.

ink · May 17, 2004, 03:59 PM

Originally posted by Eug Wanker:
Chinese Apple website

Slowest.
Site.
Ever.

I guess it has to pass through all the security agencies (on both sides).

dampeoples · May 17, 2004, 04:02 PM

God Bless America.
The feds might know where I browse, but at least I can go there

mitchell_pgh · May 17, 2004, 04:06 PM

In communist China, your iPod owns you!

Oisín · May 17, 2004, 04:14 PM

Where I'm sitting (Beijing), both apple.com and apple.com.cn work very well (apple.com is even a lot faster today than normally!).

It's true that there's no iPod on the Chinese version... I haven't dug very deep yet, but an iPod section should be visible without having to dig very deep. That is strange. I know for a fact that they do both sell and have support for iPods in their Apple Stores here. Very odd.

Oops - just dug a little deeper... apparently you have to find the iPod under the hardware section (the second button in the lower row of buttons at the top, named 硬件产品 ); that takes you to the iPod section. So it is there after all!

Anyway - apple.com not blocked for me!

djohnson · May 17, 2004, 04:19 PM

Originally posted by ink:
Slowest.
Site.
Ever.

I guess it has to pass through all the security agencies (on both sides).

Man it is beyond slow...

Oisín · May 17, 2004, 04:26 PM

Originally posted by djohnson:
Man it is beyond slow...

Welcome to my world!

For me, apple.com.cn is raging fast (it takes like 0.5 seconds for the whole page to load).

What you get from apple.com.cn is what I get from every site outside China, for instance MacNN.

Oisín · May 17, 2004, 04:45 PM

WTF???

Now all of a sudden apple.com is blocked!!! That can't be right, it worked five seconds ago... f�çk�r&scaron;!!!

Oisín · May 17, 2004, 05:03 PM

Hmm... in the store section of apple.com.cn, they don't have the 1.5 GHz PowerBooks yet... okay, that's fair enough, they're fairly new...

BUT

They also still ship PowerBooks with Jaguar!!! What, they haven't heard of Panther yet???

(Strange, since one of my friends got her iBook updated to Panther in an Apple Store here...)

Eug Wanker · May 17, 2004, 06:40 PM

Originally posted by Ois�n:
Hmm... in the store section of apple.com.cn, they don't have the 1.5 GHz PowerBooks yet... okay, that's fair enough, they're fairly new...

BUT

They also still ship PowerBooks with Jaguar!!! What, they haven't heard of Panther yet???

(Strange, since one of my friends got her iBook updated to Panther in an Apple Store here...)

Apple Store? Where in Beijing?

Kenneth · May 17, 2004, 07:19 PM

People who live in China CAN access to apple.com thru web proxy.

If you can read simplified Chinese.. click here

Oisín · May 18, 2004, 05:02 AM

Originally posted by Eug Wanker:
Apple Store? Where in Beijing?

I believe it was the one over on Zhongguancun Dajie, just south of Zhongguancun Yiqiao (or Erqiao, can't remember which one it is)...

Meneldil · May 18, 2004, 05:32 AM

Originally posted by Ois�n:
I believe it was the one over on Zhongguancun Dajie, just south of Zhongguancun Yiqiao (or Erqiao, can't remember which one it is)...

There's one in the Oriental Plaza on Wangfujing Street too. Last time I was in Beijing I spent awhile playing with the G5 there.

Oisín · May 18, 2004, 05:34 AM

Originally posted by Meneldil:
There's one in the Oriental Plaza on Wangfujing Street too. Last time I was in Beijing I spent awhile playing with the G5 there.

There's one in the Oriental Plaza??? The one with the subway in the basement???

I've been in there dozens of time and I've never seen an Apple Store there... must check this out, 'cause the one in Zhongguancun is quite small and not too well equipped...

BTW, I'm thinking of maybe buying a PB here in China (instead of over the internet) - do you (or anyone else) have any positive/negative experiences with buying from Apple Stores here?

Meneldil · May 18, 2004, 05:44 AM

Originally posted by djohnson:
Interesting... I wonder why the commies want to block out Apple? Also, why no iPod? I guess they dont want their people listening to "hip" music.

I could see Apple blocking it - because the import taxes are so high, American prices are usually lower than Chinese prices. For example, the iSight is about $200 here, as opposed to $150 in the US.

They do sell the iPod over here, too. When I was in Shanghai for National Day, the People's Square subway station had a bunch of floor to ceiling ads with the silhouette on a single color background. I've seen a few people with them too, but not many. Flash players are a lot more popular here.

Meneldil · May 18, 2004, 05:56 AM

Originally posted by Ois�n:
There's one in the Oriental Plaza??? The one with the subway in the basement???

I've been in there dozens of time and I've never seen an Apple Store there... must check this out, 'cause the one in Zhongguancun is quite small and not too well equipped...

BTW, I'm thinking of maybe buying a PB here in China (instead of over the internet) - do you (or anyone else) have any positive/negative experiences with buying from Apple Stores here?

Yeah - it's towards the eastern end on the upper level. It's next to the Epson store, which is easier to see. Or ask the security guards for pingguo diannao.

You should definitely look at the prices - they're much higher in most cases than in the US. I don't know how the prices are in Europe, so maybe it's not that great a difference. I suppose if you get it shipped to China it'll still cost extra, so maybe it doesn't matter. I know laptops are supposed to have a worldwide warranty, but I've never bought any Apple hardware from the store - just a game and a couple other random things.

Oisín · May 18, 2004, 06:01 AM

Originally posted by Meneldil:
I could see Apple blocking it - because the import taxes are so high, American prices are usually lower than Chinese prices. For example, the iSight is about $200 here, as opposed to $150 in the US.

But why would that be a reason for them to block the site? I mean, if you buy things off apple.com for American prices, you have to live in America, so blocking it really doesn't make a difference...

Edit: Just discovered that while you pay 1 600 RMB for an iSight on apple.com.cn, you only pay 1 274 RMB from asia.apple.com - the only difference being that the first is for the mainland, and the second is for Hong Kong...

Meneldil · May 18, 2004, 06:14 AM

Originally posted by Ois�n:
But why would that be a reason for them to block the site? I mean, if you buy things off apple.com for American prices, you have to live in America, so blocking it really doesn't make a difference...

Edit: Just discovered that while you pay 1 600 RMB for an iSight on apple.com.cn, you only pay 1 274 RMB from asia.apple.com - the only difference being that the first is for the mainland, and the second is for Hong Kong...

I dunno why they would, but it doesn't seem likely to me that it's the government blocking it. I only know of one site they actually permanently block - BBC News Online. Apparently they take others down temporarily, like news.google.com, but it never lasts. Perhaps it's just the same network funkiness that makes a site inaccessible for a few days every once in awhile. I've had that happen to me on occasion, and I'm pretty sure it isn't the government doing it.

Oisín · May 18, 2004, 06:32 AM

Originally posted by Meneldil:
I dunno why they would, but it doesn't seem likely to me that it's the government blocking it. I only know of one site they actually permanently block - BBC News Online. Apparently they take others down temporarily, like news.google.com, but it never lasts. Perhaps it's just the same network funkiness that makes a site inaccessible for a few days every once in awhile. I've had that happen to me on occasion, and I'm pretty sure it isn't the government doing it.

Yeah, I've had that too... only this time it seems to be three weeks... I dunno, I don't use apple.com all that much anyways (I would probably have noticed sooner if I did)...

Funny thing is I was able to see it fine yesterday, for about five minutes, then all of a sudden it was blocked... *looks over shoulder to see if big brother's standing there*

Eug Wanker · May 18, 2004, 08:34 AM

Well, this is interesting, given our talk about the iPod/iTunes and China:

Apple's iTunes strikes a chord in China

Apple has signed a deal with Founder Group, a major computer supplier to the Chinese market, which will see Apple's iTunes digital jukebox software preinstalled on every Founder PC.

The agreement, which will kick off next month, is designed to let Apple gain a foothold in the exploding Chinese digital music market.

How big is the Founder Group? Is there a Chinese version of iTunes?

Meneldil · May 18, 2004, 09:04 AM

Originally posted by Eug Wanker:
Well, this is interesting, given our talk about the iPod/iTunes and China:

Apple's iTunes strikes a chord in China

Apple has signed a deal with Founder Group, a major computer supplier to the Chinese market, which will see Apple's iTunes digital jukebox software preinstalled on every Founder PC.

The agreement, which will kick off next month, is designed to let Apple gain a foothold in the exploding Chinese digital music market.

How big is the Founder Group? Is there a Chinese version of iTunes?

Well, iTunes for Mac includes a simplified Chinese localization, so I expect they have a Chinese language windows version. I don't know how big the Founder Group is, as I've never seen a 'Founder' brand computer (I don't know offhand what that would be in Chinese, though, or if they distribute PCs under another brand) but I've found a few news articles that make it sound like an equal of Legend and Great Wall, which means pretty big.

Oisín · May 18, 2004, 09:09 AM

Sure you know the Founder Group - just not by its English name!

I didn't know it either until just know when I googled it - does this look familiar to you? :

They are very big in China, like you said, comparable to Legend or Great Wall (or even lenovo)... good news for FG PC users then

Meneldil · May 18, 2004, 09:17 AM

Originally posted by Ois�n:
Sure you know the Founder Group - just not by its English name!

I didn't know it either until just know when I googled it - does this look familiar to you? :

They are very big in China, like you said, comparable to Legend or Great Wall (or even lenovo)... good news for FG PC users then

Okay, I know them.

They're big.

Angus_D · May 18, 2004, 09:39 AM

Movie trailers perhaps? Those don't seem to be on the .com.cn site.

Most regional Apple sites still have the Switch tab (the UK one does, for instance) because the iTMS isn't available yet.

Oisín · May 18, 2004, 09:51 AM

Originally posted by Angus_D:
Movie trailers perhaps? Those don't seem to be on the .com.cn site.

Funny... there's a link to the trailers at .com... lotta good that'll do...

Besides, I don't see what harm the trailers on .com could be anyway... I mean, it's not like I can't go down and buy all the DVD's if I want to...

Most regional Apple sites still have the Switch tab (the UK one does, for instance) because the iTMS isn't available yet.

.com.cn doesn't seem to either - I just read through some of the iTunes page and can't find any mention of iTMS...

Eug Wanker · May 18, 2004, 09:55 AM

Nice to see such a large company go with iTunes.

Originally posted by Angus_D:
Movie trailers perhaps? Those don't seem to be on the .com.cn site.

Most regional Apple sites still have the Switch tab (the UK one does, for instance) because the iTMS isn't available yet.

Yeah, even our Canadian site has no iPod/iTunes tab. I had forgotten about that since I usually go to the US site unless I'm buying from the Canadian store.

Oisín · May 18, 2004, 10:08 AM

Originally posted by Meneldil:
You should definitely look at the prices - they're much higher in most cases than in the US. I don't know how the prices are in Europe, so maybe it's not that great a difference. I suppose if you get it shipped to China it'll still cost extra, so maybe it doesn't matter. I know laptops are supposed to have a worldwide warranty, but I've never bought any Apple hardware from the store - just a game and a couple other random things.

Well, in Europe (or in Denmark in any case), they're often close to twice as much as in the US (less if you buy online). I remember seeing a PB15" in Fona in Copenhagen for 38 000 DKK (just over USD 6 000), so it's definitely either buy here in China or buy a used one from MacNN or PowerBookCentral or something like that... depending on what's cheaper vs. better, including shipping and stuff...

What would really rock would be to buy a new one from the Apple Store at apple.com (US prices) and have it sent here - just too bad that's not doable...

MacGorilla · May 18, 2004, 10:10 AM

Must be that "Think Different thing"

Eug Wanker · May 18, 2004, 10:45 AM

Is the US iTMS visible in iTunes in China? I know you can't buy anything, but can you see anything?

Oisín · May 18, 2004, 11:13 AM

Originally posted by Eug Wanker:
Is the US iTMS visible in iTunes in China? I know you can't buy anything, but can you see anything?

I looked a little closer on the website, and it actually does say something about buying music online in the iTunes section... I'm not sure if it's the real iTMS thing or just... erm, something else...

Eug Wanker · May 18, 2004, 11:24 AM

Originally posted by Ois�n:
I looked a little closer on the website, and it actually does say something about buying music online in the iTunes section... I'm not sure if it's the real iTMS thing or just... erm, something else...

No I'm talking about if you load up iTunes now in China, does the US store show up?

In Canada I can browse the tracks and get previews in iTunes for the US iTunes music store, but I can't buy anything.

Meneldil · May 18, 2004, 11:33 AM

Originally posted by Eug Wanker:
No I'm talking about if you load up iTunes now in China, does the US store show up?

In Canada I can browse the tracks and get previews in iTunes for the US iTunes music store, but I can't buy anything.

Yeah, same here.