It might be time to start dialing back expectations for Apple in China.
The Chinese government appears to be starting a public relations attack on Apple through various media outlets.
The People's Daily newspaper in China has front page story criticizing Apple's customer service, according to the Wall Street Journal. It also accused Apple of declining to talk to journalists and issuing "empty and self-praising" responses to a recent critical story from a Chinese state-controlled TV station.
The Journal calls The People's Daily, the Communist party's "traditional mouthpiece."
For the past few years, analysts and investors have been eying the Chinese market as the next place for Apple's mega growth. Even CEO Tim Cook said he thought China could be Apple's biggest market in a few years.
But the trick about China is that it's not an easy market to navigate, and it tends to frown on foreign companies.
Today's front-page story follows an investigative report from China's state-controlled TV station, China Central Television, which accused Apple of cheating Chinese consumers, and ignoring Chinese laws for warranties.
Jeremy Goldkorn of Danwei, which tracks the Chinese Internet and Media, says the original CCTV report accused "Apple of discriminating against Chinese customers by offering lower levels of service and charging fees for replacing back covers of faulty iPhones, which is done for free in other countries."
At the same time this report aired, some Chinese celebrities made disparaging remarks about Apple on Weibo, a popular Twitter-like service in China.
The comments from Chinese celebrities looks like they were part of a coordinated smear on Apple. Singer Peter Ho wrote, "Cannot believe Apple is playing so many dirty tricks in customer service. As an Apple fan, I feel hurt. Won’t you [Apple] feel ashamed in front of Steve Jobs? Won’t you feel ashamed in front of those young people who sell their kidneys for your products? You dare to bully consumers simply because you are a famous brand. Need to post around 8:20 pm."
The last part, "Need to post around 8:20 pm," made it seem like someone sent it to Ho and told him to post it in conjunction with the TV report. Goldkorn says the word on the street is that one of Apple's rivals is behind the attack.
Couple this with today's People's Daily report and it sure looks like something has changed in China and its government is starting to run interference on Apple.
Goldkorn says the Chinese government has been making noise about Android, as well as Apple.
"The signs are clear that regulators and establishment media would both be happy for foreign mobile phone handsets and operating systems to lose market share," says Goldkorn, "This should be remembered by anyone betting on Apple as a China play, including CEO Tim Cook who earlier this year told Xinhua News Agency that he believes China will become Apple’s largest market."
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