Rewritten by Tom Pauken
On Tuesday, Apple Inc. announced that it launched an online store and a simplified Chinese version of its App Store for consumers in China, the most recent move in an aggressive expansion by the corporation after neglecting the market for a number of years, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Nowadays, Chinese customers can order Apple products, including the iPhone 4 and the iPad, online and have the products delivered. Before, buyers of iPhones had to order the devices on Apple's Chinese website and pick them up at one of four Chinese mainland Apple Stores in Beijing or Shanghai.
Apple was shipping iPhones in one or two weeks and iPads in 24 hours in China as of Tuesday morning, according to the new online store in China.
The corporation's expansion in China occurs as competition in the country's fast-growing and nascent smartphone market is heating up, with HTC Corp., a Taiwan-based smartphone maker, also planning an expansion here.
Last year, Apple had only one store in China and relied mostly on authorized resellers to reach other customers. Apple plans to open 25 Apple Stores in the nation by 2011, and has also sped up the release of new products in China, the world's largest mobile market and second-largest personal computer market after the United States of America.
As e-commerce is booming in China and consumers are spending billions of dollars a year in online transactions, the move will likely boost the company's distribution in China. Apple had 7.1 percent of China's smartphone market as of the second quarter, which ranks fifth after Nokia Corp., Samsung Electronics Co., Motorola Inc. and Sony Ericsson, as disclosed by the research firm Analysys International.
Apple has a less than 1 percent share of unit shipments in the PC market, according to research firm IDC.
E-commerce is still a more complicated business in China, where many customers prefer to pay cash on delivery, making it more difficult for deliveries to reach remote regions due to a lack of infrastructure development. Unlike in the U.S., where numerous brands have their own successful e-commerce websites, about three-quarters of online shopping in China is conducted through Taobao.com, a retail website that is operated through Alibaba Group.
Nonetheless, Apple's online store warns customers living outside of large urban areas that their deliveries may take one or two extra business days. The store will accept credit and debit cards, as well as cash deposits and bank transfers.
