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You say this as though many companies are not already practicing that alternative.
by throwaway713 7y ago
You say this as though many companies are not already practicing that alternative.
- panpanna 7y agoGoogle for one. Although I think they have regretted that decision.
- bduerst 7y agoHow so? Trade war affects you the least (and your competition the most) if you're not even in the country.
- panpanna 7y agoTake Android for example: there are multiple competing app stores in China, many very shady by our standards. This has also created a market for very cheap uncertified Android phones+ accompanying malware.
- bduerst 7y agoAndroid is open source so of course the lowest tier phone OEMs are going to fork/use it. I was in Shanghai a while and could buy counterfeit iphones too despite Apple being there.
- chongli 7y agoGoogle did not have as much skin in the game as Apple does. If Apple defied the CCP, they could lose their factories overnight. To say this would cause immense damage is an understatement. They would have no product to sell within weeks and they would have no means to produce anything. It would be catastrophic. Google, on the other hand, walked away from China and it's business as usual for them.
- sseth 7y agoAt the time of walking away they had 33% of the Chinese search market - so it is hard to see how they did not have skin in the game - to lose all access to the largest market in the world forever. And not only for search, but also youtube, android and so many other things.
- lilyball 7y agoThe alternative benefits nobody. Google famously pulled out of China rather than censor, but that was just a PR move because they already were failing in China. I'd argue that censorship is an altogether different situation anyway. Apple removing iCloud from China helps literally nobody. Chinese users don't have an alternative that isn't subject to the same Chinese laws. Any user that wishes to resort to less-than-legal alternatives can do so whether or not Apple provides iCloud services. Ultimately this boils down to "should the Chinese court systems be able to decide when to hand data over to the Chinese government", because that's the effect of using a Chinese partner company to manage the iCloud data. For everyone else it's "should the US court systems be able to decide" instead, which honestly isn't all that much better.
- lilyball 7y agoJust once I wish someone would put forward an actual argument as to why Apple disabling iCloud in China benefits literally anybody.