苹果是必备装置？

Presentation and the Chinese concept of face

There is much to be said about the way that Apple presents and sells its products at the retail level and even on a broader marketing scale, but this isn’t the time to discuss it. Suffice to say that Apple’s products hold a certain, almost universal prestige. They’re a premium product, presented in a premium retail environment.

This sort of prestige holds out a type of cachet that drives people to purchase Apple products, not only for their usefulness, but also for the status that they bring to the purchaser.

Almost nowhere in the world is this of more import than in the Chinese culture, where the concept of ‘face’ is an integral part of society.

Apple’s retail stores offer the Chinese consumer a chance to test the products in a beautiful and visually stimulating atmosphere and those efforts are paying off with big sales numbers.

This kind of attention to the senses and emotions of the consumer wasn’t pioneered by Apple of course, but they are one of the first major companies to bring that kind of experience to China’s city centers in a big way.

Complimenting(sic) this presentation is the concept of ‘face’. Very, very simply put it is a concept that involves the cultural standing of an individual among his or her peers, but it also carries along other facets that have to do with business and personal relationships and mutual respect. It’s an incredibly complex subject and we won’t be distilling every aspect of it, but there are certain points that are important when it comes to discussing Apple’s business in China.

The primary concept of ‘face’ is that of self-esteem or reputation. This is often referred to as mianzi. The desire to have a positive self-image and to project that image out to other people leads many Chinese people, especially the young and wealthy, to seek out high-end and prestigious products.

Many times this desire to project an aura of wealth and prestige can lead the normally very pragmatic and rational Chinese consumer to make choices based on the appearance of the product and its symbolic value in society.

This difference in the way that the products are presented is doing its job in separating Apple’s products from the rest of the pack almost everywhere that its retail stores are located. Apple is doing no more in China than it does elsewhere to make sure that its products are being seen as objects of desire, but that method is even more effective in the modern Chinese culture of wealth and status.

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Whereas conspicuous consumption was previously thought to be something engaged in primarily by the rich, recent research by economists Kerwin Kofi Charles, Erik Hurst, and professor of finance Nikolai Roussanov points to a different understanding that this behavior is more common among poorer groups of people and in emerging economies. Displays of wealth in these groups serve to combat the impression that a person is poor, often because they are a member of a group perceived by society as poor.[2] The 1996 book The Millionaire Next Door also challenges the traditional views on conspicuous consumption by looking at the wealthiest Americans, finding that most millionaires are quite frugal and lead modest lifestyles.

wherestip wrote:

I would hate to see what consumer reaction to cutting-edge products looked like.

http://www.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_c2#/video/tech/2012/01/13/pkg-grant-iphone-riots.cnn

Samsung has overtaken Nokia as the world's best-selling mobile phone maker, and Juniper Research reported Tuesday that Samsung also overtook Apple in smartphone sales in the first quarter, in what it described as "increasingly a two-horse race."

According to a recent article from an ABC affiliate in Austin, TX, the city has been chosen as the next in line to receive Google Fiber. The incredibly fast broadband network - offering speeds up to 100 times faster than regular broadband - has been operational in Kansas City since 2012 and it's likely that denizens of Austin will have similar packages available at launch, including a $70 per month gigabit plan, a $120 option that includes TV service, or a seven-year regular broadband plan after a $300 installation charge.

Austin has snagged a highly coveted position as the second city to receive Google Fiber after the successful rollout in Kansas City. According to Carlos Kirjner of Bernstein Research, Austin's population density - greater than that of Kansas City - will make the expansion of Google Fiber more economically friendly for both the company and the city.

AT&T Announces Intent to Build 1 Gigabit Fiber Network in Austin

Austin, Texas, April 09, 2013

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) said today that it is pleased to see local communities and municipalities acknowledging the promise and power of economic development associated with telecommunications investment.

“Most encouraging is the recognition by government officials that policies which eliminate unnecessary regulation, lower costs and speed infrastructure deployment, can be a meaningful catalyst to additional investment in advanced networks which drives employment and economic growth,” said Randall Stephenson, AT&T chairman and CEO.

Today, AT&T announced that in conjunction with its previously announced Project VIP expansion of broadband access, it is prepared to build an advanced fiber optic infrastructure in Austin, Texas, capable of delivering speeds up to 1 gigabit per second. AT&T’s expanded fiber plans in Austin anticipate it will be granted the same terms and conditions as Google on issues such as geographic scope of offerings, rights of way, permitting, state licenses and any investment incentives. This expanded investment is not expected to materially alter AT&T’s anticipated 2013 capital expenditures.