Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s China Syndrome: iPhone vs. the World

But that is definitely changing. The growing middle classes in China, Brazil, and India are ready to buy smartphones. China, especially, says IDC, “which supplanted the U.S. last year as the global leader in smartphone shipments, is at the forefront of this shift.”

Even the young tech-conscious consumers of the world have to live within their economic realities. Zhang Ying is a 31-year-old Shanghai resident who wants the latest tech gadgets, but can’t pay a premium for it. He bought a pirated version of an HTC phone last year. “Every person has a price point,” he said. “At a time when some of my friends were buying Samsung or iPhone, I wanted to show that I can keep up with them. A lot of domestic phones are cheap and of fairly good quality.”

“The markets we target have 5.8 billion people, whereas the U.S. and Europe have less than one billion,” MediaTek CFO David Ku told the New York Times. “I need to aim at a global market, not just developed countries.”

By the way, MetroPCS Communications Inc (NYSE:PCS) began offering a Coolpad 4G LTE phone last summer at a no-annual-contract price of $149. True, it runs an older version of Android (2.3), and it doesn’t have the highest megapixel camera (3.2), but compare that to paying $649 retail for an iPhone 5.

The article Apple’s China Syndrome: iPhone vs. the World originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Dan Radovsky.

Fool contributor Dan Radovsky has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple.

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