Mr. Shangkong | China's dumb strategy when it comes to smartphones
Smartphone makers in China focus on quick profits rather than breakthrough technologies
We all know that things move fast in technology, but there is something troubling about a weird kind of industry culture developing among many Chinese technology firms: the push to make quick money by launching new products fast.
Talk with Chinese technology industry leaders and almost every one of them wants to create the "Apple of China", or beat top United States e-commerce site Amazon in just a few years.
My ears have been full of such slogan-like ambitions since I began leading my new team in covering technology news earlier this year.
Rome wasn't built in a day. Even though we know we are now in a fast-developing era of internet technology, I'm still hardly convinced any company can simply beat Apple or Amazon just by launching a bunch of similar products and services at lower prices. Take the smartphone business in China. It's more about how to make quick profits than how to beat Apple's iconic iPhone in terms of new breakthrough technologies.
In just the past few weeks, my colleagues have received half a dozen invitations for new smartphone events hosted by Chinese technology companies, including LeTV, an online video service company that wants to be China's Netflix, and Meitu, a company popular among the young for its photo editing app.
Meitu must have a big marketing budget given its invitations to dozens of celebrities to join the launch party for its first smartphone.