Beijing bans government officials from using Apple gadgets

Beijing's clampdown on the use of foreign information technology in the nation's public sector may have exposed new levels of distrust, after a report suggested that a range of Apple devices are being excluded from government purchases.

Ten Apple products - including the iPad, the iPad Mini, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro - were omitted from a final government procurement list distributed in July, a Bloomberg report said yesterday, citing officials who asked not to be identified.

The models were on a June version of the list drafted by the National Development and Reform Commission and Ministry of Finance, the officials said.

The next review for the list will be in January. Products from Dell and Hewlett-Packard were included on both lists, the officials said.

A source told the South China Morning Post that there were multiple procurement lists in the public sector.

Apple declined to comment.

Sandy Shen, the Shanghai-based analyst at research firm Gartner, said the reported list "was more indicative of the government's position rather than something that would impact Apple's future sales".