Lenovo: We're Lucky Steve Jobs Has Bad Temper

By Marcus Yam
published

Lenovo is thankful that the Apple genius doesn't care about China.

Chinese company Lenovo is known in the western market for its continuation of the ThinkPad line ever since it bought it from IBM. As big a deal as Lenovo is in the business laptop sector, Lenovo is the big fish in China – and it thanks Apple for that.

"We are lucky that Steve Jobs has such a bad temper and doesn’t care about China. If Apple were to spend the same effort on the Chinese consumer as we do, we would be in trouble," said Liu Chuanzhi, the head of Lenovo, in a Financial Times story.

"Steve Jobs is a genius. He is the exception to my rule," he said. "My theory is that a manager needs to be the string on which he puts one pearl after another. But Jobs himself is a big pearl."

Lenovo still has grips on about 30 percent of China's market as the computer company is now recovering economically. The company is thankful that Apple hasn't yet ramped up its distribution and marketing in China, for Lenovo fears that Apple could quickly take a bite out of the pie if it wanted to.

Lenovo has its LePhone competing against the iPhone, but Apple has the head start even with the exclusive deal with Chinese carrier China Unicom.

Speaking about the LePhone, Liu said, "This is a very practical thing. The iPhone has more than 100,000 content providers, and we have no more than 1,000, but our Chinese customers feel our applications are very convenient to use."

Apple will be opening a new store in Shanghai this coming weekend (and Flickr pictures make it look very futuristic), with plans to open 25 retail stores in China before the end of the year.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
28 Comments Comment from the forums
  • N.Broekhuijsen
    I see Steve has suffered from a dream Stewie is known for: WORLD DOMINATION!

    Hell their names are similar.
    Reply
  • halls
    You don't know how lucky you are.
    Reply
  • bamslang
    Lucky for Apple that Steve doesn't care about China as much. You release a bugged product like the new iPhone in China and they drop your poducts faster than Foxcon employees drop from their windows. Don't believe me, look at Xbox penetration in China. Apparently their consumers actually care about products that work.
    Reply
  • Godfail
    BamslangLucky for Apple that Steve doesn't care about China as much. You release a bugged product like the new iPhone in China and they drop your poducts faster than Foxcon employees drop from their windows. Don't believe me, look at Xbox penetration in China. Apparently their consumers actually care about products that work.
    I don't even know how to respond to this...it's wrong on too many levels...you win.
    Reply
  • mouettus
    if I was really afraid of some other company, I wouldn't say so. It would just trigger the big ego to come and take my spot.
    Reply
  • jellico
    xbeaterI see Steve has suffered from a dream Stewie is known for: WORLD DOMINATION!Hell their names are similar.No, I don't think that's true. You see, Steve has always fancied himself an artist. As such, he feels his products appeal to other artists and pseudo-intellectuals. Consequently, he has no use for nor desire to appeal to the slobbering masses. That probably explains why Apple has not made a push in China. The perception that they are a collective society without individuality (and hence, without art).

    Anyway, I've said it before and I'll say it again: Steve Jobs is so uptight, the stick up his ass has a stick up its ass.
    Reply
  • sundragon
    BamslangLucky for Apple that Steve doesn't care about China as much. You release a bugged product like the new iPhone in China and they drop your poducts faster than Foxcon employees drop from their windows. Don't believe me, look at Xbox penetration in China. Apparently their consumers actually care about products that work.
    Really, the Xbox?!?! The failure rate for the Xbox was 42%... http://www.destructoid.com/new-survey-puts-xbox-360-failure-rate-at-42--171088.phtml There is no comparison - It wasn't not working because they held the controller differently, it failed, period...

    This site has become the domain of trolls... Every company puts out products once in a while where they fall short, Apple was trying to make the reception better by integrating the antenna into the chassis and making it a large structural component... If you don't like the company for trying to push the envelope, please by all means BUY DELL and, Oh, wait - http://www.slashgear.com/dell-accused-of-hardware-failure-cover-up-3092318/

    Tom's - I've followed you for years, I think from when you first started and what happened? You have become the domain where little kids flame and troll and your reporting has gone to hell... It's sad because you used to be one of the best resources on the web!!

    To the trolls - Apple is a company that makes products and a profit... You no like - You no buy... But stop the whole demagoguery...
    Reply
  • warezme
    The only reason Stevie is not poking at China is that if wants to play ball in that country he has to give his tech info to the Chinese government or they won't let him play. We all know how much Stevie likes giving away his tech.
    Reply
  • bamslang
    sundragonReally, the Xbox?!?! The failure rate for the Xbox was 42%... http://www.destructoid.com/new-sur 1088.phtml There is no comparison - It wasn't not working because they held the controller differently, it failed, period...This site has become the domain of trolls... Every company puts out products once in a while where they fall short, Apple was trying to make the reception better by integrating the antenna into the chassis and making it a large structural component... If you don't like the company for trying to push the envelope, please by all means BUY DELL and, Oh, wait - http://www.slashgear.com/dell-accu p-3092318/Tom's - I've followed you for years, I think from when you first started and what happened? You have become the domain where little kids flame and troll and your reporting has gone to hell... It's sad because you used to be one of the best resources on the web!!To the trolls - Apple is a company that makes products and a profit... You no like - You no buy... But stop the whole demagoguery...
    Really? The only thing wrong with the iPhone was an antenna problem: http://www.tomsguide.com/us/iphone-4-iphone-reception-problems-applecare,news-7356.html? How about testing your product before rushing it out to the market and allow the millions of chumps to pay to beta test your product? While you’re right in the fact that Apple isn’t the only company to do this, don’t pretend what they did is different than what Microsoft did with the Xbox. You’re a moron if you think that Apple didn’t know of these problems before hand.

    While Apple does have good ideas and can be innovative at times, they aren’t the innovator many fanbois claim they are. They usually just take preexisting ideas and make them successful, then claim they came up with the idea. Then, they take that product, and spread it across 4 generations so they can charge you 4 times for a product that they could have just made from the get go (no camera in the iPad yet there is a prefitted spot for one?). You think Apple was the first one to do the mp3 player? You think Apple was the first one to create a tablet? While I think Apple has done a lot of good for the tech industry in some aspects, they are also a company that prides itself on killing competition and stifling innovation. I’m just happy that they are finally gaining some market share and creating a ton of buzz.
    That way, hackers will start testing Apple’s software and showing just how vulnerable their super product is and the governments around the world will start treating them like they do other monopolistic companies.
    Reply
  • Kelavarus
    sundragonReally, the Xbox?!?! The failure rate for the Xbox was 42%... http://www.destructoid.com/new-sur 1088.phtml
    An anonymous survey on one website is still not some scientific fact. Ironic that you start complaining about terrible reporting and little kids trolling/flaming.
    Reply