科技前沿:苹果荣膺亚洲最受尊敬的跨国公司_科技

科技前沿:苹果荣膺亚洲最受尊敬的跨国公司

Apple's focus remains on its core U.S. market, and also on Europe. Apple shipped 53% of its Macintosh computers to the U.S., 24% to Western Europe and 14% to Asia, in the second calendar quarter of this year, according to IDC. While the company's iconic iPod is popular in Asia, Apple's iTunes store remains out of reach of most Asian consumers. Apple has set up iTunes in Japan and Australia only. Copyright is the big hurdle. Apple has to conclude deals with individual record labels at the country level to allow songs to be sold on the iTunes platform in each market. That labyrinth process has mired efforts to make the service more widely available in Asia. The company is also likely concerned about piracy in Asia, say many analysts.

Still, the company is expanding its presence. Apple opened its first company-owned Apple retail store in Asia, outside of Japan, in China last year. Meanwhile, it has signed agreements with Asian mobile-phone carriers outside of Japan to distribute its hot-selling iPhone in the past 12 months. The product, which was already on sale in Japan, is now available in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, India, Thailand and Taiwan. In late August, China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. announced a three-year deal with Apple to sell the iPhone in China later this year.

The release of the iPhone, Apple's latest must-have gadget, in Asia has helped buoy the company's profile in the region. More than 2,000 people in Singapore queued up for hours when domestic carrier Singapore Telecommunications launched the iPhone on July 10. The customer at the front of the line reportedly waited for 11 hours.