We had an awful lot of China news this week. And look, you’re busy, we get that. You didn’t read all of it. It’s not the end of the world! In fact, you get the last laugh, because here the biggest China stories this week, all neatly listified and laid out for you right here for easy perusal. You’re welcome.
1. 3G Phones Outselling 2G, Smartphones Outselling Feature Phones
We all knew it was coming, but now the age of the 3G smartphone is officially here, as the first half of 2012 saw purchases of 3G phones overtake 2G phones, and purchases of smartphones rose above purchases of feature phones for each of the last few months. Is the feature phone dead in China? No. But it is weakening, and it will be dead soon enough.
2. Group Buy Market Plummets to 12-Month Lows
Group Buy sites seem to be going the way of the 2G feature phone here in China, only they’re doing it much, much faster. This weeks news is but the latest in a long line of grim signs for e-commerce’s embarrassing younger brother.
3. New iPad Coming to China July 20
The new iPad is already the kinda-old iPad in most markets, but here in the land of perpetual tech import delays, the new iPad is still to be released. This week, we finally got an actual date: July 20. Apple is implementing a new system for selling the devices that theoretically should cut down on the fights that have plagued past launches, but we’ll have to wait and see how it goes.
4. China Blocks Everything
This week we saw a trifecta of blocks on China’s internet that were the cause of much discussion. First Sina Weibo blocked the US Shanghai Consulate’s account, then the GFW blocked Slideshare, and Sina finished the trifecta with a weibo search block for the word “truth.” Yup, they seriously did that.
5. Xiaomi Going Global
Xiaomi’s CEO and some other executives took a trip to Taiwan to research launching the phone in yet-to-be-named other countries. A Taiwan launch this year seems all but assured at this point; but will be see the Xiaomi go even more global in 2013? It’s starting to sound that way.
That’s all for this week, folks! For our full spread of China coverage, you can click here or subscribe to our China RSS.
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