'Brand China' takes aim at global electronics giants
BERNICE HAN
June 20, 2010 - 2:05PM
               
After decades building its reputation as the go-to country for electronics manufacturers, China's intention to promote its own brands and produce the world's next Sony or Samsung was obvious during a massive telecoms exhibition in Singapore.
While foreign giants such as Apple, Dell and Nokia have taken advantage of China's vast pool of cheap labour to manufacture or assemble their products, the country's own electronics firms are now looking to make their presence felt in the global marketplace.
Chinese firms led by heavyweights Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corporation flew the Asian giant's flag proudly at the massive annual CommunicAsia and BroadcastAsia trade fairs in Singapore, signalling the rise of a new power in the industry.

They were the top foreign exhibitors with 257 booths displaying everything from sleek tablet computers to slim mobile phones with Chinese branding, proof that the country is not just a cheap production centre for Western firms.
Once dominated by European and North American brands, the global telecoms industry is now more fragmented, and Chinese companies have joined the Japanese and South Koreans on the front lines of the battle for Asian and global market share.
Finland's Nokia is still the world's biggest mobile phone manufacturer, followed by Samsung and LG Electronics, the twin giants of South Korea's high-tech industry.
One of the most popular Chinese brands is Huawei Technologies, which had a massive booth at CommunicAsia displaying its mobile phones and tablets.
And beyond consumer devices, Chinese firms are also supplying digital encoders and receivers to the telecoms industry.
Technology consultancy IDC said the global telecom industry is now worth 1.5 trillion US dollars a year, with the mobile sector accounting for than half of the total.
"More and more Chinese companies are paying more attention to the exhibitions overseas," said Tina Feng, who is in charge of international sales with Chengdu Dexin Digital Technology, a wireless equipment maker.
"You know, China has developed very fast so they can supply high-quality stuff now, and they want to show it through their products," she told AFP, beaming with obvious national pride.
She said her company, just a visitor to the show in 2008, decided to exhibit for the first time this year after spotting plenty of opportunities to reach out to new markets.
"There are many customers from Asia so our company hope to enlarge this market," Feng said.
"It's been rather busy for us at the show. We should be back next year again," she smiled.
Chinese participation at this year's show, which ended Friday, jumped 21 percent from 2009 and the interest is not only coming from the major players, according to organiser Singapore Exhibition Services (SES).
"It is not just the Huawei or the ZTE that you are talking about but you see a lot more group participation, and you also see a lot more of the medium-sized enterprises taking part," said Victor Wong, SES project director for communications events.
They were also the largest foreign exhibitor last year, but only by a small margin, said Wong.
Prior to that, the United States had the biggest number of foreign booths in 2008, but American firms were a distant second at this year's show with 179 exhibitors.
"I think one of the reasons for them to come out is they want to export, they find that it is really worthwhile for them to do so because if you continue to do stay in China, you can only compete on price," he said.
"I think we have confidence that the Chinese participation will continue to grow," Wong added.
Alan Yin, a regional sales director with Chinese electronics company Konka Group, is convinced his country has what it takes to produce the world's next Samsung, Sony or Motorola.
"In the past years, we have learnt technology from the Western countries but now a lot of Chinese companies have invested a lot in research and development in the high-tech area.
"I am sure in the next 10 or 20 years later, Chinese companies will be stronger," Yin said.
© 2010 AFP
This story is sourced direct from an overseas news agency as an additional service to readers. Spelling follows North American usage, along with foreign currency and measurement units.

Link here:
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking- ... -20100620-yotc.html

Quality is key because first impressions are lasting impressions.  It took samsung decades to overcome it poor reputation.  Only since the new younger generation did not know they were poor quality did they have a chance

Quality and reliability is pretty important and the basic requirements for a successful product.

After you get good quality and reliability, you have to start to design brilliant products with unique style and design.

Then marketing, customer service etc., follow to build up the brand name.

Not for a very long time yet!

The problem is made in China already has negative conotations.

It will take them 10-30 years to shake the negative image they have.

Honda tried to break into the US market in the 1950s and 1960s, they were annilated almost to bankruptcy. It too them till 1978 to come out with the monster CBX1100 bike when people started to buy them again.

Only by 1985 did they start to get significant market share after copying best British bike technology and paying racers massive sums of money to ride their bikes in racing. Mick Doohan for example in 1985 became a legend on a Yamaha. 1987 came the RC30, only then did Honda regain its reputation.


Hyundai was shit in the 1980s and 1990s, today many people in the UK still do not trust Hyundais which is why they have to put out 7 year guarentee gimmicks.

Toyota have done this too as people lost confidence in them.

Made in China lost many peoples' confidence a long time ago the quality hasn't really improved much either therefore it will be 2030-2045 before people will take made/designed in China products seriously.

Certainly. China has all the resources and more to produce products with quality that are reliable. Its the latter part you metion, marketing and customer service that China falls back on. The Cheap China brand is the only obstacle.

If they can hit a low cost price point it might work.  Perception of people nowadays is that "everything is made in china". So if that's the case people buy if the price is right

well, this story will happen again and again until production racing stops.

yesterday Taiwan, today is China, tomorrow maybe Vietnam or some other place.

All the crap that China puts out is poor quality. All China is good at is copying other peoples products and selling them cheaper. They cut corners just to make a quick buck. Have you ever seen a fake Chicken Egg? You ask yourself why would anyone make fake eggs? As long as there is money to be made then some one in China is going to do it. What about the baby milk formula? No one will take Made in China products seriously especially the electronics. The only companies that are actually making decent products are the ones that are companies that China bought technologies from. Like Lenovo ie. IBM. America is screwing itself by manufacturing cheaply in China. This allows the Chinese to indirectly have access to our technologies and business practices.

That is exactly the kind of perception China aims to break. Most of all, you must look at the figures... China is doing just satisfactory compared to most of the world in the electronics industry as well. Despite China doing some of the things to an extent that you mention, it is doing very well so there is no extraordinary reason to critisze. The only thing is,  such is the ambition of china that its aiming to be at the top of the world by targetting the giants in the industry. I am sure there are very educated men and women co-ordinating exactly how this will be done... the kind of perception you have is purely there to be broken.

China has simply come to the realisation that it's not so much about who makes the goods as who makes the most money from the goods. Which point in the process from manufacture to retail of an ipod for example has the highest margin? I'd be willing to bet it's not at the foxxcon plant in China.

For an apple product that must be right since the markup on all apple products is huge.  not sure if it is going to go away either.  but for normal products, where there is competition, where is the highest markup

Looks like they're making a start on tackling those quality control issues.

China cracks down on shonky Mao souvenirs
June 22, 2010 - 10:02AM
               

China, no stranger to product quality scandals, will extend its crackdown to statues of Mao Zedong, the founder of the modern communist state, sold to tourists.
Tourists who flock to Mao's birthplace in Shaoshan in central Hunan province have complained that some statues they buy as mementos are substandard, the official Xinhua news agency said.
"Some souvenirs sold were physically disproportional while others were made with low-quality materials in a slipshod way," the report paraphrased local official Jiang Tao as saying.

"The move is expected to curtail the production and sale of low-quality Mao statues that harm the tourism market and people's feeling for the great man," Jiang said.
From July 1, all Mao statues sold in Shaoshan must meet new technical criteria or could be confiscated and destroyed, Xinhua said.
The Shaoshan statue market is worth more than 100 million yuan ($A16.77 million) in sales a year, it said.
Mao remains a popular figure in China more than three decades after his death, despite the chaos of the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution that he oversaw.
His face remains on the national currency and drivers often dangle his image from their rear-view mirrors for good luck.
Reuters
Link here:
http://www.smh.com.au/travel/tra ... -20100622-yt83.html