Maria, I was talking to my friends from China a couple of days ago and they told me though, the official  day of Iphone release in China was one of the latest in the world, you could get  Iphone 5 much earlier than anywhere in the world.

Another thing is - people do not buy Iphones very often just because there are plenty of cheap replicas there- I guess, Iphone costs around 6000 RMB  while you can get a cheap replica for  500-800 RMBs-yes, it  has may be a worser performance  but if you don't speak English , you don't need many apps and Internet plans are still pretty expensive, so  having an Iphone is just expensive in terms of  mobile costs.

Paul --

Nothing specific about iPhone 5, other than it's the one that's coming out now, and there may have been some pent-up demand, with people waiting for it.

"China is still in the early stages of smartphone adoption, but it has already overtaken the US as the world's largest smartphone market, Trefis reports. So even though Apple has only 20 percent of the market, that's one-fifth of a huge opportunity."

Anytime I heard people saying that a country of over a billion people has overtaken a country with less inferior population size in terms of market share, I just laugh. To me it just soundedlike the inevitable end. 

But if Imay ask Maria, why iPhone 5 and not iPhone 4 that does the trick for Apple Inc in China? 

That's amazing to read that China Mobile has 15 million unlocked phones on their network. Every one of those phones were likely paid for in full since there are no susidies in China. I can only imagine how successful Apple will be when they finally do reach an agreement with China Mobile to officially sell phones through China's largest mobile carrier. It's probably not going to stop Android from continuing to be the dominant smartphone platform in China, however. 

Absolutely, Samsung makes all the major internal components for the iPhones, including the camera. 

Mitch --

I have, occasionally, heard Western managers say things like, "Well, that's the way they do things here..." and "You have to understand the local culture..."

The thing is, for any above-average brand, you could say this in any country anywhere. If you're better than average, there's always a tendency to slip.

But the higher the disparity between your company's standards and the local standards, the tougher it is to keep them up. 

This is most apparent in the early parts of the supply chain, where the results aren't as visible to customers, and you get unsafe working conditions, and so on.

As the public gets more visibility into corporate supply chains, this particular situation is starting to improve.

I've been trying to remember specific consumer products that are global brands, but inferior in China. Plenty of things taste different, but that's too be expected - regional tastes vary.

I tended to buy Western brands in stores catering to foreigners, and local brands in the local stores... Ahh -- books -- many best sellers are only printed in paperback versions in Asia, or were, when I was there.

And you now have the case before the Supreme Court about a student who was buying books in Thailand and reselling them here:

http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/26/justice/court-student-copyright/index.html

Oh -- magazines. There's an example of international brands partnering with local partners and producing content that is simply atrocious.

I don't want to name names, since I work in the industry and want to keep working, but there are a number of really great news outlets that, when they publish a Chinese edition, translate a few international articles, add a bit of local padding, and some unreadable local commentary. Journalistic standards are often ignore, say, about not accepting gifts from sources or allowing sources to see articles before publication.

I remember once, when I was a staff writer at a magazine, visiting their sister location in Russia. None of their articles would have passed muster back home -- they would have been shipped straight back for rewrites, additional sourcing, and context.

Maria - Chinese customers don't get an inferior version of the iPhone; they get the same product everyone else gets.

Is that a problem with other international brands in China? Do Chinese consumers get an inferior version?

Michael Kassner - Why's that? Because Samsung sells iPhone components?

Reminds me of the situation with Google. If Android wins, Google wins of course. But if the iPhone wins, that means people use more Google mobile services, and that means Google wins too.