SHANGHAI DAILY--A 17-year-old student in Anhui Province sold one of his kidneys for 20,000 yuan only to buy an iPad 2. Now, with his health getting worse, the boy is feeling regret but it is too late, the Global Times reported today.
"I wanted to buy an iPad 2 but could not afford it," said the boy surnamed Zheng in Huaishan City. "A broker contacted me on the Internet and said he could help me sell one kidney for 20,000 yuan."
On April 28 Zheng went to Chenzhou City in neighboring Hunan Province for the kidney removal surgery arranged by the broker. His parents knew nothing about it, Zheng said. He was paid 22,000 yuan after his right kidney was taken out at the Chenzhou No. 198 Hospital.
When he returned home, his mother found out and reported to the police immediately. But they could not locate the broker whose cell phone was always powered off, the report said.
It turned out that the Chenzhou No. 198 Hospital was not qualified to perform organ transplant. The hospital claimed they had no idea about Zheng's surgery because the department that did the surgery had been contracted to a Fujian businessman.
The case is still under investigation, the report said.
PC MAGAZINE--Apple products have caused a feeding frenzy in China. The launch of the white iPhone at Beijing's flagship store even turned violent last month when an alleged scalper tried to jump the line.
Since the first Apple Store opened in China about three years ago, demand for Apple products has grown exponentially in the country.
In fact, out of all of Apple's retail locations, Chinese Apple Stores average both the highest traffic and the highest revenue.
When Apple reported its Q1 earnings last month, it said that quarterly revenue from China quadrupled, soaring to $2.6 billion, or about 10 percent of the company's total revenue.
The iPad 2 has been wildly popular around the world and Apple has struggled to keep up with demand. Chinese scalpers are reportedly making about $400 a day buying the device in the U.S. and sending it back to China for resale.
The kidney case is currently under investigation; there's no word as to whether the boy got his iPad. [By Leslie Horn]
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1.0
Living in Hong Kong, I constantly come across curious news reports about China. If you are interested in being entertained, you can find many of them daily on the Shanghaiist blog. I spotted this one yesterday and it is a real doozy. It combines the distressed kidney sale horror story with the current Chinese feeding frenzy for all things Apple.
The Chinese are voracious consumers of high end consumer brands. Apple is no exception and since it costs lots less to buy an iPhone or loaded iPad2 than say a Patek Phillipe watch or this season's LV bag, Apple seems to be positioned right where they want to be in China.
As for the human perversity of global consumerism, this story is one of many coming out of China on a regular basis.
2.0
I have been reading the news reports of Walt Mossberg's interview of outgoing Google CEO Eric Schmidt. I am not going to rehash the whole thing here, here and here (and here). Someone else can do that. But it is fascinating reading and all you tech oriented readers should go and look at it as soon as you can.
Schmidt's honesty in admitting his mistakes is refreshing. The first big mistake, under estimating social media. It seems that Google's inability to engage itself in "human interaction" has literally "byte" it on the search/advertising revenue ass.
Schmidt says the current drivers of the consumer technology market are a "gang of four" consisting of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google (alphabetically ordered). It would appear self serving for him to exclude Microsoft. On the other hand there are many reasons to conclude, as he has, that consumers do not think MS is driving innovation in their end of the technology market.
He also acknowledges that there were strategic costs in deciding to go head to head with Apple in the mobile space. Whereas they were friendly collaborators initially, now they are "frenemies." With a "frenemy" like Apple, who needs enemies? Notably, the Android strategy has not created the loyal customer ecosystem enjoyed by the other three members of the "gang."
3.0
Which brings me to customer loyalty. As many of you know, I am a staunch Apple convert and loyal customer for many reasons. That is why the following anecdote should interest you.
Last weekend one of my Mac Minis blew with less than 1.5 years of use. I bought it from an independent electronics shop on Nathan Road and did not get the extended warranty plan. I was not terribly concerned since my other Mini has been running fine for 5 years. That turned out to be a big mistake.
I took the machine to Apple's Hong Kong service affiliate and was informed that the logic board had blown and it would cost HKD 4,000 to replace. That is almost the same cost as an entry level Mini. Essentially meaning I would wind up buying another desk top instead of repairing since the repair warranty is only 90 days.
Instead of blowing up, I calmly asked for the Apple Asia customer care number. This was gladly provided to me.
As has been the case on previous occasions, the Apple customer care experience is unsurpassed. I was connected to a representative sitting in a call center somewhere in Australia after less than 3 minutes of waiting. She sympathetically listened to my long winded story about all the Apple products I own and how I am a visible internet/customer advocate for the companies products.
Instead of rewarding me in kind with a long winded lecture about how I should have bought the extended warranty plan (which I normally do) she said "let me get back to you sir."
Well she got back to me by phone within 24 hours and informed me that Apple will replace the logic board (HKD $3500) free of charge. This leaves me to cover the labor cost which I will gladly do.
Bottom line: In all my years of purchasing technology hardware and software I can never ever recall being treated so attentively and fairly. I don't care what APPL stock is trading at. They made an obvious decision that it is most important to keep an important customer 100% satisfied (I am my own most important APPL customer) and for this they will be rewarded with my important continuing customer loyalty.
PS: One of the first things I did this week was publicly inform Reggie of my plight on one of his technology threads ;-)
HAPPY CUSTOMERS/HAPPY BUSINESS
[h/t TibetanTailor]
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