China Mobile Wants the iPad

[iDan]

AFP reports today that China Mobile, the world’s biggest cell phone operator, has said that it is interested in selling the iPad, and has also confirmed that it is still involved in talks with Apple about selling the iPhone.

“China Mobile has been in constant talks with Apple over cooperation issues,†Rainie Lei, a China Mobile spokesman, told AFP, adding, “China Mobile has expressed an interest in iPad.â€
According to the AFP report, China Mobile is developing an e-books division and is interested in using the iPad as a means of delivering e-text to Chinese customers.

As AFP notes, China has 776.9 million mobile subscribers as of the end of March, the largest number for any country across the globe, so it’s no surprise that Apple wants to get itself a slice of that particular pie! China was relatively slow in introducing the iPhone, with China Mobile’s competitor China Unicom launching it over two years after the US launch, so doubtless Chinese Apple fans are hoping it won’t take quite as long to get the iPad released officially over there.

By Maura Sutton, iPadForums.net
Source: AFP

 

[Finnedog]

Can you imagine selling an iPad to 1% of the mobile subscribers.

7-8 million iPads.

Would seem a touch interface would work well for the Chinese written language, unsure how they type with the huge number of characters?

 

[Temp40]

just think how much Apple stocks would soar if this actually goes through!

 

[Superbike81]

Can you imagine selling an iPad to 1% of the mobile subscribers.

7-8 million iPads.

Would seem a touch interface would work well for the Chinese written language, unsure how they type with the huge number of characters?

It's actually quite simple. my iPhone has a Japanese keyboard, you start by typing the simple "kana" characters, and then it brings up quite a few different predictive text options with full kanji characters, you tap the one you want and then move on. I find typing in Japanese somewhat easier than English (English is my first language, as I'm American).

I hope once the iPad is released in Japan there will be a way to add the optional Japanese keyboard to it through a software download. Otherwise I may part with my American iPad and buy a Japanese one.

FYI China and Japan use the same written language, but the characters have different meanings.

 

[Superbike81]

Oops, just found out how to do the Japanese keyboard on my American iPad. YAY!

 

[Finnedog]

So it is like you type "happy". And below it
Happy
Happier
Happiest

Show up and you click the one you want?, learn something new every day, thanks for the info.

 

[Superbike81]

Kinda, not quite that simple though. Kanji is a very complex written language, most Japanese/Chinese people only know a limited amount. They say you need to know about 1500 or so to be able to read a newspaper, but there are anywhere from 50,000 to 100,00 unique characters, but many of them are no longer used.

I don't know if this forum is set to display other languages, but, here's a very simple example:

"Ue" means up/on top of/above but when I type the Kana うえ (ue) I get about 15 different options for kanji, everything from the simple 上 all the way to 植え替える, all by typing the letter u and e. Each has different meanings, some completely unrelated.

While some people may be able to write English faster than they can type, it's not really that was with Japanese. You can type much faster on a simple basic cell phone using the keypad than you ever could writing it by hand, just because of the predictive text, it works very well in Japan.

 

[ayerbusiness]

It is good to hear that the apple iPad is receiving overwhelming response all over the world. Apple sure does really did it again! They really proved that they can provide high quality of gadgets and devices.

 

[Finnedog]

Thanks Superbike81, that was interesting.

 

[ayerbusiness]

If that will be the case then will the quality of iPad will be at risk because they will make iPad that will be distributed in the market?