Economy

Apple shocks media in China

By Huang Shuo (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-09-25 10:26

iPhone, the revolutionary smart phone from Apple, accounted for 16.1 percent of the global smart phone market, according to a report released by IDC in May. In a July report by Canalys, a market research company in the US, the iPad holds 6 percent of the world’s laptop market shares.

With an eye to the future, China’s major media are trying to adapt to Apple platforms, such as the iPhone and the iPad. Ifeng.com, the website of Phoenix TV, officially launched its video-based iPad application (app) on May 20, making it the first Chinese media outlet to do so. Ifeng had previously released an iPhone app. Apple users around the world currently can download the ifeng.com app from the iTunes app shop free of charge and use it to watch about 500 of ifeng’s HD video programs.

China’s newspapers are also getting in on the action. Guangdong Southern Weekly New Media Ltd launched an iPad app version of Nanfangzhoumo (Southern Weekly) in May. The app includes selected articles from Southern Weekly, Southern People Weekly, Brand Magazine and infzm.com, and offers features such as video and offline reading.

China Daily, a national English newspaper, has released cutting-edge iPhone and iPad apps for foreigners interested to know more about China. The applications are easy to use. The iPhone app includes China Daily News and China Daily Video, while the iPad app includes China Daily Digest and China Daily iPaper.

Meanwhile, 3G technology is acting as a catalyst to accelerate the integration of new and conventional media and it definitely will bring major changes to the media sector. With the base of 3G network, each cell phone will become a media terminal, which is an important channel of information, communication and entertainment as well as a new battlefield for new media. The ones who start first will take the lead.