http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/18/technology/farhads-and-pauls-week-in-tech-apples-china-conundrum-and-samsungs-recall-conundrum.html 2016-09-17 16:28:47 Farhad’s and Paul’s Week in Tech: Apple’s China Conundrum and Samsung’s Recall Conundrum Increasingly, what matters for Apple is what people in China think of its products. As for self-driving cars, expect more failures before big success. === Each Saturday, Farhad Manjoo and Mike Isaac, technology reporters at The New York Times, review Farhad Paul Farhad So you’re visiting San Francisco this week from Hong Kong, where you cover the tech business across Asia. But before we move to Asian tech, let’s start by talking about things closer at hand. In other words, Reviews of the new iPhone But who cares what I think. Increasingly what matters for Apple is what the people in China think of its phones. China had been a huge growth area for Apple, but in the last year things began to slide. Apple has also Paul Still, that doesn’t mean Apple has lost its hold on the market. In covering Apple’s most recent Chinese consumers crave not only what’s new, but also what stands out as new. Apple still very much has a hold on the Chinese consumer, but many may well wait another year to see what Apple does for the 10th anniversary of the iPhone, when there may be more of a wow factor. That said, a part of me thinks the new wireless headphones could be a hit in China. More so than a new iPhone, they broadcast that a user is willing to drop a solid chunk of change to keep up on tech trends. That formula has worked well for Apple in the past in China, though it would have helped if they made the AirPods in gold and rose gold options. Farhad Other tech news this week involved cars. Uber began rolling out its self-driving cars in Pittsburgh. (Mike Silicon Valley’s other big car start-up, Tesla, experienced more bad news. Not only did I throw shade on its prospects This got me thinking about the car business in China. Every American tech company sees China as a huge market, but the transportation companies are especially interested. Uber spent billions trying to break in there before What else is going on in Chinese transportation business that you think Americans should know about? Paul All of that means we will probably see more tech failures as autonomous driving technology starts to be used more frequently on both sides of the Pacific. In China, Baidu and LeEco are both working on driverless technology. The companies will probably be helped by the fact that the Chinese government wants to see them succeed and has proved quite I do also think we could see some political issues crop up as the technology is more widely used. The Chinese government will want to give its local companies a leg up and it has also been uncomfortable letting foreign companies collect data within China and beam it elsewhere, so it could be we see some roadblocks go up to foreign autonomous driving technology down the line. Farhad The The formal recall comes a couple weeks after Samsung issued its own recall. But the company has been criticized for the way So, what do you think? How bad is this for Samsung? Paul The bungled recall probably hints at a broader issue for Samsung. There’s no real parallel in America that can illustrate just how influential Samsung is in South Korea. It’s responsible for something like 20 percent of the country’s exports, and that has helped it get a pass from both media and regulators in the past. The most galling example of this was when the company’s former chairman was One has to wonder how much the coddling Samsung gets at home is to blame for the company’s bumbling response to this battery problem. Our co-worker Brian X. Chen found the company was also pretty incompetent when his Samsung is much bigger than the electronics it sells to consumers. It makes microchips, screens, memory and all manner of components. It will have little trouble paying the There was an editorial in the Korean newspaper, the Chosun Ilbo, faulting Samsung for the technological mistakes that led to this issue. Certainly that matters, but it seems a bit beside the point. With the supply chain as complex as it is, mistakes will occasionally happen. The thing that Samsung can control, and should do better at, is communicating with its customers. Farhad So anyway … have a good flight back! Paul