科技前沿:蘋果榮膺亞洲最受尊敬的跨國公司

Reader Survey: Apple Rides Recent Growth In Asia
For a company with a tiny market share in Asia, Apple Inc. has an outsized reputation.

Apple held just a 1.6% share of the personal-computer market in Asia in the second quarter of this year, and a 0.6% sliver of the region's mobile-phone market, according to technology market-research firm IDC. Yet Apple skyrocketed to the top of our annual Asia 200 survey this year, and was ranked by readers as the region's most admired multinational company. Last year, Apple ranked seventh.

Apple's sharp rise to the top spot over the past year reflects its fast-growing global reputation as a trend-setting technology company that continually turns out iconic products backed by unparalleled marketing savvy. Apple might not be a big player in Asia, in terms of market share, but the company's reputation looms large.

'Even if they don't have a big presence, they are tremendously successful at marketing themselves,' says Bryan Ma, the Singapore-based director of personal systems research at IDC. 'Look at the entire experience and aura they create, especially this globally connected age; everyone is hearing about this whole iPhone phenomenon, and can see their earnings are doing very well. Even if their market share isn't so big out here, these are things that businesspeople and executives in Asia would certainly respect and admire.'

Apple's ability to sidestep the global economic crisis has gained the company fresh respect. In July, Apple posted a 15% rise in profit for the fiscal third quarter ended June 27, and said it couldn't supply enough iPhones and Macintosh computers to meet demand. Shipments of Mac computers rose 4% to 2.6 million, although revenue fell 8% as the company cut prices on some models. Still, that stands in contrast to PC sales, which have slumped globally. Apple's results were fueled by surging demand for its 3G iPhone: the company sold 5.2 million iPhones in the quarter, more than seven times what it sold a year earlier.

Apple's focus remains on its core U.S. market, and also on Europe. Apple shipped 53% of its Macintosh computers to the U.S., 24% to Western Europe and 14% to Asia, in the second calendar quarter of this year, according to IDC. While the company's iconic iPod is popular in Asia, Apple's iTunes store remains out of reach of most Asian consumers. Apple has set up iTunes in Japan and Australia only. Copyright is the big hurdle. Apple has to conclude deals with individual record labels at the country level to allow songs to be sold on the iTunes platform in each market. That labyrinth process has mired efforts to make the service more widely available in Asia. The company is also likely concerned about piracy in Asia, say many analysts.

Still, the company is expanding its presence. Apple opened its first company-owned Apple retail store in Asia, outside of Japan, in China last year. Meanwhile, it has signed agreements with Asian mobile-phone carriers outside of Japan to distribute its hot-selling iPhone in the past 12 months. The product, which was already on sale in Japan, is now available in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, India, Thailand and Taiwan. In late August, China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. announced a three-year deal with Apple to sell the iPhone in China later this year.

The release of the iPhone, Apple's latest must-have gadget, in Asia has helped buoy the company's profile in the region. More than 2,000 people in Singapore queued up for hours when domestic carrier Singapore Telecommunications launched the iPhone on July 10. The customer at the front of the line reportedly waited for 11 hours.

Apple has also managed to lift its share of other core segments in Asia. The company's 1.6% share of personal computers in the second quarter of this year marks a steady rise from the 1.1% share in the first quarter of 2007. The 0.6% share it has in the Asian phone market, meanwhile, is notable given the iPhone has been available in most of Asia for less than a year.

Those efforts are paying off. Apple ranked second in the Asia 200 survey in the innovation category, up from seventh last year. When asked to rank multinational companies by the long-term vision of their management, readers ranked Apple second this year, up from sixth.

'For a company that, from a product-line perspective, isn't that broad, it is rather admirable they can create so much demand, so much hunger and so much loyalty -- even out here in Asia, where the priority for the company might not be as high,' says IDC's Mr. Ma.

On Wednesday, Apple CEO and founder Steve Jobs appeared in public for the first time since he received a liver transplant earlier this year, unveiling new offerings that included an iPod Nano with a video camera.

作爲在亞洲市場份額極低的一家公司，蘋果(Apple Inc.)的聲望卻高高在上。

據技術市場研究公司國際數據公司(IDC)稱，截至今年第二季度，蘋果在亞洲個人電腦市場的佔有率僅有1.6%，在當地手機市場的份額只有0.6%。不過，蘋果在今年《華爾街日報》亞洲200強的年度調查中卻升至榜首，被讀者列爲該地區最受尊敬的跨國公司。去年，蘋果排在第七位。

蘋果的排名在過去一年裏急劇上升至首位反映出，作爲一家引領潮流的科技公司，其全球信譽的快速增長。它不斷推出的標誌性產品受到了無以倫比的營銷智慧的支持。從市場份額來說，蘋果可能不是亞洲最大的廠商，但該公司的聲望卻越來越大。

IDC駐新加坡個人系統研究主管馬伯遠(Bryan Ma)表示，即使他們的佔有率不大，但在營銷自己方面卻做的極其成功。看看整個經歷和他們創造的光環吧，尤其是在這個全球網絡相連的時代；每個人都聽到了整個iPhone現象，可以看到他們的收益都做得很好。即使他們在亞洲的市場份額還不是很大，但上述這些都是值得亞洲的企業家和管理人士尊重和敬佩的。

蘋果抵禦全球經濟危機的能力爲公司贏得了新的尊重。今年7月，蘋果公佈截至6月27日的第三財政季度利潤增長了15%，並表示iPhone手機和Macintosh電腦供不應求。Mac電腦出貨量增長4%，至260萬臺，但由於公司對部分型號降價銷售，收入下降了8%。不過，這與全球電腦銷量的下降形成了鮮明對比。蘋果的業績受到了對其3G iPhone手機需求的推動：該公司當季共售出520萬部iPhone手機，是去年同期銷量的7倍以上。

蘋果的重點依然在其核心的美國市場，同時還有歐洲市場。研究機構國際數據公司(IDC)的數據顯示，今年第二季度，蘋果的Macintosh電腦銷往美國、西歐和亞洲的比例分別爲53%、24%和14%。該公司標誌產品iPod風靡亞洲，但iTunes商店卻依然在大多數亞洲消費者所能企及的範圍之外。蘋果只在日本和澳大利亞開設了iTunes商店。版權是一個重大障礙。蘋果必須逐個國家去跟不同的發行公司達成交易，才能允許歌曲在每個市場的iTunes平臺上出售。這個過程錯綜複雜，因此難以在亞洲推廣iTunes服務。許多分析師認爲，蘋果可能還擔心亞洲的盜版問題。

不過蘋果公司仍在不斷擴大影響力。去年蘋果在中國開設了零售店，這是該公司在亞洲除日本之外開設的首家。與此同時，蘋果在過去一年裏還與日本以外的亞洲手機運營商簽署協議，銷售其熱賣的iPhone手機。iPhone此前已經在日本銷售，現在香港、新加坡、馬來西亞、印尼、菲律賓、印度、泰國和臺灣都有售。8月底，中國聯通(China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd.)宣佈了與蘋果公司爲期三年的協議，將於今年晚些時候在中國大陸銷售iPhone。

作爲蘋果最新的一款必備產品，iPhone在亞洲發佈幫助提升了蘋果公司在這一地區的知名度。7月10日，新加坡運營商加坡電信(Singapore Telecommunications)發佈iPhone，2,000多人排了幾個小時的隊爭相購買。排在隊伍前面的消費者所說等了11個小時。

蘋果還設法提升了其他核心業務在亞洲的份額。該公司今年第二季度個人電腦市場份額達到1.6%，較2007年第一季度1.1%的份額穩定上升。與此同時，其在亞洲手機市場佔有0.6%的份額也同樣值得注意，因爲iPhone在亞洲大部分地區銷售還不到一年。

這些舉措取得了成效。在“亞洲200強”(Asia 200)調查中，蘋果公司在創新一項從去年的排名第七上升到第二。在對跨國公司經營管理的長期前景排名時，讀者對蘋果的排名也從第六提高到第二。

國際數據公司的馬伯遠說，蘋果的產品線不算豐富，這樣一家公司能夠創造這麼大的需求、渴望和這麼高的忠誠度，這實在令人欽佩。甚至遠在亞洲也是如此，這家公司在亞洲並沒有太大的優先權。

週三，蘋果首席執行長、創始人喬布斯(Steve Job)宣佈了內置攝像頭的iPod Nano等新產品，這是喬布斯自去年進行肝移植手術以來首次公開露面。