Apple courting Chinese developers to strengthen iOS in China

The company increasingly sees China as a major market for growth.

Chris Foresman – Dec 6, 2012 2:15 pm | 18

Apple is doing its best to make it clear that it takes the Chinese market seriously, and another recent sign is the Thursday release of a Chinese language version of Start Developing iOS Apps Today. The online guide, written by Apple’s internal Developer Publications group, is designed to help developers get started making their own apps for Apple’s mobile platform. In addition to translating the guide into Chinese, Apple has included a feedback form encouraging questions and comments from a growing number of iOS developers based in China.

Apple has long supported Chinese users of its mobile devices, even before the iPhone was officially available in China. Beginning with the release of iOS 2.0 in mid-2008, Apple included a couple different ways to enter Chinese language characters, including Pinyin romanized input as well as a novel handwriting-based input. Nearly a year later, Apple launched the iPhone 3G in China on the country’s third-largest carrier, China Unicom.

More recently, iOS 6 added several new features for Chinese users, including mixed Pinyin-English input, iCloud-based syncing of custom dictionary words, and integrated support for Chinese Web services like Baidu (search), Youku (YouTube), and Sina Weibo (Twitter).

Chinese input on iPhone.

The company is planning its biggest product launch in China during the next week or so. The iPad mini and fourth-generation iPad go on sale in the country tomorrow, and the iPhone 5 is set to go on sale on Friday, December 14. iPhone 5 pre-orders have already reportedly topped 100,000 units on carrier China Unicom. During the launch of the iPhone 4S in January, huge crowds swarmed Apple Stores, ultimately resulting in riots after police ordered Apple to delay opening its stores over safety concerns.

It’s an increasingly important market for Apple, with over 700,000 potential smartphone users and perhaps more potential tablet users. In recent financial earnings calls, Apple CEO Tim Cook has repeatedly pointed to China as a huge area of growth for the company. For fiscal 2012, 15 percent of Apple’s revenue came from sales of iPhones, iPads, and Macs in China—a total of $23.8 billion.

“[This] is really phenomenal when you think about it,” Cook said. “That’s up over $10 billion year on year.”

Given Apple’s increased focus on the Chinese market, it’s no surprise that the company is working to better support developers in that country. The App Store got off to a strong start in late 2009, despite the fact that it required a credit card issued by a Chinese bank (relatively rare at the time), prices were listed in US dollars, and most apps only had descriptions in English.

Still, the large catalog of apps available in the App Store is often cited as one prominent benefit of the iOS platform overall. It only makes sense that Apple would want to stock the App Store in China with apps developed by Chinese developers for Chinese users. That should make the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch even more attractive to the rising middle class in a country with a population estimated at over 1.3 billion.