Na. Chinese pay good money for high quality stuff. They'll pay a high proportion of their income into a few well-targeted purchases. If they don't want a good item, then they pay next to nothing for a low-quality knock-off. But high-quality stuff sells well.

Mac is losing because QQ (IM client) works better on Windows, and Xunlei (torrent client) is Windows-only.

Per capita GDP is deceiving, because the wealth gap between the urban middle class and rural population is huge.

For example, Guangzhou, a metropolitan city, has a per capita GDP of $23,232, about the same as Portugal, yet the country as a whole averages $6,567. (wikipedia 2009 numbers)

edit: links

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guangzhou

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prc

Yes, but where is disposable income growing faster? I'd rather own a small slice of an expanding market than a bigger piece of a stagnating one. The US (& by extension Europe) is financially overstretched on both the government and consumer level.

From what I know about Chinese consumer psychology, Apple could double the prices of iPhones & make more sales. The Chinese love luxury products.

you're right, this is same in east asian, south asian and africa. There people want value for money to make buying decision and value = features ... more features means more value, i clearly remember that iPod was a super-flop product because it only played recorded music while other mp3 players played music, radio, had a voice recorder etc. so it was very difficult for apple to gain any grounds against other mp3 brands like sony, Lg, samsung etc. Apple product thus are for classes and not for masses (at least in that part of world where price against features plays a major role).