Lenovo's Liu Chuanzhi: 'we are lucky that Steve Jobs has such a bad temper and doesn't care about China'
By Donald Melanson 
posted July 6th 2010 3:40PM
posted July 6th 2010 3:40PM
We're guessing that Lenovo chairman Liu Chaunzhi didn't intend spark a slew of sensational headlines when he spoke briefly with the Financial Times this week, but he did make a few statements that are hard to ignore (yet easily misinterpreted). The standout is that he reportedly said Lenovo is "lucky that Steve Jobs has such a bad temper and doesn't care about China," and that if "Apple were to spend the same effort on the Chinese consumer as we do, we would be in trouble." Of course, what's easily lost following the "bad temper" bit is that Chaunzhi is actually sort of praising Apple (albeit in a roundabout way), and he even later goes on to describe Jobs as "a genius," and the exception to his rule that a manager "needs to be the string on which he puts one pearl after another" -- he says Jobs is instead "a big pearl." For its part, while Apple hasn't commented on Chaunzhi's comments directly, it did point out that it's opening a new store in Shanghai this Saturday, and that it's on track to have 25 stores in the country by the end of next year.
@sotorious And so it came to pass, that this post was awarded with many internets
@sotorious Ha! Awesome!
@sotorious wow, that was dope.
lol'd
@PrepaidAndroidUSA
At least Stevo ain’t producing these Taiwanese plastic toys. What was the name again? HTC? High Tech Crap Evo 4g
It's roundabound engadget, not roundabout
@Lord Vader Haha, nice... My Lord.
@Lord Vader BTW may I tell you I loved that Commercial you made.
Empire FTW!
@Ninjakid4 You may dispense with the pleasantries
@Lord Vader
http://www.dundeechest.com/blog/wordpress/?p=368
@magadget
At least it can hold a signal when you told it :P
@magadget "At least Stevo ain’t producing these Taiwanese plastic toys. What was the name again? HTC? High Tech Crap Evo 4g"
No, Steve-O's producing these Taiwanese glass toys right in the heart of the slave wage, suicide capital of the world, FOXCONNNNNN!!! YAAAAYYY!!!
@lerxst That toy can make calls with a $2 antenna.
@Lord Vader (Re: "Roundabout") -- that may be true in Empire-controlled regions (er, the UK), but not here in the U.S.: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/roundabout
@PrepaidAndroidUSA
The party will be pleased...
@all
There is already a dictatorship in china. So why would Jobs care?
@PrepaidAndroidUSA Nothing like a good ol' backhanded compliment.
Apple PR denies this conversation ever took place and maintains that all correspondence is fake.
@Engadget
We're guessing that Lenovo chairman Liu Chaunzhi didn't intend spark a slew of sensational headlines when he spoke
---
I think you might want a 'to' between intend and spark.
@DirtyVegas
Sorry.
Accidentally responded to your comment.
@Ninjakid4 Your comment didn't have two mistakes, unlike the article, so I'll forgive you the accidental reply.
@DirtyVegas Apple PR now states that the interview *did* take place, but that consumers are reading it wrong.
@PhineasJW
that's odd. i thought the retina display was supposed to clear things up?
Apple does not go after th China market because Apple likes huge profit margins and Chinese people do not get paid enough to buy them
@DefPoet Here's the thing, you are thinking about the average man, but you have to realize if you only look at the top 1% of the country that's 15,000,000 people with plenty of money. Plus, what you're doing is building a brand within the largest country in the world which happens to have the most economic growth. You don't have to sacrifice margins in order to meet their demands, as a matter of fact Apple margins are typically larger overseas due to their being conservative on exchange rate risk and the fact that they don't try to compete on price.
Again, look at what the CEO of Lenovo said, and if you think that they market THAT far outside of that top 1%, I'm thinking top 10% they probably market to, and then they miss part of that, but get some decent percentages down into the top 25% and taper off after that.
@DefPoet
There are plenty of Chinese in China that could afford high-ticket item. http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100422-707297.html
Chair-MAN, no he didn't!
After that monkey stole his phone and sent fake emails in his name , and drunk guys Beta testing the iPhone 4 didn`t pick up on a LOT of issues , he has a REALLY bad temper.
They blew it.
So, it sounds like Chaunzhi is saying that if Apple tried harder in China, Lenovo would have no chance.
I guess Lenovo makes some good stuff...
@pohatu771
Actually I have 4 Lenovo laptops(T41, T60p, T500 and X60) and they make much higher quality products than the Apple hardware that I have used(2008MBP, iphone4 and 3rd gen iPod). Well at least the T series and the X series.
It'll be interesting to see how well companies with high premium price tags do in China. Especially given the relative lack of enforcement of intellectual property protection.
APPLE? IN KIRF Central? . . . Wonder how thats gona turn out ... hmmmmm
That Chuanzhi is a funny guy.... Speaking like Jobs...
He wants to give Steve Jobs a pearl necklace?
And no one sees the irony in that?
@JLPicard There is no irony to find.
An ironic statement would be when looking upon a rainy day outside stating "What a glorious day for a walk".
@d0mth0ma5 It is ironic that someone wants to ejaculate onto Steve Jobs after almost everyone seems to swallow up everything Steve throws out.
Just because you don't see it, doesn't mean its not ironic.
Kind of like your comment.
Thanks for trying!
@JLPicard As it seems to be impossible to post a link on this (or it will appear 3 times very soon). Google scholar, "Irony in language and thought: a cognitive science reader" By Raymond W. Gibbs, Herbert L. Colston - Read it, then pipe down.
@d0mth0ma5 "An ironic statement would be when looking upon a rainy day outside stating "What a glorious day for a walk". "
i would call that sarcasm...
@maveric101 It's a bit of both really, if used to convey humour then sarcasm, if not then irony. Irony is meant to imply the opposite of what is said, something which apparently few people seem to understand.
@d0mth0ma5
These are by far my favorite discussions on engadget.
Oh, and he didn't say he wanted to GIVE Jobs a pearl necklace, he said Jobs WAS the pearl [one singularly large "one"]. Now thats Ironic in a "roundabound" compliment".
@d0mth0ma5
Oh and you must have meant VERBAL irony. Don't forget about dramatic and situational irony. I find it situationally ironic that we didn't specifiy this earlier, as one may have inferred the wrong definition.
@credo I'm a huge fan of dramatic irony, sadly it doesn't really find its way into real life particularly often (except on reality TV I guess).
@credo http://www.sarcasmsociety.com/irony - This wasn't where I got my rainy day example btw, but it does seem to get around.
@JLPicard
Well said, its like saying "Oj doesn't like white girls" or "Oj didn't do it" c'mon ya'll know how ironic that is lol.
I bet heads are rolling lately , at 1 Infinite Poop.
spelling mistake, it is "Chuanzhi".
@oui
"Bad Temper"
I'm wondering if Engadget was incorrect and the guy was talking about Ballmer, not Jobs. I mean we Americans think they're all Wangs, Yangs, Changs, and Chous. The Chinese probably think we're all Ballmers, Cubans, or Bransons.
The irony.
... And the gadget blogs are lucky that Liu Chuanzhi has a big mouth and doesn't realize that some idioms probably don't translate too well into English.
Any rate I love my Thinkpad and wouldn't trade it for anything made by the fiery-tempered fruit vendor. Go ahead and ramble, Liu-- you'll still get my money again when this old T-61 finally rolls over (if it ever does).
@nefnet13
It wont. My T41 is still ticking. Thinkpads are amazing machines.