Apple’s legal row over its iPad trademark in China creates a window of contingency for its competitors Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Lenovo Group Ltd as they attempt to chip away at the U.S. Firm’s influence of the likely vast Chinese tablet market
According to media reports- Apple Inc. is fighting lawsuits which are brought by Chinese electronics manufacturer, Proview Technology (the Chinese unit of Hong Kong-listed Proview International Holdings Ltd), which is causing traders and resellers to take iPads off their stores in more than 10 Chinese cities which can cause a huge loss to Apple Inc.
Data from research firm IDC showed that Apple’s iPad tablet is enjoying a huge lead over its competitor’s tablet PCs in China with a whopping 76 percent market share while Lenovo and Samsung trail a distant second and third with about 7 percent and 3 percent respectively,
Jonathan Ng, an analyst with CIMB in Singapore said: “Apple’s loss could be Samsung and Lenovo’s and gains,”.
Sun Peilin, an analyst with Analysys International in Beijing said “With Apple iPads banned in some places, it’s going to create more opportunity for Lenovo and Samsung to increase their market share”.
Samsung is probably to get most of the benefit as its Galaxy tablet directly competes in the same price division as the iPad.
“The impact on Lenovo may be less because Lepads are lower priced and are aimed more at entry-level users.”
IDC said in the third quarter, Lenovo, the world’s second-largest Personal Computers manufacturer, sold around 120,000 Leads in its home market while Apple sold about 1.3 million iPads in China and South Korean company Samsung sold 58,000 Galaxy Tabs.
The demand for Apple’s iPads and iPhones is very strong in China, this lawsuit with Proview Technology has put up the break to some extent on the sale of its products
