“Apple may find itself eventually shut out of China, a leading expert on global political risk to corporations said Monday,” Matthew J. Belvedere reports for CNBC. “‘It’s very possible,”‘ Ian Bremmer, founder and president of the Eurasia Group, told CNBC’s Squawk Box, a day before the tech giant was scheduled to release quarterly earnings. ‘I’d be very surprised in five years’ time if we see Apple having the kind of access to the Chinese consumer that they presently enjoy,’ he said.”
“‘I think people misunderstand the nature of the Chinese tech involvement,’ Bremmer said, citing the closures in China earlier this month of Apple’s iBooks Store and iTunes Movies, just about six months after they were launched,” Belvedere reports. “Bremmer said Apple’s overall privacy strategy could further trip up the company in China. ‘We’re [Apple] going to create it so nobody can have access to your data. It’s just in the cloud. That’s antithetical to everywhere the Chinese want to go,’ he said. ‘Either Apple has to change their model, which I don’t think they’re going to do. Or they’re going to have a big problem gaining access to the Chinese consumer.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Baseless speculation.
China has a lot more to lose than they have to gain by “slamming the door on Apple.”
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