Amazon is the First Foreign Tech Company to Offer Paid Android apps in China

Star Chang, May 6, 2013 3:40 PM, 314 views, Got something to say ?,

Amazon quietly launched its Appstore in China. The growing Chinese market is just too large to ignore. The e-commerce giant also debuted its Chinese-language Web site for developers, promising that they will soon have access to customers in 200 countries. The new Appstore might be an attractive alternative to Google Play for Chinese developers. Google Play isn’t widely available in China and most developers sell through third-party app stores. Google’s own app store only provides free apps to China, not paid apps. The open environment of Amazon Appstore can provide a worldwide customer base for Chinese developers, of course the most important is revenue sharing. The online retailer launched its e-book store and e-reader apps in China last December. Local regulator had investigated the company for the right to sell e-books in the country. Distributing mobile apps in China is the latest move in Amazon’s worldwide expansion. Amazon need to compete with hundreds of local rivals offering paid and free apps, some of them pirate. In the meantime, the Kindle hardware are still not available in China.

Xiaomi Phone 2S, 2A, MIUI V5 Revealed, CEO No Longer Imitates Steve Jobs

Star Chang, Apr 11, 2013 5:23 PM, 1,088 views, 1 Comment »,

There are more handset companies cranking out new smartphones in China than we can count. But Xiaomi is one of the few companies that actually has a little bit of name recognition outside of China, thanks in part to the company’s popular MIUI skin for Android. The smartphone cult hero, called out by CNN last year, has given us some pretty great hardware with good price. This year, the company seem not ready to give us the Xiaomi Phone 3 with 5-inch Full HD display, so they just did a hardware upgrade to their flagship phone from last year, which Apple will also be doing this year with their iPhone 5. The unveiling of Xiaomi Phone 2S and low-price 2A have not given us too much excitement, Xiaomi company is trying to make their MIUI custom ROM to be the spot light. Also, the announcement event is no longer mirroring Apple’s WWDC, Xiaomi is now showing its own characteristic and brand image. Xiaomi even produce a short film about the dream of a young racer, to express the entrepreneurial story behind the startup Chinese phone company. Most surprisingly, their boss is now dressing like Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos …

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ASUS Has ‘Tremendous Growth’ In Tablet Shipment, Thanks To Nexus 7

Herman Lai, Jan 31, 2013 7:55 PM, 428 views, Got something to say ?,

The latest report from IDC released preliminary data from its survey of worldwide tablet sales in the Q4 of 2012, which highlighted ASUS is now moving to the 4th place with 5.8% market share and 3.1 million units of shipment, beats Barnes & Noble, in the worldwide tablet shipment. The report also indicated ASUS has the biggest growth in tablet’s shipment, rose 402% year over year, where the firm says it was largely helped by the continued strong shipments of its Google-branded Nexus 7 tablet despite ASUS saw its share slip from 7.8% to 5.8% at Q4. Apple is still at the top spot of the chart, followed by Samsung and Amazon. Microsoft is missing from the list, as expected, despite it had a massive push for its Suface tablet in China at Q4 last year.

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Amazon’s Kindle Store Faces Regulatory Hurdle in China After Its Official Launch

Herman Lai, Dec 17, 2012 7:44 AM, 550 views, Got something to say ?,

Last week, Amazon launched its ebook store in China and began to sell Chinese electronic books via its mobile Kindle application on iOS and Android devices. However, there were reports emerged saying local authorities have started investigating the company’s right to sell e-books in the country, since Amazon does not have a license from publishing authorities for e-book operations.

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Meizu MX 4-core Smartphone Sold At Markup on Amazon, Thanks to Evil Chinese Resellers

Chris Chang, Jul 17, 2012 11:23 AM, 1,464 views, Got something to say ?,

It’s been said before that Meizu may expand towards international markets by opening retail stores worldwide. If that’s the case, it would be a big leap forward for the Zhuhai-based company to sell their flagship Android phone — Meizu MX — to international users. However, it looks like some Chinese resellers are selling the company’s new quad core smartphone at hiked up prices on Amazon. Duh.

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So Much News in China… #053

Star Chang, Jul 9, 2012 6:33 AM, 640 views, Got something to say ?,

There are so much news from China that passes by that we couldn’t possibly cover it all. Here are the Chinese tech news that have left behind because we are just too busy or too lazy to post. There are stories on Angry Birds toys, Call of Duty entering China, Apple map services and so on, check them out after the break. Video for this week: Squeezing cash from China’s billion phone app market. Hope everyone have a fresh start to your week.

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Meet the China Knockoff Superhero: CAPTAIN CHINA

Star Chang, May 31, 2012 12:38 PM, 12,373 views, 15 Comments »,

This is a turly WTF … A Chinese comic company has just released the very first China superhero character, known as CAPTAIN CHINA. The red communist super hero is certainly a knockoff from Marvel Captain America. He is carrying a vintage pistol manufactured by the Soviet Communist Party, not the indestructible shield made in USA. When President Obama visited China, he has protected his safety. And yes, this CAPTAIN CHINA was frozen during Mao’s era and reborn in the future. And surprisingly, you can get this horrible Chinese superhero comic book in Kindle edition at Amazon. We got a 12 pages preview after the break, LOL … UPDATE: More inside info on this comic …

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Online Shoppers in China is Four Times more than the European Customers

Star Chang, Apr 2, 2012 2:35 PM, 472 views, 2 Comments »,

The numbers of frequent online shoppers in China is double that of the United States and the UK, and is even four times of the European consumer, according to a global leading accounting firm. The survey was conducted by interviewing 7,005 people between August and September last year, including Chinese consumer’s shopping habits. Around 70 percent of the Chinese made purchases on e-commerce websites at least once every week compared to 40 percent in the United States and the UK, and 20 percent in the Netherlands, Switzerland and France …

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So Much News in China… #034

Star Chang, Feb 13, 2012 11:10 PM, 661 views, 2 Comments »,

There are so much news from China that passes by that we couldn’t possibly cover it all. Here are the tech news we are lazy to post or left behind, there are stories on Foxconn hacking, Lenovo’s rising profit, facebook chances in China and so on, check them out after the break. Video for this week: Animation on Linsanity … Hope everyone has a fresh start to your week.

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Happy Holidays From M.I.C. Gadget

Chris Chang, Dec 23, 2011 3:53 PM, 314 views, 1 Comment »,

As you sit back this weekend and gorge yourself on ham, turkey, and gingerbread (not the Android one), remember that M.I.C. Gadget loves you. We hope you’ve had a great year, and we want to thank you for your continued support and constructive comments. So, happy holidays, dear all, and thank you for reading M.I.C. Gadget. While we didn’t send out cards to each of you, we did put our favorite tech CEOs together in their holiday attire! Watch the video after the jump!

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