“I will say that iPhones in general are good smartphones but not great. They are excellent entry level to mid range smartphones. But in the end it does not matter what I say because as long as their is an Apple logo on it, people will mindlessly buy it.”-Athanasios Zarkadas

I am an Iphone user and I do acknowledge the strengths of Iphone. However, facing the troubles and inconvenience brought by Iphone, should we step back and rethink the value of Iphone?

When consumers choose monthly plan, most of people will choose the most economical one, as long as the mobile company support the cell phone we already have. For example, Wind Mobile provide $25 per month with everything unlimited. However, this economical monthly plan is not supportive for Iphone. Thus, Iphone user can’t benefit from the cheap plan provided by Wind mobile. Iphone users can choose Fido $25 monthly plan, but only get 150mins talk during day time and unlimited text within Canada.

The one of the reasons that Iphone users can’t have cheap phone bill is that the network of Iphone differentiates from mobile companies that provide cheaper monthly plan.

“We do not have the iPhone. Apple’s current iPhone is not compatible with the WIND network (AWS/1700 Megahertz/BandIV). When we hear an AWS iPhone is in the works, believe us, we’ll be knocking Apple’s door to get the scoop!” said a staff of Wind Mobile.

Wind Mobile as well as other cheaper mobile company such as Mobilicity, can provide services for HTC users and Samsung users, but not Iphone users.

Mobile companies are looking forward to cooperate with Apple so that more Iphone users can benefit.

Western companies looking to bring their products to China face a problem not unlike that of Chinese parents naming a baby boy: little Gang (“strong”) is regarded quite differently than little Yun (“cloud”).

An off-key name could have serious financial consequences, due to the negative meaning of the translated name. For example, Microsoft should be careful. The phonetic Chinese character for Bing, its new search engine, means, “disease,” “defect,” and “virus.”

However, a successful translated brand name brings good brand images and stimulates consumers’ interests to buy the products.

The paradigm probably is the Chinese name for Coca-Cola, Kekoukele, which not only sounds like Coke’s English name, but conveys its essence of taste and fun in a way that the original name could not hope to match.There are many others. Consider Tide detergent, Taizi, whose Chinese characters literally mean “gets rid of dirt.”

The art of picking a brand name that resonates with Chinese consumers is no longer an art. It has become a sort of science, with consultants, computer programs and linguistic analyses. So far, there are already some professional companies running translation brand name as a business.

However, if we could come up with a universal appealing brand name, wouldn’t we save money to think of translation, making the brand name world-widely famous once the brand succeeds!

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/12/world/asia/picking-brand-names-in-china-is-a-business-itself.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/11/12/world/asia/chinese-products-in-translation.html?ref=asia

http://blog.birdsonggregory.com/blog/voice/choosing-the-right-product-name-in-another-language (outside li)