14
Mar
2012

亚马逊为何下架iPad

大家在学习英文的时候我还是建议先看一下中文,在看英文。第一次阅读不要对照着看。

时机变得不能再糟:就在ipad因商标侵权在中国下架的同时,本周早些时候,苹果ipad也意外的从亚马逊中国网站上消失。博客们揣测:去年12月在中国法院拒绝了苹果关于唯冠科技(电脑显示器制造商已经破产)侵犯苹果iPad商标权的申诉后,酷比迪诺(苹果总部)已经断了一臂。而唯冠一直在极力阻止苹果iPad产品在中国范围内的销售,本周早些时候的亚马逊事件(下架ipad)被看做是唯冠的主要成果。

事件的真相则更加微妙:苹果告知路透社,ipad紧急下架仅仅是因为亚马逊没有得到ipad在中国和美国的转售权。

我没有亲眼看见,所以不能确定一周前亚马逊在卖些什么,但我今天在亚马逊网站上搜了一下“iPad”,结果出来多达好几页的第三方销售的该平板电脑的附件及多种型号的产品。颇具讽刺意味的是:iPad拥有比亚马逊自己的平板(Kindle Fire,iPad的竞争者)更高的评价。

尽管目前原因不明,另一家网店苏宁电器也将iPad下降。但在中国其他网店和苹果在中国经营的零售网店中,iPad仍可以买到。

苹果宣称自己是iPad商标在中国的合法拥有者。几年前,苹果只花了5万5千美元就从唯冠的母公司购买到iPad商标在欧洲的使用权,并坚信这就包含了该商标在整个中国的使用权。

但在2010年,唯冠状告苹果,声称其从未放弃其母公司于2001年在中国注册的“iPad”冠名权。自此,唯冠一直在同酷比迪诺博弈:迄今为止,唯冠状告苹果要求其赔偿100亿元人民币(约合16忆美元)并书面道歉,同时要求中国海关禁止iPad从中国出口和进口。

分析家认为,苹果终将庭外和解。至于赔偿金则众说纷纭,但苹果有理由高价赔偿。因为如果中国海关真的禁止了iPad的出口,那就会打断iPad在全球的供应链(尽管中国官方已经说过:“由于中国消费者对苹果产品的喜爱,颁布禁令会比较困难”)。此外,苹果资金雄厚,承认其坐拥近千亿美元的现金(是Google的两倍,如果要比较的话)。因而苹果与唯冠达成某种协议只不过是个时间问题。

The timing couldn’t be worse: Amidst stories that Chinese officials are pulling Apple’s iPad from select stores over trademark infringement, Apple’s iPad unexpectedly vanished from Amazon China earlier this week. The blogosphere’s assumption: Cupertino’s arm was twisted after a Chinese court in December rejected Apple’s claim that China-based Proview Technology, a computer screen manufacturer, had violated Apple’s trademark to the iPad name. Proview has actively sought to block Apple sales of the iPad country-wide, and the Amazon event earlier this week looked to be a major coup.

The truth turns out to be more nuanced: Apple has told Reuters that the iPads were pulled at its behest simply because Amazon isn’t an authorized reseller of iPads in either China or the United States.

I wasn’t watching, so can’t say what was available on Amazon a week ago, but run a search for ‘iPad’ on Amazon.com today and all you’ll turn up are pages of accessories, versions of the tablet sold by third-party vendors and, ironically, a high-ranked listing for Amazon’s own Kindle Fire tablet (and, depending on your vantage, iPad competitor).

Another online retailer, Sunning, has also pulled the iPad from its site, though it’s unclear at this point why. The iPad is still available through other Chinese online retailers, as well as from Apple’s China-based retail and online stores.

Apple claims it’s the rightful owner of the iPad trademark in China, of course. It shelled out a trifling $55,000 to buy the European rights to the ‘iPad’ trademark from Proview’s parent company a few years ago, believing that it included rights to the term for all of China.

But in 2010, Proview filed suit against Apple, claiming it never gave up the rights to the name, which its parent company registered in China in 2001. And Proview’s been bulldogging Cupertino ever since: It’s so far sued Apple for 10 billion yuan (about US$1.6 billion), requested a formal apology and just asked Chinese customs officials to block the import and export of the iPad to/from the country.

The assumption among analysts is that Apple’s going to have to settle. For how much is anyone’s guess, but Apple has enormous incentive to. If Chinese customs officials were to block iPad exports, it would disrupt Apple’s iPad supply chain worldwide (though Chinese officials have said it would be “difficult to implement a ban because many Chinese consumers love Apple product[s]“). That, and Apple is pretty bank-flush, admitting to having nearly $100 billion in cash (for scorekeepers, that’s twice as much as Google). How long until we hear some kind of deal’s been struck is probably just a matter of time.

上一篇:裸睡女友要求男友也裸睡的十大理由,爆强 下一篇:搞笑80后如此结婚

评论列表:

发表评论: