By George Chen From South China Morning Post

Smartphone makers in China focus on quick profits rather than breakthrough technologies

We all know that things move fast in technology, but there is something troubling about a weird kind of industry culture developing among many Chinese technology firms: the push to make quick money by launching new products fast.

Talk with Chinese technology industry leaders and almost every one of them wants to create the “Apple of China”, or beat top United States e-commerce site Amazon in just a few years.

My ears have been full of such slogan-like ambitions since I began leading my new team in covering technology news earlier this year.

Rome wasn’t built in a day. Even though we know we are now in a fast-developing era of internet technology, I’m still hardly convinced any company can simply beat Apple or Amazon just by launching a bunch of similar products and services at lower prices. Take the smartphone business in China. It’s more about how to make quick profits than how to beat Apple’s iconic iPhone in terms of new breakthrough technologies.

In just the past few weeks, my colleagues have received half a dozen invitations for new smartphone events hosted by Chinese technology companies, including LeTV, an online video service company that wants to be China’s Netflix, and Meitu, a company popular among the young for its photo editing app.

Meitu must have a big marketing budget given its invitations to dozens of celebrities to join the launch party for its first smartphone.

LeTV boss Jia Yueting knows how to make the headlines when promoting his company’s first smartphone. He caused a stir when he compared Apple with Hitler and the Nazi regime in blaming Apple for “curbing technological innovation”, due largely to Apple’s signature closed ecosystem for its iPhone and iPad. Jia later apologised.

Among other smartphones soon to launch are offerings from Gree and Qihoo 360, a Chinese internet security service company. Wait a minute, Gree? This company is new to internet technology but it has been a leading air-conditioner maker for years. When an air-conditioner maker is keen to join the crowded market for smartphones, I get a sense of a bubble emerging.

Talking of the internet, I was in Beijing for a few days last week. I really missed Google when I tried to find some information online. Baidu, known as the “Google of China”, does a good job in Chinese search but when it comes to content in English, it is far behind what Google can offer.

Google, and many other leading global internet services and media websites, have been blocked on the mainland China for years. It’s easy to call yourself the “Apple of China” or the “Google of China”, or any other such lofty title, but it’s also foolish to close yourself in a room while proclaiming yourself the king of the world.

IMAGE: Workers assemble air conditioners at a Gree factory. Now the firm has joined the smartphone market. Photo: EPA

George Chen is the Managing Editor of SCMP.com International Edition. For more Mr. Shangkong columns: facebook.com/mrshangkong or follow @george_chen on Twitter

For more on this story go to: http://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/1770527/chinas-dumb-strategy-when-it-comes-smartphones?utm_source=biweekly75_20150424&utm_medium=EDMbiweekly&utm_campaign=EDMbiweekly&1=1&sc_src=email_1129366