The Apple China of today is quite different from that nearly a decade ago. In 2002, Apple was a mere niche player — even a niche of a niche player — and its products remained remote from the masses. The cheapest, most low-end of all Mac laptops costed us something in the five digits — an astronomical price for a still developing nation.
But the Apple world in China today is vastly different. Step onto a Beijing Subway train, and you encounter a fair number of young riders talking on their iPhones (or tweeting away on Sina Weibo). At many Starbucks coffee shops around the city, PCs and even older-generation Mac laptops are less and less common sights: the iPad is now the thing to bring in (along with your favourite drink). More and more high speed rail riders are tuning into their iPods. Apple’s more into China today than it was ten years ago.
The Apple community has also seen its fair share of change in these past years. Apple has moved beyond its Macintosh computers and now has the iPod, iPhone and the iPad. Apple’s also seen some pretty big changes “higher up”: it now commands a pretty visible presence with some very cool-looking Apple Stores all over the world. A new generation of players are taking their place higher up the Apple corporate ladder as the “two Steves” progressively hand the flame of Apple revolution and innovation to newer, more creative folks.
That’s the good news. But with the good must also come the bad. The underbelly of the Apple world in China is something more startling than we think. Piracy’s still here; jailbreakers abound. Fake, low-grade, pirated and otherwise suspect goods are waved too often in the faces of customers by scalpers, those who profit by breaking the rules and upsetting the legal economic and IPR order. The Apple Stores in China are sometimes staffed by incompetent staff, and anarchy sometimes hits those stores, however unfortunate that may be.
We — as in the beimac circle — have a raison d’être by fixing what’s broken and keeping the Apple world in China in check. We started in 2002 as the Beijing Macintosh User Group and we remain here today to keep the Apple world growing in health. Here are our goals:
- Connect all Apple product users
- Provide them with high-quality information and support services
- Keep the Apple world soundly developing, and at the same time, remove obstacles to growth
回顾苹果在中国的过去不到十年的快速发展，苹果已经从一个小众电脑系统演变成一个崭新的资讯科技企业。今天，上了北京地铁，就能看得到年轻旅客使用自己的 iPhone 手机；在星巴克等咖啡店，昔日的 PC 和甚至于 Mac 笔记本电脑已经逐步被新一代 iPad 平板电脑所取代。高铁列车上，也能见到更多旅客从自己 iPod 收听音乐。这充分证明苹果已经初步进入中国市场和中国中高端社会。
苹果社会也在过去几年，发生了深刻变动。苹果已经从「单一电脑制造商」逐渐演变为「多元电子设备制造商」，今天，除了 Macintosh (麦金塔) 电脑外，还有多媒体播放器 iPod、新一代通讯设备 iPhone、平板电脑 iPad 等。同时，苹果在较为高层方面也出现了较大的变动。苹果已经将其销售方式由单一授权经销商变为多样，包括开设自己的直营店。我们伟大苹果创办者乔布斯和沃兹聂克也随著其「退居二线」，为新一代苹果创先领导者铺好创新之道路。
同时，随著苹果的快速发展，个别对苹果无益的行为依然没有得到有效解决。这里包括盗版软件、设备「越狱」和违法犯罪兜售非正规产品等危害市场经济、危害知识产权行为。同时，苹果开设的四家苹果直营店虽然对广大苹果用户是一种福音，但是较低的资讯科技知识水平和甚至于个别时间的混杂管理方式，也给苹果界带来不必要的麻烦。
新一代「北麦圈」用户社群继承了老的「北京麦金塔用户会」，以独立，脱离于苹果内部体制的资讯科技用户组织，致力于进一步改进中国苹果界，也同时致力于协助苹果在中国的可持续健康较快发展。我们的目标是:
- 联络各苹果用户
- 提供高质量可靠资讯服务，包括苹果资讯和维修苹果设备资讯
- 引导整个苹果界的健康发展，杜绝对苹果的无益行为