And it’s been fair. In China they don't just counterfeit devices,
they counterfeit entire shops - a knock-off Apple store was closed down
in 2015.
Instances like this play into the West’s view of China as
the world’s shameless imitator. A place where great ideas from the US
and Europe go off to be assembled as cheaply as possible.
It's time to update that view.
At
CES, the US's biggest trade show, Chinese companies could be found
competing not only on price, but on fantastic ideas and design.
As China's consumers have matured - and by that I mean, got a lot richer - so too has its technology industry.
Like
many a British popstar, China is intent on breaking America. But the
question is whether Chinese firms can earn greater trust from Western
consumers.
'Sounds French'
Occupying a sizable booth in CES's North Hall is LeEco. It's pronounced "Luh" and "eco" as in ecosystem.
On
display here is a concept Tesla-like sportscar, some Smart bikes with
Google's Android software built in, and a 12in (30cm) TV. The point:
they do a lot.
LeEco was for a while known as the Netflix of China, a company that
streamed content and eventually started making its own original
material. Now it's branching out quickly into hardware - and started
selling devices in the US at the tail end of last year.
"People assume LeEco… they think it sounds French,” says Kenny Mathers, from LeEco's marketing team.
" 'Le' in mandarin means 'joyful'," he added.
"Our name means joyful ecosystem. When consumers get to pick up our products they’re delighted with build quality and design."
Sounding
French is a good thing for a Chinese company, Mathers acknowledged, as
it removes a trust barrier for people used to words like Apple rather
than, say, Xiaomi. That said, I’ve heard at least five different
pronunciations of LeEco this week.
Looking around the booth I
spotted what looked very much like a GoPro camera, and I put it to
Mathers that even here we're still seeing a disregard for Western
intellectual property.
"I wouldn’t say that," he said.
"I
would say that there’s a lot of innovation in our products. We've had a
huge number of innovations in our phone line - we were the first
company to remove the audio jack."
He is of course referencing Apple’s controversial decision to remove
the headphone socket from its latest iPhone - though I’m not sure that’s
been a particularly popular move by either company.
LeEco won't
be drawn on reports of its money woes - back in China it’s reported that
Haosheng Electronics, one of LeEco’s suppliers, is taking legal action
over unpaid bills. LeEco has denied reports it has failed to meet its
financial obligations.
'Poor country'
According
to the latest figures from research firm Gartner, sitting third in the
global smartphone sales race - behind Samsung and Apple - is Huawei.
Already
the biggest supplier of telecoms infrastructure in Europe, Huawei was
one of the early entrants into Western markets - though in the US it was
coy. The company made Google's Nexus 6P, released in 2015, but until
now hadn't undertaken any serious attempts at pushing its own brand.
The new Mate 9, a so-called phablet, is the company's first high-end
device to be launched in the US. One stand-out feature is a built-in
voice assistant.
Curiously, while the company makes its own AI
assistant, it has opted to integrate Amazon’s Alexa into this device
instead. I wondered if it was because US users might not trust a Chinese
firm with such broad data gathering. But Richard Yu, Huawei's chief
executive (for the consumer side of things), gave a simpler explanation.
"Amazon Alexa is the best in this country,” he told me.
"We
want to bring to the consumer the best services. In the China market we
have our own - we have no intention to do this [in the US] in the short
term."
Momentum shift
Last year, Huawei had an unexpected gift: Samsung’s devices kept on catching on fire.
"Their
problem has given Huawei more opportunity to be in the market," Mr Yu
said, though he felt the Mate 9 would have given Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7
a run for its money even without the problems.
He said China deserved its reputation as an imitator in years past, but was quickly shaking off that image.
"Chinese vendors are getting stronger and stronger on innovation.
"It's
not like 10, 20 years ago where many in China would learn [from the
West]. There is more original innovation from China now.
"Thirty years ago China was a very poor country. Like North Korea. Very poor. Nothing.
"Within 30 years everywhere in China is changing, growing. In Huawei we have huge investment in innovation."
This year he said he expected the company to spend $10bn (£8.1bn) on research and development - roughly in line with Apple.
But
spend isn't everything. No amount of money can buy a Steve Jobs or a
Jony Ive. And the cultural boundaries are proving both frustrating and
fascinating - what is a massive hit in China can fall desperately flat
elsewhere.
But while American firms have struggled to make headway
in China, Chinese firms are accelerating into the West. With high
specifications and low prices, you shouldn't bet against them.
