Apple Unveils Raft of New Features Aimed at China - Wall Street Journal (blog)

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Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple Inc., speaks at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Monday, June 11, 2012.

If Chinese Apple fans once felt neglected, Apple appears to be making up for it now.

At its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco on Monday, the consumer electronics maker unveiled a host of upcoming features for its operating systems specifically tailored to Chinese users, including integration with Chinese Internet services – including popular microblogging site Sina Weibo, search engine Baidu, and video sites Youku and Tudou – as well as easier input for emoticons and Chinese pinyin, the system used in China for spelling Chinese words in Roman letters.

Apple’s voice-controlled artificial intelligence system Siri will also now be able to speak and understand Chinese.

Siri’s initial inability to understand Mandarin inspired a series of spoof videos after the latest iPhone was unveiled late last year, including one viral offering that depicted young Chinese men touting Siri’s supposedly limitless functionality then failing to get help from their phones in finding everything from food to alternate routes home to toilet paper, each time becoming more and more distraught.

Some of the new features are now outlined on Apple’s website as part of the new Mountain Lion operating system. They address a number of long-standing issues for Chinese users, who can’t easily take advantage of Apple products’ existing integration with Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Google search because of government Web filtering and who previously had to use third-party apps or browsers to access Chinese Internet services.

With the operating system upgrade, people in China will now be able to share content on platforms like Sina Weibo and Youku from within the operating system.

The upgrade also includes auto-correction for Chinese pinyin and enables users to type both pinyin and English without switching keyboards, resolving problems unique to Chinese-language users.

Apple’s announcement of the new features shows how the Cupertino-based maker of iPads and iPhones isrushing to embrace China, now the company’s largest market outside of the U.S., after previously neglecting it.

The world’s largest mobile market by subscribers and second-largest PC market by unit shipments, China had to wait almost two and a half years, until 2009, before getting its first official iPhone launch. Apple didn’t start accepting payments in Chinese yuan for the App Store until last November.

The company currently faces a number of obstacles, as it is now in the midst of a legal battle over the iPad trademark in China and is also awaiting new Chinese regulations that could impact its App Store and mobile devices.

Still, Apple’s efforts in China appear to be gaining momentum. On an earnings call in April, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook called the company’s growth in China “mind-bloggling,” as its iPhones and iPads have become wildly popular. The company has ramped up its staff in the region and is rolling out plans to expand its retail presence as well, adding flagship Apple Stores in Shenzhen and Chengdu.

– Loretta Chao. Follow her on Twitter @lorettac