On Tuesday Apple Inc announced that an online store and a Chinese version of its App Store for customers in China has been launched. This is the latest move by the company in an attacking expansion after so many years of negligence towards market.

Customers of China can now order Apple products like iPhone 4 and iPad online and also have the products delivered to their doors. Before this move, buyers of iPhone had to order the devices on Chinese website of Apple and pick them up at the stores in Beijing and Shanghai. Apple is shipping iPhones iin China in other one or two weeks according to the new Chinese online store.

The expansion of the company in China is a part of competition in nascent of China but smartphone market which is growing fast is heating up. Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC Corp. is also planning an expansion in China. Apple has plans to open 25 Apple Stores in the country by 2011. It had only one Apple Store in China last year and was depending largely on authorized resellers to reach their customers.

With e-commerce growing in China and consumers spending billions of dollars each year online, this move could also increase the distribution of the company in China. Apple had 7.1% of smartphone market of China as of the second quarter, it ranks fifth after Nokia Corp., Samsung Electronics Co, Motorola Inc and Sony Ericsson.


Written by: josh, who runs a website about Tech News