Microsoft Corp’s after-sales service of its Surface tablet has attracted criticism from China’s state-owned radio, following similar reports in the past month targeting Apple Inc.
The Surface Pro should follow China’s law requiring notebook computers to have a one-year repair warranty for the whole device and a two-year warranty for main parts, as compared with the company’s one-year warranty for both, China National Radio reported on Monday.
Beijing-based Microsoft spokeswoman Joanna Li said she could not comment on the report.
After a March 15 report by China Central Television criticized Apple’s customer service, Chinese government mouthpiece the People’s Daily published more than a dozen articles on the subject.
Apple chief executive Tim Cook apologized to Chinese consumers on April 2 after two weeks of being lambasted by state-run media for arrogance and poor customer service.
China should not loosen regulations on Apple because of that apology, the People’s Daily said on Monday.
China National Radio reporter Pan Yi (潘毅) said the station looked into the story after listeners complained about Microsoft’s after-sales policies.
“Our story is not really related to CCTV’s Apple story,” Pan said in a telephone interview. “A lot of foreign companies are not very familiar with China’s after-sales policies.”
Microsoft began selling Surface tablets in China in October and made its first global sale in Beijing as the US company tried to win favor with local consumers tired of waiting months for access to the latest Apple products, which are sold in the US first.
In the March 15 report, the state broadcaster said the owners of Volkswagen AG’s cars in China have reported instances of abnormal vibrations, loss of power and sudden acceleration. The problems are related to the cars’ direct-shift gearbox system, it said in its program marking World Consumer Rights Day. Volkswagen said at the time that it will contact the involved customers and make any necessary repairs.
China’s quality watchdog introduced laws this year allowing the government to order investigations and impose fines should manufacturers and importers fail to recall faulty vehicles in a timely manner.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained