Only a few days ago a web monitoring group accused the Chinese government for a web attack on Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iCloud service in China. Although the news was huge and it created quite a buzz yet not much has been said by the officials on the topic. The rumor whether the government was involved in this hack or not has also not been confirmed yet. However, on Friday, the CEO of Apple, Tim Cook told Xinhua’s news agency that he and the vice premier of China Ma Kai had very open talks regarding the issue.
Ma Kai and Cook had a meeting in Beijing on Wednesday. Both Cook and Ma Kai are concerned about the security issues and discussed how to avoid more similar attacks.
A web monitoring group Greatfire.org accused the Chinese government of being involved with the hackers. However the government officials had strongly condemned the accusation and said that they had nothing to do with the hacking incident. The government officials also said that they themselves have been victims of many web attacks by the hackers therefore they understand the gravity of the issue.
The entire hacking incident overshadowed the real purpose of Tim Cook’s visit to China. In the interview with Xinhua, Cook said that he is familiar with occasional organised network attacks; however he did not give any detailed information on the attack that targeted Apple’s iCloud users.
Cook revealed in the interview that one of the reasons he visited China was to introduce Apple’s new app of Apple Pay to the huge market in China. Cook’s main purpose was to analyze the steps that are needed to launch Apple Pay in China. He admitted that the market in China is vital for Apple and that the company really wants to establish a strong foothold in the region.
Apple Pay is the new mobile payment service that was introduced by Apple recently; the main reason for targeting China is its huge population; if Apple Pay were to get acceptance from Chinese consumers the possibility of revenue generation from the service from this region could become unprecedented.
Last month the Chinese media had reported that Apple Inc. had almost sealed a deal with China’s Unionpay card network to launch Apple pay in the country.
Tim Cook stayed in China for 4 days and visited various places for Apple Pay’s launch. He attended a meeting of the advisory board of Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management and also visited a factory that supplies products to Hon Hai Precision industries in central China.
Apple might have to work hard to improve its security issues; it will have to convince the Chinese market that the company is capable of offering impregnable security through Apple Pay.
Vice Premier of China and the CEO of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in their meeting may have come up with steps to improve security, but both sides haven’t said anything so far. One thing that is for sure is that Apple’s business in China will do wonders not only for Apple, but for China as well and will play a major role in improving business environment between China and America.
