An Apple spokesperson has confirmed that a third Shanghai Apple store will be opening on Nanjing Road. Our reaction to this is really? Already? It'll be the fifth in China (there are two stores in Shanghai and two in Beijing) and the largest in the nation. Supposedly, the size of the retail space is necessary "to accommodate the crowds that routinely pack its China Apple stores, which are visited by more than 40,000 people per day-four times the average traffic in their American stores." more ›

Do you think that Starbucks...a) serves crappy coffee at prices that warrant a boycott b) the leading symptom of Western imperialism or c) the embodiment of all that is wrong with globalized society? If you selected any of the above well, you're out of luck because Starbucks has just outlined its plans to more than triple the number of its stores in China, up to 1500 locations by 2015. more ›

So the iPhone was finally launched in China after much rumor mongering and fanfare and... well, it seems like most everyone who wanted an iPhone already has one. While the launch party in Beijing was a rousing success, actual first day sales were nowhere near as wild as in the U.S. or Japan. About what you could expect, we guess, from a crippled product (no WiFi) that came months and months after it was released elsewhere. Especially if it has turned out to be actually more expensive than its gray market brethren. more ›