If Apple is willing to make all of its product lines gold just to make China like it more, I wonder what else it's going to compromise on (thinking security/privacy here).
Apple has a history of rejecting NSA blanket surveillance (until Jobs died- according to NSA leaks)
At the very least Apple has a business model that /can/ support user privacy. Google is an advertising company- what you don't pay in currency, they make up for by selling you.
They got the iPhone on China Mobile, the world's biggest carrier that is also owned by the Chinese state. They're allegedly set to make China their biggest market, and are making enormous profit there. It doesn't seem particularly unlikely that that deal did more good for Apple than for China Mobile or that there might be conditions attached to it. It'd be fascinating to hear what those could be.
I have mentioned this before, and somebody mentioned there's a markup on iOS products from Hong Kong which could suggest there's something to the idea - and that people do know/suspect something too.
You only have to look at the state of Android - specifically Google's version - in China to see something's up. Google have been locked out of China, Apple have been embraced. Of course Google have way more data to demand than Apple do - and perhaps the demands were so ridiculous Apple would have balked at the same - but it's an interesting comparison. It's also potentially the driving force that will mean Apple continue to take substantially all the industry's profit.
Basically, it would be fascinating to have been in the room of Apple/China Mobile negotiations.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_o...
Can you explain how you make the connection between colors and security? It sounds like a subtle troll.
Instead of Silver, Slate, and Gold for macbook colors, Apple should have gone with Silver, Slate and Green.
It also sucks that they picked gold for the keynote and as the main image on the website :-/