Are PDA popular in China?

[tonado]

Owen and Mick,

 

PDAs (Palmpilot, Handspring, etc) are getting very popular in USA. Do students or businessmen in China use them? Are them cheaper to buy in China or USA?

 

Welcome to the 10 thinggie clubs.

[owenkrout]

PDAs are an "in" type of thing in China. Most students wouldn't have the extra money for anything like that. Most of them do have cell phones however and in an experiment to see what their viewpoints where and in order to find a topic that they would talk freely about, I asked my classes whether they thought that students had to have a cell phone. Remember that, with only a very few rare exceptions, parents or at least somebody else had to pay for that phone as very few of them have ever had a job. Also remember that the phones I see most of them carrying probably averaged costing their parents 1500-2500 RMB. That is more than a months wages for most people. Most of them insisted that a cell phone was absolutely necessary.

 

Then I stimulated the discussion further by pointing out that the parents where already spending a lot of money (by Chinese standards) for them to be able to get a college education and that things like cell phones put an even greater burden on their parents. You could actually tell that a few of them had not given it any thought until then. The majority, however, where uneffected by that and insisted that their parents "owed" it to them. I then pushed a little further and asked about the nice clothes, etc.

Answer? Their parents "must" buy them such things. It was important that they look good.

 

Unfortunately, their is a strong trend towards away from the values of the past and the youth increasingly have the "me first" attitude. Having grown up in the sixties my self, I don't yet see that degree of selfishness in most Chinese youth, but I do see the trend rapidly progressing in that direction.

[owenkrout]

To answer the second part of the question.

 

Businessmen on the other hand, do indeed commonly carry PDAs. I can't say just what the cost of one is as I haven't priced them myself. I am guessing that they probably are similar in price to what they are in the US. Most electronic equipment here really is not much cheaper and is sometimes more expensive than you can buy the same or similar for in the US.

 

In a related interesting cultural quirk, businessmen will commonly carry a handbag. A small bag for all the world like a woman's purse minus the long handles. Usually with a short end strap to aid in carrying it. In this they keep their cell-phone (can't be a serious businessman without that), PDA, money, train/bus tickets, pens, pencils, note paper, etc. My wife and daughter are still very puzzled that I keep forcefully discouraging their desire to buy me a purse. They feel like I don't look the part of someone who is successful unless I have my handbag. I finally got them to settle for a briefcase, although they don't see why I would carry one and not the other. Can't say that is an easy one to explain.

[floyd]

Owen and Mick,

 

PDAs (Palmpilot, Handspring, etc) are getting very popular in USA.  Do students or businessmen in China use them?  Are them cheaper to buy in China or USA?

 

Welcome to the 10 thinggie clubs.    

I don't know if they are popular, but I know my wife has one. What amazed me about it is she never charges it. The batteries it came with last for over two years with no charging.

[floyd]

To answer the second part of the question.

 

Businessmen on the other hand, do indeed commonly carry PDAs.  I can't say just what the cost of one is as I haven't priced them myself.  I am guessing that they probably are similar in price to what they are in the US.  Most electronic equipment here really is not much cheaper and is sometimes more expensive than you can buy the same or similar for in the US.

 

In a related interesting cultural quirk, businessmen will commonly carry a handbag.  A small bag for all the world like a woman's purse minus the long handles.  Usually with a short end strap to aid in carrying it.  In this they keep their cell-phone (can't be a serious businessman without that), PDA, money, train/bus tickets, pens, pencils, note paper, etc.  My wife and daughter are still very puzzled that I keep forcefully discouraging their desire to buy me a purse.  They feel like I don't look the part of someone who is successful unless I have my handbag.  I finally got them to settle for a briefcase, although they don't see why I would carry one and not the other.  Can't say that is an easy one to explain.

Well even here in the USA a laptop case now is often also used in effect as a mans purse in addition to holding a laptop.

[owenkrout]

Our foreign affairs officer keeps insisting to my wife that I "must" have a PDA since I am ranked as a professor and not just a foreign teacher. He is the exception to the general rule here in China in many ways. He is effiecent, fluent in English and friendly, which few foreign affairs personnel really are. He is also a graduate student working his own way through college. Another rarity in China.

 

Because he has a good job, he is always well dressed and carries the purse with PDA, cell phone, etc. He insists that it is not right for me not to have the latest greatest toys also. He was very approving of it when I bought a nice sound system and a DVD, especially since I bought the Chinese models, not the Japanese ones.

[Mick]

PDA and other such devices are becoming increasingly common here in Guangdong. This area is rapidly developing and becoming more affluent than other parts of the country, with the exception of Shanghai. I would safely say that about 70 percent of my students have their own computers and an even larger percentage have cell phones. I have had to ban all such devices from my classes as they can be used for cheating on exams.

[owenkrout]

I allow the electronic translators in class and don't have to worry about the computers. Very few of my students can afford their own computers. The difference is not in desire but in ability to afford it. Shenyang is the rust belt of China. I have read that once 90% of industry up here was government run. Now those inefficient factories are closing up and the unemployment is very high. The average income up here is quite a bit lower than down around Shanghai or Guangdong.

 

Also most of the electonics are manufactured down south and are much cheaper there.

[OrionM31]

When I was in China, I had taken my Palm IIIc with me to use for storing information and I also had picture of the family on it as well that I could show my wife and her family. I of course had games on there as well and my nephews almost drained the unit playing Bejewled.

 

There are PDA's available, but they can run just as expensive as the ones here in the US. Also, they do not yet have the Palms available in mainland China, they sell them in Hong Kong though. (I was looking for a charging unit for my Palm, and found that the only place that has them in the region was in Hong Kong.)

 

Phil

[owenkrout]

When we were out this week-end I noticed that the cell phone shops are now selling the note book computers. Just out of curiosity, I priced one. 7,500 RMB, I don't know what the final price would have been since I wasn't seriously looking so the wife didn't do any bargaining.