Apple Computer Inc has opened a representative office in Peking and signed a distributor for China. The company says that it has already installed about 10,000 Macintosh computers in China and expects annual growth of more than 100% over the next five years – matching its growth rates in other Asian markets such as Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea. The distribution agreement is with Legend Technology Ltd, a Hong Kong company operating in China and owned by the State Council’s Academica Sinica. AST Research Inc just signed a big distribution agreement with Legend for China (CI No 2,251). Legend will be responsible for marketing and servicing Apple’s complete range of Macintosh and peripherals in China and developing local and localised applications; it has 18 sales offices, 200 dealers and 50 maintenance centres across the People’s Republic. Apple is also sponsoring a training centre at Peking’s Qinghua university, to provide training on Macintoshes for developers, resellers and customers.
