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LeEco CEO: Apple is 'outdated' and has 'fallen behind' the competition

Apple is "outdated" and losing momentum in China, claims billionaire and LeEco CEO entrepreneur Jia Yueting.
Written by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Contributing Writer
Apple Store, Xidan Joy City, Beijing, China

Apple Store, Xidan Joy City, Beijing, China

Apple is "outdated" and losing momentum in China, claims billionaire and LeEco CEO entrepreneur Jia Yueting.

Speaking with CNBC, Jia said that the iPhone has "fallen behind" the competition in recent years, pointing to declining sales momentum in China.

"In China you can see that Apple has already begun to lose the rapid sales growth momentum," Jia said. "One of the most important reasons is that Apple's innovation has become extremely slow. For example, a month ago Apple launched the iPhone SE. From an insiders' perspective, this is a product with a very low level of technology."

There's plenty of other data to suggest that Jia is correct in his assessment that Apple is having a tough time in China.

And Jia has every reason to know what he's talking about, given how his company is at the center of a diverse range of technologies. While LeEco is best known as the "Netflix of China," it also makes a myriad of devices, ranging from smartphones and televisions to mountain bikes and electric cars.

He also sees problems with Apple's app model.

"Apple only has individual apps. This was the right choice during the first generation of mobile net, when CPUs and the mobile network speeds were not fast enough," Jia said. "However now we're moving into the next era of mobile internet, these problems no longer exist. Moreover, having separate apps just means great obstacles in the user experience. We hope to break down these obstacles."

He also took a potshot at Apple's closed ecosystem.

"We believe the next generation of mobile internet will be more open, more ecosystem-oriented instead of being a closed loop," said Jia. "Ironically, Apple's over-dominance, lack of internet-thinking and the closed off nature of its systems, all hindered innovation in the internet mobile industry."

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