多亏一位反应快的顾客认出了苹果（Apple）首席执行官蒂姆•库克，抓拍了若干照片，并将其发布到新浪微博上，我们才在周一得知库克到了北京，并至少在京逗留了若干小时。

    我们先不去分析苹果首席执行官踏足全球最大的iOS设备市场（史蒂夫•乔布斯显然从未这么做）的象征意义，先来看看库克到北京到底有何贵干？

    苹果在中国的公关代表称，库克“与中国官方相谈甚欢。”

    中国媒体给库克取了个绰号叫“库克船长”，我们不妨设想，库克与中国高层官员的会晤有可能会推动一系列问题。其中包括：

    • 磋商已久，但一直悬而未决的合作，即通过中国移动（China Mobile）出售iPhone。中国移动是世界最大的手机运营商，拥有6.65亿手机用户。

    • 苹果零售店的开店速度慢于预期，目前数目仅为6家，远未达到2010年设定的、本应在上个月就已经实现的目标，也就是苹果零售店总数达到25家。

    • 苹果一直难以驾驭中国供应商，使其遵守苹果的供应商行为准则，尤其是加班问题。

    • 苹果正与唯冠（Proview）对簿公堂，争夺中国市场的iPad商标所有权。虽然香港法院已表示支持苹果，但苹果仍难以在大陆法庭获得它所认为的公平申诉机会。

    库克到中国来可不是两手空空。苹果年报显示，他在2012年安排了创纪录的71亿元美元预算，用于投资厂房及设备，其中大部分想必会投向苹果的亚洲供应链。这些应该使他在与中国官员的会谈中掌握了一定的砝码。

    资讯网站iPhonAsia.com的荣誉退休编辑丹•巴特菲尔德称中国的工业和信息化部（Ministry of Industry and Information Technology）是关键症结所在。

    巴特菲尔德写道：“中国工信部面临的困境之一在于，它希望使中国三大无线运营商【中国移动、中国联通（China Unicom）以及中国电信（China Telecom）】平等竞争。其中，中国移动优势（相当）明显，而工信部有意用中国“自主创新的”TD-SCDMA 3G（恕我直言，TD-SCDMA 3G就好比二战时建造的“云杉鹅”巨型飞机）制约中国移动。另外两家规模较小的运营商，即中国联通和中国电信，则因为拥有“世界标准”的3G网络而受益。

    “问题当然是TD-LTE（据传下一代iPhone将支持该标准）能否帮助中国移动摆脱TD-SCDMA的束缚。我们不妨看看是中国工信部先签发必不可少的TD-LTE网络牌照，还是苹果先发布兼容LTE的iPhone 5，这是件很有意思的事。”

    译者：项航

    Thanks to a quick-thinking customer who spotted him, snapped a couple photos and posted them on Sina Weibo, a Chinese microblogging site, we learned Monday that Apple (AAPL) CEO Tim Cook was in Beijing, at least for a few hours.

    Leaving aside the iconography of an Apple CEO setting foot in the world's largest market for iOS devices, something Steve Jobs apparently never bothered to do, what do we suppose Cook was doing there?

    According to Apple's local public relations representative, Cook had "great meetings with Chinese officials."

    We can imagine any number of issues that might benefit from high-level face-to-face meetings between Cook -- whom the Chinese press have nicknamed "Captain Cook" -- and Chinese officials. Among them:

    • The long negotiated but never consummated deal to sell iPhones through China Mobile (CHL), the world's largest cell phone carrier with 665 million mobile subscribers.

    • The slower-than anticipated roll-out of Apple Stores, which at six are nowhere near the goal of 25 that was set in 2010 and was supposed to have been reached last month.

    • The continuing difficulties Apple has had getting its Chinese suppliers to conform to the company's supplier code of conduct, particularly in regard to worker overtime.

    • Apple's ongoing legal battle with Proview over ownership of the iPad trademark in China. A Hong Kong court has sided with Apple, but the company has had a harder time getting what it sees as a fair hearing in courts on the mainland.

    Cook doesn't come to China with an empty hand. According to the company's annual report, it has budgeted an unprecedented investment of $7.1 billion for plant and equipment for 2012, much of it presumably destined for Apple's Asian supply chain. That should give him some leverage in those meetings with Chinese officials.

    Dan Butterfield, editor emeritus of iPhonAsia.com, points to China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology as a key sticking point.

    "One dilemma for China's MIIT," he writes, "has been their desire to level out the playing field for the three major wireless carriers in China -- China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom. The (by far) dominant carrier is China Mobile, and the MIIT purposefully hamstrung China Mobile with their 'indigenously innovated' TD-SCDMA 3G ... which IMHO is akin to the Spruce Goose. The smaller carriers -- China Unicom and China Telecom -- have benefited via having "world standard" 3G networks.

    "The question of course is will TD-LTE [the standard the next iPhone is rumored to support] unshackle China Mobile from their TD-SCDMA bondage? It will be interesting to see which comes first, MIIT issuance of the necessary TD-LTE network license or the launch of the LTE compatible iPhone 5."