我曾在一篇专栏中写道，如果苹果（Apple）希望iPhone在中国市场上大卖，就应该坚定不移地出银色版iPhone。事实证明这是我错得最离谱的一次。

    这大概也就是一年前的事。当时传闻苹果即将推出一款香槟色iPhone，因为金色在中国是身份的象征。我查找了关于各国人色彩偏好的市场调研，还找到了杜邦公司（Dupont）发布的一份图表，该图表显示，在中国银色汽车最畅销，而非金色。

    但事实证明，汽车与手机是两码事。

    金色版的iPhone5S在中国大获成功，很快在香港和中国大陆销售一空。在纽约，购买无锁版土豪金iPhone5S的买家排起了长队。很快，在中国的“灰市”，金色版iPhone手机每部需要加价数百美元才能买到。

    苹果当时就似乎胸有成竹。去年十二月，它终于与全球最大的运营商——中国移动达成了分销协议。今年二月，中国移动宣布，使用该公司全新4G网络的手机中，一半以上是iPhone。截至上上周，中国移动的4G网络用户已超过1400万。

    蒂姆•库克日前向分析师们表示：“中国着实令我们吃惊。我们知道在中国市场的销售会很强劲，但结果比我们预想的还要好得多。我们的营收（包括零售在内）增长了26%，而如果按销售的产品数量计，可谓全面飙升，产品销量的增速高达48%，而市场预期为24%，所以实际增速是市场预期的两倍。”

    署名“杰克在首尔”（Jake_in_Seoul）的一位驻外美国读者说：“香槟金版iPhone令苹果赚得盆满钵满，提议推出该模型的员工应该获得重奖。”

    常读这个专栏的读者都知道，“杰克”对亚洲智能手机市场的观察十分敏锐。今年1月，我们转发了他从中国发来的一封信，令中国的iPhone故事更生动起来。

    “iPhone在中国没有占据市场支配地位，但用的人也不少，有钱有势的人（比如说房地产大亨）肯定都是用iPhone，但出人意料的是，饭店职员甚至面馆小妹也可能用着iPhone。购iPhone与否，似乎取决于心态。”

    “在一次闲聊中，我听到三星（在中国采用其汉字名称）被人称作‘中国手机’品牌，太逗了。我怀疑不少人都存在这种误解，三星肯定对此很困扰。”

    The dumbest column I ever wrote was the one that suggested that if Apple wanted to sell a lot of iPhones in China it should stick with silver.

    This was just about a year ago. Rumors were flying that Apple was about to launch a champagne-gold iPhone because gold was such a prestigious color in China. I went looking for market research on national color preferences, and the closest thing I could find was a Dupont chart that showed that the best-selling automobile color in China was silver, not gold.

    Cars, it turns out, are not the same as phones.

    The gold iPhone 5S was a huge hit in China. It sold out immediately in Hong Kong and the mainland. Customers in New York City buying for export lined up around the block. Gold iPhones were soon commanding mark-ups of several hundred dollar apiece in China’s grey markets.

    Apple, it seems, knew what it was doing. In December it finally cut a distribution deal with China Mobile, the world’s largest carrier. In February, China Mobile announced that iPhones accounted for more than half of the phones on its brand new 4G network. By last week, that network had grown to more than 14 million subscribers.

    “China, honestly was surprising to us,” Tim Cook told analysts last week. “We thought it would be strong but it went well past what we thought. We came in at 26% of revenue growth, including retail and if you look at the units, the unit growth was really off the charts across the board. I found 48% growth that compares to a market estimate of 24%. So growing it two times the market.”

    “Whoever proposed the champagne gold model can’t be rewarded enough for the cascading benefits Apple has enjoyed from it,” writes an American ex-pat who posts here as Jake_in_Seoul.

    Jake, as regulars here know, is a keen observer of the Asian smartphone market. In January we re-posted a letter he wrote from China that adds some color (pardon the pun) to the Chinese iPhone story:

    “iPhones here are not predominant, but are readily seen, certainly in the hands of wealthy and powerful, (e.g., a local real estate tycoon), but also surprisingly owned by the likes of hotel clerks and a remarkable noodle shop girl. Ownership seems to be a state of mind.

    “I was amused in a casual conversation to hear Samsung (known in China by its Chinese/Korean character name San Xing Sanxing = “Three Stars”) referred to as a “Chinese phone”… I suspect this misunderstanding may not be uncommon and hence highly aggravating to Samsung.