Apple continued beefing up its offerings for the Chinese market this week with an update to GarageBand dedicated to Chinese content. The company added several Chinese instruments, including the pipa, the erhu and unspecified "Chinese percussion." Apple also added "300 Apple-created Chinese musical loops," the first new loops we've seen in some time.
New Chinese Music Loops in GarageBand - tap the image for a larger version
(They're grayed out because they were downloading as I took the screenshot)
What's even more interesting is that Apple announced the (very minor) update through a press release—a rare action from Apple for a minor content update that further illustrates the importance of the Chinese market.
On Friday, Apple announced a $1 billion investment in Didi, a Chinese ride-sharing company. Apple CEO Tim Cook also recently visited China, no doubt to put the finishing touches on the deal mentioned above. Mr. Cook has repeatedly stressed his belief that Apple has a bright future in the company, having said so often during the company's quarterly conference calls with analysts and recently on CNBC's Mad Money with Jim Cramer.
One might be inclined to dismiss this update as pandering, but in my opinion it's a smart effort to add regional content for an important market. Apple is likely (and hopefully) considering doing the same for other important markets, and I appreciate this attention to detail for a product like GarageBand. We want more such attention paid to all of Apple's offerings, including regional additions and localizations.