Apple, having launched iTunes in Hong Kong last week, is now facing
Apple, having launched iTunes in Hong Kong last week, is now facing some backlash from users because song titles are listed in Mandarin pinyin, rather than in a transliteration for Cantonese, which most people there speak. iTunes also launched in other Asian regions about a week ago, including Singapore, Taiwan, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam to name just a few. Notable regions that were not added include China, India, and Indonesia.
On accessing the iTunes store for the first time, some Hong Kong users were irritated to find that the store was listing a number of song titles by the city’s popstars in Mandarin pinyin, a system that transcribes Chinese characters into phonetic Latin script, instead of displaying titles transliterated for the Cantonese language, which is spoken by the majority of the population.