Business | Innovation in Asia

Trading places

China is about to overtake Japan in patent applications

Sep 30th 2010|TOKYO

ONLY five years ago, most of the expensive bits and pieces inside a typical Apple iPod came from Japan. Today an autopsy of the iPad reveals that nearly all the important components come from South Korea and Taiwan. In such a short time Japan's dominance of Asia's technology industry has been eroded by its neighbours.

This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Trading places”