Apple 'ban' explained

Apple Inc's products are being excluded from the Chinese government's energy-saving procurement list because the US firm had not submitted essential paperwork in time, financial news portal caixin.com reported on Thursday citing the procurement management office under the Ministry of Finance (MOF).

The iPad producer failed to submit documents within a time frame required by the government to be included in a list of energy-saving products, though Apple had obtained an energy-saving certificate issued by the Chinese government, the news portal cited the MOF as saying.

The fact that Apple is not on the energy-saving procurement list does not indicate that the Chinese government would not buy Apple's products, caixin.com cited an unnamed source close to the MOF as saying.

The source said previous news saying that the Chinese government had barred Apple products from its procurement list was a misunderstanding.

A report on Wednesday from Bloomberg had cited an anonymous Chinese official saying that 10 of Apple's products, including the iPad, iPad mini, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, were excluded from the Chinese government's procurement list because of security concerns.

The Chinese government has omitted several foreign brands from its IT products procurement list for security concerns, such as antivirus software from Symantec Corp and Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system, the report said.