Apple is a powerful adversary to contend with. With iPhone 4 sales running off the charts, Apple proves its competence yet again. But is its complacency and insensitivity giving unfair advantage to otherwise small fry? Lenovo founder and chairman Liu Chuanzhi feels that it is.

In an interview on Monday, Liu Chuanzhi reportedly told the Financial Times, “We are lucky that Steve Jobs has such a bad temper and doesn’t care about China. If Apple were to spend the same effort on the Chinese consumer as we do, we would be in trouble.”

The newspaper also noted that “Lenovo holds about 30 percent share of the Chinese market, which is one of the fastest-growing globally, and is expected to become the world’s largest within a year.”

All this fuss doesn’t mean that the Chinese do not fancy an Apple gadget to show off to their friends. Buy an iPhone 4: they would if they could. But Apple’s cautious steps with providing only limited accessible channels have raised the prices to unattainable. Not to add Apple’s constant fear of shipping their products to the country. Available legally only via China Unicom, the second-largest mobile operator in the country, iPhone has coaxed Chinese fans to settle for a much-cheaper take-off instead.

Claiming that understanding the Chinese consumer is the first step towards dominating the emerging market, Chuanzhi declares that Lenovo’s new Android phone, the LePhone, is fast gaining the approval and favour of the Chinese hearts. Even though it comes nowhere near the figure projected for Apple’s developers- 1,000 versus 100,000 for the record- Chuanzhi is positive that the LePhone appeals more to the Chinese customers who find it “very convenient to use”.

According to recent statistics, the Hong Kong-based Lenovo has generated a fiscal fourth-quarter net profit of $13 million as compared to its previous year’s losses worth $264 million in the fourth quarter.