"We take after-sale service very seriously and give the same attention to quality end results and client satisfaction as any service experience, " a spokeswoman wrote in an email.
The agreement called for IBM to sell--rather than exclusively lease--its equipment, to create a subsidiary for after-sale service and to limit itself to producing no more than half of the country's punch cards.
Regardless, Beidou could be well on its way to become the new Xiaomi (sans the software part), though only time can tell whether it has the reliability and after-sale service to prove it.