Also, once a new iPhone has been launched, the guarantee for the former iPhone ends instantly. Also, once a new OS of the iPhone, launches, its consumes more rescures and the battery life gets shorter.

I begins to doubt that the higher rescures that the new iOS after upgrade consumes, caused by the fact that it is heaviers. It simply detects that you uses an older iPhone/iPad/iPod touch, and simulates a higher rescures to force you to upgrade your iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch = A form of a planned obsolscence.

Okay, back to the original question:

I mean genuine brands - such as Osram (Made in Germany) vs. Osram (Made in China) etc.

What do you think? Are the Chinese lamps really worse? (Or better?)
In what criteria? (lamp life, efficacy, light colour, problems with starting, design...)
Can you support that by your personal experience?

I don't find any difference between Chinesse and European made lamps (brands).
I can't support that with HIDs as I haven't any of my lamps ran more that a few hours with the only exception of Osram Vialox NAV-T (SON-T) 110W that I've been using occasionally to support my chillies growing. This one is made in China and it's worked for a few hundreds of hours without problems.

As for CFLs and fluorescents: I've had both German and Chinese made Osram lamps and I couldn't find any single difference between them. In fact, we've got a Chinese CFL in our toilet for many years (switched very frequently) and it's still in perfect shape.

I know about Chinese copies or cheapo/shoddy "brands" that I don't write about here.

@RyanF40T12: "Those people over in other countries work just as hard and most of the time harder then they did in America or other native lands.  Many of them work 6-7 days a week and sleep at the factories and what not.  They are trying to do what everyone else is.. survive.  No one is superior to anyone else, we are all human beings.  It's just too bad that this world revolves around greed and money."
Good point, I agree.

the only way to get consistant quality out of china is to have someone oversee the operation.
otherwise every corner that can possibly be cut will.up to and including building your product with counterfiet/off spec reject parts and even knocking off your design and selling it as genuine!

The efficacy is impossible to compare, because in China are made the newer products, so more efficient by their design.

But what I've observed: If someone has to really "cut corners" and sacrifice the quality by that to reach certain cost goal, the Chinese tend to end up better in quality. And it isn't because they may afford to spent more work time on it because of the low labor cost, but because the "corner cutting" engineering work seems to be done really better. That is indeed shame for the "western" production, I guess the long time experience in doing such cost cutting is paying off.
But it could be as well a result of a billion population base from where to select the to-be-engineers (so no wonder they are smarter then their western colleges) and the education focus on designing the things so, the production is then really cheap.

I think Medved is on right tracks on this one. I have to cite here one Chinese exchange student that I worked with when I was part timer long ago in second hand shop. We had interesting discussion about this topic. He told me that "when shopping and buying things in China, you really have to know what to buy and where. This goes for both consumers and businesses" He told me that there are lots of really bad quality crap but there is also high quality stuff you just have to know where to look. What Ive seen, one of the main difference is that If we image that I would need for example a bolt for my product. Bolt manufacturers in western world says its cost X money. If I ask same thing in Chinese manufacturer he would probably want to ask how much I would like it to cost. As Medved said, Chinese are experts in cutting costs. If something isnt specified in quatation its not part of the deal. No matter how simple or common-sense thing it would be. In lamp manufacturing, in the end its the one who ordered the lamps who is responssibility about the quality. If Osram orders MV lamp that cost X chinese wont say no, they find a way to make it happen. And like in western world, Cheapest offer usually wins the contract.

Ive also later worked on a large telecom project where equiptment supplier was big chinese corporation and that was really good experience about Chinese corporate world. Its completely different from western one with its strict hierarchy and other things.