Apple’s Tim Cook dinner is on a go to to Shanghai forward of a brand new retailer opening within the metropolis on Thursday (Mar. 21). This comes after latest reviews of declining iPhone gross sales in China.
Sharing on the Weibo social media platform, the CEO has posted quite a few instances over the previous couple of days as he has documented his week, simply days earlier than the brand new retailer is about to open its doorways.
In a single put up, he says: “Nonghao Shanghai! Spent the morning strolling the Bund with Zheng Kai and having fun with a basic Shanghai breakfast. I’m all the time so completely satisfied to be again on this exceptional metropolis.”
Different posts present him assembly with the creators of the Nikki and Love sequence at Papergames who Cook dinner says “make one of the vital well-liked video games on the App Retailer.”
Just a few weeks in the past, originally of March, reviews emerged from Counterpoint Analysis suggesting gross sales of the iPhone in China have plunged within the first six weeks of the yr.
They are saying Apple fell 24% over the interval on stiff competitors and an abnormally excessive January 2023.
Senior Analyst Mengmeng Zhang was quoted within the analysis explaining why this might have occurred: “Primarily, it confronted stiff competitors on the excessive finish from a resurgent Huawei whereas getting squeezed within the center on aggressive pricing from the likes of OPPO, vivo, and Xiaomi….”
“Though the iPhone 15 is a good gadget, it has no important upgrades from the earlier model, so shoppers really feel superb holding on to the older-generation iPhones for now.”
Apple faces intense competitors in China
In distinction to the bitter Apple information, the researcher says the best-performing smartphone manufacturers for the primary six weeks had been Huawei and its spinoff Honor.
Huawei smartphone unit shipments rose 64% yr over yr within the first six weeks of 2024. The drop in gross sales for Apple means the iPhone has to this point misplaced its crown as having the best-selling smartphone in China. They solely gained this standing for the primary time in 2023.