There’s no doubt that the iPhone is facing problems in China, but the extent to which this is specific to Apple is up for question.
While Tim Cook blames things like the burgeoning trade war between China and the U.S., analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch think Apple may be experiencing an “informal boycott” of its products.
It turns out Apple isn’t the only smartphone maker that’s suffering from falling sales in China. Samsung, one of the iPhone’s biggest rivals, is also expected to follow Apple in confirming lower than anticipated revenue for the fourth quarter of 2018.
The South Korean company’s warning, which will reportedly come on Tuesday, will reveal a 12 percent fall in year-on-year operating profit for the three-month period. Revenue is also expected to drop 5 percent.
A number of Chinese companies are reportedly boycotting Apple as a show of support for Huawei Technologies.
The Chinese Huawei brand overtook Apple in smartphone shipments this year. Recently, its chief financial officer was arrested in Canada for allegedly violating U.S. sanctions by doing business in Iran.
There’s now proof that Apple rushed iOS 12.1.2 out primarily to make changes to iPhones in China. We also have confirmation of exactly what the modifications are.
These were designed to convince a Chinese court that iPhones don’t infringe on two Qualcomm patents. The hope is that court will then reverse an iPhone sales ban that went into effect in that country last week.
Apple and Qualcomm have found yet another thing to disagree over in their long-running feud. A court in China recently issued an order banning Apple from selling several older iPhone models. Apple subsequently released an iOS update which it claims stopped it infringing on the software patents in the complaint.
However, Qualcomm is not satisfied, and insists that Apple is breaking the law by keeping all of its iPhone models on sale.
Apple is rushing to release an iOS update in China to resolve potential infringement of Qualcomm patents. The news follows a report stating that a Chinese sales ban of certain iPhone models would cost Apple millions of dollars a day.
“Early next week we will deliver a software update for iPhone users in China addressing the minor functionality of the two patents at issue in the case,” Apple said in a statement.
iPhone suppliers will reportedly consider moving away from China is U.S. trade tariffs hit 25 percent.
Sources say they will remain even if the U.S. introduces a 10 percent tax on smartphones, but they could be forced to “reassess the situation” should the Trump administration impose a higher rate on imported goods.
On paper, the recent arrest of Huawei’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, has nothing to do with Apple. But it could nonetheless wind up hurting the U.S. tech giant.
Here’s why.
A court in China has granted Qualcomm an injunction against Apple. The ruling bars Apple from importing and selling multiple iPhone models in China.
The order specifically bars Apple from selling the iPhone 6s, 6s Plus, 7, 7 Plus, iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and iPhone X. However, the iPhone XS, XS Max and XR should be good to go.
Apple’s HomePod speaker is finally set to launch in the second-most important market for the iPhone maker.
The Chinese version of Apple’s website was updated today announcing that the HomePod will finally land in Greater China during early 2019.
President Trump says that the U.S. and China have come to an agreement to hit pause on the escalating trade war between the two countries.
Trump’s comments follow on from the G-20 summit in Argentina, in which he met with Xi Jinping, president of the People’s Republic of China. The 90-day delay on tariffs will cause a sigh of relief for executives at Apple, since the iPhone was recently threatened with additional tariffs.
There’s a good chance the iPhone and other Apple products will be hit with tariffs in the Trump administration’s trade war with China. The president has repeatedly stated his simple solution: Make the iPhone in the United States.
But an analyst warns that moving assembly of Apple’s handsets to the U.S. would significantly increase their price.
Apple stock slid 1.9 percent in pre-market trading today, after President Donald Trump laid out plans for new tariffs to be placed on the iPhone.
Overall, AAPL is trading down 20 percent this month. This latest blow comes after six weeks of declines for Apple, which became the first publicly traded U.S. company to pass a $1 trillion valuation earlier this year.
Apple products have so far escaped the growing trade war between China and the Trump administration, but the grace period may be coming to an end soon. The president is getting ready to put tariffs on additional products being imported from China, and that specifically includes the iPhone.
The iPhone is a coveted totem of status in most parts of the world. In the United Arab Emirates, the wealthy elite buys them two at a time.
But to carry an iPhone in China means you’re less educated and trying to hide dire financial straits. The well-off prefer Huawei or Xiaomi smartphones.
This according to research conducted by the Shanghai firm Mobdata, which looked at income and education backgrounds of smartphone users.
The iPhone outsold Chinese rivals on Alibaba platforms during China’s Singles Day on November 11. Singles’ Day is a holiday in which people not in a relationship buy themselves gifts.
Alibaba, the e-commerce giant that is the equivalent of China’s Amazon, sold a record $30.8 billion in gross merchandise during the day. Apple’s position as number one mobile brand is therefore pretty darn impressive!
Apple just had its best September quarter of all-time and CEO Tim Cook couldn’t have sounded happier when he got on the phone with investors today. The company is heading into the holiday season with its best lineup ever and expects to set more records next quarter.
Investors did not seem to be too impressed with the results though. Apple’s stock price dropped from $222.22 to as low as $206 in after-hours training. Despite Wall Street’s worries about Apple, there was plenty of achievements for Tim Cook and Luca Maestri to boast about on today’s call.
There were the biggest revelations from today’s call:
Over the past several years, new Apple Stores have been opening all over China — but the bloom might be off the rose.
According to a new report, Apple’s Chinese retail stores have been struggling with slowing growth. Despite recently opening its 50th store in greater China, Apple is facing challenges on a number of fronts. And they’re causing it to rethink its strategy as a result.
It’s just the news you probably didn’t want to hear before a new Apple keynote event: Your Apple products could be about to get even pricier.
The reason? The Trump administration is reportedly considering tariffs on, “all remaining Chinese imports” by early December. While Apple has so far gotten away unscathed in the burgeoning U.S.-China trade war, this would be all but guaranteed to affect Apple’s business — since the majority of its products are manufactured in China.
Apple and Amazon are already starting to make retaliatory moves on Bloomberg Businessweek for its claims that the two companies’ servers were hacked by China.
Amazon pulled its Q4 ads from Bloomberg’s website, cutting off significant ad revenue. Meanwhile, Apple has decided to give Bloomberg the old Gizmodo treatment — by banning the company from next week’s “There’s More in the Making” event.
President Donald Trump has a serious iPhone problem, and it could be huge issue for U.S. national security.
Despite being warned by security advisers, Trump continues to use an unsecured iPhone to talk with friends, colleagues and business partners — and China and Russia could be listening in on his calls.
Super Micro Computer, the manufacturer of technology accused by Bloomberg of containing Chinese spy chips, has said that it will carry out a review of its own hardware.
This isn’t any kind of admission on its part, however. In a letter to customers, the firm noted how, “Despite the lack of any proof that a malicious hardware chip exists, we are undertaking a complicated and time-consuming review to further address the article.”
After Apple acknowledged that a small number of its users in China had their iCloud accounts accounts hacked through a phishing scam, a Chinese consumer watchdog thinks the company should pay up.
The China Consumer Association said in a statement that Apple should pay compensation to those affected. Some of those people caught up in the scam lost money since their Apple IDs were used by thieves to take money from paired mobile payment services.
The tech world has been rocked by allegations that companies, including Apple and Amazon, were sold data servers compromised by Chinese spies. However, a senior cyber security advisor to the National Security Agency says that no one he knows of has found any sign of this.
The long wait for new iPad Pros may be nearly over if a recent filing by Apple in Asia is any indication that Apple has finalized its product lineup.
This week it was discovered that Apple just registered three new iPad models with China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). Apple also registered a new Bluetooth device with MIIT, which could be a new Apple Pencil for the iPads.