China

Apple saw its first year-over-year iPhone sales growth in China in two years during the second quarter of 2025, according to new data from Counterpoint Research, marking a temporary reversal of a prolonged decline in one of its most strategically critical markets. The data indicates that ‌iPhone‌ sales in mainland China grew 8% year-over-year between April 1 and June 22, 2025. This period...

Apple's effort to expand iPhone production in India has encountered a setback as Foxconn has recalled hundreds of Chinese engineers and technicians from its Indian factories, Bloomberg reports. According to people familiar with the matter who spoke to Bloomberg, Foxconn has been sending home a large number of Chinese workers previously stationed at its ‌iPhone‌ manufacturing facilities in...

Chinese display manufacturer BOE is aggressively ramping up its OLED production capacity for future iPhone models as part of a plan to recapture a major role in Apple's supply chain. In May 2022, Apple halted BOE's inclusion in the ‌iPhone‌ 13's supply chain after detecting unauthorized design modifications. The crisis began when BOE, facing component shortages and yield issues, expanded...

Apple has joined China's national digital product subsidy program through its own direct sales channels for the first time, enabling eligible customers in Beijing and Shanghai to receive government-backed discounts on select iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, and Macs (via South China Morning Post). Apple customers in Shanghai can access the subsidies by purchasing qualifying devices in one of...

Apple's efforts to bring Apple Intelligence to the critical Chinese market have been stymied by tension resulting from the tariffs that U.S. President Donald Trump put in place, reports Financial Times. To deploy ‌Apple Intelligence‌ features in China, Apple is working with Alibaba, and the two companies have not yet received regulatory approval in China for the AI products that Apple wants...

Chinese Apple competitor Xiaomi today announced the "Xring O1," a custom 3nm chip designed to rival Apple silicon (via Bloomberg). The company plans to switch its devices to custom silicon chips, just like Apple. The Xring O1 chip will be included in three devices to begin with, including the Xiaomi Tablet 7 Ultra–a newly announced 14-inch tablet. Like the latest-generation Apple...

The Feiyang Times is an unassuming tower in Shenzhen's Huaqiangbei district, but it has earned the nickname "the stolen iPhone building" in Apple community forums. According to a Financial Times investigation (paywalled), the building has become a major hub in a global network trafficking stolen iPhones. When London tech entrepreneur Sam Amrani had his iPhone 15 Pro snatched by two men on...

Chinese shipments of iPhones and other mobile devices to the United States dropped dramatically in April, hitting their lowest levels since 2011, according to newly released customs data (via Bloomberg). Smartphone exports from China to the US plummeted 72% to just under $700 million last month, outpacing the overall 21% decline in Chinese shipments to the United States. The sharp decline...

The Trump administration is scrutinizing Apple's partnership with Chinese tech giant Alibaba to bring AI features to iPhones in China, according to a new report from The New York Times. Washington officials are concerned the collaboration could help Chinese AI providers collect data to improve their models, potentially benefiting China's military. Defense Department and intelligence...

The iPhone 16 lineup is now being sold at discounts of over $350 on major Chinese e-commerce platforms, as the company and its retail partners move to stimulate demand in the face of declining sales and intensifying competition in the world's biggest smartphone market (via Reuters). JD.com and Alibaba's Tmall marketplace have introduced significant markdowns on Apple's new devices ahead of...

Foreign-branded smartphone shipments in China, dominated by Apple's iPhone, dropped dramatically in March 2025, plunging 49.6% year-over-year according to data released by The China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT). The steep decline saw shipments fall to just 1.89 million units, down from 3.75 million during the same period last year. That shrinks Apple's share...

Apple is accelerating its manufacturing shift away from China, with plans to assemble all U.S.-bound iPhones in India by the end of 2026, according to a new Financial Times report. The ambitious timeline would require Apple to double its current iPhone production capacity in India. It marks a major acceleration of Apple's supply chain diversification strategy, which has been gradually...

Apple's iPhone shipments in China declined by 9 percent in the first quarter compared to the year earlier, and it was the only major smartphone vendor to see a decline, according to data from research firm IDC. Shipments of iPhones fell to 9.8 million units, giving Apple a market share of 13.7 percent, down from 17.4 percent in the previous quarter. Apple has now had seven straight quarters...

Apple CEO Tim Cook has praised the artificial intelligence models developed by Chinese start-up DeepSeek, as the company moves closer to launching Apple Intelligence on the Chinese mainland pending regulatory approval, the South China Morning Post reports. Speaking at the China Development Forum in Beijing, a state-organized annual event designed to attract global investment, Cook reportedly ...

Apple is working to bring its AI features to China as early as May, with Alibaba and Baidu acting as local partners to help the company meet strict state regulations, according to a new Bloomberg report. Apple is said to have dedicated teams in both China and the US working to adapt its Apple Intelligence platform for the Chinese market, as it navigates the country's complex regulatory...

Apple will partner with Alibaba to offer AI features in China, the Chinese company's chairman said on Thursday, resolving months of speculation around Apple's strategy in the region. "They talked to a number of companies in China," said Joe Tsai at the World Government Summit in Dubai. "In the end they chose to do business with us. They want to use our AI to power their phones. We feel...

Apple could be facing a potential Chinese antitrust investigation into its App Store policies and developer fees, reports Bloomberg. China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) is said to have been critically examining Apple's practices and holding discussions with the company since last year, specifically about its 30% commission on in-app purchases and restrictions on...

OpenAI says it has uncovered evidence that Chinese AI startup DeepSeek used its proprietary models to train a competing open-source model, potentially violating the company's terms of service. The discovery centers around a technique called "distillation," where developers use outputs from larger AI models to train smaller ones. The practice is common in AI development, but OpenAI claims...

Apple has experienced a significant decline in iPhone sales in China, dropping from the leading position to third place in the country's smartphone market during the fourth quarter of 2024. According to a new report from Counterpoint Research, ‌iPhone‌ shipments in China fell by 18.2% year-on-year in the final quarter of 2024. This decline resulted in a 17.1% market share for the company,...

Apple has announced rare direct discounts on its flagship iPhone models and other products in China, signaling an effort to counter mounting competition and fluctuating consumer demand in one of its largest markets. Between January 4 and January 7, Apple will provide discounts of up to 500 yuan (approximately $68) on the iPhone 16 Pro and ‌iPhone 16 Pro‌ Max models through its website and...