China

Apple manufacturing partner Foxconn expects its main iPhone plant in China to resume full production around late December to early January, following worker unrest last month that disrupted the factory. "The situation has stabilized," a Foxconn source told Reuters, referring to the protests in Zhengzhou and the government's easing of COVID restrictions. "The local government is actively...

Riots broke out on Wednesday at the world's largest iPhone factory in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou, according to video shared on social media. Footage widely circulated online shows hundreds of Foxconn workers marching in protest, clashing with police and some being confronted by people in hazmat suits. Some video captured workers complaining about the food they had been provided, with...

Apple supplier Foxconn is quadrupling daily bonuses provided to workers in order to retain enough employees to continue assembling iPhones, reports Reuters. In November, Foxconn is offering workers at its Zhengzhou plant a bonus of 400 yuan per day ($55), up 4x from the normal 100 yuan bonus. Employees who work for more than 25 days can get a maximum bonus of 5,000 yuan for the month, up...

iPhone production at one of the world's largest factories could fall by as much as 30% next month due to tightening COVID-19 restrictions in China, according to a new report today. Apple manufacturing partner Foxconn's main Zhengzhou plant, which employs about 200,000 people, was hit by the stringent curbs after an outbreak at the factory, which led the city of about 10 million people locked ...

Apple has frozen plans to use chips from one of China's top memory chipmakers after tighter U.S. export controls were imposed on the Chinese tech sector, reports Nikkei Asia. According to the report, Apple intended to buy 128-layer 3D NAND flash memory chips from Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) for use in iPhones sold in the Chinese market as early as this year, with the possibility of...

Apple has given up its board seat at Didi Global as the Chinese ride-hailing company struggles to return to growth following crushing fines and restrictions imposed by Beijing's cyberspace regulator, reports Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Apple CEO Tim Cook with Didi Chuxing president Jean Liu in 2016 Adrian Perica, Apple's vice president of corporate development, resigned from the board earlier...

iPad assembly plants in China may be impacted by power outages ahead of the launch of new models in the fall, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. In a tweet earlier today, Kuo commented on the effects of power outages in China's southwestern Sichuan province caused by industrial electricity rationing amid a severe heatwave. Kuo said that the temporary power outage may affect ‌iPad‌...

An iPhone production plant in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen is being forced into a seven-day "closed loop" lockdown by Chinese authorities, alongside 100 other companies in an attempt to curb COVID-19 infections, Bloomberg reports. The "closed loop" system will mean only employees who live on-site will be able to work, blocking access from the outside and largely prohibiting anyone...

Apple is preparing to launch a rare bundle of discounts for the iPhone 13, iPhone 12, and the iPhone SE in China next week, alongside accessories such as the AirPods and the low-cost Apple Watch. The promotion will run from July 29 until August 1 and will apply to not only iPhone models but also the third-generation AirPods, the AirPods Pro, and the Apple Watch SE, according to a notice on...

Apple has expanded its smartphone market share in China on the back of strong iPhone 13 sales, despite a slowdown in the Chinese mobile market as a whole this year. According to Strategy Analytics, 14 million smartphones were sold during the country's annual "6.18" online shopping festival in June, down 25% year on year. Chinese brands including Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo all experienced...

Apple's primary iPhone assembler Foxconn says it has resumed production at its Chinese manufacturing plant in Shenzhen, following a partial lifting of the city-wide lockdown that came into effect on Monday. The Taiwanese company told Reuters it had restarted some production and operations at its Shenzhen campus after meeting government conditions for staff to live and work in bubble...

Apple became the top smartphone brand in China for the first time in six years in the fourth quarter of 2021, Counterpoint Research reports. While smartphone sales in China declined nine percent year on year for the third consecutive quarter in the fourth quarter of 2021, and smartphone sales declined two percent in 2021 for the fourth consecutive year, Apple finally surpassed Vivo to become ...

Apple's largest manufacturing partner Foxconn is again offering bumper signing bonuses to new and former workers in an effort to boost recruitment at its Zhengzhou campus, one of its main iPhone factories in China, according to the South China Morning Post. The report claims Foxconn is giving returning workers a signing bonus of 9,500 yuan ($1,470), in addition to a monthly income of 6,865...

The watchOS 8.3 and iOS 15.2 release candidates, released to developers this week, enables ECG functionality for Apple Watch users in China following regulatory approval for the feature over the summer, according to ITHome. ECG capabilities, available with the Apple Watch Series 4 and later, allow users to quickly take an ECG by simply placing their finger on the Digital Crown and staying...

Apple CEO Tim Cook "secretly" signed an agreement worth more than $275 billion with Chinese officials, promising that Apple would help to develop China's economy and technological capabilities, The Information reports. In an extensive paywalled report based on interviews and purported internal Apple documents, The Information revealed that ‌Tim Cook‌ personally forged a five-year agreement...

Ahead of next week's Apple event, which is expected to include the launch of the iPhone 13 lineup, a Chinese AI firm is asking a court to stop the production and sale of the iPhone in China, alleging that Siri infringes upon its patent, South China Morning Post reports. Apple last year was hit with a $1.4 billion lawsuit from the Chinese AI firm Xiao-i Robot, which claims Apple violated its...

Apple has been seeking to add geographic diversity to its supply chain for some time, with a shift of some production of the AirPods lineup to Vietnam being one significant step for the company. Apple reportedly began trialing production of regular ‌AirPods‌ in Vietnam over a year ago, and it was reported in December that Apple's ‌AirPods‌ suppliers were looking to line up financing to...

Apple has been informed by China's cyberspace regulator that it must remove the Didi Chuxing ride hailing app from the Chinese App Store following concerns about the Uber rival's possible misuse of personal data. Apple CEO Tim Cook with Didi Chuxing president Jean Liu in 2016 The app in question is owned by Didi Global, which Apple has $1 billion invested in. Bloomberg reports that the ban...

Apple's crackdown on Chinese apps that tried to bypass its new privacy rules has successfully thwarted a coordinated effort to create a new way of tracking iPhones for advertising in the country, according to a new report today. Introduced in iOS 14.5, Apple's App Tracking Transparency rules require apps that access an iPhone's ad identifier or IDFA must ask a user's permission before...

Apple customers in mainland China can now pick up online orders from their local Apple retail store, following the company's decision to offer the option at online store checkout for the first time. Apple's new delivery and pickup page in China (translated) In-store pickup has been available for some time now in most countries and has become a popular choice for many Apple customers ordering ...