China

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 ...

The Apple Watch ECG (electrocardiogram) functionality has received regulatory approval in China, giving Apple the all-clear to launch the feature for Apple Watch users in the country. According to a new document posted today by China's National Medical Products Administration, Apple has received approval for an ECG. The filing doesn't offer any details about when the feature may launch to...

Apple has been making concessions on privacy and security in order to continue building and selling its devices in China, according to an in-depth report from The New York Times. The focal point of the report is Apple's decision to comply with a 2016 law that requires all personal information and data collected in China to be kept in China, which has led Apple to build a China data center...

Apple TV has received the proper and needed regulatory approval to officially launch in mainland China, according to sources across Chinese social media platform Weibo and popular local tech blogger @Voooolks. According to the blogger, who has more than 1.4 million followers on Weibo, Apple TV has received approval from China's State Administration of Press and Publication, Radio, Film, and...

Procter & Gamble Co. was one of the companies that worked with the China Advertising Association to test a new data collection tool designed to get around Apple's App Tracking Transparency rules, reports The Wall Street Journal. The state-backed China Advertising Agency developed a new method of tracking users called CAID to replace access to the IDFA or advertising identifier of an iPhone...

Apple is cracking down on Chinese tech companies that are working on ways to get around upcoming App Tracking Transparency rules, reports Financial Times. Starting in iOS 14.5, Apple plans to begin requiring app developers to obtain express user permission before accessing an iPhone's advertising identifier or IDFA, and earlier this week, news suggested that the state-backed China...

Apple plans to begin enforcing its App Tracking Transparency changes following the release of iOS 14.5, and all apps that access an iPhone's ad identifier or IDFA will need to ask a user's permission before tracking is allowed. According to a new report by the Financial Times, however, the state-backed China Advertising Association (CAA) is testing a tool that could be used to bypass the new ...

Encrypted messaging app Signal appears to have been banned in China, reports TechCrunch. While the app remains available in the App Store, the service is no longer operational in mainland China, according to the censorship tracking website Greatfire.org. Western-run social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have been unavailable in the country for some time, but Signal has largely...