Apple CEO Tim Cook has flown to Shanghai ahead of his expected attendance at the annual China Development Forum next week. The visit comes amid continuous speculation that sales of the iPhone 15 lineup in China continue to experience a slump (via Barron’s).
Cook has shared some of the activities of his trip on the Chinese microblogging platform Weibo. Part of the itinerary of his trip includes visits to numerous Apple Store locations in Shanghai, where Cook is expected to attend the inauguration of a new store on Thursday. Cook also visited the facilities of select Apple suppliers who are involved with Vision Pro’s supply chain, as well as prominent Chinese App Store developers.
Cook is expected to attend the state-run China Development Forum on Sunday, which is an annual meeting involving hundreds of international corporations with market presence in the country. Cook has regularly attended the forum in the past, where he was also in presence for the forum’s 2023 edition. Cook is likely to double down on the importance of the Chinese supply chain for Apple, even if the company is slowly moving to expand its operations in neighboring countries like India and Vietnam.
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Apple continues to suffer from faltering iPhone 15 sales in China amid fierce local competitions from companies like Huawei. Counterpoint Research estimated that overall iPhone sales in the country has shrunk by as much as 24 percent during the first six weeks of 2024, marking the biggest decline among top OEMs. Apple has run a rare discount for all iPhone models in China in hopes to improve its sales, but it remains to be seen if the offers will have any impact.
