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Apple's Fraught Future in China
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Apple's Fraught Future in China

Apple’s enjoyed unusual levels of success in China for a Western company, but its future in the country is looking less and less bright.

Griffin Kelly
Daily Upside, 2024
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Apple’s road to success in China has been bumpy. Sales were $25 billion in 2013, when it entered the market in a substantial way. They hit $59 billion, then dipped to chug along in the mid-$40-billions for a few years, growing steadily. Sales reached $75 billion in 2022 and fell to $72.5 billion in 2023. Griffin Kelly of The Daily Upside provides an in-depth analysis of Apple’s challenges, headwinds, complexities and uncertainties in China. He sheds light on trade tensions, government regulations and competition from local smartphone manufacturers. His thought-provoking analysis emphasizes Apple’s need to differentiate, adapt to changing market dynamics and provide innovative offerings to regain market share.

Summary

Apple’s future in China is uncertain because of trade tensions, government regulations and intense competition from local smartphone makers.

Apple selected a strategy over which it had full control when it first entered the Chinese market in 2013. With the release of the iPhone 3G, Apple marketed its devices by taking advantage of its “wow” factor, including iconic packaging, which screamed distinctive elegance. The cooler and slicker the product and packaging, the better.

But Apple didn’t rely only on its coolness to gain a stronghold in China. It also signed an early agreement with China Mobile, the “world’s largest telecommunications provider,” with upward of 763 million customers. The agreement allowed Apple to get more of its devices into the hands of Chinese consumers at the expense of its competition, which used Google’s Android system.

For a long time, Chinese consumers felt that they “absolutely must have the” current iPhone model, even if it wasn’t very different from previous models, except for cool packaging and a higher price tag. Now, Chinese consumers...

About the Author

Griffin Kelly is a New York-based writer for The Daily Upside. He reports on a wide variety of topics, from infrastructure to politics.

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