China

Apple's iPhone Air sold out across online stores in China within hours of pre-orders opening on Friday, the South China Morning Post reports. Demand for the ‌iPhone Air‌ reportedly surged immediately after pre-orders opened. Apple's online store and the official Tmall flagship both listed multiple color and storage configurations as unavailable within the first two hours of availability,...

Apple CEO Tim Cook pledged to expand the company's investments in China during his latest visit to the country, signaling that Apple intends to maintain a strong presence in its most important manufacturing hub even as it continues diversifying production elsewhere, Reuters reports. During meetings with Chinese government officials this week, Cook told China's industry minister Li Lecheng...

The iPhone Air will be available for pre-order in China this Friday, Apple CEO Tim Cook today said on Weibo during a visit to the country. Apple initially postponed the release of the ‌iPhone Air‌ in China while it worked with mainland authorities to resolve regulatory issues related to the device's eSIM requirement. The iPhone 17, 17 Pro, and 17 Pro Max already went on sale with the global...

Apple has postponed the release of its new iPhone Air in China while it works with mainland authorities to resolve regulatory issues related to the device's eSIM requirement, according to the South China Morning Post. Apple on Friday morning reportedly updated its Chinese website, replacing the original September 12 pre-order and September 19 launch schedule for the iPhone Air with the...

Chinese smartphone maker Vivo on Thursday unveiled its first mixed reality headset, the "Vivo Vision," and the photocopiers in Dongguan appear to have been working overtime. The device "launched" as an in-store experience across mainland China today, featuring design elements that clearly ape Apple's Vision Pro. It's got a curved glass front visor, downward-pointing cameras, removable fabric ...

Apple is testing Douyin Pay support for the App Store in China, according to the South China Morning Post. Douyin Pay launched in January 2021 as a payment feature within Douyin, ByteDance's Chinese short video platform that serves as the domestic counterpart to TikTok. Douyin has approximately 766.5 million monthly active users in China, making it one of the country's most heavily used...

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 ...