Alice Han

That's chinadecode.profgmedia.com.

All right, let's get into it.

Last week, Tim Cook was in Chengdu, China for a high-profile Apple Store event marking the company's 50th anniversary.

His visit underscored how crucial China remains for Apple, even as the US-China tensions rise and regulators in China push for a more open app store ecosystem.

iPhone sales are booming in the mainland, up 23% so far in 2026, while the broader smartphone market shrinks.

Meanwhile, Apple has cut its App Store fees in China from 30% to 25%, though Beijing is signaling it wants more concessions.

Despite Apple leaning on the iPhone for growth, Apple is still struggling to find traction in AI.

James, this is an exciting topic because we did have, as you recall, Patrick McGee, who wrote Apple in China.

So this is a topic that we've discussed previously.

But what has been interesting to me relative to, I would say, the discussion a year or two ago is that Apple is not quite dead in China.

You know, even though we have heard stories and seen data of manufacturing moving further south to India, for instance, or Southeast Asia,

And that the market within China is shifting more strongly to the local variants, whether it's Huawei or Oppo.

It seems that the strong performance this year and Tim Cook's trip to China suggests that there still is a market for Apple.

I'm just not really sure how sustainable it is.

But certainly I've seen from Chinese social media that this, especially the orange-cased iPhone that came out, iPhone 17, has been viral because it's known as the Hermes orange, like the Hermes designer brand.

But what's your take on this, James?

Yeah, it's interesting.

I agree with all these points, James.

I would just take another, you know, vector of analysis to this and look at it from the vantage point of Chinese consumers.

Because if we had this conversation two years ago, I would have said, you know, the writing is in the wall for Apple.