Bottom line: Apple is likely to log strong orders for its new iPhone 6S models, aided by its own strong reputation and aggressive promotions by China’s telcos for their new 4G service.
New iPhones on order in China
What a different 3 years makes. In that brief period China has transformed from ugly stepchild to a new Cinderella for gadget giant Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), whose newly announced iPhone 6S models will make one of their first global stops in the world’s largest smartphone market. That’s the word trickling out from China-based sources, which were leaking the information as Apple unveiled its latest iPhone models at a globally-watched event in California.
While most eyes were fixated on that launch for the new series of iPhones, China watchers were more focused on when the models will come to a market that is now Apple’s largest outside the US, and even briefly passed the US early this year. Apple’s China fans weren’t disappointed, with reports that the nation’s big 3 telcos would begin taking orders for the new iPhones just a day after the US launch event. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on September 10. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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3 China Telcos to Start Taking iPhone 6s Orders from Sept 10 (Chinese article)
Alibaba’s (NYSE: BABA) Koubei to Spend 5 Bln Yuan on Offline Merchants in 2015 (English article)
Minsheng Investment to Spend 30 Bln Yuan on Indonesia Industrial Park (Chinese article)
Coolpad (HKEx: 2369) Shares Drop 17 Pct at Trading Resume, Amid Qihoo Dispute (Chinese article)
LeTV (Shenzhen: 300104) Invests in Battery Charging Company (Chinese article)
Bottom line: Apple could lose its crown as China’s best-selling smartphone brand by the end of the year, as it faces growing competition from domestic names looking for a bigger slice of the high-end market.
China loses crown as top iPhone market
Global smartphone pioneer Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) has just released its latest quarterly results, which as usual contain very selective bits of information about the China market that are revealing but make it difficult to draw very strong conclusions. One emerging trend appears to have Apple coming under growing threat from Chinese brands eying the higher end of the market. That’s my quick conclusion based on Apple’s admission that China fell to second place among its global markets in its latest reporting quarter, after briefly grabbing the top spot from the US during the previous quarter.
Of course everything is relative, and Apple still looks quite strong in China with iPhone sales in its Greater China market up an impressive 87 percent in its latest reporting quarter. (English article) But that said, there’s really no reason that the US should have retaken the top spot from China during the quarter, since both countries now receive their new iPhones at roughly the same time. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: The iPhone’s appearance at the top of a Chinese investigative list of “data hogs” reflects the company’s obsession with control, but is unlikely to have a long-term negative effect on its local image.
iPhones gobble up data
Chinese media are once again feasting on leading smartphone maker Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), which has has come out squarely on top of a “list of shame” that details how some of the best selling brands quietly steal data minutes from their unaware users. I’m not an iPhone user so I can’t attest to how the iPhones steal their data and how easy it is for users to stop the process. But my Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) Nexus phone is guilty of similar data hogging, and I had to pay a couple of large phone bills after I first bought it before I finally learned how to stop such automatic data consumption. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on July 7. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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China ADRs Plunge Most Since 2011 as Support Fails to Stem Rout (English article)
Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) Steals 60 Yuan Monthly Data Usage From iPhone Users – CCTV (Chinese article)
VNO Subscribers Reach 7.5 Mln, New Users Account for 41 Pct – MIIT (Chinese article)
Huayi Bros (Shenzhen: 300027) Plans to Spin Off, List Internet Entertainment Unit (Chinese article)
Meizu, Huawei, Coolpad (HKEx: 2369) Make Big Price Cuts to Take On Xiaomi (Chinese article)
Bottom line: Apple CEO Tim Cook’s latest meetings in Beijing are important steps in his bid to cultivate better government relations, but he may need to make more substantive moves to earn serious goodwill.
Apple’s Cook meets with Chinese vice premier
We’ll continue this week’s tradition of closely following Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) CEO Tim Cook on his latest trip to China, with word that he’s met with one of the nation’s vice premiers and also with officials from China Telecom (HKEx: 728; NYSE: CHA), one of its 3 big state-run telcos. I’ll begin with just a slight note of cynicism by saying that both of these meetings seem just slightly second-tier, for reasons I’ll explain shortly, and therefore one could argue that Cook has yet to make it into the “big leagues” of Chinese politics.
But that said, these and other visits on this trip still mark a huge step forward for both Cook and Apple, which just 2 years ago were criticized by the powerful People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party, for its unparalleled arrogance. Cook has been working hard to change that image, and this particular weeklong trip seems to be almost as much about public relations as it is about doing business. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Apple’s new court victory in a China patent dispute shows its relations with Beijing are improving, positioning it well for growth in a country that is likely to pass the US as its largest global market in the next 1-2 years.
Apple wins China victory in patent dispute
A couple of new reports are showing that global gadget giant Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) may have finally reversed its slumping fortunes in China, led by word that China probably overtook the US to become the world’s largest market for its iPhones in the first quarter of this year. The other report has Apple winning an important court victory against a Chinese company that accused it of illegally using its voice recognition technology.
This pair of upbeat stories come just a week after Apple scored another positive round of publicity in China, announcing it would make a relatively modest investment in 2 solar farms in southwest Sichuan province. (previous post) This sudden flurry of positive stories, and the fact that they’re being widely covered by China’s state-controlled media, shows Apple could finally be turning a corner in the country after a stormy relationship with Beijing over the last 2 years. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Apple’s surge in fourth-quarter China sales owes to its iPhone 6 release and growing relationship with China Mobile, though it could have trouble retaining its new crown as the nation’s top smartphone brand.
iPhone sales zoom in China
Skeptics who thought Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) might be losing its luster in China might have to rethink that theory, following release of a new report that says the gadget giant grabbed the title of China’s biggest smartphone seller for the first time ever in the fourth quarter. That surprising result came as Apple released new quarterly earnings that showed China sales also surged 70 percent in its latest quarter, more than double the pace of its global revenue growth.
The surprising China surge comes as Apple works closely to address Beijing’s concerns about national security risks and the privacy of Chinese iPhone users, issues that reflect one of the continuing challenges it will face in the market. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Lenovo’s latest results show its smartphone business continues to gain market share at the expense of profits, and it would be better advised to focus on building a strong brand to increase customer loyalty.
Lenovo smartphones post health sales gains
The latest results for leading PC maker Lenovo (HKEx: 992) don’t look too rosy, even as the company’s smartphone business continued to outperform the global market. There are quite a few pieces to this puzzle, which means the longer-term outlook for Lenovo’s smartphone business is still unclear as the overheated market undergoes a much-needed shakeout. The outcome of this story will be crucial to Lenovo’s future, since the global market for its core PC business is stagnating and even starting to contract as consumers gravitate to a newer generation of more mobile, specialized devices. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on October 18-20. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Taiping, Sinopec (HKEx: 386) in $800 Mln Shanghai FTZ Financial Leasing JV (English article)
Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) Looks for Big Screen Boost as iPhone 6 Hits China (English article)
China’s Wanda Cinema Line Makes Fresh IPO Bid With Govt Regulator (English article)
Warner Bros, Brett Ratner Cut Deal To Create Chinese Investment Fund (English article)
Several significant telecoms stories are buzzing through the headlines as China returns to work after a long holiday, led by news that iPhone sales have gotten off to a roaring start after initially hitting a regulatory roadblock in the world’s largest mobile market. Also of interest is word that China and the European Union are close to settling a long-running dispute that could give European networking equipment makers better access to the lucrative Chinese market. And finally there’s a bit of regulatory news that looks like a positive sign, showing China is trying to cut its vast bureaucracy to provide easier market access for makers of telecoms products. Read Full Post…
