Is The iPhone Losing Out In The Chinese Market?
Earlier this year, Apple CEO Tim Cook was talking about the relatively poor sales of his products in China.
"In the arc of time, China is a huge opportunity for Apple and I don't get discouraged over a 90-day kind of cycle," he said while discussing his company's third quarter results.
It's that "huge opportunity" that may result in the unveiling Tuesday of a cheaper iPhone. But the company faces a big challenge – though it makes many of its phones in China: Rival companies with phones that cost less but do more. Reuters reports:
"In the first quarter of this year, Apple ranked top in Hong Kong with 46 percent market share in smartphones, though that was down from 54 percent in the last quarter of 2012, according to market research firm Canalys.
"Even without releasing a new product, Apple sold 31.2 million iPhones in its fiscal third quarter, around a fifth more than analysts had predicted. But revenue from all Apple products in Greater China, which includes Hong Kong and Taiwan, slumped 43 percent from the previous quarter and was down 14 percent from a year earlier - worrying in a region where smartphone penetration is still low.
"Greater China accounted for 13 percent of Apple's sales, or $5 billion, in April-June - down from nearly 19 percent in the previous quarter."