Apple CEO, Tim Cook has commended China’s importance in the firm’s supply chain as he met suppliers including BYD Electronics on Wednesday, March 20, according to local media reports. This visit is coming amid a drop in China sales for the iPhone maker.
Tim Cook had taken to his official Weibo page to reveal that he had spent the morning walking along Shanghai’s historic Bund river with Chinese actor, Zheng Kai and that he had eaten a local dish for breakfast. He however, had not revealed the other plans he had for this China visit.
The China Daily reported that Cook had during an interview, quoted as saying: “there’s no supply chain in the world that’s more critical to us than China”.
Cook had also in a report by China Daily, met Wang Chuanfu, the founder and president of Apple supplier BYD Electronics, and officials from Lens Technology at the firm’s Shanghai office.
Cook’s visit is coming after the iPhone maker declared that it would open a new retail store in the heart of the Chinese financial hub on Thursday. This is perhaps, one of the strategic plans that Apple has deployed as it grapples with plummeting iPhone sales in the populous country. There are also reports of a rising competition from domestic rivals such as Huawei, Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi.
Other reasons that could be attributed to the poor sales could be due to the struggling Chinese economy, the unemployment factor among youths and a strained housing market. One cannot simply expect someone struggling to survive these obstacles to be worried about purchasing the latest iPhone —a very high-end device at that.
Amidst the country’s challenges however, China still remains a huge market for Tim Cook’s brand, coming in second place behind the U.S as Apple’s largest market.
Cook has made at least two visits to China so far, in an attempt at solving this issue.
