Apple CEO Cook continues latest charm offensive in China amid flagging iPhone sales

Apple CEO Tim Cook is continuing his latest charm offensive in China, opening a new retail store in Shanghai that resembles a gigantic curb inlet — its second biggest brick and mortar store in the world (after its flagship retail store, Apple Fifth Avenue in Manhattan). Cook’s trip is all part of a push by the company to reverse a decline in iPhone sales in its most important international market.
Laura He and Martha Zhou for CNN:
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“Nonghao Shanghai!” Apple CEO Cook said in a Weibo post on Wednesday, which means “hello” in Shanghainese. “I’m always so happy to be back in this remarkable city.”
Cook said he had spent the morning enjoying a traditional breakfast of what appeared to be soup dumplings and soy milk and taking selfies along the city’s famous Bund waterfront with local actor Zheng Kai.
The new [retail store] addition comes as Apple tries to fend off competitors and revive sales in a rocky market with growing headwinds, ranging from an economic slowdown to geopolitical tensions and rising nationalist sentiment… [D]uring the first six weeks of 2024, iPhone sales in the country slumped 24% from a year ago, according to a separate report by Counterpoint Research from earlier this month. Apple’s market share slid behind that of Vivo, Huawei, and Honor in that period, it added, while rival Huawei’s sales soared 64%.
“There’s no supply chain in the world more critical to Apple than that of China,” Cook told a group of reporters.

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MacDailyNews Note: Apple’s latest retail store, Apple Jing’an:
Apple Jing’an retail store
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