Apple Looking to Establish R&D Center in Beijing?

BrightWire reports on an article from Chinese web portal Tencent claiming that Apple CEO Tim Cook discussed during his visit to China last week the company's plans to establish a research and development center in Beijing. The report includes several other items of information pointing to Apple's continued efforts to strengthen its presence in the rapidly growing Chinese market.

- At a meeting with Beijing's acting mayor Wang Anshun on January 8, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company plans to set up an R&D center in Beijing, an unnamed insider source told Tencent Tech today.

- Cook also noted that Apple will move a certain amount of its servers for App Store and iTunes to China in order to improve the downloading speed for users in China.

The report also cites "IT insiders" claiming that Apple is likely to set up its Chinese data center in either Zhangjiakou to the northwest of Beijing or in Inner Mongolia.

beijingstore
Apple's Sanlitun retail store in Beijing

Tim Cook shared some of his thoughts on the Chinese market during his visit to the country, noting that Apple has plans to build more than 25 retail stores in the Greater China region and that it is working hard to speed up the regulatory approval process for its products so that they can launch closer to the first wave of debuts.

Apple has been looking to open research and development centers outside of the United States, seeking to draw upon international expertise for some of its technological advances. The company has already moved forward on a center in Israel, and there had previously been claims that Apple was exploring the possibility of a research center in Russia, although those talks do not appear to have yielded any commitments.

Popular Stories

iOS 26

iOS 26.2 Coming Soon With These 8 New Features on Your iPhone

Thursday December 11, 2025 8:49 am PST by
Apple seeded the second iOS 26.2 Release Candidate to developers earlier this week, meaning the update will be released to the general public very soon. Apple confirmed iOS 26.2 would be released in December, but it did not provide a specific date. We expect the update to be released by early next week. iOS 26.2 includes a handful of new features and changes on the iPhone, such as a new...
Google maps feaure

Google Maps Quietly Added This Long-Overdue Feature for Drivers

Wednesday December 10, 2025 2:52 am PST by
Google Maps on iOS quietly gained a new feature recently that automatically recognizes where you've parked your vehicle and saves the location for you. Announced on LinkedIn by Rio Akasaka, Google Maps' senior product manager, the new feature auto-detects your parked location even if you don't use the parking pin function, saves it for up to 48 hours, and then automatically removes it once...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature 1

Apple to Make More Foldable iPhones Than Expected [Updated]

Tuesday December 9, 2025 9:59 am PST by
Apple has ordered 22 million OLED panels from Samsung Display for the first foldable iPhone, signaling a significantly larger production target than the display industry had previously anticipated, ET News reports. In the now-seemingly deleted report, ET News claimed that Samsung plans to mass-produce 11 million inward-folding OLED displays for Apple next year, as well as 11 million...
AirPods Pro Firmware Feature

Apple Releases New Firmware for AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods Pro 3

Thursday December 11, 2025 11:28 am PST by
Apple today released new firmware designed for the AirPods Pro 3 and the prior-generation AirPods Pro 2. The AirPods Pro 3 firmware is 8B30, up from 8B25, while the AirPods Pro 2 firmware is 8B28, up from 8B21. There's no word on what's include in the updated firmware, but the AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods Pro 3 are getting expanded support for Live Translation in the European Union in iOS...
iOS 26

15 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 26.2

Friday December 5, 2025 9:40 am PST by
Apple is about to release iOS 26.2, the second major point update for iPhones since iOS 26 was rolled out in September, and there are at least 15 notable changes and improvements worth checking out. We've rounded them up below. Apple is expected to roll out iOS 26.2 to compatible devices sometime between December 8 and December 16. When the update drops, you can check Apple's servers for the ...
AirTag 2 Mock Feature

Apple AirTag 2: Four New Features Found in iOS 26 Code

Thursday December 11, 2025 10:31 am PST by
The AirTag 2 will include a handful of new features that will improve tracking capabilities, according to a new report from Macworld. The site says that it was able to access an internal build of iOS 26, which includes references to multiple unreleased products. Here's what's supposedly coming: An improved pairing process, though no details were provided. AirTag pairing is already...
iOS 26

Apple Seeds Second iOS 26.2 Release Candidate to Developers and Public Beta Testers

Monday December 8, 2025 10:18 am PST by
Apple today seeded the second release candidate version of iOS 26.2 to developers and public beta testers, with the software coming one week after Apple seeded the first RC. The release candidate represents the final version iOS 26.2 that will be provided to the public if no further bugs are found. Registered developers and public beta testers can download the betas from the Settings app on...
iOS 26

iOS 26.4 and iOS 27 Features Revealed in New Leak

Friday December 12, 2025 10:56 am PST by
Macworld's Filipe Espósito today revealed a handful of features that Apple is allegedly planning for iOS 26.4, iOS 27, and even iOS 28. The report said the features are referenced within the code for a leaked internal build of iOS 26 that is not meant to be seen by the public. However, it appears that Espósito and/or his sources managed to gain access to it, providing us with a sneak peek...
iPhone 14 Pro Dynamic Island

iPhone 18 Pro Leak Adds New Evidence for Under-Display Face ID

Monday December 8, 2025 4:54 am PST by
Apple is actively testing under-screen Face ID for next year's iPhone 18 Pro models using a special "spliced micro-transparent glass" window built into the display, claims a Chinese leaker. According to "Smart Pikachu," a Weibo account that has previously shared accurate supply-chain details on Chinese Android hardware, Apple is testing the special glass as a way to let the TrueDepth...
maxresdefault

iOS 26 Code Leak Reveals Apple Smart Home Hub Details

Thursday December 11, 2025 4:02 pm PST by
Apple is working on a smart home hub that will rely heavily on the more capable version of Siri that's coming next year. We've heard quite a bit about the hub over the last two years, but a recent iOS 26 code leak provides additional insight into what we can expect and confirms rumored features. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Macworld claims to have access to an ...

Top Rated Comments

Born Again Avatar
168 months ago
This must be Tim's plan to move more jobs to the USA
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Solomani Avatar
168 months ago
maybe innovation will start again :p

Innovation, maybe. Secrets? No.

The Chinese are not capable of keeping Apple secrets. :D
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
oiuh151 Avatar
168 months ago
Apple should become a more American company, not a more Chinese one. :rolleyes:
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
WardC Avatar
168 months ago
I miss the pride in owning a USA-built Apple Computer.

Apple built all their computers in Fremont, California for many years, and employed US workers. Now a Foxconn factory in a foreign land employs non-US workers who earn menial wages and work 17 hours a day sometimes to build hardware for a company that has turned into a money-focused and money-driven machine.

Just my take.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Asia8 Avatar
168 months ago
Apple headquarters may still be in America, but it's more an international company now. It's more about the money than any true corporate ideology.

Any actions of such a nature are simply to keep up customer loyalty and keep the illusion in Americans hearts that they're buying American products.

Unfortunately for America in recent years it's international reputation has been driven further and further into the dirt, while at the same time China has been improving at amazing speeds.

Maybe the Age of America is up, all great empires eventually crumble.

While life in America became more and more easy, the need for people to compete and fight for a better life slowly vanished as things became too easy. Once you stop improving, you just start slowly falling backwards.

China has a crazy population with killer competition, some of the types of things I've seen these students studying in Chinese universities I'd never even encountered in my western education. Whilst entrepreneurial ambitions may be lacking, never underestimate the knowledge and abilities of many of Chinese.

In recent years more International Chinese have been returning to China than ever before, first tier cities are becoming very impressive, while second and third tier cities are also showing rapid development.

There used to be great incentives for scientists and those of great ability to immigrate to America, but those days seem to be over. Possibly from too much external investment (war), and too little internal investment (education, development, and infrastructure).

There are many many reasons for Apple to work hard at penetrating into China and try to gain more product loyalty. There is a huge potential customer base, a great, skillful, knowledgeable and cheaper (easier to please) employee base and a very bright and brighter everyday future in China.

Also what a better place to learn about consumer needs in China, than in China? Google failed to understand Chinese culture and Chinese needs, and we all know how Google gave up in China, claiming their exit on "ethical reasons" while they had very little market penetration due to their inability to adapt to Chinese needs.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
conancn Avatar
168 months ago
Not related to the content, but the pic is def outdated.

now::D
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)