China

Apple has been seeking to add geographic diversity to its supply chain for some time, with a shift of some production of the AirPods lineup to Vietnam being one significant step for the company. Apple reportedly began trialing production of regular ‌AirPods‌ in Vietnam over a year ago, and it was reported in December that Apple's ‌AirPods‌ suppliers were looking to line up financing to...

Apple has been informed by China's cyberspace regulator that it must remove the Didi Chuxing ride hailing app from the Chinese App Store following concerns about the Uber rival's possible misuse of personal data. Apple CEO Tim Cook with Didi Chuxing president Jean Liu in 2016 The app in question is owned by Didi Global, which Apple has $1 billion invested in. Bloomberg reports that the ban...

Apple's crackdown on Chinese apps that tried to bypass its new privacy rules has successfully thwarted a coordinated effort to create a new way of tracking iPhones for advertising in the country, according to a new report today. Introduced in iOS 14.5, Apple's App Tracking Transparency rules require apps that access an iPhone's ad identifier or IDFA must ask a user's permission before...

Apple customers in mainland China can now pick up online orders from their local Apple retail store, following the company's decision to offer the option at online store checkout for the first time. Apple's new delivery and pickup page in China (translated) In-store pickup has been available for some time now in most countries and has become a popular choice for many Apple customers ordering ...

The Apple Watch ECG (electrocardiogram) functionality has received regulatory approval in China, giving Apple the all-clear to launch the feature for Apple Watch users in the country. According to a new document posted today by China's National Medical Products Administration, Apple has received approval for an ECG. The filing doesn't offer any details about when the feature may launch to...

Apple has been making concessions on privacy and security in order to continue building and selling its devices in China, according to an in-depth report from The New York Times. The focal point of the report is Apple's decision to comply with a 2016 law that requires all personal information and data collected in China to be kept in China, which has led Apple to build a China data center...

Apple TV has received the proper and needed regulatory approval to officially launch in mainland China, according to sources across Chinese social media platform Weibo and popular local tech blogger @Voooolks. According to the blogger, who has more than 1.4 million followers on Weibo, Apple TV has received approval from China's State Administration of Press and Publication, Radio, Film, and...

Procter & Gamble Co. was one of the companies that worked with the China Advertising Association to test a new data collection tool designed to get around Apple's App Tracking Transparency rules, reports The Wall Street Journal. The state-backed China Advertising Agency developed a new method of tracking users called CAID to replace access to the IDFA or advertising identifier of an iPhone...

Apple is cracking down on Chinese tech companies that are working on ways to get around upcoming App Tracking Transparency rules, reports Financial Times. Starting in iOS 14.5, Apple plans to begin requiring app developers to obtain express user permission before accessing an iPhone's advertising identifier or IDFA, and earlier this week, news suggested that the state-backed China...

Apple plans to begin enforcing its App Tracking Transparency changes following the release of iOS 14.5, and all apps that access an iPhone's ad identifier or IDFA will need to ask a user's permission before tracking is allowed. According to a new report by the Financial Times, however, the state-backed China Advertising Association (CAA) is testing a tool that could be used to bypass the new ...

Encrypted messaging app Signal appears to have been banned in China, reports TechCrunch. While the app remains available in the App Store, the service is no longer operational in mainland China, according to the censorship tracking website Greatfire.org. Western-run social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have been unavailable in the country for some time, but Signal has largely...

Apple CEO Tim Cook will be one of the 100-plus high-profile CEOs and executives in attendance at this year's China Development Forum (CDF) being held Saturday, March 20 through Monday, March 22, Global Times reports. The CDF is an annual conference organized and led by the Development Research Center of the State Council, to gather the world's most prominent executives and CEOs to discuss...

In an interview with He Shijie, a senior at the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Apple CEO Tim Cook called 2020 Apple's "top year of innovation ever." In 2020, Apple released a number of new products, ranging from the iPhone 12 lineup, to brand new iPads, the Apple Watch Series 6 and SE, and of course, new Apple Silicon Macs. Putting all of that together, ‌Tim Cook‌ says ...

Apple's iPhone production in India is starting to feel the impact of geopolitical tensions between India and China, due to limitations in the issuances of entrance visas, the South China Morning Post reports. India and China have been in a state of heightened tension following clashes at the border earlier last year. India has banned a number of Chinese apps, and is now issuing visas to...

In an effort to diversify its supply chain and manufacture more products outside of China, Apple this year plans to ramp up production of iPhones, iPads, Macs, and other devices in India and Vietnam, according to a report from Nikkei Asia. iPad production in Vietnam is set to start as early as the middle of 2021, and the shift will mark the first time that a large number of devices will be...

Apple has reportedly cut production of the iPhone 12 mini by two million units to create more manufacturing capacity for the iPhone 12 Pro, according to a new Morgan Stanley investment note seen by PED30. Apple is believed to have made the switch for the first quarter of 2021 in an effort to combat continuing lead times for the more popular ‌iPhone‌ 12 Pro. iPhone 12 Pro lead times...

Apple's iPhone 12 sales in China exceeded all expectations in the fourth quarter of last year, according to local media sources (via DigiTimes). Sales reached 18 million units, earning Apple an over 20% market share, with momentum expected to continue through the Lunar New Year holiday, bringing shipment volumes for Q1 2021 on par with the number of units shipped the previous quarter. The ...

In celebration of Chinese New Year, Apple today launched a special edition version of the AirPods Pro that feature an Ox icon, as 2021 is the Year of the Ox. The AirPods Pro, which are priced at RMB 1,999, are identical to standard ‌AirPods Pro‌ but feature an ox engraved on the charging case. They also ship in a box that has the same ox icon on it. In addition to launching new ‌AirPods...

Apple on Thursday removed nearly 39,000 apps from its Chinese App Store due to the apps lacking an official license from local regulators, reports Reuters. The report, which cites data from research firm Qimai, says that games affected by the cull included Ubisoft title Assassin's Creed Identity and NBA 2K20. According to Qimai, only 74 of the top 1,500 paid games on the China App Store...

Analysts for Morgan Stanley have said that air quality reports in some Chinese cities suggest an increase in industrial activity linked to iPhone 12 demand (via CNBC). Morgan Stanley analysts led by Katy Huberty used tracked air quality data from cities such as Zhengzhou, which is a major production location for Apple, to aid ‌iPhone‌ 12 sales projections. Using air quality data from a...