China

Online retailers in China have begun discounting iPhones for the second time this year. Reuters reports that several mobile vendors this week announced discounts on iPhone models, including Apple's latest flagship ‌iPhone‌ XS and ‌iPhone‌ XS Max. Gadget retailer Suning.Com Co Ltd said it would slash the price of the iPhone XS by as much as 1,000 yuan ($148.95) from its official price. Suning...

Apple is teaming up with Chinese payments company Ant Financial Services Group, along with several local banks, to offer local customers interest-free financing on iPhones in China (via Reuters). Apple is continuously looking to boost smartphone sales in China, and this appears to be the latest move in the company's long-term plan to do so. On its China website, Apple explains that customers ...

A red variant of the iPhone XS and XS Max could be launching in China sooner rather than later, if a social media rumor proves to be accurate. A Weibo post spotted by iPhoneHacks.com claims Apple will launch the red color models by the end of this month, in a bid to boost struggling ‌iPhone‌ sales in the region. The leaker, who claims to have received the tip from sources in Apple's...

Apple is seeing improved iPhone sales in China following some recent price cuts on the ‌iPhone‌ XR, XS, XS Max, and older models that were introduced earlier in January, reports Chinese site Feng. Apple dropped iPhone prices for third-party distributors in China on January 10, allowing vendors to purchase iPhones more cheaply and pass those savings on to customers. Apple cut prices on most ‌iPh...

Apple shipped an estimated 34.2 million iPhones in China in 2018, down from 36.7 million in 2017, according to new data shared today by Strategy Analytics. During the fourth calendar quarter of 2018 (Apple's first fiscal quarter), Apple shipped 10.9 million iPhones, down from 14 million in the fourth quarter of 2017. Apple surpassed Xiaomi to become the number four smartphone vendor in...

Apple earlier this week announced that the HomePod would be available in China and Hong Kong on Friday, January 18, and as promised, the smart speaker is now available for purchase in both locations. ‌HomePod‌ is priced at 2,799 yuan in China and HK$2,799 in Hong Kong. In addition to being available from the Apple online store and Apple retail stores, Apple Authorized resellers in China...

Apple today announced that its HomePod speaker launches in China and Hong Kong on Friday, January 18. It will be available for 2,799 yuan in China and HK$2,799 in Hong Kong from Apple.com, Apple Stores, and authorized resellers. Apple had previously announced that the HomePod would launch in China and Hong Kong in early 2019 and now we know it will be later this week. Siri on the HomePod...

Apple today extended its limited-time promotion offering extra trade-in credit towards an iPhone XR or iPhone XS to additional countries, including Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates. The promotion first launched in the United States in late November. Update: Apple continues to expand the promotion, with more European countries just added,...

Apple on Monday released iOS 12.1.2 exclusively for iPhones. The software update fixes bugs related to eSIM activation on the iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max, and addresses an issue that could affect cellular connectivity in Turkey on those devices, according to Apple's release notes. In China, as planned, iOS 12.1.2 also implements minor changes to address two Qualcomm patents that...

Apple is reportedly looking to shift production of older iPhones to Taiwanese supplier Pegatron in an effort to avoid losing billions in revenue as a result of its patent dispute with Qualcomm. Earlier this week, Qualcomm was granted an import ban on the iPhone 6s through iPhone X in China after the court found those devices violated two Qualcomm patents. However, according to documents ...

In a court filing related to the ongoing dispute with Qualcomm that has resulted in a partial ban on iPhone sales in China, Apple this week warned that upholding the ban would cause "truly irreparable harm" to Apple, other companies, and consumers if Apple is forced to withdraw its devices from the market, according to Bloomberg. The ban would cost Apple millions of dollars a day and affect...

Qualcomm plans to file for an injunction on the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR in China, which would theoretically prevent the sale of those devices in the country, a lawyer for the company told the Financial Times today. Earlier this week, a Chinese court granted an injunction on older iPhone 6s through iPhone X models in China after it ruled that those devices violated two...

In 2015 and 2016, Apple aggressively expanded its retail presence in China with 30 new stores, according to the Apple Storefronts tracker. Since the start of 2017, however, Apple has opened just five new locations in the country. Apple's newest store in China in Suzhou The Information's Wayne Ma has shared a report today that offers explanations for the slowdown, including China's...

Apple today said it is "urgently investigating" a report that claims Apple Watch manufacturer Quanta Computer has subjected teenage students to illegal work conditions at its factory in the Chinese city of Chongqing. "We are urgently investigating the report that student interns added in September are working overtime and night shifts," Apple said, in a statement issued to CNN. "We have zero ...

Last week, Apple CEO Tim Cook called on Bloomberg to retract a highly controversial story suggesting Chinese spies planted microchips in the Supermicro server motherboards used in Apple's data facilities, saying there was no truth to Bloomberg's claims. Today, Supermicro Charles Liang joined Cook in calling for a retraction. In a statement shared by CNBC, Liang said that Supermicro has not...

For the first time since Bloomberg published a highly controversial story suggesting Chinese spies planted microchips in Supermicro server motherboards Apple used in its iCloud facilities, Apple CEO Tim Cook has gone on the record to vehemently deny the claims. In an interview with BuzzFeed News, Cook said there is "no truth" to the story about Apple, before making the unprecedented move of...

Apple has formally apologized to users in China over the hacking of some Chinese accounts in a series of phishing scams that hit the country last week. The successful phishing attacks used stolen Apple IDs to gain access to customer funds, leading to "a small number of...users' accounts" being accessed through these scams (via The Wall Street Journal). In a statement shared in China today,...

Russia-based cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab today said that while "hardware supply chain attacks are a reality," evidence suggests Bloomberg Businessweek's report about Chinese intelligence tampering with server motherboards manufactured by Apple's former supplier Supermicro is "untrue." Apple data center Kaspersky Lab said the report "should be taken with a grain of salt" in its 14-page ...

In a research note obtained by MacRumors, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said cumulative smartphone shipments from four major brands on the Chinese market, including Huawei, Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi, declined 10 percent on a year-over-year basis during China's Golden Week, a national holiday and major sales period. iPhone XR in (PRODUCT)RED Kuo, writing on behalf of research firm TF International...

Rob Joyce, Senior Advisor for Cybersecurity Strategy at the NSA, is the latest official to question the accuracy of Bloomberg Businessweek's bombshell "The Big Hack" report about Chinese spies compromising the U.S. tech supply chain. "I have pretty good understanding about what we're worried about and what we're working on from my position. I don't see it," said Joyce, speaking at a U.S....