Yesterday we posted a report titled "Apple's CEO is in Beijing for the 2023 China Development Forum & visited their Sanlitun Store last night to Cheers from in-store customers." Today we're learning that at the event Cook stated that "Apple and China have grown together. This has been a symbiotic kind of relationship that I think we've both enjoyed."

Cook further noted that Innovation will only speed up, and creators of technology need to use them in the "right way" to help humanity, not work against it. "I think that’s a tremendous responsibility for any creator, is to do that."

He also highlighted the company’s concerns about the abuse of technology, given recent strides in artificial intelligence and augmented reality.

During his trip to China, Cook also met with Chinese government officials. The meetings, along with his attendance at the event, are crucial as Cook seeks to maintain a mutually beneficial relationship with the Chinese government. Apple builds the vast majority of its products in China, boosting the local economy, and has unique access to the Chinese market, including the ability to operate dozens of stores, sell products and run multiple online services.

Since Cook orchestrated an expansion in China about a decade ago, the Apple’s products have grown in popularity in the region. The company now counts on Greater China for about 20% of its sales. Led by the iPhone, the Cupertino, California-based company has brought in over $40 billion in China-based revenue each year since 2015 and nearly reached $75 billion in China sales in the last fiscal year. For more on this read the full Bloomberg report.

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Apple's success in China has agitated Chinese smartphone OEMs for some time now and this week we learned from a report from the South China Morning Post that China’s top three domestic smartphone companies – Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi – have reached an agreement that will allow users to transfer data between their branded devices, an alliance designed to challenge Apple’s popularity in the country.

Owners of smartphones from Beijing-based Xiaomi and Guangdong-based Vivo and Oppo will be able to move system and app data seamlessly to a new handset belonging to any of these brands, the companies announced on Wednesday on their respective Weibo accounts.

Smartphone shipments of Vivo, Oppo and Xiaomi in 2022 plunged 25 per cent, 28 per cent and 24 per cent, respectively, according to data from industry research firm IDC. Apple, which was China’s bestselling smartphone brand in the fourth quarter

Lastly, Chinese OEM Huawei, that was once a leader in smartphones, vowed this week that Apple will fall as they release their new smartphones. More specifically, He Gang, Chief Operating Officer of Huawei Device BG, reportedly stated during the media Q&A after the meeting that Apple’s market share will fall as soon as we (Huawei) release new phones.

In fact, Huawei’s latest effort asserts that it offers expertise on multiple levels that are superior to that of the iPhone. For instance, Huawei’s mobile phone signal and latency are much better than the iPhone 14 Pro Max, thanks to Lingxi communication tech.

The Huawei P60 series comes with a ten-stop aperture. This tech increases the light that enters the camera by 191% relative to the iPhone 14 Pro Max. This device also comes with a super-focus night vision telephoto lens. The capacity of this lens increases by 488% relative to the iPhone 14 Pro Max. With these techs, Huawei believes that it is better and that its presence will ground Apple. Maybe “ground” is a strong word, but its presence will reduce Apple’s market share.

Huawei has made a breakthrough with foldable screens. In fact, Apple has no such device at the moment, so it is miles behind Huawei.  According to market research data from iResearch, Huawei still holds over half of the Chinese foldable phone market. At the moment, Huawei holds 51.3% of the Chinese foldable phone market. Samsung is in second position with only 18.8% of the market. For more on this, read the full Gizchina report.

With Huawei and other Chinese OEMs now delivering foldable smartphones in China, the pressure is now on for Apple to deliver a premium foldable iPhone model in the not-too-distant future.