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Apple and China: Is the bittersweet love affair

over or just beginning?

by Graham Land-31st October 2015

CUPERTINO, California-based Apple Inc. is the embodiment of the corporate


American Dream. What began in the mid 1970s, as a quirky personal computer
company, is now the worlds largest publicly traded corporation in terms of market
capitalization, the largest music retailer and the largest tech firm in terms of assets
(though Samsung generates more revenue).
Are iPhone sales immune to bad publicity?

Apple owes much of its success to the iPhone, the high-end smartphone-cum-must-

have accessory for millions of affluent consumers the world over. All iPhones are made
in Chinese factories by Taiwanese contractors Foxconn and Pegatron.
While Apples outsourcing methods for manufacturing have not been without
controversy, no amount of bad publicity has managed to put a dent in its recordbreaking iPhone sales. Reports detailing how Pegatron employees are subjected to
excessive working hours for low wages (among 86 labor rights violations) and a spate
of suicides at Foxconn are easily rationalized when a) every other major mobile phone
company contracts the same China-based factories as Apple and b) the new iPhones
are really cool.
The greening of Apple
Apple has already at least attempted to address the Chinese labor rights controversies
it ultimately benefits from. Now it is actively addressing the large amount of pollution
the manufacturing and shipping of Apple products creates by powering its massive
Chinese supply chain with renewable energy.
From China Dialogue:
The worlds biggest company by market capitalisation said it would build 200
megawatts (MW) of solar projects in different areas of China to provide low-carbon
electricity to most of the companies that supply it with raw materials, components and
assembly.
Apple also said it had completed 40MW of solar projects in Sichuan Province, which
has enabled the companys 19 corporate offices and 24 retail stores in China to be
classified as carbon neutral.
Foxconn itself has announced it will generate as much clean energy as it consumes at
its giant 120,000-employee Technology Park in Zhengzhou.
iChina: When the manufacturer becomes the consumer

With huge increases in iPhone shipments, massive revenue growth and a


greener image, there seems to be no stopping Apple. Much of that has to do with a
focus on Pacific mainly Chinese markets. The result? An impressive 4th quarter
revenue increase of 99 percent in the Greater China region.
From TechCrunch:
In this final fiscal quarter of 2015, Apples revenue in China grew to $12.51 billion
from $6.29 billion in 2014. Revenue in China again outgrossed that of Europe at
$10.57 billion. The Greater China region (including Taiwan and Hong Kong) remains
Apples second largest market after the Americas, underscoring the critical importance
of this area to Apples future growth.
n
China, once virtually restricted to the manufacturing
of Apple products, now accounts
i

for 24 percent of the companys global sales.


o What makes this growth all the more
impressive is that it has happened during nan overall slowdown of the Chinese

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Opinion: By the iPhones 10th anniversary,
China will be Apples biggest
market h9to5mac.com/2015/10/29/opim

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Though therep are still naysayers who doubt
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economy.

iPhone miracle, citing a positive spin on the above statistics and an increased market
share for competitors, it is hard to argue with the raw numbers.
By 2017, the 10th anniversary of the iPhone, China may be Apples largest market,
suggesting that the love affair between the largest tech firm and the worlds most
populous country may still only be in its beginning stages.
Posted by Thavam

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