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Is it the China slowdown or is it just Apple?

It's neither. The fact is that android has become far more popular that the iphone and windows 10 is taking out a big chunk from the macbook market. Simple as that...
 
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by 2018, Apple’s share of the Chinese smartphone market has fallen to 6.7%, down 54.4% from the first quarter of 2015.

According to IDC, in the first quarter of 2015, Apple's share of the Chinese smartphone market was 14.7%, and Huawei's share was 11.4%. Since 2015, with the rise of Chinese local mobile phone manufacturers such as Huawei, OPPO and Vivo, Apple's share in the Chinese smartphone market has been declining.


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According to your theory 2015-2018 chinese income has decreased by 54.4%, due to by 2018, Apple’s share of the Chinese smartphone market has fallen to 6.7%, down 54.4% from the first quarter of 2015.:crazy_pilot:

你Y根本不是一个加拿大人,一个越南猴子~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
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by 2018, Apple’s share of the Chinese smartphone market has fallen to 6.7%, down 54.4% from the first quarter of 2015.

According to IDC, in the first quarter of 2015, Apple's share of the Chinese smartphone market was 14.7%, and Huawei's share was 11.4%. Since 2015, with the rise of Chinese local mobile phone manufacturers such as Huawei, OPPO and Vivo, Apple's share in the Chinese smartphone market has been declining.


1000


1000




According to your theory 2015-2018 chinese income has decreased by 54.4%, due to by 2018, Apple’s share of the Chinese smartphone market has fallen to 6.7%, down 54.4% from the first quarter of 2015.:crazy_pilot:

你Y根本不是一个加拿大人,一个越南猴子~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That is a catastrophic implosion. :o:
You don't come back from something like that. RIP Apple.
 
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What Cook and company are still getting wrong about Apple in China · TechNode
|By John Artman
4-5 minutes

Apple CEO Tim Cook’s letter to investors certainly has come as a surprise, admitting as it did that global sales are weak and that revenue is likely to be $5 billion less than originally projected.

By pointing out that the company’s sales in China are declining and by providing the financial proof that the company has failed to localize effectively, the letter served up even more material to Apple bears.

Clearly, Apple is facing a dire situation—but not for the reasons many people assume. Contrary to what’s widely cited as a reason, including from Cook himself, Apple’s hard time in China is not because of the trade war that’s raging between the US and China. Instead, the company’s woes have been a long time coming.

Cook, and many outside of China, have placed too much emphasis on the trade war for the decline in sales. In the Apple letter and in recent media interviews, Cook blamed the trade war for having a negative impact on China’s economy, and linked this macroeconomic situation to the fall in sales in the market. But this fails to consider the real situation in China’s smartphone market.

The Chinese smartphone market is mature and saturated. To date, most of the growth has come from first-time smartphone buyers. As more Chinese people get onto the mobile internet, and phone quality improves, the total number of purchases will inevitably decline as new purchases and replacement rates decline as well.

There are also so many options on the market. While globally, Apple and Samsung continue to lead (third and first respectively with Huawei coming in second), the amount of competition in China has grown exponentially. And we’re not just talking about budget phones either. Every serious smartphone player, including Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo, have released their own mid-range and high-end phones.

Apple is no longer the status symbol it used to be in China. Having the latest iPhone is still a big deal and can certainly engender status envy where “keeping up with the Joneses” is still a thing, but Apple products in general have become more ubiquitous. This demonstrates not only Apple’s success in the market, but also the increasing affordability (yes, you heard me right) and ease of access.

As I pointed out in 2017, Apple has not done a good job responding to local expectations. While the US and EU markets may be similar, the China market is full of locally developed hardware and software that do a really good job of solving Chinese pain points.

China also has a thriving second-hand market, not only for used products, but also refurbished electronics and battery replacements, which Cook did mention in the letter.

In addition, the country has a thriving installment-finance market. Almost all the fintech IPOs we saw this past year were companies who built their business on the “not-quite-affluent-but-want-to-spend-like-I-am” set.

Apple has faced these headwinds for some time—even before the current tension over trade. As much as the leaders of both countries would like to take responsibility for such dramatic changes, this just isn’t the case.

That doesn’t mean, however, that the trade war won’t play an increasing role in their declining sales in China. Apple’s American citizenship is now a hindrance. Previously, the Chinese fetish for foreign products helped push Apple to its success, but now the trade war and domestic political situation is beginning to turn people away from American brands in favor of Chinese ones.

Chinese smartphones, for example, not only provide services Chinese consumers now expect, but also produce models of similar build quality to Apple’s at a fraction of the price.

Still, if Apple hopes to reverse its fortunes in China, Cook and senior management need to face up to an uncomfortable reality—that they’ve dropped the ball in China and failed to localize fast enough. Getting it back may be harder than they, and investors, could imagine.
 
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by 2018, Apple’s share of the Chinese smartphone market has fallen to 6.7%, down 54.4% from the first quarter of 2015.

That's a great regression. They have only themselves to blame. They are becoming another zombie brand in Mainland China. That shows how cut-throat competition in China is. Having access to China market does not guarantee success. Overall, customers in China are pickier, demand higher standards. I know some machine tool makers in China, they have greater difficulty in capturing China market than the US market.

Same goes for automobiles. Usually, Japanese brands will give US people some regular options and not so high quality interior, and they will be just happy.

Chinese customer will try to break the car to see if it is a good quality before buying it.

A simply comparison would be automotive reviews. US reviewers would be so quickly awed and fallen in love while reviewers in China would remain highly skeptical (of the same brand-model).

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Blaming China for Apple’s dive senseless

Source:Global Times Published: 2019/1/4

Apple's stock tumbled 9.96 percent on Thursday, leading to a plunge in the US stock market and a 660-point dive by the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Blaming poor sales in China, which account for 20 percent of Apple's revenue, the company has cut its revenue forecast for the first quarter of 2019 from between $89 billion and $93 billion, to $84 billion.

Apple's complaint about China's economic slowdown and declining consumer purchasing power diverted much Western public attention from the fall of the US stock market. China's economic slowdown is believed to have dragged down more US companies and pessimistic forecasts on the outlook for the 2019 Chinese consumer market are running high.

Apple hit a market cap of $1 trillion in August becoming the world's most valuable company, an achievement that was hailed as a "miracle." But its market value now has fallen to less than $700 billion. As Apple is one of the world's most iconic high-tech companies and a symbol of US technological prowess, such a dive is obviously not a good sign for the American economy.

China's economic slowdown is a fact. But it's not the only reason for Apple's lowered sales forecast in China. With a rise in prices, iPhone sales in China dropped 1 percent in the first 11 months of 2018. Apple's main competitor, Huawei, had its smartphone sales grow 28 percent in the same period and Xiaomi, another Chinese mobile phone manufacturer, saw a rise of 9 percent.

Apple must face up to the reality that its unique competitiveness is gradually waning. As a pioneer of smartphones, the company once led the mobile phone revolution. However, it's gradually being caught up by Chinese smartphone manufacturers whose products are cheaper but as good as Apple's.

With brands such as Huawei aiming for the medium and high-end phone market, more and more iPhone users have turned to the Chinese maker's product. It's highly likely that Apple sales will continue to decline in the Chinese market unless the company secures a revolutionary breakthrough or sharply cuts prices.

Another reason for the panic over Apple's declining sales in China is that the trade war has made investors more wary of Apple's future. The White House believes the US has the upper hand in the trade war because China exports more to the US than the other way round and given the core technologies the US has mastered, China will lose more. Washington is even not afraid of decoupling from China.

But the reality is more complicated. Trade war has disrupted the supply chain. It's hard to say who will pay the bigger price. The trade war also shook expectations and confidence. Apple now has clearly become one of the sufferers of the series of disruptions.

Apple is a behemoth that will suffer if there are problems in the global market. The negative impact of the trade war has emerged gradually, leading to more pessimistic expectations. And Apple is paying the price.

Apple's stock plunge supports the forecast that this round of US economic prosperity may collapse. Market is more sensitive than politicians. Apple is a leading company with rich technological and market resources and ample means for adjustment. It's hoped it will not repeat the mistakes Samsung made in the Chinese market and could find a solution to its problems soon.

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1134631.shtml
 
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Is this also because of China's economic slowdown?

And FCA (Italian-owned Chrysler) is up because, well, Italian economy is thriving?

@Raphael

Neofascism leads to lower IQ over time.

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GM, Ford 2018 auto sales down, FCA up

Xinhua, January 4, 2019

The big three American automakers, General Motors (GM), Ford, and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), reported mixed sales performance in 2018, data released on Thursday showed.

The first two posted sales decline, while the FCA saw an increase compared with the previous year.

GM sold 2,954,037 vehicles in 2018, down 1.6 percent from 2017. The company no longer provided monthly sales figures, but it reported that its fourth-quarter sales fell 2.7 percent to 785,229 vehicles.

All four of GM's brands slipped in 2018, with Buick down 5.6 percent and Cadillac down 1.1 percent for the year. Chevrolet was down 1.4 percent as sedan sales for the brand continue to steadily decrease.

Ford sales slid 3.5 percent in 2018, with 2.5 million vehicles sold. The company reported that its December sales fell 8.8 percent to 220,774 vehicles.

Ford's car sales dropped 18.4 percent in 2018. The automaker reported F-Series sales increased 1.4 percent last year.

http://www.china.org.cn/business/2019-01/04/content_74340385.htm
 
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Apple's woes – Industry 4.0 Vs. Protectionism 2.0

By Wang Xiaonan
2019-01-06 16:11 GMT+8

c7bed8106747445f8a12c80a72c8e054.jpg



Major power competition dominated the global scene over the past year, with trade tensions running high. At a time when a full-blown trade war looms large, the tussle for the tech crown is ratcheting up. This tech one-upmanship, which is picking up steam in the new year, could quicken the onset of
Industry 4.0.

As we celebrated the New Year with cider, beer and champagne, a slew of U.S. tech companies went through a lackluster holiday. For the first time in 15 years, Apple released a shocking revenue-guidance downgrade, slashing its sales forecast by 6 to 10 percent over the fourth quarter of 2018 (the first fiscal quarter of 2019).

In a letter to investors on Wednesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook gave reasons such as unexpected "economic deceleration" in Greater China and longer replacement cycles among fans of the iPhone. On the next day, the shares of the world's largest tech company cratered nearly 10 percent, causing a steep fall on the Dow Jones, S&P and Nasdaq.

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Stock numbers for Apple are displayed on a screen at the Nasdaq Market Site in Times Square, New York City, January 3, 2019. /VCG Photo

Other companies with big business in China also suffered: Caterpillar shares slid by 3.9 percent and Boeing shares went down 4 percent. Even carmakers General Motors and Daimler failed to escape in the midst of trade conflicts between the world's two largest economies.

There's no denying that the prolonged trade feud has dragged down both China and the U.S. and dulled Chinese consumer appetite for iPhones, which constitute a bulk of Apple's revenue. Protectionism 2.0 – building walls not only in old-market products like food, apparel and machines but also in the innovation-driven digital economy – inevitably contributed to Apple's woes.

But a shrinking Chinese market due to trade turbulence is not the sole factor. Europe and other Asian markets including India have also witnessed a sales shortfall for Apple as consumers are reluctant to upgrade from current iPhone models.

Over the past seven years since Steve Jobs left us, Apple has been struggling with innovation to satisfy its die-hard fans, let alone continue leading in the cutting-edge technology of the 4th Industrial Revolution. It seems that for Apple, creativity is reaching its upper limit, while Chinese phone makers such as Huawei, Xiaomi and Vivo, which sell at much lower prices, are picking up the slack.

Some tech analysts suggest that Apple picks up the speed in releasing a 5G iPhone or it will lose an enormous market. Last month, Apple reportedly planned to postpone producing an iPhone compatible with fifth-generation mobile technology until at least 2020. Similarly, the California-based company used to be a laggard in implementing 3G and 4G LTE cellular capacities.

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Apple had been using Qualcomm chips in its previous iPhones. /VCG Photo

Patrick Moorhead, president of Moor Insights & Strategy, said, "Every single premium Android handset maker will have 5G in 2019, many in the first half of 2019." That Apple might delay adopting 5G-compatible iPhones, whether due to its patent war with Qualcomm – a leading U.S. chip provider – or out of its alliance with Intel, is rattling investors.

In the arena of smart home appliances, Apple's Homepod is also overwhelmed by the Amazon Echo and Google Home, which dominated the artificial intelligence (AI) market early on. Moreover, Homepod will not operate well without the iPhone as a remote. Last year, Baidu joined the ranks with the release of its conversational DuerOS AI assistant.

Hence Apple seems stuck in a phase of iteration in this Industry 4.0 whirlpool, apart from being a victim of Washington's Protectionism 2.0. The data-driven, machine-learning industrial revolution is transforming business operations, powering the economy as well as facilitating our daily life with big data, AI, virtual reality, augmented reality, renewable energy, robotics, and 3D printing. That's why the world is seeing a flattening out on the tech landscape where chips and algorithms are crucial elements.

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The 4th Industrial Revolution. /VCG Photo

"The 4th Industrial Revolution will offer an opportunity for nations to advance in the midst of slowing economic growth and split business blocks," Long Guoqiang, vice president of the Development Research Center of China's State Council, said at a recent forum forecasting international relations in 2019 in Beijing.

However, one country alone will find it difficult to prosper given interconnected supply chains in fields such as AI to supercomputing. Industry 4.0 needs a fusion and acceleration of various technologies. The Internet of Things is, in a sense, an Internet of countries, industries, businesses and individuals.

Last January, a Time magazine article listed the "tech Cold War" as one of the top 10 risks to the world in 2018. "Fragmentation of the tech commons creates both market and security risks," the article stated.

In 2019, whether we see the tech race further splitting the world or uniting industries and countries remains to be seen.

https://news.cgtn.com/news/3d3d514e324d444f31457a6333566d54/share_p.html
 
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Just after the dead of Steve Job, what happened to Apple today is already being predicted.
 
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Just after the dead of Steve Job, what happened to Apple today is already being predicted.

Simply put, competition is cut-throat, consumers are more careful about their finance, and Apple has nothing to offer better than many others -- other than its price.

Natural selection and the survival of the fittest.
 
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Just after the dead of Steve Job, what happened to Apple today is already being predicted.
It's like what happened to Sony after its founder died. Sony became a marketing hype company without substance. Apple is following suit.
 
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