Apple’s quarterly earnings call took place yesterday and among the topics discussed, CEO Tim Cook looked at growth in China. According to Cook, in its fiscal third quarter, Apple’s revenue in China saw substantial growth as the iPhone continues to gain in popularity despite the company’s delayed launch of the new iPad in mainland China.
The third quarter ended on June 30 and revenue for Greater China, which includes the mainland, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, reached $5.7 billion, which is a 48 percent increase over the same quarter last year.
However, Apple’s revenue for the third quarter was down by 28 percent from the previous quarter, when Apple revenue in Greater China reached $7.9 billion. In the second quarter, revenue boomed due to the iPhone 4S launch in January through carrier China Unicom and then in March by China Telecom.
Cook also said that iPhone sales in mainland China were up over 100 percent year-over-year. However, Apple’s third fiscal quarter did not benefit from the launch of the newest iPad. Apple just recently resolved a trademark dispute regarding the iPad name with Chinese company Proview Technology, who wanted to have the iPad banned in China. Apple paid $60 million for rights to the iPad name, and it was released just last week in China.
Apple has previously stated that China has become the company’s second largest market after the U.S. In recognizing this, Apple has made a number of additions to products in June that would appeal to the Chinese market, including Mandarin language support for Siri and allowing the devices to easily connect with social networking and Internet services within China.
Despite the setback to the iPad launch, Cook remains confident and excited about future plans and opportunities in China.
Source: Macworld
Image Credit: Fox Business
