“Apple CEO Tim Cook’s surprise first trip to India last week may be firmly in the history books, but it’s still front page news in the Chinese headlines, revealing an unexpected angst in the world’s biggest smartphone market,” Doug Young writes for Forbes. “China has grown accustomed to being at the center of Apple’s universe, as Cook has made numerous trips to the country over the last three years in a bid to curry favor with Beijing and Chinese consumers. So the sudden trip to India, a rival with China in many ways, appears to be causing some unexpected sweating by Chinese who worry they may soon lose their spot as the leading object of Apple’s affections.”
“The second headline that caught my eye also came out this week, and has Chinese media fixating on the fact that Terry Gou, chief executive FIH Mobile’s Taiwanese parent, accompanied Cook on the trip to India,” Young writes. “That article also leads with the sensational headline questioning whether India could soon take China’s place as Apple’s main manufacturing base.”
Young writes, “The eventual movement of iPhone manufacturing to India and other low-cost locations is almost inevitable, and some might say should even be a source of pride for China since it shows the country is past that stage of development.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: It’s one thing to begin exiting China when the time comes and their economy has matured beyond required millions of menial factory assembly jobs, it’s quite another for an overwrought government to push Apple out too soon.
The Chinese totalitarians should never forget that Apple products need not be assembled in China. — MacDailyNews, April 22, 2016
China has a lot more to lose than they have to gain by slamming the door on Apple. — MacDailyNews, April 22, 2016
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