John Ternus, Apple’s senior vp of {hardware} engineering, takes over as CEO on Sept. 1, ending Tim Cook dinner’s 15-year tenure on the prime of the world’s most precious shopper expertise firm.
Apple’s presence with China is probably the defining relationship of the Tim Cook dinner period. Chinese language factories, managed by World 500 corporations like Foxconn and Luxshare, made the iPhones that turned the corporate into a worldwide juggernaut. Chinese language customers additionally snapped up Apple merchandise, making the nation considered one of Apple’s most essential markets. Cook dinner was additionally a frequent customer to Beijing, assembly senior officers and dropping by Apple shops and main companions all through the nation.
“There is a Chinese proverb I love: ‘A single tree does not make a forest,’” Cook dinner mentioned earlier this yr on the China Growth Discussion board, a summit organized by Beijing. “Together, I believe we can plant that forest.”
Pedro Pardo—AFP by way of Getty Pictures
It’s not clear how a lot expertise Cook dinner’s successor has with China. Apple’s assertion saying his appointment doesn’t point out any particular world market, not to mention China. In reality, the one point out of worldwide markets is hooked up to Cook dinner’s new function as govt chairman, which is able to embrace “engaging with policymakers around the world.” Ternus’s extraordinarily sparse Linkedin web page doesn’t point out China.
Ternus inherits a China enterprise that’s turned a nook from a tough few years, but nonetheless brings vital complications, from a protectionist Washington and a prickly Beijing to a Chinese language shopper who has grown much less reflexively loyal to Western manufacturers.
Why China issues to Apple
China is residence to a lot of Apple’s provide chain, a choice that’s primarily on account of Cook dinner, who met Terry Gou, the founding father of Taiwanese producer Foxconn, in 2000. That began a decades-long partnership the place Foxconn (and different unique gear producers) would assemble iPhones in large manufacturing unit compounds, together with the famed Zhengzhou advanced deemed “iPhone City.”
Qilai Shen—Bloomberg by way of Getty Pictures
But disruptions throughout the COVID pandemic, when China’s strict lockdowns threatened iPhone provides, prompted Cook dinner to diversify manufacturing to alternate manufacturing bases in India and Vietnam. U.S. President Donald Trump’s commerce struggle with China accelerated these plans, with Cook dinner even promising to construct servers and Mac mini computer systems within the U.S.
“Supply chain execution will be the defining early test of Apple’s next CEO,” says Nabila Popal, a senior director of the information and analytics workforce at Worldwide Knowledge Company (IDC), a market analysis agency. “The success of Ternus’ tenure may hinge on whether he can advance Apple’s China‑plus‑one strategy without triggering political or commercial backlash in China, and maintain the momentum and share in a market Apple cannot afford to fall back on.”
An enormous shopper market
Higher China—a catch-all time period that features mainland China, Hong Kong and the island of Taiwan—contributed $64.3 billion in income for Apple in its 2025 fiscal yr, which ended on Sep. 27. That was a slight drop from the earlier fiscal yr, however nonetheless sufficient to make it Apple’s third-largest market. Put one other approach: Apple generates about as a lot income from China as Boeing’s complete worldwide enterprise.
Apple’s China gross sales have slipped for the previous three years, as the corporate confronted better competitors from home manufacturers like Huawei and Xiaomi. Beijing additionally ordered state-owned enterprises and authorities departments to cease utilizing iPhones and different Apple gadgets at work.
Fortunately, the iPhone 17 has helped flip round Apple’s fortunes. Higher China gross sales rose to $25 billion in Apple’s most up-to-date quarter, up from $18.5 billion a yr earlier. Cook dinner referred to as it “the best iPhone quarter in history in Greater China” in an earnings name with analysts.
Qilai Shen—Bloomberg by way of Getty Pictures
IDC knowledge for the primary quarter of 2026 put Apple because the No. 2 smartphone vendor in China, with a 19% market share. That’s an enchancment from a yr earlier, when Apple was caught in fourth place, behind Huawei, Oppo and Vivo.
“Apple’s remarkable turnaround in China is due to the incredible success of the iPhone 17,” Popal says. New {hardware} helped, however even the cellphone’s new orange coloration—nicknamed “Hermès Orange” by Chinese language customers—received again Chinese language customers. “Such simple design changes that help scream “I have the latest iPhone” go a protracted approach to increase demand, particularly in a model acutely aware market like China,” Popal provides.
The reminiscence disaster can also be giving Apple an edge over its Chinese language counterparts. As AI corporations and system makers compete for restricted provides from a handful of chip producers, Apple’s monetary firepower permits it to outspend rivals, “a luxury many other Chinese players do not have,” Popal factors out.
Media stories declare that Apple is ready to introduce its first foldable iPhone later this yr. Foldables are shortly turning into mainstream gadgets in China, fuelled by enhancements in thinness and sturdiness, in addition to shopper habits that prizes the bigger display to look at movies and do work.
IDC’s Popal thinks the discharge will “help push Apple into a category it previously entirely conceded to the competition, and give Huawei—the leader in foldables globally and in China—a run for its money.”
Chinese language innovation
Apple Intelligence, Apple’s AI service, nonetheless isn’t accessible in China. Beijing requires AI instruments to be authorised by the Our on-line world Administration of China. Apple has struck offers with Chinese language tech corporations like Baidu and Alibaba to assist persuade Chinese language regulators, to no avail.
In distinction, Chinese language cellphone makers are racing to embed AI into their merchandise. ZTE unveiled a prototype in December that used ByteDance’s Doubao AI besides and launch purposes by voice command. Honor is releasing a “robot phone” with a gimbal digital camera designed for energetic consumer interplay.
Jade Gao—AFP by way of Getty Pictures
Certainly one of Apple’s Chinese language rivals was additionally capable of do one thing the U.S. firm couldn’t pull off: Make a automobile. Apple studied the automobile marketplace for the higher a part of a decade earlier than abandoning the venture over profitability considerations.
Xiaomi, led by Steve Jobs-fan Lei Jun, caught with its EV plans, releasing its first automobile in 2024. The Chinese language firm’s automobiles have turn into an enormous success amongst Chinese language clients, delivering half one million automobiles for the reason that launch. (Ford CEO Jim Farley can also be a fan). Xiaomi’s EV success is now reverberating again to its telephones, as Chinese language customers see it as proof of the corporate’s innovation bona fides.
