Apple Inc. continues to bet big on China. It did so last year, and is doing so this year also. The US firm will open its 29th retail store in Shenyang – capital city of Liaoning – on January 9. The store will be in the MixC shopping mall at 288 Qingnian Street in Shenyang’s Heping District.
Apple is expanding its footprint in China at a very aggressive pace under retail chief Angela Ahrendts, and has opened new stores in Nanning on December 12, Beijing on November 28 and Chengdu on November 21. In 2015, the US firm also opened retail stores in Chongqing, Hangzhou, Hong Kong, Nanjing and Tianjin.
Apple’s new store will be open on all five days from Monday to Sunday between 10 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. local time, and will offer traditional Apple Store services. At the same time, it will include the Genius Bar, Workshops, JointVenture, events and seminars. This new store in Shenyang will be the company’s 25th retail store in mainland China, and it already operates four retail stores in Hong Kong.
Apple Inc. has been generating huge revenue from China on YoY basis. In the past three years, China has contributed 23%, 41% and 53% to Apple’s total revenue. In fiscal 2015, China for the first time overtook Europe, in terms of revenue. Despite the impressive growth, there are many who believe economic slowdown in the region will impact the iPhone sales.
However, CEO Tim Cook says there is no issue at all. A few months back, Cook gave reasons for his stance, saying, “if I were to shut off my web and shut off the TV and just look at how many customers are coming in our stores regardless of whether they’re buying, how many people are coming online, and in addition looking at our sales trends, I wouldn’t know there was any economic issue at all in China.”
But, two indices suggests, that Apple sales in China may not witness the growth it has seen in the last few years. These two indices are – drop in quarter-on-quarter sales in Greater China and an erosion of Apple’s overall market share, said an earlier report from Bloomberg. In the last quarter of fiscal 2015, Apple witnessed a 5.4% drop in revenue versus the prior quarter.
In the Q2 this year, Apple Inc.’s smartphone market share in the region dropped to 7.7% from 10.8% in the previous quarter, as per the data from Bloomberg Intelligence. This may suggest that Apple’s magic in China may be fading.
