Apple CEO Tim Cook holds up a new iPhone 15 Pro throughout an Apple occasion on Sept. 12, 2023, in Cupertino, California.
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Apple CEO Tim Cook cheered on avid gamers at an occasion throughout a surprise visit to China, underscoring the market’s significance to the iPhone large at a time when it faces mounting challenges.
Gamers gathered at an Apple retailer in Chengdu in southwestern China to play “Honor of Kings,” a recreation developed by TiMi Studio, which is owned by Chinese tech large Tencent.
“The action-packed Honor of Kings started here in Chengdu and is now a global phenomenon on the App Store,” Cook mentioned in a publish on Chinese social media service Weibo.
Cook additionally posted a video of himself cheering on avid gamers on the event. Honor of Kings is without doubt one of the greatest cellular video games in China and a substantial income driver for Apple’s App Store within the nation.
The Apple CEO’s visit to the corporate’s third-largest market comes just below a month after the iPhone 15, the corporate’s flagship smartphone, went on sale to a seemingly lukewarm reception, and as a overwhelmed down Huawei makes an attempt to make a comeback within the cellular market.
“It’s a tough start for Apple to be sure and it’s a combination of factors driving this,” Ethan Qi, affiliate director at Counterpoint Research, instructed CNBC through e mail.
Qi attributed Apple’s challenges to poor client sentiment, the iPhone 15’s poorer efficiency than the iPhone 14 and growing competitors within the high-end smartphone market.
“All of these things are working together to take some of the shine away from Apple’s lustre during the first few weeks of iPhone 15 sales,” Qi mentioned.