Over the past decade, a large number of foreign companies have flocked to the Chinese market, including the world-renowned technology giant Apple. Jobs died, and the position of successor was given to Cook.
Since Tim Cook took over as Apple's chief executive in 2012, he has quickly set his sights on the Chinese market, making it the first country he visited since taking office. In the past ten years, Cook has traveled almost all over China.
According to statistics, Cook has been to China no less than 20 times, which is enough to witness how much he attaches importance to the Chinese market.
In fact, since the United States imposed sanctions on Huawei, Apple has been actively preparing for decoupling from Chinese mainland. Although it is said that it is inseparable from the Chinese market and has visited China many times, after all, it is the most "smart" company in the world, how can it dare to go against the official meaning?
In just two years, Apple decisively eliminated dozens of Chinese companies from its supply chain, resulting in a sharp drop in the proportion of components supplied by the mainland from 4.5% to 2%, which shows that Cook is implementing "de-Chinaization".
Even the foundry, Apple, has to move to India to achieve the transfer of production capacity.
Recently, Apple has launched a plan to transfer 300 billion production capacity in India, and the iPhone 15 has been partially manufactured by foundries in India. Why did Cook do this?
This is not only to comply with the U.S. policy toward China, but also to help promote the return of U.S. manufacturing.
Labor costs in Southeast Asia are lower than in Chinese mainland, so Apple's shift to India is expected to reduce production costs while increasing profit margins. This "Make in India" strategy helps Apple respond more flexibly to the needs of the global market and achieve more competitive product pricing.
In addition, Apple's withdrawal from the Chinese market can also reduce some of the potential risks faced by the company. By avoiding too close ties with Chinese mainland's industrial chain, Apple can mitigate the risk of "Huawei-style" sanctions and increase its flexibility in the global industrial chain.
Some people worry that Apple's withdrawal from China's manufacturing industry will bring "catastrophe" to China.
It may have made sense five years ago, but today's market has changed dramatically.
Huawei's return to the company's return is a new opportunity for Chinese suppliers with a goal of shipping 60 million to 70 million smartphones in 2024. This means that Huawei's growth will fill the void left by Apple and inject new vitality into China's manufacturing industry.
In 2019, Huawei phones made their mark in the Chinese market with a staggering 56% market share, and also reached a 25.39% share in the European market. However, then due to the chip problem, Huawei faced a big challenge.
Now, as Huawei has basically solved the chip problem and realized the "return of the king", it has successfully built the Kirin series of chips, becoming one of the world's leading chip manufacturers, and successfully breaking the monopoly of foreign chip manufacturers.
In a highly competitive market, it is not easy to survive, and Apple needs to take its own innovation and development seriously, and should pay more attention to its own survival, rather than how to find ways to "de-Chinaize" in the Chinese market.