Irrespective of the storm of bad promotion that hit Apple’s iPhone in China, it doesn’t seem to have largely impacted the sales of the smartphone going by the quarterly report. It is now upon Apple to make sure that they continue to sell their smartphones while managing to control users who are constantly trying to skip the paywall.
Ever since Apple entered into an agreement with China Telecom for selling the phone device, the sales of iPhone have risen exponentially in the country. China Telecom is one of the three big companies that are selling the iPhone in the country. According to analysts, there has been a sharp rise in the sale of CDMA iPhones ever since they joined hands with China Telecom.
However, apart from the success, Apple seems to have gathered some negative publicity as well in China. This comes mainly after cases of workers committing suicide have surfaced at Foxconn Technology, which manufactures the iPhone. Apple has also been in the limelight for issues related to patenting and causing damage to the environment as according to the charges placed by activist groups in China. In an attempt to clear their image, Apple has entered into a deal with Foxconn to make sure that working conditions in their factories are not compromised.
In spite of the setbacks, Apple has managed to increase the sales of the iPhone fivefold in China (including Hong Kong and Taiwan), in the months between January to March. This has shot Apple’s China-based revenue to $7.9 billion, the highest ever. Next on the cards is Apple’s deal with China Mobile with regards the iPhone 5 which will be released later in the year. This deal may prove to be the tipping point for the company in the country and help it reach out to almost 600 million people who subscribe to China Mobile.
With a considerable increase in the sale of iPhones, China is now Apple’s second largest market with respect to download of mobile software, according to reports by analysts. The bigger problem that Apple needs to deal with is trying to bar its users from hacking the devices to download applications for free of cost. It has been reported that users have also been seeking the help of other sites to acquire these applications at a price much lesser than that charged by Apple. Going by reports in a local newspaper, over 50,000 iTunes accounts were illegally traded last year on a website before it was shut down following negative feedback.
