Apple CEO, Tim Cook, has been in China this week. During his stay he was seen with Wang Ning, the founder of Pop Mart, and LABUBU creator Long Jiasheng – a nod to the fact that China’s soft power star is rising. But Cook wasn’t in China to talk IPs with the kings of ugly-cute. He was on a mission to solve two serious snags for Apple’s future in the Chinese market.
One of those was eSIMs. iPhones are moving away from physical SIMs in favour of digital ones. The change, underway in the U.S., saves space in phones that can in turn be made smaller, thinner, sleeker, just the way Apple likes them, and saves on manufacturing costs. Crunch time is on for Apple because of the recent release of the iPhone Air – an eSIM only phone – and the iPhone 17, that supports eSIMs as well as physical ones.
China has been relatively slow to adopt eSIMs in smartphones. Regulation has gotten in the way. Only recently have China’s major service providers – China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom – attained approval to begin trials with eSIM technology. If things don’t move fast, Apple faces a conundrum: Build two different models of iPhone or risk losing out on their second biggest market.
The other problem Apple faces is artificial intelligence. In the first quarter of this year Apple’s China revenue slumped by 11%. Tim Cook attributed this to the company’s lack of an AI presence in the China market. Again, regulation is the hang up. To operate AI capable of competing with other Chinese systems, Apple need the red stamp on a host of state approvals. They also need a Chinese partner.
Finding that partner hasn’t been easy. Initially Apple chose to go with Baidu, but things have since fallen apart, putting extra delays on Apple getting powerful AI live in the Middle Kingdom. Alibaba is now filling the role, but what the new partnership will look like in reality is still uncertain. For now, Apple’s China outlook hangs on regulatory progress, both in digital connectivity and artificial intelligence. Cook’s trip may not yield immediate results, but it signals that Apple knows exactly where its next battle will be fought.
