Apple CEO Tim Cook visits Shanghai amid slowing iPhone sales in China

An apple CEO Tim Cook is visiting Shanghai, according to a post in it official Weibo account on Wednesday, ahead of a new retail store opening and declining iPhone sales in the country.

A video attached to the post shows Cook walking around one of the city’s popular tourist districts and having breakfast with Chinese actor and TV personality Zheng Kai.

According to a press release on Monday, the new retail store located in the city’s Jing’an District will open on Thursday.

Cook frequently visits China — a vital market and manufacturing base for Apple — to launch products, open factories and meet with local officials. Earlier this month, so did Apple announced plans to expand its research centers in Shanghai and Shenzhen.

His latest trip also comes amid reports that iPhone sales in China fell 24% in the first six weeks of 2024 compared to the same period a year earlier.

The drop in sales is due in part to unusually high shipments from Apple in early 2023, but also to increased competition from domestic brands such as Huawei, according to analysts.

Last year, Cook visited China in October following reports that sales of the iPhone 15 in the country were weaker compared to sales of the earlier model.

That trip came a month after reports of employees in China’s central government agencies being banned from using iPhones for work. The Chinese Foreign Ministry denied the information.

Apple on Friday reportedly agreed to pay $490 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging Cook misled investors about a sharp decline in iPhone sales in China in November 2018, according to a preliminary agreement. filed in federal court in Oakland, California.