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Apple's iPhone Shipments Plunge in China as Huawei Tightens Grip

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Re: Apple's iPhone Shipments Plunge in China as Huawei Tightens Grip

#3
post #2

According to a recent study, Chinese iPhone users are more likely to be low income/undereducated. https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/2174310/research-highlight...

That does not really sound like a study, more like propaganda. I don't know if it's true but that article is not that credible.

Re: Apple's iPhone Shipments Plunge in China as Huawei Tightens Grip

#4
post #2

According to a recent study, Chinese iPhone users are more likely to be low income/undereducated. https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/2174310/research-highlight...

From personal experience (highly biased), it's easy to find iPhones belonging to everyone from elite university students to convenience store clerks.

That doesn't say anything about whether iPhone owners are more likely to be low-income or high-income, but there are a lot more low-income people than there are high-income people...

Re: Apple's iPhone Shipments Plunge in China as Huawei Tightens Grip

#6
post #2

According to a recent study, Chinese iPhone users are more likely to be low income/undereducated. https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/2174310/research-highlight...

I suspect a lot of money in the China flows illegally, out of the sight of the tax man (black money, money that is off the books), so having an iPhone could be one of the ways to spend such money, as it can't be deposited in banks or other track-able outlets.

Perhaps it's a status symbol too, shows that you are well to do and financially stable.

Re: Apple's iPhone Shipments Plunge in China as Huawei Tightens Grip

#7

Next headlines: 2020: European Car Shipments Plunge in China as XXX(#) Tightens Grip 2025: Tesla Car Shipments Plunge in China as YYY(#) Tightens Grip (#) Any local company currently in favor with the ruling party.

That's simplistic.

People forget, or simply don't know, that Chinese are extremely patriotic and that they remember how "the foreign powers" treated them in the past.

Considering what's happening between the US and China, and about Huawei, we can't discard the possibility that Chinese consumers reacted by supporting their country.

Re: Apple's iPhone Shipments Plunge in China as Huawei Tightens Grip

#9
I’d expect the same to happen in a recession in the western world. People do not buy luxury products in a recession and if they absolutely need to replace a device, will pick one half the price that’s good enough.

Though the business model of tech giant is new, for most, the market in which they evolve isn’t. Facebook and Google’s revenues are essentially advertising, another source of revenues that is very pro-cyclical.

Amazon is retail sales, also quite pro-cyclical.

I don’t know how a cloud business would behave in a recession. Plus the cloud is still in high growth phase, kind of like smartphones or online advertising were in 2008, making the economic context less relevant.

Re: Apple's iPhone Shipments Plunge in China as Huawei Tightens Grip

#10

Next headlines: 2020: European Car Shipments Plunge in China as XXX(#) Tightens Grip 2025: Tesla Car Shipments Plunge in China as YYY(#) Tightens Grip (#) Any local company currently in favor with the ruling party.

That's simplistic. People forget, or simply don't know, that Chinese are extremely patriotic and that they remember how "the foreign powers" treated them in the past. Considering what's happening between the US and China, and about Huawei, we can't discard the possibility that Chinese consumers reacted by supporting their country.

> that Chinese are extremely patriotic

Like in most countries where education is tightly controlled by the government, patriotism is a result of state propaganda.

> how "the foreign powers" treated them in the past.

The worst thing that happened to Chinese was not the way foreign powers treated them, but what came after under their own ruling party.

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