Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s chief executive officer Tim Cook confirmed his company’s plans to open up 25 retail stores in China within the next 2 years. The iPhone maker already earns 15 percent of it’s total revenue from China.
China currently has 15 outlet stores. During a recent fourth quarter earnings call, Cook elaborated, “We’re investing like crazy in the market. When I look at China, I see an enormous market where there are more people graduating into the middle class than any nation on Earth in history.”
AAPL CEO pays a visit to China
Right now, Cook is visiting China where he recently met with the country’s Vice Minister Ma Kai. During the meeting, the two discussed things like protecting user information and strengthening cooperation.Tomorrow, Cook will visit Tsinghua University in Beijing. He will be listening in as a member of the School of Economics and Management’s advisory council. He will be joined by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg among other business leaders.
Apple sales disparity concerns
Cook also visited the Foxconn iPhone workshop in central Henan. This is the same location Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) plans on boosting iPhone production to 120 million. The actual output target for 2014 is 120 million iPhones. Last year, the tech giant reportedly sold a large number of iPhone 5S handsets during the October to December in China.
The recent sales disparity in China prompted serious concerns, but Cook believes it was due to inventory and in another respect, Amazon sales actually grew. He summed it up in the call, “And so you have a compounded effect of no launch and a huge change in channel inventory in a year-over-year basis. And to share with you what it was in greater China, iPhone unit sell-through despite no launch in Q4 was up 32 percent year over year. The market was projected by IDC to only grow 13 percent. So we feel incredibly great about that ”
Tim Cook keeps a positive outlook which should benefit the entire company.
