The keys to Apple's to success in China: People, stores, and partnerships

February 12, 2015

Apple's been making great strides in China, and CEO Tim Cook today elaborated on how. China's been long regarded as a market that should have been challenging for Apple, but the explosive growth seen by Apple in the last quarter was fueled in part by the anticipated iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, but also by massive growth in China.

The fundamentals were straightforward, as Tim Cook said:

"We've put a lot of investment there in people. We've put a lot of investment in stores, in flagship stores — we now have 19 in Greater China and will have 40 stores by late next year."

Apple's investments have also been in their local partners, leading to 40,000 point-of-sale locations at resellers across China. They've also made a point of partnering with local carriers as well as Chinese search providers and web services. Cook noted that the five new stores that Apple opened in China earlier this year were all in cities of 9 million residents or larger — "Huge places that most Americans have never heard of." He said that the massive movement of the Chinese population into the global middle class has posed a huge opportunity for Apple.

Of course, China's not the only huge potential market out there. India looms large of Apple's radar, where they seem to be following the same playbook as China: investing in people and infrastructure to deploy their products. But Cook did acknowledge, their base in India is right now still "very small."

Source: Apple