Tim Cook would like you to think everything is going swimmingly for Apple in China.
A highlight reel of the Apple CEO’s recent trip to the country, posted to his Weibo account, showed him being papped by fans at the opening of a new store in Shanghai’s Jing’an district, taking selfies on an iPhone with celebrity models, and casually strolling the historic Bund.
“Every time I am in China, I can feel the unique charm here again. Thank you very much for the warm reception!” Cook wrote in the social media post.
Here’s the thing. The Apple chief actually had a major dilemma facing him in China at the time he posted the video last month: iPhone sales were down by an alarming 24% in the first six weeks of the year, per data from Counterpoint Research.
And despite the charm offensive from Cook, there’s a risk that downward spiral is about to get a whole lot worse.
On Thursday, Huawei released a new series of smartphones called the Pura 70. They come fitted with an advanced new camera system that looks similar to the trio of lenses on the back of the iPhone Pro models, and starts at $760.
