Nobody Really Knows Why Apple Is Struggling in China

The trade war might me a bit for something but I have been in china for nearly 7 years and I have seen habit changing quite a lot within the last 2 year.

Back in 2012-2015 when I was in the subway or with chinese friends, I was one of the few people who got an android smartphone. I even had few colleagues who were willing to spend 2 months salary into brand new Apple product.

Since 2 years ago, I have noticed a kind of Apple "fatigue" from chinese consumers who are expecting breakthrough from tech companies quite often. Why would they spend money on a new phone that nearly look like the same as the previous version? Sure there is this new "face unlock" but the finger print unlock works well.

No need to mention that the new measures pushed by the chinese government make the people more nationalist so if they want a brand new phone, they will look for local brands like Huawei, Oppo, Xiaomi, etc... and they have really good phones for half the price of an IPhone.