China Doesn’t Top the List of Apple’s Problems
The country wasn’t the biggest driver of recent growth, so it can’t take the blame for all the troubles.
Apple has 99 problems and China is just one.
Photographer: Wang Zhao/AFP/Getty Images
Since Apple Inc. admitted that iPhone sales are worse than the company expected, attention has been focused on Apple’s business in China and the fallout generally from that country’s economic hiccups. That’s logical because Apple said weak iPhone sales in China were largely responsible for an estimated 5 percent revenue decline in the December quarter.
That shouldn’t obscure the reality that China wasn’t the biggest driver of Apple’s recent growth and therefore shouldn’t take all the blame for the revenue retreat. To mangle a line from the great poet, Apple has 99 problems and China is just one.