Last week, we learned of the intention of the Chinese government, which is proposing a unique blow in a new chapter of the trade war with the United States: banning the use of iPhones by hundreds of thousands of employees in government agencies and state-owned companies. This would be a significant setback for Apple, which is already feeling the effects of the potential measure.

stock market crash. Apple shares fell 3% on Thursday following news of the potential measure, which has not yet taken effect, and are down nearly 6% over the past week, but they managed to recover slightly on Friday.

$200 billion loss. Apple’s size is so colossal that these percentage declines are equivalent to an absolutely enormous amount of money. In this case, the market value of the company fell by 200 billion dollars. Shares, which reached $190 in recent days, fell to $178.

Abandon ship (Chinese). The trade war has meant that the Tim Cook-led company has been involved for months in a long process aimed at transferring some production of its iPhone and other products to countries such as India. The dependence on Chinese factories is now huge, and in fact half of Apple’s smartphones are produced in Zhengzhou, where Foxconn has many of its factories, in a huge complex nicknamed “iPhone city”.

But China is still very important. Despite the move, Apple’s sales in China are a key part of its bottom line. The Asian giant was responsible for a fifth of Apple’s revenue in 2022, and China surpassed US market interest in the second quarter of this year, according to TechInsights.

Cooking and symbiosis. In March 2023, Tim Cook visited the Asian country for the first time since the end of the pandemic, where he declared that Apple’s relationship with China was “symbiotic”. The Cupertino company has been bowing to the Chinese government for years to do business there, but the Chinese government’s announcement could be a turning point in that relationship.

Maybe it’s not such a big deal. Dan Ives, an analyst at consulting firm Wedbush, highlighted what the impact of the measure could be exaggerated. In his view, only 500,000 employees of state institutions will be affected by this measure; An almost absurd figure considering that China has approximately 55 million public employees in both corporations and state-owned enterprises, according to Statista. companies. Even China Mobile denied that it would implement measures to suspend iPhone sales, as reported by Reuters.

Huawei surprises. These events come as Huawei recently introduced the Mate 60 Pro, a smartphone that touts both its SoC manufactured with 7nm technology and its 5G chip. The United States has been trying to turn it into a technological pariah for a while now, hindering its strategy and launches, but this smartphone has seemingly overcome those problems. The timing China has chosen for this potential veto is “interesting,” according to Bank of America analysts.

Pictures | manzana

in Xataka | The technological war between China and the USA now has a clear winner. And it’s neither