Tim Cook Visits China Ahead of New Apple Store Opening in Shanghai

[nnoble]

Why were those three male characters cut and pasted into the picture?

 

[picpicmac]

The slow fade of American hegemony is a sensitive issue for many Americans. It's a staple in US domestic politics to complain/warn about China. I do not expect this to go away.

Cook is doing what any CEO does: push one's company in different polities.

Is the CCP a bad actor on the stage of human rights? Sure.

But Nixon went to China and the rest, as is overly stated, is history.

 

[Crom!]

So what's going to happen when China invades Taiwan and nationalizes Taiwan Semiconductor? Where will Intel, AMD, Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Samsung and all the other players in the AI field source their chips? (TSMC currently supplies 90% of all the semiconductor chips in the world, including Nvidia's brand-new Blackwell). Will China continue to sell them to their adversaries, or will they sequester everything for themselves or possibly exponentially raise prices to offshore clients? Taiwan Semi is currently in the planning stages of building a massive assembly plant in Arizona, but it's been plagued with delays, and now looks to begin production somewhere between 2025 and 2027, depending on what media source you read. China isn't going to wait that long to get their hands on that property.

More to the point, how will Apple be able to stock their shiny new store in Shanghai with new iPhones & other hardware if they can't get memory for them? Who do you think makes Apple's M series silicon? TSMC, that's who!

I am betting most companies will just accept the change of hands and go about business as usual. You really think people like Tim Cook, Jeff Bezos, and even Elon Musk are actually patriotic and believe in "Democracy." Money is power.

 

[B-Mc-C]

Anyone else notice the people photoshopped into the background in the article photo?

 

[Zwhaler]

Nevermind the real estate crash and anemic economic performance as of late… China’s just holding out for a prettier iPhone

To be fair, the rate of iPhone hardware innovation has slowed. “Visual flair” has taken a back seat in the iPhone while Chinese domestic smartphones haven’t.

 

[chouseworth]

This man needs to be resigning not going on a world tour

Okay, so you are on the Apple Board of Directors. What case do you make for asking for Cook’s resignation? If you will not or can not, you are just wasting space with your comment. And by the way who is the savior that you would recommend as his replacement? And no, you cannot bring Steve back from the dead.

 

[redbeard331]

So what's going to happen when China invades Taiwan and nationalizes Taiwan Semiconductor? Where will Intel, AMD, Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Samsung and all the other players in the AI field source their chips? (TSMC currently supplies 90% of all the semiconductor chips in the world, including Nvidia's brand-new Blackwell). Will China continue to sell them to their adversaries, or will they sequester everything for themselves or possibly exponentially raise prices to offshore clients? Taiwan Semi is currently in the planning stages of building a massive assembly plant in Arizona, but it's been plagued with delays, and now looks to begin production somewhere between 2025 and 2027, depending on what media source you read. China isn't going to wait that long to get their hands on that property.

More to the point, how will Apple be able to stock their shiny new store in Shanghai with new iPhones & other hardware if they can't get memory for them? Who do you think makes Apple's M series silicon? TSMC, that's who!

Apple has a backup chip manufacturing plant orbiting the Earth, do you think they haven’t planned for this scenario?

 

[sleepybear723]

Sometimes I miss the way he says "chy-na".

 

[dampfnudel]

Nevermind the real estate crash and anemic economic performance as of late… China’s just holding out for a prettier iPhone

There was a time when Chinese consumers didn’t feel the pressure to buy a phone from a Chinese company. There was a time when people thought China would take away the number one spot from the US as the the world’s largest economy as early as 2025. There was also a time when Apple gave consumers a design change with the iPhone every two or three years. There may be multiple reasons for the slump in China, but I honestly believe that the lack of visual change with the iPhone design in several years is contributing to it.

 

[victorvictoria]

I am betting most companies will just accept the change of hands and go about business as usual. You really think people like Tim Cook, Jeff Bezos, and even Elon Musk are actually patriotic and believe in "Democracy." Money is power.

I'm betting you're wrong! And as soon as I get news that China is sailing or flying across the Taiwan Strait, I'm selling all my tech stocks.

 

[victorvictoria]

Apple has a backup chip manufacturing plant orbiting the Earth, do you think they haven’t planned for this scenario?

One would hope. But this one has doubts.

 

[dredlew]

While every other Western company is pulling out of China, Tim still keeps investing in it. Ridiculous. Get this man out of the driver’s seat.

 

[svish]

Looking to see more photos from the store in the next couple of days.

 

[ybbbbbbb]

You're correct, Apple's China iCloud servers/infrastructure are hosted by GBCD, which is state-owned.

This is my iPad. That's what he prompted in iCloud.

 

[Jumpthesnark]

Why were those three male characters cut and pasted into the picture?

Anyone else notice the people photoshopped into the background in the article photo?

I really hope these are sarcastic comments. In the photo, Cook is talking with developers from PaperGames. Behind them are life sized cutout posters of characters from their games, that have been placed in the store. It's really obvious that those are drawings and not people.

 

[JamestheCharming]

In 2018, Apple moved its iCloud operations and encryption keys to China. In 2020, Apple opened its first cyber security-based data center in Guizhou, which hosted iCloud services to comply with a new ruling requiring companies to store data in China. The data center is owned and operated by the Chinese government, and state employees manage it and have direct access to the data. They also censor apps to please the government.

Much privacy, Mr. Cook.

Well, at least China does not force Apple to sell iCloud part in China, you know.