Apple CEO Tim Cook dinner arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Monday because the U.S. tech big seems to spice up gross sales in new markets.
Cook dinner will meet with Apple customers, builders and content material creators throughout the two-day go to, native media reported.
The CEO posted footage on X on Monday in Hanoi with musicians. He drank an egg espresso.
Cook dinner’s go to comes at a testing time for the U.S. know-how big. Figures launched Monday by the Worldwide Knowledge Company (IDC) confirmed world iPhone shipments fell 10% 12 months on 12 months within the first quarter of 2024.
Apple is dealing with intense competitors within the high-end smartphone market the place it operates, particularly in key markets like China.
Apple has quietly grown into Vietnam’s third-largest smartphone vendor by shipments, based on IDC, behind Chinese language electronics maker Oppo and Samsung. And Vietnam has change into a key location for manufacturing because the Cupertino big seems to diversify the meeting of its merchandise away from China.
Apple’s reliance on China for its merchandise got here underneath scrutiny in 2022 because the nation’s strict Covid-19 prevention measures and employee unrest at Foxconn’s flagship iPhone manufacturing unit disrupted manufacturing. Foxconn is the primary assembler of Apple’s iPhones.
In December, the Nikkei reported Apple was transferring a few of its key iPad engineering sources to Vietnam. The nation is now reportedly concerned within the improvement and manufacturing of the MacBook, iPad and Apple Watch.
Apple CEO Tim Cook dinner (C) walks close to Hoan Kiem lake in downtown Hanoi throughout his go to to Vietnam on April 15, 2024.
Giang Huy | Afp | Getty Pictures
“Vietnam is essential to Apple not solely as a consequence of its rising base of followers there, but additionally as a result of the trade is hedging its bets by diversifying its manufacturing past China. That features key areas like Vietnam, the place Samsung has lengthy had a presence within the northern a part of the nation,” Bryan Ma, vice chairman of consumer units analysis at IDC, instructed CNBC.
“Apple’s diversification efforts additionally embody units like notebooks, the place its contract producers like Quanta and Foxconn have already been investing.”
India has additionally emerged as a key hub for iPhone manufacturing.
Bloomberg reported final week that Apple now makes one in seven of its iPhones in India. Apple started assembling its newest line of iPhones in India in 2022. That began with the iPhone 14 sequence. India additionally represents an enormous client marketplace for Apple.
Cook dinner’s go to to Vietnam comes after 61 environmental and human rights teams referred to as on Apple to oppose the nation’s detention of local weather activists.
