Souring records are precisely that, bittersweet. In Apple they know well: in the first quarter of 2025 124.3 billion dollars entered, but that colossal figure is fogged by a worrying fact: In China things are going wrong. The company is no longer what it was there, and has lost 9% market share in a year.
In Cupertino, yes, they had a plan to relive sales: offer Apple Intelligence, and also do it with a category Chinese partner. Specifically, with Alibaba, which seemed the ideal option for its influence on the Chinese market and also for having a chatbot Especially advanced as Qwen2,5-Max.
The plan was not bad, especially considering the worrying situation that Apple lives with its disastrous deployment of AI functions. Apple Intelligence is still far behind its competitors, and Siri’s scandalous non -zacing has revealed Internal rivalries, indecision and leadership problems In the company. But with Alibaba everything seemed good. The actions of the Chinese company rose like the foam after the rumors and everything seemed to go stern.
It is not like that, and the deployment of Apple Intelligence in China with its new partner is delaying because of Chinese regulators. Apple and Alibaba have collaborated in the development of various AI products to be able to implement them, and have asked the authorities to regulate this sector to approve.
But the administration of the cyberspace of China (CAC), main responsible for giving that blessing, has not done so. These requests are currently blocked According to sources close to the process cited in FTand reason is not technical, but political. The uncertainty about the situation between China and the United States and that commercial war that they maintain – and that affects the entire world – is causing that blockade, according to these sources.
The situation for Apple is complicated
- On the one hand, he tries to deal with a US president whoUaiere forcing What Apple manufactures the iPhone that sells in that country locally. The idea is so expensive for Apple that will continue Going to account sEguir man by manufacturing them in India To avoid Chinese tariffs.
- On the other, it has been left behind for sale of iPhone in China, where Xiaomi, HuaweiOppo and alive have already advanced it. All of them have the government’s support and are tightening too In the supply of AI functions, but Apple Intelligence is still not a competitive proposal.
Precisely the CAC approval process includes those AI tests. The AI models developers themselves in China cannot market them or publish them unless they receive the approval of the government, which wants AI models “Very socialist“These restrictions should have favored Apple, especially after the alliance with Alibaba, but the tensions with the US after the absurd rise in tariffs -now in pause– They have made the situation unusual.
The situation is so complex that Apple faces double suspicions. First, the final approval of the agreement between Apple and Alibaba to implement those functions of AI in the iPhone in China must be validated by the Chinese State Council. And second, the Bureau of Industry and Security of the US Department of Commerce has shown according to FT its reservations with that agreement, although they do not have legal means to prevent it.
The situation is complicated, and that blockade of validation only becomes more. And meanwhile, Apple and Huawei grows. From the beginning of 2023 until now, Apple’s share in mobiles in China was 70%, and is now 47%. Huawei’s? It was 13% and is now 35%.
Image | Maccy
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