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The cruelest part of this whole farce- Apple might not get very far in China even with government sanction.

WSJ: "Why the iPhone Is Losing Out to Chinese Devices in Asia"

Google link: https://encrypted.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Why%20the%20iPho...

Those articles are a dime a dozen (Apple losing in China, Why the iPhone will fail in Japan, Apple going nowhere in India, ... etc) -- I have not seen one that was not proven wrong at the subsequent Apple quarterly results.

$18B in Q1 revenue and 10% growth in China is nothing to sneeze at...

[1]https://qz.com/1195908/apple-q1-2018-record-breaking-earning...

That's a particularly strong result given the Chinese smartphone market contracted by 4% in 2017 and has been weak for years.

For China's whole smartphone market, 2015 saw 2% growth, 2016 was 11% growth, 2017 was negative 4%. It's likely their market has reached saturation. 2017 should have seen a big jump in sales due to a replacement cycle, given the near zero growth in 2015. Most of the domestic Chinese brands will die off soon, leaving three or so dominant players to go up against Samsung and Apple.

The iPhone X was designed for the Chinese market, really.

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