What’s Apple up to this week while the rest of the tech world focuses on the news out of Vegas? Its CEO hopped over to China to take some meetings. On Tuesday, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released a picture of Tim Cook at an official visit with Minister Miao Wei. It’s Cook’s second trip to the country as CEO in a little under a year.
The caption for the image says only that Cook and Wei talked about the IT and communications industries in China, and “exchanged views on development in China.” Apple isn’t expanding on the purpose of its CEO’s trip. The official image released of his trip this time around (above) looks not unlike a kind of diplomatic visit; a departure from the image that became emblematic of Cook’s last visit.
His high-profile trip in March 2012 was significant for a couple of reasons: it came shortly after the expose on the working conditions in the factories in Apple’s Chinese manufacturing partner Foxconn (hence the image of him on the factory floor); and because Cook’s predecessor never made official visits to the country. As Apple’s operations chief, Cook’s been making trips to China for years, but as CEO he clearly has additional concerns beyond checking in on how efficiently iPads and iPhones are being made.
And while Apple won’t say, we can made some educated guesses about why he’s in town:
- China is Apple’s fastest growing market for iOS device activations.
- It has eight already, but the company is trying to open even more Apple Stores as quickly as possible to meet demand for its hardware.
- Cook will probably bring up the sheer number of (ridiculous) IP fights Apple has found itself and its products in.
- He’s also probably not going to miss a meeting with executives at China Mobile — the world’s largest mobile operator, and one that still does not sell the iPhone.
 |
 |