Wednesday premarket trading saw Apple (AAPL, Financial) stock in the red, following fresh China data showing a sharp fall in foreign-branded smartphone sales in October.
The China Academy of Information and Communications Technology estimates that in October sales of foreign-branded cellphones dropped 44.25% year over year to 6.22 million units. The reduction had especially effect Apple, the biggest foreign smartphone manufacturer in China.
China is still one of Apple's key markets; in its most recent quarter, the Greater China region—including Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau—generated $15.03 billion in revenue, down from $15.08 billion a year earlier. The Cupertino, California-based corporation is also negotiating difficulties introducing artificial intelligence devices into China. A senior Chinese official recently said that unless they form partnerships with local businesses, Western enterprises must deal with protracted approval procedures.
Apple is apparently in talks about possible AI alliances with companies including Baidu (BIDU) and ByteDance (BDNCE). Apple's second-largest overseas market is still under development, hence the company has not commented on the data as it is still addressing regulatory and competitiveness challenges.
