Apple’s CEO makes an unexpected trip to China

The CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, unexpectedly went to China.

Analysts suggest that the company is feeling positive while meeting gamers in Chengdu, but they are also facing a decrease in iPhone sales in the country.

He went to China for the second time this year. In March, he said that Apple and China have a close relationship because China is an important place for manufacturing.

However, the company’s activities in the country have become more difficult due to the impacts of Covid and tensions between the United States and China.

Mr Cook went to Apple’s store in Taikoo Li to meet young players of Tencent’s Honour of Kings online game.

“He posted on Weibo, a Chinese social media site, saying that the energy tonight was extremely high. ”

The game Honour of Kings began in Chengdu and now it is popular worldwide on the App Store, as mentioned in an interview with the state-run China Daily newspaper.

The report mentioned that he wanted Chinese developers to achieve the same success with software for Apple’s new Vision Pro augmented reality headset. The headset would also be made by a Chinese manufacturer.

This year is the 30th anniversary of Apple being in the country.

Mr Cook, who has been the CEO of Apple since 2011, is considered the person responsible for Apple’s decision to use Chinese manufacturing. However, the relationship between Apple and China has had some difficulties and challenges in recent years.

The Covid rules in China are affecting the production of goods, and there are also worries about supply chains because of problems with the relationship between China and the US. The company has recently tried to make more things in India.

Sales of the newest iPhone have not been as good as earlier models, according to experts who talked to Bloomberg. They said that fewer people in China were wanting to buy the product and that there were more competitors trying to sell it.

The strict US rules on exporting advanced technology have made it difficult for Chinese companies like Huawei to create smartphones that are as good as the iPhone.

But when Huawei released the Mate 60 Pro phone in August, which had advanced chips made in China, it indicated that other companies were also improving their products.

Mr Cook is visiting at the same time as other Chinese tech advancements are being reported.

On Tuesday, Baidu, a big tech company in China, announced that it has launched the newest version of its Ernie AI model.

Ernie 40 said it was just as good as OpenAI’s GPT-4 system.

At a special event hosted by Baidu’s CEO Robin Li, they demonstrated that artificial intelligence (AI) can write a martial arts story and make advertising posters and videos.

China now has several large language models that were created within the country. However, developers of artificial intelligence (AI) in China have to deal with strict limitations.

And when the BBC tested an older version of Ernie the bot, it avoided answering questions about sensitive topics like the date of the Tiananmen Square crackdown (June 4, 1989) or the name of a imprisoned former high-ranking member of the Communist Party (Bo Xilai). Instead, it suggested discussing a different topic.