Apple CEO Tim Cook visits China as iPhone 15 faces a rocky start

Apple CEO Tim Cook welcomed gamers to an event during a surprise visit to China, underscoring the importance of the market to the iPhone giant at a time when it faces increasing challenges.

Players gathered at an Apple Store in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu to play “Honor of Kings,” a game developed by TiMi Studio, owned by Chinese tech giant Tencent.

“The action-packed game Honor of Kings started here in Chengdu and has now become a global phenomenon on the App Store,” Cook said in a post on the Chinese social media service. Weibo.

Cook also posted a video of himself cheering on players in the tournament. Honor of Kings is one of the biggest mobile games in China and a huge revenue generator for Apple’s App Store in the country.

The Apple CEO’s visit to the company’s third-largest market comes less than a month after the iPhone 15, the company’s flagship smartphone, went on sale amid an apparently lukewarm reception, and in light of Huawei’s defeated attempts to return to the mobile phone market.

“It’s a tough start for Apple to confirm this, and it’s a combination of factors that are driving this,” Ethan Chi, associate director at Counterpoint Research, told CNBC via email.

Chi attributed the challenges facing Apple to weak consumer sentiment, the weaker performance of the iPhone 15 than the iPhone 14, and increased competition in the advanced smartphone market.

“All of these things work together to take some of the shine off Apple during the first few weeks of iPhone 15 sales,” Chi said.