Apple CEO Tim Cook appeared at a Chinese gaming tournament and at a local Apple Store. The rest of his itinerary is not yet known, although it is likely that he will attend an international political and economic forum hosted by the Chinese government.
The visit comes at a time when Apple is caught in the crossfire of diplomatic tensions between the US and US governments. China, and Cook also managed to get involved in a small photo battle …
Chinese Games Tournament
Honor of Kings and the Arena of Valor variant were mentioned as the highest-grossing mobile game of all time with over 100 million daily active users.
Honor of Kings is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game in which the player controls a character with unique abilities to kill NPCs and enemies to gain experience points (XP) and gold. With experience points, players can unlock their characters’ abilities or further increase the strength of existing abilities. Gold can be used to purchase items in the store to change certain character attributes depending on the item purchased.
To win the game, players must destroy enemy defenses called turrets. Victory is achieved by destroying the enemy base crystal located inside the enemy team's base.
Bloomberg information about Cook's visit.
Cook appeared at a Tencent gaming tournament in China, backing one of the app store's top-grossing apps as uncertainty remains about the US company's leading overseas market.
The CEO waved and made brief remarks to customers and staff during a surprise visit to Apple's Taikoo Li store in the southwestern metropolis of Chengdu, according to a short video posted on social media platform Weibo. Cook thanked the gamers who competed for the main prize in honor of the kings
Cook's visit coincides with the annual Belt and Road Forum, an international event designed to promote political and economic cooperation. with other countries and transnational corporations.
Unintentional photo battle iPhone 15
website reports that Cook was at the center of a photo battle by posting a night photo taken on an iPhone 15 Pro Max.
The CEO posted a photo of a Chengdu nightscape that he said was taken with an iPhone 15 Pro Max, a high-end model. His feed was then flooded with complaints about poor image quality, as well as comparisons to images taken by the Mate 60 and other local devices.
Apple caught in diplomatic crossfire
Cook's visit comes at a time of heightened tensions between the US government and China, which is struggling due to US sanctions on chip technology. with Apple caught in the middle.
China has hit back, trying to hurt iPhone sales in the country. Initially, there was talk of banning government employees from using iPhones. China denied this, but muttered vaguely about unspecified “security incidents.” with devices. The US government called it “inappropriate retaliation.”
China also threatened to ban major apps such as X and Instagram when Apple did not comply with the new law, which the company reluctantly complied with later.
Chip sanctions were imposed. Local brands like Huawei have a harder time competing with the iPhone. China has been unable to buy US-made 5G chips and is believed to lack the capacity to produce its own. This raised eyebrows when Huawei released a new 5G phone after sanctions were fully implemented, leading to speculation of either sanctions violations or industrial espionage.
Related or not, model sales iPhone 15 in China linked or not. reportedly below last year's iPhone 14 numbers, Cook will no doubt be willing to play any role he can in mending the relationship.
