While social media sentiment has a minor role to play in the
field of hard-core business, a report
by Bloomberg states that if China were to respond to the US with a similar
ban on Apple’s products, it would hurt the tech giant’s earnings by 29%.
Earlier this month, a study by IDC showed that during the first quarter of 2019, Huawei surpassed Apple both on smartphone shipment volumes and market share. Huawei held a market share of 19% while Apple had only 11.7%. Huawei managed to grow its shipment volumes by 50% year-over-year while Apple’s shipments fell 30%.
In its second-quarter 2019 earnings announcement, Apple said its sales declined 22% year-over-year in Greater China. China is Apple’s third largest market after the Americas and Europe and accounts for a meaningful portion of its revenue.
Apple already faces tough competition in China from Huawei and other local companies and the ongoing spat is likely to worsen the situation for the iPhone-maker in the region.
Apple’s shares were down 1.7% in afternoon hours on Wednesday.