China now isn’t just the cheap labour manufacturer for Apple’s product, but has also become now the second largest source of revenue for the company after US. Apple’s CEO Tim Cook shed more light on the subject during the fiscal fourth-quarter earnings call.
Tim Cook noting the progress in China to be amazing, said:-
If you count the greater China region as a whole (which includes Hong Kong and Taiwan) it now accounts for 12 percent of Apple’s full-year revenue for 2011. That’s up from just 2 percent in fiscal year 2009, he said. That makes it Apple’s “fastest-growing region by far.”
China contributed $4.5 Billion for the fourth quarter of 2011, which is 16% of the total revenue which Apple reported. Europe contributed $7.4 billion, which means China contributed half as what Europe did. Tim Cook noted that the apple store which recently opened in Hong Kong had more visitors on opening day than any other Apple store.
Considering the fact that there are only six Apple Stores in greater China(compared to 64 in Europe), the sales in China were a big deal according to the number. More stores are scheduled to come in China, which seems to increase sales drastically.
Tim Cook encouraging the momentum of sales in China said :
In my lifetime I’ve never seen a country with as many people rising into the middle class aspiring to buy products that Apple makes. It’s an area of enormous opportunity. It has quickly become No. 2 on our lists of top revenue countries very, very quickly.
China’s largest population is a goldmine for Apple’s product sales and if it continues to give high priority towards its market in China, Apple may see drastic changes in its sales graph in future.
[via gigaom]
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