By Wayne Ma
BEIJING--Apple Inc. (AAPL) Chief Executive Tim Cook is in
Beijing this week meeting with China's largest mobile carriers as
the company faces a tougher environment in its second-largest
market.
Mr. Cook met with China Mobile Ltd. (K3PD.SG, 0941.HK) Chairman
Xi Guohua on Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the carrier said. Apple's
CEO also met with officials at China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd.
(0762.HK, K3ID.SG) on Wednesday, a person familiar with the matter
said. It wasn't clear whether he met with China's third mobile
carrier, China Telecom Corp. (K3ED.SG, 0728.HK) A China Telecom
representative didn't immediately respond to a request to
comment.
Apple representatives in China didn't immediately comment on the
visit.
Although details of Mr. Cook's meetings weren't available, China
Mobile repeatedly has said it is in talks with Apple about an
iPhone deal. China Mobile is the country's largest carrier with 700
million customers, but it doesn't sell an iPhone fully compatible
with its mobile network. China Unicom, the country's second-largest
carrier, began selling the iPhone in 2009, while China Telecom
began selling it last year.
Mr. Cook's visit comes a week after Apple reported that its
revenue from Greater China, which includes Hong Kong, China and
Taiwan, fell 14% in the fiscal quarter ended June 29 from a year
earlier to $4.6 billion. The figure also represents a 43% decline
from the previous quarter. Mr. Cook said Apple's Greater China
sales in the third quarter were down because of seasonal factors
and weighed by weak sales in Hong Kong.
Apple has also recently come under fire for its warranty
policies and manufacturing practices in China. The Cupertino-based
company issued a rare public apology in April after state-run
Chinese media criticized its repair and return policies in mainland
China.
Earlier this week, China Labor Watch, a New York-based
nonprofit, accused Apple's Taiwanese contractor Pegatron Corp.
(4938.TW) of withholding worker pay and poor living conditions. The
workers' rights group specifically pointed to treatment of workers
assembling a cheaper version of Apple's iPhone, which the U.S.
company is preparing for launch as a way to counter cheaper options
from rivals such as Samsung Electronics Co. (005930.SE) and HTC
Corp. (2498.TW) Apple said it would investigate the claims and that
it has fixed some problems identified by the group.
Meanwhile, Mr. Cook's visit marks his third public trip to China
since becoming CEO in 2011. The CEO previously met with the head of
China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in January.
Mr. Cook's first trip included a meeting with senior Chinese leader
Li Keqiang, a tour of a manufacturing facility in the city of
Zhengzhou and a visit to a Beijing-based Apple Store.
-Paul Mozur contributed to this article.
Write to Wayne Ma at wayne.ma@wsj.com
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