Apple officially announced its Q3 2016 FY results, and it turned out that China, one of the biggest markets for Apple iPhone sales, decreased by around 30% YoY in revenue, mostly due to the sluggish sales of iPhone 6S series and the tepid iPhone 7 series sales.

Everybody thinks that Apple will be able to sell a great number of iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, the new flagships for H2 2016 and H2 2017, in China in the final quarter of the year, and we think that Apple needs to put more focus on the below points to do so in China.

1) Marketing Focus on Gaming Performance : China is a very gaming-centric society in terms of consumption and creation, so Apple should spend more time in advertising how beautiful their iPhone 7 series are in terms of gaming performance and stability. This is one of the areas which the leading Chinese players including Huawei, Oppo, vivo and LeEco can't compete with yet.

2) Marketing Spend for Open Channels : China is becoming more open-market-driven in terms of distribution, so it would be essential to work more closely with open local retailers.

3) Pricing Adjustment : Apple succeeded to get many of city dwellers as their customers for the past two years while there are a phenomenal number of rural dwellers who can't afford to buy premium devices.

Apart from Huawei, Oppo, vivo and LeEco are rising in China, challenging the shares taken by Apple in the premium segment. Apple needs some strategic stance change in China.