Finally, Tim Cook called out all the top Apple executives yesterday to showcase their products to the world at the Steve Job’s Theatre at the company’s Cupertino campus. It was a great event and of course, we saw all what Apple had been working on for the past 11 months after the release of the previous generations of such devices like the iPhone, Mac, iPad and Apple Watch and the Apple TV.

Anyways, the new iPhone 11 is going to take the place of the iPhone XR which is the cheaper variant of the entire lineup meaning it’s coming with quite lesser technology and less sophisticated features but of course it’s still quite better than the iPhone XR as we know it.

But because of the issue of trade war between the US and China since the beginning of this year which had seen the banning of Chinese biggest smartphone maker, Huawei and we also got news about Apple moving it’s manufacturing out of China to Vietnam due to stricter tariffs, all these might be a big disadvantage to the Chinese users of the iPhone especially the newest iPhone 11.

Since the 1st Quarter of 2019, Apple/s sales in China had declined and this had been record 30% YoY decline. Also the sales also declined by 6% by the Second Quarter of 2019. But then the iPhone 11 is said to change that? Who knows but considering the status of things in the far east country.

Will the new iPhones change this trend?

Of course there has been a general decline in the sales of iPhones all around the globe which was mainly the reason Huawei took the second position and the iPhone XR didn’t make too much impact as it was expected. One fact is that the iPhone is already in the ocean again with tons of smartphones all offering great feature. In fact, Huawei will unveil it’s Huawei Mate series later on this same month, September.

One obvious thing Tim Cook never mentioned yesterday was the fact that the iPhone 11 would have the 5G technology which had been sort of like a selling point for smartphones such as Huawei, Xiaomi, Samsung and OnePlus.

Now with the exclusion of 5G from the iPhone 11 series, it might have a big bump considering how much China had invested to bring the 5G technology all around the country. Now, major Chinese carrier are to roll out the 5G network in major cities thtoughout China by the end of the year 2019 which is just in few months. And with a flood of Android smartphones all having the 5G capability, one might just say Apple isn’t really thinking much about the iPhone 11 this year as rumor has it the 2020 iPhone could be another major leap forward while this current version is just being a minor upgrade due to minimal design changes and so forth.

Other Disadvantages Aside 5G

As said earlier above, China and the US are currently over each other’s neck over trading issues. And with the restriction of major Chinese products and manufacturers in the US coupled with big tariffs, this could as well stiffen the number of sales as a Nationalist sentiment is on the rise in China which means locals are preferring home-made companies over foreign companies.

Also, Android had really grown and gotten so big it is surely surpassing the iPhones. Let’s take cameras for example. The Huawei P30 Pro is a real powerhouse. And that’s not to talk about the likes of OnePlus 7, the Oppo F11 Pro, or the Galaxy Note 10 Plus even the Google Pixel 3XL. But Chinese made Redmi K20 Pro is a really powerful camera smartphone and it’s as if iPhone is running behind Android smartphones in terms of camera. A position which was on the reversal before.

Also, in terms of features and experience, Android phones have come close to and even sometimes surpassed the iPhones. For example, there was a time when iPhones had no competition in the camera department. But with the recent advancements from companies like Huawei and Samsung, we have some really powerful camera flagships in the Android ecosystem.

Taking about improvement in technology and how far Android smartphones had gone, Xiaomi recently unveiled the world’s fastest wireless charging technology with a 30W fast charging. Then the alay Note 10 Plus has 45W fast charging capabilities. Then there’s Vivo experimenting with the display on its phone to make them nearly bezel-less. All the new advancements are available to Chinese customers first, at a price that’s less than the top-end iPhones.

It’s as if the smartphone market is getting tightened up and super competitive than ever before with each OEM striving to rake in more customers and become the boss in it’s own league. And now, Huawei’s ambition to pull in about 50% of the Chinese mobile market will deeply hurt the chances of the iPhone 11 in the big market. Even its new Mate 30 Pro flagship is expected to first go on sale in China. The international release could likely be delayed

How will the Cheaper iPhone 11 Help?

So compensate for budget customers, Apple replaced the iPhone XR with the iPhone 11 which also has almost identical qualities such as the IPS LCD panel and dual camera sensors unlike the premium versions and of course it comes much cheaper than the iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max.

Now let’s compare the fact that the cheapest iPhone still won’t make any sense as far as affordability is concerned in China. By the time the Huawei P30 Pro was released in China back in April, it came with 8GB RAM and 128GB Storage space and the pricing as at that time was 5488 Yuan in China. Now, that same price tag goes for the Base iPhone 11 with the dual cameras and IPS Panel with 64GB Storage for a slightly higher 5499 China Yuan…Like Seriously? Who would buy that considering the Super-Doper option of the Huawei P30 Pro.

And now, Huawei is prepping up it’s next flagship, the Mate 30 Pro which which will be announced later on this month and the pricing would nearly be the same or maybe slightly higher…if obvious at all. Now, this powerful smartphone (the Mate 30 Pro) will have 5G Support, a much larger battery, super fast charging and of course a powerful camera…we know Huawei for making powerful cameras in conjuction with Leica.

Plus, its a Chinese smartphone, which means you support your home country when you purchase the device. All these factors will possibly cause Apple a big headache in their attempt to penetrate the Chinese market again this time around.

But what if Apple strikes back

That would be a great thing. After all, it’s for their gain and profiting. Let’s consider an analysis made by Daniel Ives at WedBush which noted that a third of the 900 Million global iPhone users are due for an upgrade in the next 12 to 18 months. Also, about 70 million Chinese consumers are due for an upgrade which could in fact push the sales of the iPhone series in coming months.

But even if things go south in it’s attempt to enter China, Huawei is banned in the US and it’s been restricted in some other Western countries which could give Apple a big advantage over the Chinese market which could in turn give Apple a great profit in flow.

Also, a cheaper iPhone is reportedly in the works and is said to release next year. That could come as a respite for iOS users who are looking to upgrade to a new iPhone model but don’t want to spend a fortune buying one. But whatever the case may be, we hope thing gets well ironed out between China and the US so as to keep the competition between OEM alive so consumers can have better options.