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Chinese consumers are buying Apple’s new iPhones, with a flashy “Hermes orange” premium model going viral and helping reverse a long decline in sales in one of the Silicon Valley company’s biggest markets.
Chief Executive Tim Cook recently announced Apple’s record-breaking iPhone sales in China in the fourth quarter, when revenue rose 38 percent year-over-year to $26 billion, accounting for nearly a fifth of total sales.
Analysts said the design refresh for the iPhone 17 range has strengthened Apple’s status-symbol status in China by making the latest handsets instantly recognizable as new and high-end.
In particular, a new bright orange device has attracted thousands of online posts and videos from fans showing off their new phones since its launch last autumn.
The phone has been dubbed “Hermès Orange” due to its similarity to the French luxury brand’s signature color, although Apple officially calls this tone ‘Cosmic Orange’.
“It sounds simple, but it’s the outwardly obvious changes to the design, including the introduction of a screaming orange color, that drove the early upgraders out,” said Nabila Popal, senior research director at IDC.
“I was immediately attracted to this color – it felt so special, who doesn’t love Hermès orange?” the model and influencer, who goes by the stage name Xiao Mei, said in a video as she posed with her new accessory. “The more I look at it, the more I like it.”
The turnaround in China has reversed nearly three years of sales decline, leading investors to question the tech company’s future in the highly competitive smartphone market, where it jostles for attention against domestic rivals such as Huawei, Vivo and Xiaomi.
It’s a boost for the iPhone-maker which is emerging from a year of tariff risks and AI setbacks that have hit its stock. Strong iPhone demand globally has helped Apple shares rise 7 percent last week.
It has also suffered as tensions between Beijing and Washington have triggered a top-down drive to phase out iPhone use for Chinese public sector workers, and Huawei has launched a high-end smartphone running on locally made processors.
Analysts worry that Beijing’s failure to approve Apple’s AI features for local iPhones will hurt sales. But instead, Chinese consumers have been surprised by the redesigned casing and finish.
“It’s an eye-catcher,” said David Qiu, who replaced an old iPhone with the new orange one. “It’s the newest color.”
Apple’s base iPhone 17 model has also benefited from government subsidy policies for cheaper phones in China. Consumers get subsidies of up to Rmb500 ($72) on smartphones priced under Rmb6,000 as part of Beijing’s campaign to stimulate the economy.
Bank of America analyst Vamsi Mohan said Apple, meanwhile, is benefiting from the weak comparison of 2024. The US group’s China sales had contracted for eight of the last nine quarters, and sustained growth had not been seen since 2022.
According to IDC’s Popple, significant upgrades to the iPhone 17’s camera, chip, display and battery helped drive the upgrade “supercycle,” which comes exactly four years after the company’s last big increase in China in 2021.
He said Apple also benefited from the disruption caused by Huawei, which saw its sales decline about 10 percent last quarter amid user complaints about its Harmony operating system.
Buyers of the orange iPhone valued the color’s association with success, emphasizing the wordplay in which “orange” sounds like “success” in Mandarin.
Several buyers of the new iPhone posted online, “May all your wishes turn orange; the orange color comes immediately.”
Ann Liang, a social media influencer who has gained followers by flaunting her assets, said in a recent video: “Choosing orange means everyone knows it’s the new iPhone 17,” she added: “I’m just a badass.”
Nian Liu contributed reporting from Shanghai
