Apple sold more iPhones in China than in the US for the first time, buoyed by the New Year gift-giving holiday as the larger-screened smartphones found eager buyers in Asia, Bloomberg said on Monday.
While the Cupertino based tech company doesn’t break out iPhone shipments by country, Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri confirmed the sales in an interview Monday, after the company reported record profit during the first three months of the year. He didn’t give specific unit sales figures.
“The progress we’ve made in China has been remarkable and we continue to make incredible investments in China,” Maestri said. “The growth rate in China is significantly higher than most parts of the world. In the short-term, we don’t expect China to become bigger than the United States but over the long arc of time, you could certainly draw that conclusion.”
The success of the iPhone in China along with last week’s rollout of the Apple Watch underscore the importance of Chinese consumers for Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook’s efforts to keep up sales momentum.
Revenue rose 27 percent to $58b in the fiscal second quarter, topping analysts’ average projection for $56b, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg last week.
