• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

FedEx CEO says we are in the middle of the biggest supply chain shift he’s seen in 35 years: ‘We are the referendum’

2

26 Meta employees accuse Mark Zuckerberg of using AI to target 8,000 layoffs against workers on medical, parental or family leave

3

Buffett says AI giants are ‘playing a game they don’t want to play’ in the AI race, reveals he was behind Berkshire’s $31 billion bet on Google

1

FedEx CEO says we are in the middle of the biggest supply chain shift he’s seen in 35 years: ‘We are the referendum’

2

26 Meta employees accuse Mark Zuckerberg of using AI to target 8,000 layoffs against workers on medical, parental or family leave

3

Buffett says AI giants are ‘playing a game they don’t want to play’ in the AI race, reveals he was behind Berkshire’s $31 billion bet on Google
Apple

Why China’s economic gyrations will not affect Apple

By
David Thall
David Thall
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
David Thall
David Thall
Down Arrow Button Icon
August 24, 2015, 7:17 AM ET
Apple iphone6 Begins To Sell In Mainland China
HANGZHOU, CHINA - OCTOBER 17: (CHINA OUT) People wait in line at an Apple store during the mainland release of iPhone6 on October 17, 2014 in Hangzhou, China. Apple recently announced iPhone6 will be released in China on October 17. (Photo by ChinaFotoPress/ChinaFotoPress via Getty Images)Photograph by ChinaFotoPress via Getty Images
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Try to get all the noise about China’s economy out of your head for a moment. China’s heavily reported economic gyrations related to its stock sell-off and devaluing of its currency do not matter to Apple’s continued growth. Here’s why.

Simply put, it’s based on a false premise. The negative narration that has taken hold of Wall Street’s sentiment toward Apple essentially says that Apple’s future growth depends on increasing iPhone sales in China. And so when China’s economy has problems so will iPhone sales, and Apple’s revenue growth will decrease.

Let’s look at the facts, shall we?

Fact #1

Year-over-year first-quarter iPhone sales growth has always gone in one direction, and one direction only: up. In fact, ever since the iPhone’s introduction in 2007 year-over-year sales have never decreased. This includes iPhone sales increasing after the historic U.S. economic meltdown in 2008. And after the 2012 AAPL stock sell-off in 2012.

iPhones sold each fiscal Q1:

Q1 2008: 2.32 million
Q1 2009: 4.36 million
Q1 2010: 8.74 million
Q1 2011: 16.24 million
Q1 2012: 37.04 million
Q1 2013: 47.49 million
Q1 2014: 51.03 million
Q1 2015: 74.47 million

Fact #2

At the July 21st Q3 earning results, Apple reported year-over-year iPhone sales in China had increased 112%.

 

Fact #3

Every Apple store they open immediately increases revenue and profits. Apple stores generate more sales per sq. ft. than any other retailer (almost double the second ranked retailer Tiffany & Co.). Apple currently has 454 brick & mortar stores in 16 countries: 265 in the U.S., 19 in mainland China, and 4 in Hong Kong—with two ‘flagship’ stores in Shanghai and Shenzhen. At the last earnings results Tim Cook announced Apple plans to build 40 more in China by mid-2016. (There are online stores in 39 countries.) That’s a lot of infrastructure growth in China contributing directly to Apple’s bottom-line growth. But that is only the beginning. Why? Because of the 12 largest cities in China, all of them are bigger than any American city except New York. Let the scale of the untapped China market potential sink-in a moment.

The fear hype

The media’s current gloom and doom narration is that China’s absurdly huge GDP growth of 7.4% is slowing down a bit—yet still growing faster than the anemic U.S. GDP by a Pacific mile, at just 2.4%. And Wall Street is worried about this?

A hypothetical worst-case scenario

So let’s say, hypothetically, that China’s economy stumbles really, really badly—for whatever reason. And that as a consequence, millions and millions of affluent Chinese consumers—whose demand for iPhones has thus far been so great that they are willing to pay a big premium to middlemen waiting in line at U.S. Apple stores just to get their hands on the latest iPhones as soon as they are available—suddenly decide they don’t want to buy them anymore. Let’s say iPhone sales growth in China gets reduced by a whopping 50%. Half of what they are now. That would translate into half of 112% of this year’s 3Q YoY sales, or a 56% YoY growth (in the historically slowest quarter no less—just before the new iPhones are released in September).

In other words, even if iPhone sales in China got whacked by half, Apple would still be growing sales in China by over 50% YoY. What other company on the planet would not want their flagship product’s growth to be over 50% YoY during their slowest quarter in their biggest growing market?

Bottom line

All the fear being pumped out by the media about China’s potentially faltering economy adversely affecting iPhone sales is based on a false premise. Think of it as the “Law of Large Numbers” in reverse. With such a huge iPhone sales rate-of-growth in China combined with a relatively small smartphone marketshare, China is simply too big a market to stop Apple’s iPhone growth regardless of what their economy does.

Apple (AAPL) is still a growth company. That’s a fact, not an opinion.

David Thall is a member of Investor Village’s AAPL Sanity group, where he posts as djt.

Sign up for Data Sheet, Fortune’s morning newsletter about the business of technology.

[fortune-brightcove videoid=4422100534001]

About the Author
By David Thall
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Tech

Kevin O’Leary claimed opposition to his Utah data center was fueled by Chinese money. Now he and Fox News are being sued for defamation
LawData centers
Kevin O’Leary claimed opposition to his Utah data center was fueled by Chinese money. Now he and Fox News are being sued for defamation
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezJuly 17, 2026
2 hours ago
Moonshot’s Kimi K3 pushes Chinese AI into Fable-level territory
AsiaChina
Moonshot’s Kimi K3 pushes Chinese AI into Fable-level territory
By Nicholas GordonJuly 16, 2026
8 hours ago
Man in suit gesturing
Big TechNetflix
Netflix used AI to produce 17 minutes of a documentary ‘twice as fast and at half the cost’—as streaming competition drives up content spending to $20 billion
By Amanda GerutJuly 16, 2026
9 hours ago
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky’s X account was hijacked in an AI slop hack pushing crypto tokenization
CybersecurityTech
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky’s X account was hijacked in an AI slop hack pushing crypto tokenization
By Rachel VentrescaJuly 16, 2026
11 hours ago
merck
HealthDrugs
The cholesterol shot you couldn’t afford is now a pill
By Matthew Perrone and The Associated PressJuly 16, 2026
14 hours ago
tesla
Big TechTesla
Runaway Tesla that crashed into a grandmother’s living room was actually being steered by a human, investigators find
By Bernard Condon and The Associated PressJuly 16, 2026
14 hours ago

Most Popular

FedEx CEO says we are in the middle of the biggest supply chain shift he’s seen in 35 years: ‘We are the referendum’
C-Suite
FedEx CEO says we are in the middle of the biggest supply chain shift he’s seen in 35 years: ‘We are the referendum’
By Fortune EditorsJuly 15, 2026
2 days ago
26 Meta employees accuse Mark Zuckerberg of using AI to target 8,000 layoffs against workers on medical, parental or family leave
Law
26 Meta employees accuse Mark Zuckerberg of using AI to target 8,000 layoffs against workers on medical, parental or family leave
By Barbara Ortutay, Alexandra Olson and The Associated PressJuly 15, 2026
2 days ago
Buffett says AI giants are ‘playing a game they don’t want to play’ in the AI race, reveals he was behind Berkshire’s $31 billion bet on Google
Big Tech
Buffett says AI giants are ‘playing a game they don’t want to play’ in the AI race, reveals he was behind Berkshire’s $31 billion bet on Google
By Mia OsmonbekovJuly 16, 2026
14 hours ago
Trump's 'American Flag Blue' in the Lincoln Memorial pool is already gray — and the Olympic canoer 'vandal' is fighting his arrest
Politics
Trump's 'American Flag Blue' in the Lincoln Memorial pool is already gray — and the Olympic canoer 'vandal' is fighting his arrest
By Matthew Daly and The Associated PressJuly 16, 2026
21 hours ago
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon says 300,000 workers are needed to rebuild American shipbuilding—with jobs paying $100,000 without a college degree
Success
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon says 300,000 workers are needed to rebuild American shipbuilding—with jobs paying $100,000 without a college degree
By Preston ForeJuly 16, 2026
18 hours ago
Current price of oil as of July 16, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of July 16, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJuly 16, 2026
24 hours ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.