The comeback in China Tim Cook called out probably won’t last

Customers buy the new iPhone X at an Apple Store in Hong Kong, China November 3, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip

Apple Inc has finally snapped its losing streak in China, thanks mostly to a dearth of splashy rival phones. But even the heavily hyped iPhone X may not help it keep – let alone expand – its share of the world’s largest mobile market given unusually stiff holiday-season competition. 

Riding a growing acceptance of local wares, China’s largest smartphone makers from Huawei to Xiaomi intentionally pit their latest flagship phones directly against the iPhone X in the final months of 2017. So when Apple CEO Tim Cook assured investors last week that Apple was staging a comeback in the world’s second-largest economy, he may have been prematurely optimistic.