The new facility in the Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong tech cooperation zone is one of several Apple research centres in China
Apple has opened an applied research laboratory in the southern Chinese tech hub of Shenzhen, as the US giant bolsters it commitment to the world’s largest smartphone market amid heightened competition with domestic players, including Huawei Technologies.
The facility started operations on Thursday at the Shenzhen Park in Hetao, a cooperation zone developed under the directive of the central government to deepen the city’s tech partnerships with neighbouring Hong Kong, according to a report by state media People’s Daily.
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The facility, spanning 20,000 square metres (215,000 square feet) in the initial phase, will become Apple’s research and development hub in the Greater Bay Area – an economic and business centre comprising Hong Kong, Macau and nine cities in Guangdong province.
It will eventually employ over 1,000 domestic and international talents, and become the company’s “most extensive” lab outside the United States, according to the report.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.
The Cupertino, California-headquartered firm is boosting its research investment in China in spite of recent efforts to diversify its manufacturing supply chain outside the country. The mainland, together with Hong Kong and Taiwan, constitutes Apple’s largest geographical market after the Americas and Europe.
The company said in March that it has set up research centres in Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou and Shenzhen. The size of its research and development team in China has doubled in the past five years, it added.
Apple faces growing rivalry in the Chinese smartphone market, where Shenzhen-based Huawei has seen a revival of its handset business. In August, the Chinese giant sold more smartphones on the mainland than Apple for the first time in almost four years, according to a report from research firm CINNO on Wednesday.
That aligned with findings from government think tank China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, which reported a 12.7 per cent year-on-year decline in foreign smartphone shipments, including the iPhone, in the same month.
Apple fell out of the top-five smartphone vendor rankings in China during the second quarter, as its market share shrank to less than 14 per cent, according to research firm IDC.
Its combined sales in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan dropped 6.5 per cent year on year in the June quarter to US$14.73 billion.
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