Apple Stores are often busy and with the release of new iPhones and iPads, Apple’s retail locations become bombarded with waves of excited customers. According to Needham & Company analyst Charlie Wolf, the launch of the iPhone 4S sent Apple Store sales to record heights during the holiday quarter. In the fourth quarter of 2011, revenue per store reached $17.08 million, a 42.6% increase over the same quarter in 2010. The average number of visitors per store was up 15.3% annually and sales per squ...

Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty believes Apple will partner up with both China Telecom and China Mobile over the next year, and will eventually make the iPhone available on all three Chinese carriers, reports Apple Insider. The move could bring sales of the popular handset to as many as 40 million units in 2013 alone. The iPhone is currently only offered by China Unicom, the nation’s second largest carrier. Through this partnership, Huberty believes Apple can only reach 10% of the 150 million “...

Phone maker ZTE recently said that it sees the United States and China as the two largest markets for smartphone sales growth. “The United States and China will be key engines driving our smartphone sales,” ZTE’s head of handset strategy Lv Qianhao, told Reuters in a recent interview, noting that the company expects its worldwide smartphone shipments to double in 2012 and to increase by 30% to 40% annually through 2015. ZTE mostly sells Android-powered smartphones but said it plans to launc...

Pent up demand for Apple’s latest smartphone caused the company to halt sales of its just-released iPhone 4S in Beijing, China on Friday, fearing for the safety of its sales staff. According to Chinese tech blog M.I.C. Gadget, Beijing residents eager to get their hands on Apple’s iPhone 4S began to line up more than 12 hours before stores opened on Friday. A massive crowd had gathered at the Sanlitun Apple Store, and workers were forced to delay its opening. The crowd seemingly then became unruly...

In eight hours, Apple’s iPhone will touch down in China for the first official time. Thousands have already lined up outside of Apple Stores, and in Beijing and Shanghai locations, there are hundreds of people waiting in the hopes of getting their hands on the iPhone 4S. The image above was posted on Twitter on January 10th, three days before the highly-anticipated smartphone’s launch. China Unicom is the only carrier set to offer the iPhone 4S, with both the 16GB and 32GB models free with a two...

Apple’s iPhone 4S is set to launch in China and 21 more markets on January 13th. The popular smartphone was previously rumored to be scheduled for release in the region on January 23rd, but Apple announced on Tuesday that the launch of its latest smartphone will occur 10 days sooner. “Customer response to our products in China has been off the charts,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement. “With the launch in China next week, iPhone 4S will be available in over 90 countries making...

Handset makers in China have formed an alliance to prepare for possible patent battles with Apple, Microsoft and Nokia. Coolpad, Konka, TCL, ZTE and Lenovo were among the companies named in a report by DigiTimes on Friday. The number of lawsuits filed in China is expected to increase as Microsoft, Nokia and Apple try to increase market share there, the report says. Nokia has already filed patent infringement suits against several Chinese phone makers and Microsoft has gone after Huawei to try to secure a p...

Apple’s iPhone 4S may make its debut in China before Chinese New Year on January 23rd. Several retail stores in Shenzhen and Shenyang have already started taking pre-orders for the device, although Apple hasn’t yet said when it will officially launch the phone in China. The rumor was first reported by People’s Daily in China, which said that the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology granted the iPhone 4S with its China Compulsory Certification stamp of approval...

Apple recently lost a trademark suit in China after it attempted to sue a Chinese firm for infringing on its iPad trademark. Apple originally filed a complaint against Proview Technology, which argued that it registered for the iPad trademark in 2000, long before Apple introduced the tablet. Proview Technology says it continues to use the iPad moniker in China and several other countries and is now seeking $1.5 billion in compensation from Apple. The iPhone maker has six Apple Stores in China and, according...

Microsoft has reportedly pushed the launch of its Windows Phone operating system in China to the first half of 2012. Microsoft’s China communications director Yang Tanyang had originally said the Redmond-based company’s vendor partners planned to deploy handsets in the country before the end of the year, IDG News explained Monday. The most recent reports suggested Microsoft gave Chinese retailer Suning an exclusive offer to sell Windows Phone and Windows 8 devices in more than 700 of its retail...

Microsoft is reportedly in talks to partner with Chinese retailer Suning in an effort to distribute Windows Phones throughout the country. Suning has more than 700 stores in China and Microsoft is rumored to have agreed to give the retailer first dibs on Windows Phone and upcoming Windows 8 devices, Chinese news source QQ Finance reported recently. The deal may be imminent although it remains unclear which Windows Phone models will be sold in the country. It is also unclear how vendors are involved with the t...

China has overtaken the United States as the world’s top smartphone market by volume according to new data released on Wednesday. Market research firm Strategy Analytics found that a record 23.9 million smartphones were shipped in China during the third quarter, representing sequential growth of 58%. In the U.S., smartphone shipments fell to 23.3 million units, a 7% dip compared to the second quarter. “China’s rapid growth has been driven by an increasing availability of smartphones in retail ch...

Apple recently had a meeting with Chinese environmental groups during which it admitted that 15 of the plants it uses in its supply chain violate China’s environmental regulations. The Cupertino-based company has typically ignored any accusations that its plants are over polluting. Apple reportedly made the admission during a three-hour discussion with the EnviroFriends Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Friends of Nature and the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs. Read on f...

Former Motorola software engineer Hanjuan Jin, a 41-year old naturalized United States citizen, is standing trial for stealing trade secrets from Motorola with plans to sell the documents to the Chinese military and to Kai Sun News Technology Co. According to Bloomberg, Jin was randomly stopped at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport in 2007 as she tried to flee the United States with a one-way ticket to China, $30,000 in cash and more than a thousand private documents that belonged to Motorola...