If you live in France and have an iPhone compatible,You will soon be able to use the Apple Intelligence IA tools suite, but some key areas for Apple will be deprived of more time. This is the case of China, which represents an important market for the apple firm, but which must deal with rules even more strict than those of the European Union, which are already binding for Apple. Indeed,The Middle Empire forces Cupertino to work with a local business.
To contextualize the situation of Apple on site, it is good to take into account that the Chinese market represented 17 % of Apple's turnover in the 2023 financial year. It dropped to 15 % in 2024, with a fall iPhone sales, notably induced by the rise of Huawei and Honor, which already offer Apple Intelligence alternatives to Chinese users. In this context, the firm must quickly deploy its AI in the Middle Kingdom to remain competitive.
An unexpected partner enters
According to a source close to the file cited by The Information,Apple would have established a partnership with AlibabaTo develop Apple Intelligence's features in Mandarin.
© AliExpress
After several months of unsuccessful negotiations with Baidu, Apple finally set its sights on the parent company of Aliexpress. The Chinese e-commerce giant will bring its expertise in natural language treatment and content moderation to adapt Apple Intelligence to the specificities of the local market.
This alliance comes after the failure of discussions with Baidu, mainly due to disagreements on privacy protection and the insufficient quality of the AI models offered.
The Information reports that Apple would also have tested the language models of the startup Deepseek before giving it up. Despite his technical prowess,Deepseek would not have convinced Apple. Bytedance and Tencent were also dismissed.
An already well advanced collaboration between Alibaba and Apple
Together, the two companies have already submitted their developments to the approval of theChinese cyberspace administration. This approach testifies to the significant advancement of the project and the will of Apple to accelerate the process. Tim Cook is also increasing in Beijing in recent monthsTo advance the project.
Finally, investors seem to be convinced by this partnership, as evidenced by the increase in the Apple action price to Wall Street shortly after the announcement of the partnership by The Information. The Cupertino firm will however have to deal with the strict requirements of the Chinese authorities in terms of censorship and content control. The integration of the RCS protocol in iOS 18 following Chinese pressures illustrates elsewhereApple's ability to adapt to local constraints to preserve its interestson this strategic market.
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Equal: AG Tescience
