West News Wire: Following rumours that China has prohibited government employees from using iPhones or any other foreign gadgets for business purposes or bringing them into the office, Apple’s market worth has decreased by around $200 billion.
Apple’s stock dropped by roughly 3% on Thursday, and it has lost 6.4% in the past two days. The stocks of a number of the US IT giant’s main suppliers have also fallen. The stock of ASE Technology Holding, one of the top semiconductor testing and packaging companies in the world, fell 2%, while that of camera lens manufacturer Largan Precision fell more than 3%. Taiwan’s TSMC, the largest contract chipmaker in the world and a significant Apple supplier, has lost more than 2% of its value.
China, the largest foreign market for Apple products, could further expand its curbs on officials’ use of iPhones, according to Allen Huang, executive director of Mega International Investment Services Corp in Taipei, as cited by Reuters.
About one-fifth of Apple’s overall income last year came from Chinese sales.
For years, certain government organisations had prohibited the use of iPhones by employees. The policy’s scope appears to have been greatly increased by the most recent directive.
Beijing also required in February that foreign companies doing business in China, such as Apple, Amazon, and JPMorgan Chase, submit their data practises for examination before being permitted to export any locally generated data outside of the country.
Government employees in the US are not permitted to use Chinese phones from companies like Huawei or to download and use the well-known TikTok social media app on devices provided by the government. Officials have expressed worry over Beijing’s potential attempt to acquire data from American consumers.
