Apple's star shines brightly, but the Chinese are playing dissidents

Greater China the one blemish in the tech giant's otherwise perfect trading update

Apple CEO Tim Cook showing off the firm's signature product (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

China to Apple is like the big red spot you wake up with on your forehead as a teenager the day before a hot date.

It managed to spoil the tech giant’s otherwise perfect complexion, all the more so given just how well everything else is going.

Look, there’s the iPhone. Despite the forthcoming tenth anniversary super-update, about which the rumour mill is already in overdrive, Apple still managed to ship 2 per cent more units of the current model than this time last year. That’s… well that’s just witchcraft.

Look, there’s the iPad. It was once considered to be a business in decline, but lo and behold the iPad Pro has revived it.

Look, there’s services, the star of the show, with 22 per cent year on year growth. A ragbag of everything from iTunes to Apple Pay, it’s proving to be a strategic winner for CEO Tim Cook, something that might make this company a bit less of a one trick pony down the line.

Look, there’s every territory except for China, with performance ranging from that of a reasonably comfortable mid priced saloon (Japan) to a Porsche (the rest of Asia Pacific).

And then there’s that spot.

Its visibility is actually enhanced by the scarcity of information that Apple provides.

A ten per cent year on year revenue decline in one of your most important markets, when every other product segment and every other geographical region is showing growth, would stand out whatever the business reporting it.

But it does so all the more with Apple because there just isn’t the background noise you get with other companies’ results. Apple doesn't offer the smorgasbord of numbers other corporates like to provide, which create a menu of competing stories for journalists and analysts to choose from.

This has always rather encouraged people to create their own narratives about Apple, to which the company could usually comfortably respond with “like we care”.

But when there’s an issue such as with China, it’s like the entire brass section playing the wrong note during a symphony.

Part of the problem Apple has there is that there are local competitors that provide a very similar experience to the iPhone for a fraction of the cost. Perhaps we Western fanbois, who seem content to pay whatever inflated price Apple feels like charging us, could learn a thing or two from the Chinese consumer.

Of course, we won’t, and we haven’t. Which is why the rest of Apple’s results look so dreamy.

And in the distance, you can hear the drums beating. Wireless charging! A huge curved screen with the home button beneath it! Look at that high res! The camera! Beat that Samsung, Google, Huawei.

CEO Tim Cook even managed to damp down some of the rumours about delays with some reassuring forecasts.

Some reviewers will pan the new product when it does hit the shelves, because with the level of hype that’s being whipped up, they’ll feel they have to.

But it would be a big surprise if the market fails to give whatever emerges a resounding thumbs up.

It’ll take quite the fail to stop King iPhone from consolidating its grip on the rest of the world. Even if Chinese consumers do decide they’re going to continue playing the role of world’s greatest Apple (whisper it) dissidents.