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Customers are seen at an Apple store in Shanghai on November 20, 2024. Photo: VCG

Apple will open a new store in Hefei, East China's Anhui Province on Saturday, according to its website. The upcoming store marks the first store in Anhui, and it takes the number of the US tech giant's retail stores in China to 58, Jiemian News reported on Thursday. 

The store is located in the city's Tian'e Lake area in Shushan district, an important commercial and financial district, with nearly 80 employees to offer service in about 10 languages, per the Jiemian report. 

As an important Chinese provincial market, a rapidly expanding economy and growing demand for high-tech products from local consumers have provided a broad market space for brands including Apple, Wang Peng, an associate research fellow at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Thursday.

Wang said that deploying in provinces such as Anhui will be conducive to further expanding Apple's influence and consumer base in the Chinese market. 

Before the Hefei store, Apple in March 2024 opened a new store in Shanghai's Jing'an district, which is reportedly the highest-standard Apple store in the Chinese mainland.

Amid rising competition from local Chinese brands, the opening of the new stores has further showcased the importance of the Chinese market. 

In the fourth quarter of 2024, Apple shipped 13.1 million units in the traditional peak season and retained the top spot in the Chinese mainland, but its shipments dropped by 25 percent due to intensified competition from domestic brands, according to a report released by Canalys on Thursday. 

Apple and its iPhone 16 series maintained the top spot in the fourth quarter but faced growing competitive pressure from domestic flagship devices, Amber Liu, research manager at Canalys, was quoted as saying in the report. 

"Despite the declining shipments, the Chinese market remains significant for Apple not only for its vast potential and huge consumer base but also as an important base for Apple's innovation, production and supply chains," Wang said. 

Wang noted that Apple has a vast supply chain in China and has established close cooperative relationships with numerous local suppliers, which help Apple reduce costs, enhance production efficiency and ensure product quality.

Liu said in the Canalys report that Apple is enhancing its high-end competitiveness and user retention by improving retail experiences through channel management, offering trade-in programs and expanding coverage of interest-free installment plans. 

In November 2024, Apple CEO Tim Cook made his third visit of the year to the Chinese mainland for the second China International Supply Chain Expo. "I am so proud that Apple has an exhibit here with our partners," Cook said when visiting the booth, the Xinhua News Agency reported. 

Cook noted that Apple is keen to seize the opportunities presented by China's opening-up and will continue to increase its investment in the country, thus contributing to the high-quality development of the industrial and supply chains, during a previous visit to China in October, according to media reports.  

China remains a critical market for Apple. In its fiscal fourth quarter of 2024, Apple's Greater China net sales topped $15 billion, making it the third-largest market globally after the Americas and Europe, per the Xinhua report.