Cook’s China tour
This news breaks around the same time Tim Cook, Apple’s former CEO and now executive chairman, visits China. He met with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Beijing on Monday following a weekend of stops across the country and meetings in Europe before that, including a brush with UK royalty.
Cook won’t be on the move without reason, and it’s easy to speculate that the new Alibaba AI approval in China was part of his tour itinerary. If that’s the case, then it also seems possible he’s there to put the finishing touches to whatever deal the company has had to come to in order to inject Alibaba’s Qwen AI into iPhones.
Countdown to Duo
The company hasn’t yet discussed its plans to bring AI to the Chinese market, but the past week also saw Apple COO Sabih Khan visit the Foxconn Technology Park on October 11. The activity comes as Apple prepares to open up for iPhone Duo pre-orders across 70 nations, including China, on October 16 to ship October 23.
This story originally appeared on Computerworld
