Apple will announce its financial results from the last quarter of 2014 tomorrow, and if analyst projections are right, there could be a big change afoot. The Cupertino-based tech giant is expected to reveal that it sold more iPhones in China than it did in the United States.
In the past, the U.S. has led the rest of the world in total iPhones sold, but UBS predicted that China brought in 36 percent of iPhone revenue for Apple during the quarter, according to a report by the Financial Times. By comparison, the U.S. is expected to capture 24 percent of iPhone shipments. It’s a major shift from the same period last year, when the U.S. accounted for 29 percent of iPhone revenue to China’s 22 percent.
That’s a big win for the iPhone 6, as well as Apple’s partnerships with all three of China’s major mobile carriers. It comes almost a year after the company inked a deal with China Mobile to sell the iPhone for the first time.
High iPhone sales in China would be a big payoff for the company, which is drastically expanding its retail presence there. The company is in the process of opening five new retail outlets in China in the run up to the Lunar New Year in mid-February.
