Apple Temporarily Shuts Its Stores and Offices In China Due To Coronavirus

Apple has announced that it is shutting down its all offline stores and corporate offices temporarily in mainland China until February 9, due to Coronavirus.

"Our thoughts are with the people most immediately affected by the Coronavirus and with those working around the clock to study and contain it, Apple said in a statement. Adding to that, "Out of an abundance of caution and based on the latest advice from leading health experts, we're closing all our corporate offices, stores and contact centers in mainland China through February 9."

However, its online store will remain open. Apple also intimated that it will look at the situation and will take a call. The company has already closed its three stores. In fact, Apple is not the first company that has taken this step. Earlier, McDonald's has done the same thing. In addition, General Motors has temporarily suspended its operations in China. Apple is manufacturing its smartphone in China, and it has one site in Wuhan.

It is worth mentioning that the accessories of the upcoming Galaxy S Series could be delay as they coming from China. According to the leading website it has getting mails from many suppliers that the adopter and screen guards of S20 could be delay. This comes at that time when Samsung is all set to launch its S series on February 11.

Meanwhile, a research firm counterpoint pointed out that Apple overtakes Samsung in 2019. The company has managed to ship 72.9 million smartphones during Q4 2019. While Samsung ships only 70 million smartphones.

"Apple has surpassed Samsung thanks to iPhone 11 popularity and improvement in upgrade cycle from the larger base of iPhone 6S, 7 and user base," Neil Shah, partner and vice president of research at Counterpoint, was quoted by CNBC.