WeChat Ban Could Kill iPhone Sales

What makes a smartphone popular? There are many things that factor into that, such as design, features, performance, price, and so on. However, an ecosystem is just as important, where if customers are unable to get the apps or services they want to use, then there’s really no point in buying that device.

That is the danger that Apple could face if WeChat were to be banned in the US. According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, it seems that he believes that Apple’s annual global shipments of iPhones could drop by as much as 30% should they be forced to remove WeChat from the App Store.

As some of you might have heard, the US government is mulling the possibility of banning apps such as WeChat. However, it is unclear if the government’s decision could only force Apple to remove WeChat from the US store or from its App Stores around the world. It was recently reported that based on a survey, nearly 700,000 Chinese users said that they would not buy an iPhone if WeChat were not supported.

This is because WeChat is widely used in China and parts of Asia where it not only acts as an app for communication, but it used to make payments, send money, purchase train tickets, and so on, so losing the app effectively kills a lot of functionality.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Apple, Cellphones
Tags: Apps, China, iPhone, Legal, wechat