Countries That Support Apple Intelligence Witnessed Higher iPhone 16 Sales, According To CEO Tim Cook, Likely Explaining Why Revenue From China Dropped This Quarter

Tim Cook sounded thoroughly pleased during Apple’s Q1 2025 earnings call, mentioning that it was the company’s best quarter, with a revenue of $124.3 billion, along with double-digit profits. However, this figure could have been much higher had there been a more ubiquitous rollout of Apple Intelligence, and as you can tell, several regions have yet to support the service. During a recent chat, the trillion-dollar giant’s Chief Executive commented that countries that support the company’s generative AI features witnessed higher iPhone 16 sales, emphasizing how branching out to other nations is imperative.

Quarterly revenue in China dropped to $18.513 billion, resulting in an 11 percent drop compared to Q1 2024, as Apple Intelligence has yet to find a local partner

Speaking with CNBC, AppleInsider reports on Tim Cook’s remarks that Apple Intelligence might have been a primary booster of iPhone 16 sales, but given that the firm’s slew of generative AI features are not available in all countries, particularly China, it might be a strong reason why the iPhone division brought in $69.1 billion in Q1 2025. While this revenue still accounts for more than half of Apple’s $124.3 billion earnings, it is slightly lower than the $69.7 billion recorded during Q1 2024.

Bear in mind that Apple Intelligence has yet to launch in China, with the company still scrambling to team up with either Tencent or ByteDance to bring the service locally. In total, revenue in the country was $18.513 billion, down from $20.8 billion in Q1 2024, and given that it is the largest smartphone market by volume, it holds immense significance for Apple. It is also possible that when Apple Intelligence does become available worldwide, customers will opt to pick up the higher storage variants, as these features now require you to have 7GB of unallocated space.

These requirements have increased because Apple prefers to run its AI models locally to maintain user privacy, but this change might have a positive impact on the technology giant’s revenue. Customers who wish to run Apple Intelligence might be compelled to spend a little extra money to obtain devices with 256GB of storage, increasing the average selling price of compatible products and contributing immensely to the overall revenue. Since the rollout has been slow, we will not see the complete picture until a few months from now. If you truly believe that Apple Intelligence will result in higher iPhone 16 sales, let us know in the comments.