Apple CEO Tim Cook jets into China for PR mission

Apple CEO Tim Cook has traveled to China to talk with government officials as he tries to clear up a raft of problems in this heavy growth market.

Cook has never been to China, since taking over from the late Steve Jobs last year. He is keeping to a guarded agenda that included talks yesterday with Beijing's mayor and a visit to the Apple flagship store in the capital.

Carolyn Wu, China spokeswoman for Apple said “Tim is in China meeting with government officials. China is very important to us and we look forward to even greater investment and growth there.” She declined to give details of his agenda this week, saying only that he would meet government officials on Tuesday.

Cook was in the store, smiling at photographers and customers who were in the store. Some of these images hit blog sites shortly afterwards, ensuring the visit was well received by Apple fans.

There is no doubt that Cook's visit is to build public relations in one of the quickest growing markets, Apple's most important manufacturing hub and biggest potential market. They are already the biggest mobile market and Apple's second biggest market overall although Samsung are eating into their smartphone dominance lately. They have yet to launch their iPad3 in this market and are dealing with a Chinese firm, Proview over the local rights to the iPad trademark. This could damage sales if the issue isn't resolved soon.

Kitguru says: Tim Cook is a man on a mission. To revitalise Apple in China.

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