China becomes the iPhone growth story

The slowing growth of the iPhone has been hanging over Apple’s share price for the best part of two years now. On April 23, that slowdown suddenly reversed. Unit sales of the smartphone, which makes up more than half of Apple’s total revenue, rose 17 percent to 43.7 million devices in the company’s fiscal second quarter, much better than forecast, and revenues grew 14 percent to $26.1 billion. Apple shareholders and seasoned observers alike were taken aback.