Was the iPhone 17 Pro's success in China due to… France?

After three years of declining iPhone sales in China, a market dominated by local brands like Huawei, Xiaomi, and Vivo, Apple experienced a resurgence in 2025 with the enormous success of the latest iPhone 17 Pro. Cosmic orange or Hermès orange iPhone 17 Pro? Thanks to iOS 26? Thanks to AI? Thanks to the new cameras? Not at all. If these smartphones are selling well, it's primarily thanks to one of their colors: cosmic orange. Or rather, "Hermès orange," as Chinese customers call it, associating this color with the famous French luxury brand. According to the Financial Times, orange iPhones have gone viral on Chinese social media, mainly because of this association. Another reason, which gives an idea of the Chinese people's particular relationship with consumption, is that the words "orange" and "success" in Mandarin share a phoneme, and the orange (fruit and color) is thus often associated with success in Chinese culture.