Apple (AAPL) said that it achieved record iPhone sales in China in its recent Q4 2025 financial results, and a model color colloquially known as ‘Hermès orange’ may be responsible.
The color, formally known as “cosmic orange,” was launched in fall 2025 there. Since then, thousands of Chinese citizens have taken to social media to show off their orange gadgets, the Financial Times reports.
The rise of the “Hermès orange” iPhone 17 in China may have to do with the word orange itself. That word sounds similar to the Mandarin word meaning success.
As a result, many Chinese have posted the following phrase online: “May all your wishes turn orange; may orange come at once.”
“It sounds simple, but it’s the external obvious changes to design, which includes the introduction of a shout-out orange colour, that pulled out early upgraders,” IDC senior research director Nabila Popal told theFT.
In Q4, iPhone sales reached $26B in China, a 38% year-over-year increase.
