Quartz:

While Apple reported a mostly ho-hum quarter on July 22, the company’s growth in China was an unexpected bonus. “China honestly was surprising to us,” CEO Tim Cook said. “The unit growth was really off the charts across the board.”

Revenue from Greater China, which includes Hong Kong and Taiwan, grew 28% to $5.94 billion, as buyers snapped up iPhones, iPads and computers at much faster rates than in the rest of the world. Chinese iPhone sales were up 48%, Mac sales were up 39%, and iPad sales (which were down 9.2% globally), were up an impressive 51%.

One point I pulled from this article: The Chinese smartphone market is maturing, moving from a jailbroken wild west to a market that appreciates aesthetics and is willing to spend more for a better experience.

Yes, China is awash with cheaper homegrown smartphones, but affluent buyers still love iPhones. Of the country’s 700 million smartphones at the end of 2013, more than a quarter were high-end phones that cost more than $500, according to a recent report from Umeng.com, which tracks apps and mobile use in China. Of those, 80% are iPhones, Umeng estimates. Many analysts criticized Apple for pricing the iPhone 5c too high, but that may have been the whole point—the high price tag is an asset for aspirational Chinese consumers.

Apple is holding the line here, playing the long game. And it’s working.