Apple Faces 24% Decline in iPhone Sales in China as Huawei Surges: Report
Sales of Apple’s iPhone in China dropped by 24% in the first six weeks of 2024 compared to the previous year, as reported by research firm Counterpoint. This decline is attributed to fierce competition from local rivals, with China’s Huawei experiencing a remarkable 64% increase in sales during the same period. Apple and Huawei have not provided immediate responses to the BBC’s requests for comments.
Counterpoint Research’s Mengmeng Zhang highlighted that, besides Huawei’s resurgence in the higher-priced segment of the Chinese phone market, Apple faced challenges in the mid-range due to aggressive pricing from competitors like Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi. China, being one of Apple’s significant markets, witnessed an overall 7% shrinkage in smartphone sales in the same period.
Huawei, which struggled for years due to US sanctions, saw a sales surge following the release of its Mate 60 series of 5G smartphones in August. This success was unexpected, considering the challenges Huawei faced in accessing crucial chips and technology for 5G mobile internet.
The report revealed that Honor, the smartphone brand spun off from Huawei in 2020, was the only other top-five brand to experience sales growth in China during this period. Sales of Vivo, Xiaomi, and Oppo, on the other hand, declined in the first six weeks of the year.
In terms of market share, Apple’s portion of the Chinese smartphone market dropped from 19% to 15.7% compared to the previous year, causing it to fall from the second to the fourth position. In contrast, Huawei rose to the second position, with its market share growing from 9.4% to 16.5%.
![iPhone 15 [GETTY IMAGES]](https://360world.tech/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/image-1.png)
Despite a 15% decline in sales over the last year, Vivo remained China’s top-selling smartphone maker, according to Counterpoint. To counter the decline in demand, Apple initiated discounts on its official sites in China and subsidized certain iPhone models through its flagship stores on Alibaba’s marketplace platform Tmall.
A slowdown in demand in China poses a potential threat to Apple’s revenue, which already disappointed investors when the company released its earnings last month. In the last three months of 2023, Apple’s sales in China were $20.82 billion (£16.4 billion), down from $23.9 billion in the previous year, leading to a 2.8% decline in Apple shares in New York trade on Tuesday.