Cell | Apple: iPhone chain gross sales decline as Huawei rises, report says

Apple’s iPhone gross sales in China fell 24 p.c within the first six weeks of 2024 from a yr earlier, in line with analysis agency Counterpoint.

This comes at a time when the American expertise large faces stiff competitors from native rivals within the nation.

China’s Huawei noticed its gross sales in its house market develop by 64 p.c throughout the identical interval, the report stated.

Apple and Huawei didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark from the BBC.

Along with Huawei’s gross sales surge on the dearer finish of the Chinese language telephone market, Apple was additionally “squeezed within the center by aggressive pricing from the likes of Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi,” wrote Mengmeng Zhang of Counterpoint Analysis.

China, certainly one of Apple’s greatest markets, additionally noticed a 7 p.c decline in total smartphone gross sales over the identical interval, the report stated.

Huawei has struggled for years on account of U.S. sanctions, however its gross sales surged after it launched the Mate 60 sequence of 5G smartphones in August.

This got here as a serious shock because the Chinese language agency was reduce off from key chips and expertise wanted for 5G cell web.

In accordance with the report, Honor, the smartphone model to interrupt away from Huawei in 2020, was the one high 5 model to see gross sales development in China.

Counterpoint stated gross sales of Vivo, Xiaomi and Oppo additionally fell within the first six weeks of the yr.

Its report additionally stated Apple’s share of the Chinese language smartphone market fell to fifteen.7 p.c from 19 p.c final yr, placing it in fourth place because it fell from quantity two.

In the meantime, Huawei moved into second place as its market share rose to 16.5% from 9.4% a yr in the past.

Regardless of a 15 p.c drop in gross sales final yr, Vivo remained China’s best-selling smartphone maker, Counterpoint stated.

Apple began providing reductions on its official websites in China final month earlier than subsidizing some iPhone fashions via its flagship shops on Alibaba’s market platform Tmall final week.

The agency stated gross sales in China had been $20.82bn (£16.4bn) within the remaining three months of 2023, down from $23.9bn the earlier yr.

Apple shares fell 2.8 p.c in New York buying and selling on Tuesday.