The king is back, and Huawei's mobile phone has regained the first place in sales! Sales in Greater China have fallen sharply, and Apple is in a hurry

On February 4, the official account of Counterpoint Research, a market research agency, released a report saying that according to the latest data, Huawei will return to the Chinese market in the first two weeks of 2024 as the No. 1 smartphone sales position. Huawei's share of sales has been declining since the imposition of U.S. sanctions in 2019, and this summit marks the first time it has regained the top spot.

According to the report, Huawei has regained the top spot in China's smartphone market, and the Mate 60 series equipped with its self-developed Kirin 9000S chip is a key driver of Huawei's recent success. In addition, it has strong brand loyalty and the successful launch of the HarmonyOS operating system.

The report also mentions that Chinese brands are moving towards the high-end market: in 2023, China's high-end smartphone market grew by 27%. Apple maintained its market leadership with its strong performance in the first half of 2023. However, starting in the third quarter of 2023, Apple's market share began to be eaten away by Huawei and other Chinese brands. It is expected that Chinese brands will continue to develop in the high-end market.

IDC Consulting: Huawei is back in the top five in terms of shipments

On January 25, the latest mobile phone quarterly tracking report released by IDC, an international data company, showed that in the fourth quarter of 2023, China's smartphone market shipped about 73.63 million units, a year-on-year increase of 1.2%, although the overall market returned to a growth trend, but the market performance was still significantly lower than expected. In terms of manufacturers, Apple ranks first in the domestic market, while Honor, vivo, Huawei, and OPPO rank second to fifth, respectively.

It is worth noting that since the strong return of Huawei's mobile phone Mate 60 series in the second half of last year, the market has been hotly discussed that Honor has been affected the most, but judging from the data, Honor has not declined, but ranks first in domestic mobile phones.

Throughout 2023, Apple ranks first, driven by the relatively large price reduction promotions on third-party channels, attracting more consumer demand, Honor ranks second, relying on the excellent performance of folding screen products in the market above $800, and its share has increased significantly, and OPPO, vivo and Xiaomi rank third to fifth, respectively.

Guo Tianxiang, senior analyst at IDC China, pointed out that although China's smartphone market has returned to a growth trend, it should remain cautiously optimistic about the market performance expectations in 2024.

According to Yicai, but whether Huawei can regain the high-end market from Apple, mobile phone channel dealer Wang Zhong believes that there are still challenges. "At our level, there is at least a year of 4G battles to be fought. Wang Zhong told reporters that in order to snipe other manufacturers on the National Day, Huawei had occupied some dealers' funds in advance, so that everyone's resources were tilted towards Huawei. But from the point of view of distribution, Mate60 is slow to release goods when the demand is at its largest, which has reasons for marketing and shortages, as well as reasons for speeding up the digestion of 4G mobile phone inventory. Wang Zhong told reporters that in the past three months, if low-tier dealers want to get the Mate series, they need to "albine" and tie in some 4G mobile phones. In the information that Wang Zhong showed to reporters, the types of these mobile phones include nova11, Hinoca11, etc., and these "push orders" need to occupy 100,000 of his funds at one time.

Apple's revenue in Greater China fell 13%, and iPhone sales fell 30% in the first week of the new year

On February 1, local time, technology giant Apple released its first quarter report for fiscal year 2024 (that is, the fourth quarter of 2023 natural year).

According to the financial report, Apple's quarterly revenue was $119.58 billion, higher than analysts' expectations of $117.97 billion, and revenue returned to year-on-year growth, and iPhone revenue in the first fiscal quarter was $69.7 billion, higher than the expected $68.55 billion.

Apple's first-quarter services revenue was $23.12 billion versus analysts' expectations of $23.37 billion, EPS was $2.18 versus analysts' expectations of $2.11, Mac's revenue was $7.78 billion versus analysts' expectations of $7.9 billion, iPad's revenue was $7.02 billion versus analysts' expectations of $7.06 billion, and wearables, home and accessories revenue was $11.95 billion versus analysts' expectations of $12.02 billion.

It is worth noting that Apple's revenue in Greater China in the first fiscal quarter was $20.82 billion, far less than analysts' expectations of $23.5 billion. Apple said it saw sales growth in all regions except Greater China, where sales were down nearly 13% from a year earlier.

According to a Reuters report quoted by Yangcheng Evening News on January 9, analysts at investment bank Jefferies said in a report that iPhone sales were still down 30% in the first week of the new year from a year earlier, despite the sharp price cuts of several iPhone models, including the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, on major Chinese e-commerce platforms. The 30% decline is significantly faster than Apple's overall 3% decline in China in 2023. Jefferies analysts believe that Apple's sales decline is mainly due to fierce competition from local Chinese brands, especially Huawei, which has returned to the high-end market after releasing the Mate 60 series in August last year.

Subsequently, on January 15, Apple launched a rare large-scale price reduction campaign on the official website of Chinese mainland. At 8 p.m. on January 17, the Tmall New Year's Festival officially went on sale. Among them, Apple's official has also joined the Tmall New Year's Festival event this year, starting from 0:00, the official flagship store of Tmall Apple Store has launched the "New Year limited-time offer" activity, and the official drop of all Apple products has reached the bottom price of Apple's official channels.

It is reported that compared with the 500 yuan discount on the official website, the iPhone discount in Apple's Tmall official flagship store is greater. During the period from 8 p.m. to 31 p.m. on January 17th, the Tmall Apple Store flagship store iPhone 15 full series discount of 1000 yuan after coupons, starting at 4999 yuan, 500 yuan cheaper than Apple's official website, and you can also use 12 interest-free installments together, only about 13 yuan per day.

New Year discount activities, Apple will do it every year, but this time it is a little different, not only the discount is larger, but the discount products also have the latest generation of iPhone. Moreover, the price reduction of the iPhone 15 series is so large that it can be called a "diving style", falling below the 5,000 mark for the first time, with a minimum of only 4949 yuan.

Editor|Duan Lian Yi Qijiang

Proofreading|Chen Keming