"The Chinese market is inseparable from Apple";
"Apple paid the XXX tax";
"Apple's industrial chain feeds XXX domestic employees......"
Similar heated debates often cause many people to waver, is Apple really so important?
It does matter.
But on the other hand, the Chinese market is no different for Apple.
The Chinese market is for Apple
In 2023, Apple's mobile phone will be the first in sales for the first time.
According to a report released by market research agency Canalys in February 2024, Apple ranked first for the first time in the year with a 20% market share and 229.1 million units shipped.
According to the report, global smartphone shipments in 2023 will be 1.14 billion units, a decline of 4% compared with 2022.
The reason why Apple was able to win the championship is due to the contribution of the Chinese market.
In 2023, China's full-year smartphone shipments fell 5% year-on-year to 273 million units.
Apple won the first position in the annual shipment of the Chinese mainland market for the first time, and its annual market share further increased to 19%.
vivo, OPPO, and Honor shipped about the same, with 44.5 million units, 43.9 million units, and 43.6 million units shipped respectively throughout the year, and Xiaomi maintained the fifth place in the annual market with 13%.
If it weren't for the sudden strength of Huawei, which ranked sixth, and shipments soared by 48% year-on-year, Apple's sales in 2023 would be "far ahead".
In addition, in the second quarter of 2023, Apple's global iPhone shipments were 43.1 million units, with a market share of 16.0%.
The Chinese market surpassed the United States for the first time in this quarter, becoming the single market with the largest iPhone shipments.
At present, Apple's annual revenue in China accounts for about one-fifth of its total revenue.
In addition, Apple not only has a large number of loyal users in China, but also has more than 150 suppliers in China for production and supply.
This...... It's the Chinese market for Apple.
Cook came to China again in March and said, "I love China, I love Chinese" and "Apple will continue to invest in the Chinese market."
The CEO, who has a different view of the Chinese market, was also "anxious" because of the Chinese market.
Six years ago
In 2018, Cook almost "lost the season" because of a sentence.
"I wouldn't put the Chinese market in that category. Last quarter, our business in China was very strong. ”
On November 1, 2018, on a conference call, Cook discussed iPhone sales in the global market, and he admitted that iPhone sales are not doing well in some emerging markets, including Turkey, India, Brazil and Russia.
"In the fourth quarter, our business in India was flat, and sales in Brazil were down compared to last year," he said, but "this is not the case in China."
At the time, Cook added: "Last quarter we did very well in China. We are very pleased with the 16% increase in our performance. The iPhone, in particular, has seen very strong double-digit growth there. Our other product categories are also very good. ”
Outcome......
In the fourth quarter of 2018, global smartphone-to-end user sales growth stagnated, with the world's top two mobile phone manufacturers, Apple and Samsung, falling 11.5% and 5.5%, respectively, in the quarter.
But in comparison, the Chinese manufacturer Huawei was extremely terrifying in the quarter, bucking the trend and increasing by 43.9%!
Anshul Gupta, senior research director at Gartner, said, "In addition to key locations such as Chinese mainland and Europe, Huawei continues to increase its investment in Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East to further drive growth. In addition, in the second half of 2018, Huawei continued to expand its Honor series to boost growth, especially in emerging markets, which helped Huawei increase its market share to 13% in 2018. ”
In other words, at that time, Huawei had already made efforts around the world, and Apple and Samsung were showing decline.
At that time, Counterpoint Research, a market research agency, gave such data that in the first quarter of 2019, the price of China's smartphone market was in the price range of 600-800 US dollars (about 4100-5500 yuan), and Huawei successfully surpassed Apple's 37% with a market share of 48%.
In the Chinese market, Huawei has surpassed Apple in terms of sales, and has also surpassed it in the high-end market.
Apple, realizing this, moved.
In September 2019, Apple's press conference.
The Apple 11's A13 Bionic chip is benchmarked against the Huawei P30 Pro's Kirin 980.
Price reduction, benchmarking......
Even if Apple tried its best, it still didn't help.
To give a simple example, Apple's press conference finished benchmarking the Kirin 980.
Huawei has released a new generation of flagship chips Kirin 990 series in Beijing and Berlin, Germany, including Kirin 990 and Kirin 990 5G chips.
What do you say?
It's like just catching up with a competitor's generation of products, and as a result, someone else has a new generation that is "far ahead".
In 2019, Huawei's global sales of mobile phones reached 240 million units, surpassing Apple for the first time to become the world's second largest mobile phone manufacturer.
(Here are a few points in time that you need to understand.)
In 2018, Apple fell sharply, and in December, Meng was arrested.
In 2019, Apple benchmarked against Huawei, and on May 16, the first round of sanctions against Huawei appeared, and Huawei's growth against the trend surpassed Apple in the world for the first time.
On September 15, 2020, the supply was completely cut off, and on September 16, Apple's press conference, and Huawei's press conference on September 25, 2020. ）
As mentioned earlier, in the conference call, Cook said that Apple's sales in the Chinese market (Q4 2018) will not decline.
The result went down.
This caused Apple's shareholders to collapse and start suing Apple and Cook.
According to the lawsuit, Roseville Employees' Retirement System filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of all Apple shareholders, seeking damages from Apple for violations of federal securities laws, including Apple CEO Cook and CFO Luca.
Apple and two executives are accused of making false and misleading statements about iPhone sales, Chinese market performance and earnings expectations, which led to an artificial rise in Apple's stock price in the fourth quarter of 2018 and a drop in its share price after cutting its revenue guidance in January, resulting in significant losses to shareholders.
On January 3, 2019, Cook released a letter to investors mentioning that Apple expects revenue of $84 billion in the first quarter of fiscal 2019 (ending December 29, 2018), which is lower than the expected revenue of $89 billion to $93 billion given in the previous fiscal quarter.
In the letter, Cook bluntly said that the performance of the Chinese market was not as good as expected.
He said that the lower-than-expected revenue generated by iPhones, especially in Greater China, was the main reason for the lower-than-expected revenue in this fiscal quarter.
When it comes to interests, these shareholders are not at all accustomed to Apple and its executives.
The lawsuit lasted for several years, until in March 2024, when Apple agreed to pay $490 million and the two sides reached a class-action settlement.
At this time, looking back at the entire context of events, it is not difficult to find several conclusions.
Huawei in 2018 was very strong and in a stage of rapid growth, and even Apple misestimated its influence at that time;
Huawei in 2018 was very tough, and it was not until two years later, in September 2020, that the United States made up its mind to completely cut off supply, and during this period, Huawei has not made any compromises......
Now, six years later
On April 5, with the news that came out, several parties from six years ago were connected together.
Huawei, Apple, Apple Shareholders, Cook ......
On April 5, it was reported that "Barron's" recently published a review article and interviewed a number of Apple shareholders, who are increasingly worried that Tim Cook's Apple ship will not be able to brave the wind and waves due to a lack of innovation.
Barron's noted in the report that a number of shareholders interviewed believe that Apple is lagging behind major competitors such as Microsoft and Google in AI technology and has not translated AI into substantial performance.
At the same time, Apple's current iPhone business is weak, and Apple has no plans to revive growth after last year's sales decline.
It is worth mentioning that on April 1 and April 2, Cook cashed out a total of 240 million yuan.
In 2023, what happened to Apple, which just won the first place in sales in the global market and the first in sales in the Chinese market?
The problem is not in the whole of 2023, but in the second half of 2023, and in the first quarter of 2024.
At the beginning of February, Apple released its first quarter report for fiscal year 2024 (i.e., the fourth quarter of the 2023 calendar year).
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 statistics given by Canalys, in the fourth quarter of 2023, Huawei's shipments in the Chinese market soared by 47% year-on-year.
In addition, the website of the Wall Street Journal also reported on March 6, 2024 that Apple's smartphone sales in China declined in the first six weeks of this year due to fierce competition and price pressure.
According to the report, Apple's iPhone sales in China fell 24% year-on-year in the first six weeks of this year, pushing the American tech giant's market share in China, the world's largest smartphone market, to fourth place, according to the report. Huawei, a competitor in the Chinese market, saw a 64% year-on-year increase in sales and move up to second place in terms of market share.
The factors that have led to the current state of Apple's iPhone business are the same as they were six years ago, and the main reason for this is that of rival Chinese maker Huawei.
Huawei's strong return has also caused a number of mobile phone manufacturers to experience varying degrees of sales decline.
Especially Apple.
Six years ago, Apple's market share in China was 9.1 percent, and Huawei was in the sixth place when it was counted separately from Honor.
Without Huawei's suppression, Apple's market share in China will rise to 19% in 2023, becoming the boss.
But in just half a year, the big brother on the list was beaten into the "fourth" by Huawei.
Of course, the situation is slightly different today than it was six years ago.
That's ......
Today, every time Huawei moves forward, the United States has become "uncontrollable".
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