iPhone sales in China fell 19.1% in the first quarter of 2024.
文|Siladitya Ray
Counterpoint Research, a Hong Kong-based market research firm, released a report on Tuesday saying Apple's smartphone sales in China fell 19.1 percent in the first quarter of 2024. This conclusion highlights Apple's challenge in the world's largest smartphone market, which is to lose out to local competitors.
1
Key facts
According to the report, the iPhone accounted for 15.7% of all smartphone sales in China in the first quarter of 2024, down 19.7% year-on-year.
Huawei is Apple's main competitor in China's high-end mobile phone market. Huawei's first-quarter sales increased by 69.7% year-on-year due to the successful launch of the breakthrough Mate 60 series with 5G technology.
While Apple's market share is still slightly higher than Huawei's 15.5 percent, its share of the Chinese market has fallen from first to third place, behind the Chinese brand Vivo and Huawei's former subsidiary Honor.
Bloomberg reported that Apple's sharp decline in share of China's smartphone market in the first quarter was its worst performance since 2020.
Forbes has reached out to Apple for comment.
2
Important remarks
Ivan Lam, senior research analyst at Counterpoint, said: "Apple's sales were sluggish during the quarter as Huawei's comeback directly impacted Apple's share of the premium phone market. In addition, compared with previous years, the demand for replacement from Apple users is also slightly sluggish. ”
A week before the release of this set of data on sales in the Chinese market, market research firm IDC also reported that iPhone shipments in the first quarter of 2024 fell 9.6% year-on-year. The drop in shipments means Apple has ceded its position as the world's largest phone maker to rival Samsung, which shipped 60.1 million phones in the first quarter compared to Apple's 50.1 million. Overall global smartphone shipments grew 7.8% in the first quarter, thanks to the booming Chinese brands. Although Xiaomi ranked sixth in China, it shipped 40.8 million units globally in the first quarter, ranking third in the world behind Samsung and Apple, and claimed a 33.8% year-on-year increase in shipments.
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Key Context
The report comes at a time when Apple is in a bad situation, even though it was the world's most valuable company at the start of the year. In February this year, after a decade-long effort, Apple reportedly announced that it had abandoned its self-developed plans for driverless cars. Apple's investors are also concerned that the company could fall behind rivals such as Microsoft, Google and Meta in the AI race. According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple has held talks with Google to discuss integrating the search giant's Gemini AI service into the iPhone, suggesting that Apple's AI is still significantly behind its competitors. In addition, the company has faced its worst legal and regulatory threat in years this year. The U.S. Department of Justice and multiple U.S. states filed a landmark lawsuit in March, accusing the company of violating antitrust laws through restrictive policies to the detriment of competitors and consumers.
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Big numbers: 10.67%
Apple's share price has fallen since the beginning of the year. In early trading on Tuesday, the stock was down another 0.36%.
This article is translated from https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2024/04/23/iphone-sales-in-china-fell-nearly-20-in-q1-report-finds/?sh=590a2fd16aad
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