China's mobile phone market is changing dramatically.
According to Counterpoint, in the first quarter of 2024, Huawei's sales in China's mobile phone market increased by 69.7%, and its share rose to 15.5%. Apple's iPhone sales fell significantly in the first quarter, falling by as much as 19%.
IDC, a global research agency, released Apple's global data, showing that global iPhone shipments in the first quarter fell 9.6% year-on-year.
One thing is certain: Huawei's mobile phone sales are increasing rapidly, while Apple's sales are gradually declining. It has a significant performance in the Chinese mobile phone market.
In fact, there were signs of this situation as early as September last year.
In September 2023, Apple released the iPhone 15 series of mobile phones, but unlike the previous new iPhone phones, the iPhone 15 series models are obviously lacking in popularity, and many consumers want to compare it with Huawei's new Mate 60.
Huawei Mate60 series mobile phones are equipped with Kirin chips, HarmonyOS operating system, plus satellite communication function, and have quickly become one of the most popular domestic mobile phones. The starting price of the Huawei Mate60 series is as high as 5499 yuan, and the price is directly comparable to the iPhone 15 series, and its hot sales will undoubtedly affect the sales of the iPhone in the Chinese market to a large extent.
The Mate 60 series of mobile phones were quickly sold out, and in the case of insufficient supply, Huawei released nova 12 on December 26, 2023, although it is not as good as the Mate60 as a whole, but because it is equipped with Kirin chips, it also encountered a rush to buy, and these two models have gone crazy in the mobile phone market with Kirin chips.
In addition to Huawei, Honor and Xiaomi also rose to varying degrees, with increases of 11.5% and 8.5% respectively.
From the entire ranking, we can also see that domestic mobile phones occupy an absolute advantage in China's mobile phone market, accounting for more than 80% of the total. vivo ranked first in sales this quarter with a share of 17.4%, followed by Honor at 16.1%, Apple at 15.7%, Huawei at 15.5%, Oppo at 15.3%, and Xiaomi at 14.6%.
Apple's market share is being squeezed by domestic brands, especially the rise of Huawei, and many netizens said: Apple may have to follow in Samsung's footsteps.
Samsung has been the leader in smartphone shipments for 12 years, and will be replaced by Apple for the first time in 2023, which has a lot to do with Samsung's loss of the Chinese market.
At its peak, Samsung had the highest market share in China with a market share of 21.9%.
By 2015, Samsung had dropped out of the top five in the Chinese market, mainly because of the rise of domestic brands such as Huawei and Xiaomi.
By 2016, two things had happened that made domestic consumers vote directly with their feet.
In August 2016, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 was released, and the subsequent explosion occurred, and Samsung quickly took measures to recall it globally, but excluding China.
What's more, Samsung also issued a statement in response to a Chinese Galaxy Note 7 explosion, saying that it was caused by consumers using induction cookers to heat, and wanted to sue Chinese consumers for insurance fraud.
After the intervention of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People's Republic of China, Samsung announced on October 11 that it had launched a recall plan for the Chinese version of the Galaxy Note 7.
There is even more excessive, once, Samsung held an order fair in Shijiazhuang. In order to make dealers place more orders, Samsung's Korean executives asked the management of China to kneel down collectively.
It is said that three Chinese employees were reluctant to kneel, and the Korean side directly pressed their hands on the employees' heads and knelt.
Later, Samsung explained that kneeling in Korean culture is actually a big salute and respect for each other.
In China, it has always been kneeling to the world and kneeling to parents, and Samsung, which is dead, is completely cold in the Chinese market.
By 2023, Samsung's market share in China will be less than 1%, and its global sales will also be surpassed by Apple.
You must know that at its peak, Samsung's market share in China was as high as 28%, but now it is less than 1%, and the global market has also dropped from the highest 31.3% to 19.4%.
Now, judging from the data, Apple is also following the path of Samsung, in October 2022, Apple's mobile phone market share in China reached its peak, with a share of 25%, and it fell to 15.7 in the first quarter of this year, a decline of nearly 10%.
The most important reason for Apple's Waterloo in the Chinese market is the competition of domestic mobile phones, especially the rise of Huawei.
Wall Street has repeatedly said that there are only two brands in China's high-end mobile phone market, Huawei and Apple.
After Huawei was suppressed and restricted, it briefly lost the 5G Kirin chip, and the only thing that could be purchased was the 4G Qualcomm chip, which naturally could not attract consumers, and Huawei's mobile phone business also plummeted.
In September 2023, the release of the Mate60 marks the return of the king of Kirin chips, and Chinese consumers are competing to buy Huawei mobile phones, reproducing the grand occasion of hard to find a machine.
Apple and Qualcomm were directly dumbfounded, obviously their chips are more powerful, why do Chinese consumers still want to grab Huawei?
It's all thanks to the United States and Apple.
In the global mobile phone market, Huawei, Apple, and Qualcomm could have competed on the same stage and relied on their skills to eat, but with Huawei's continuous development and growth, it has performed well in many fields such as communications, chips, and smartphones, and the United States can no longer sit still.
On May 15, 2019, the U.S. Department of Commerce directly added Huawei to the Entity List, and in September 2020, Huawei lost TSMC's foundry.
This is not over, and then dozens of chip companies such as SMIC, Yangtze River Storage, Changxin Storage, Shanghai Microelectronics, Bichen Technology, and Moore Threads were included in the entity list.
From March 22, 2018 to December 18, 2021 alone, a whopping 611 Chinese companies, institutions and individuals were added to the Entity List.
In 2023, the alliance of the United States, Japan, and the Netherlands has successively introduced a policy of restricting the export of semiconductor equipment, trying to lock Chinese chips at 14nm.
In this case, if we don't buy domestic products, then Chinese technology companies will be in jeopardy, so the consumer market quickly set off a spring breeze in support of domestic production, and Huawei as a technology leader is naturally sought after.
Looking at Apple again, the iPhone has been praised by some media as the "God mobile phone", which is a big hit in the Chinese market, and in order to further expand the Chinese market, Apple has built part of the industrial chain in the mainland.
But after careful research, it was found that this is not the case, Apple's parts in the mainland basically have no core components, and they are all "leftovers" that are easy to replace.
Apple's chips are made of TSMC BandPass, Apple from Samsung, baseband from Qualcomm, memory from SK hynix, flash memory from Toshiba, and COMS from Sony.
BYD and Lens Technology in China provide Apple with parts such as glass, structural parts, and metal shells, as well as assembly business. What's even more embarrassing is that Foxconn has a number of factories in the mainland and makes 90% of the iPhones, but the profits are basically taken by Apple.
According to data from research institutions, Apple took 85% of the profits of the smartphone market, an iPhone priced at 5000+, Apple easily took 58% of the profits, and Chinese workers only took 1.8% of the profits.
Even so, Apple still feels that the cost is too high, and has repeatedly asked Foxconn to pay Southeast Asia to build a foundry, and at the same time asked companies in China's mobile phone industry chain to build factories in Southeast Asia, otherwise they will face the risk of T fruit chain.
Huawei, on the other hand, is trying to support mainland companies, and core components such as chips, operating systems, screens, CMOS, and memory are all "made in China".
Mate 60国产化率达到了90%,whole 70国产化率接近100%.
The funds for the purchase of Huawei mobile phones have basically flowed into the domestic mobile phone industry chain, and the enterprises in the industrial chain have grown rapidly, the technology has also been rapidly iterated, and the wages of workers have also increased, and the chain reaction it brings will benefit every Chinese.
Continue to develop, quantitative changes lead to qualitative changes, China's science and technology have undergone earth-shaking changes, and then each of our dreams will come true.
With such an expectation, iPhone sales in China will continue to decline, and eventually Samsung's footsteps may follow.
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