Recently, the issue of future growth has become a dark cloud hanging over Apple, and one of the focuses of attention is the decline in Apple's sales in China. Other data shows that Apple has also begun to cool down in the U.S. market.
On April 25, the latest quarterly mobile phone tracking report of the International Data Corporation (IDC) showed that in the first quarter of 2024, China's smartphone market shipped about 69.26 million units, a year-on-year increase of 6.5%. Among them, Honor's market share in China in the first quarter was 17.1%, a year-on-year increase of 13.2%, ranking first, and Huawei has recovered rapidly since its return at the end of August last year, and has tied for the first place in the Chinese market in the first quarter of this year, with a year-on-year increase of more than 100%. OPPO and Apple are tied for third place.
Source: IDC, the same below
In addition, IDC reports show that thanks to the good market performance of manufacturers such as Honor and Huawei, the overall Android market increased by 9.3% year-on-year. The iOS market is still facing greater competitive pressure, down 6.6% year-on-year.
Specific to the respective performance of the top five smartphone manufacturers in the first quarter, IDC pointed out that Honor grasped the pain points of users and created popular products in various price segments. Among them, thanks to the increase of AI functions, as well as all-round upgrades such as images and screens, the first quarter shipments of the Magic 6 series exceeded the sum of the first two quarters of the previous generation of products, and the folding screen products helped Honor's shipments in the high-end market above $600 (currently about 4,350 yuan) to increase by 123.3% year-on-year.
As for Huawei, the Mate 60 series continues to be in short supply, and the nova 12 series accounted for one-third of Huawei's quarterly shipments. But supply issues remain a key factor limiting Huawei's shipments. In the next quarter, with the Huawei P series fully upgraded to Huawei Pura, the Pura 70 series is expected to help Huawei's shipments continue to increase rapidly.
OPPO continued to rank third with a 15.7% market share, Apple tied for third place in the domestic market in the first quarter, and vivo ranked fifth with a 14.6% market share.
It is worth mentioning that Apple's shipments in the first quarter fell by 6.6% year-on-year. IDC pointed out that despite the continuous price adjustment and promotion, and the iPhone 15 Pro Max was the best-selling model during the Spring Festival, Apple is facing increasing challenges and pressure from competing products, and urgently needs to upgrade and innovate from all aspects of software and hardware to attract consumers.
Previously, Apple's financial report for the first quarter of fiscal year 2024 (the fourth quarter of the natural year 2023) showed that Apple's revenue in Greater China was $20.82 billion, down 12.9% year-on-year, lower than the market expectation of $23.5 billion. And by region, only Greater China saw a significant decline in revenue.
Judging from the data of IDC, Apple's sales in China so far this year are not optimistic. Other data shows that Apple has also begun to cool down in the U.S. market.
According to the latest report from market research firm CIRP, the share of new activations in the U.S. smartphone market fell sharply from last year, falling to the lowest level in six years. According to the data, as of the first quarter of 2024, Apple's share of new activations in the U.S. market was 33%, while in the first and second quarters of 2023, this number once peaked at 40%. According to CIRP, the last time Apple had such a low percentage of activations was back in 2017.
CIRP believes that the improvement in the quality of iPhones over the past few years, as well as the decrease in new features, may be one of the reasons for the drop in activation rates. Another potential factor is that "more transparent phone purchase plans have prompted many smartphone users to postpone the upgrade cycle", which may have a greater impact on iPhones than on Android phones.
In addition, Apple will soon release its new quarterly earnings report, and Wall Street analysts expect the decline in iPhone revenue to drag Apple's overall revenue down about 5%, suffering its fifth decline in the past six quarters.
Looking at the Chinese mobile phone market, IDC pointed out that the folding screen is still one of the keys to the differentiated competition between Android mobile phones and iOS in the high-end market.
Data shows that in the first quarter of 2024, China's folding screen mobile phone market continued its rapid growth trend, with shipments reaching 1.86 million units, a year-on-year increase of 83%.
In the first quarter of 2024, the Mate X5 and the new Pocket 2 helped Huawei secure the first place in the market share, reaching 44.1%, since the release of the Magic V2, Honor has grown rapidly in the folding screen market, ranking second in the quarter with a share of 26.7%, vivo ranked third with a share of 12.6%, vivo X Fold3 series sales exceeded expectations and has begun to increase orders, OPPO has gained a 9.0% market share, Find N3 Flip is the second largest market share, while Samsung is fifth with a 5.9% market share.
Source: Observer.com