Apple iPhone sales slump 24% in China, fanning fears of a slowdown
Apple’s iPhone sales in China fell 24% year-on-year in the first six weeks of 2024, according to research firm Counterpoint, as the company faced increased competition from domestic rivalšŖs such as Huawei.
The tech giant’s chief competitor in China in premium smartphones, Huawei, saw unit sales rise by 64% in the period, according to the report.
This could fan fears of a slowdown in demand for the company, whose revenue forecast for the current quarter was $6 billion below Wall Street exāpectations.
Shares of the iPhone maker closed down nearly 3% on Tuesday anād have lost about 12% of their value so far thiš²s year, underperforming their big tech peers in the US.
Counterpoint’s report said Apple’s share of the Chinese smartphone market dropped to 15.7%, putting it in fourth place, compared with second place in the year-ago period when it had 19% market share.
Huawei rose to second place as its market share expanded to 16.5% from 9.4% a year earlier. The overall smartphone market in China ą¹shrank 7%, the report said.
Apple “faced stiff competition at the high end from a resurgent Huawei while getting squeezed in the middle on aggressive pricing from the likes of OPPO, Vivo and Xiaomi,” Counterpoint’s senior analyst Mengmeng Zhang said.
Apple began subsidizing certain iPhone models by as much as 1,300 yuan ($180.68) last week through flagship stores on Tmall, Alibaba’s major marketplace platform.
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Išt had already offered iPhone discounts of up to 500 yuan on its official sites last š„month.
Huš“awei has seen a resurgence in its premium smartphone sales since it released its Mate 60 series in August after struggling for years with US curbs on the exports ofšø key components to the company.
Honor, the smartphone brand spun off from Huawei in 202š0, was theš only other top-five brand to see unit sales increase during the first six weeks of the year, up 2%. Chinese brands Vivo, Xiaomi and Oppo dropped 15%, 7% and 29%, respectively.