iPhone in China: Apple apparently falls to 3rd place
According to Counterpoint Research, Apple was unable to gain market share in China with the iPhone 16. This helps local manufacturers.
iPhone in front of Chinese flag: Apparently further market share loss in China.
(Image: Erstellt mit Grok durch Mac & i)
Apple's sales weakness in China continues, according to a new analyst report. According to new Counterpoint Research figures for the fourth quarter of 2024, which were only estimated or based on surveys due to a lack of official data from Apple, the iPhone manufacturer was only ranked third in the Middle Kingdom (17.1% market share). The market leader is now Huawei (18.1%), followed by Xiaomi (17.2%) – both domestic brands.
The full year 2024 did not go well for Apple either
Things looked very different in the fourth quarter of 2023: Back then, Apple was the leader with a 20.2 percent market share, followed by Xiaomi (16 percent) and Huawei (15.2 percent). Samsung does not usually play a role in China. iPhone sales thus shrank by a total of 18.2%. The crisis for Apple phones in China is not due to a shrinking market. According to Counterpoint, total smartphone sales grew by 1.5% compared to the same quarter of the previous year. In the fourth quarter of 2023, however, the market declined by 1.4%.
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Looking at 2024 as a whole, Apple did not fare well either. According to Counterpoint, it only achieved a market share of 15.5 percent, which is only fourth place, with the low-cost brand Vivo coming out on top (17.8 percent), followed by Huawei (16.3 percent) and Xiaomi (15.7 percent). In 2023 as a whole, Apple was still the leader with a market share of 17.9%, followed by Vivo and Oppo. Huawei is currently considered a big winner in the Chinese market because the company scores with various top models, which obviously also trigger a kind of patriotism effect.
Subsidies for smartphone purchases
The Chinese government is currently doing everything in its power to boost smartphone sales for domestic brands. In January, a nationwide subsidy program was introduced to boost the current low single-digit growth rate. According to Counterpoint, this is particularly likely in the first quarter of 2025. Overall, the company is “cautiously optimistic” for the market as a whole.
Apple is and remains in a special situation. Although most iPhones are still produced in China, Apple is still considered an American brand. The iPhone 16 models from the fourth quarter of 2024, which dominate Apple Intelligence for the first time, were unable to score points in the Chinese market, as the service has not even been announced there yet. Apple is forced to look for a local partner for a suitable language model, but has not yet succeeded in doing so.
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