iPhone 16 with the Chinese language flag
Apple’s iPhone gross sales in China reportedly took a tumble on the finish of 2024, with a substantial discount in gross sales placing it in a lifeless warmth with homegrown Xiaomi.
The iPhone 16 has struggled in China since launch, however there was hope vacation procuring would enhance its standing within the essential territory. Evidently hope was misplaced.
In response to evaluation by Counterpoint, Apple’s place in China acquired weaker within the fourth quarter of 2024. In a year-on-year market share comparability, Apple noticed its gross sales fall 18.2% in comparison with This fall 2023.
The general market share within the area for Apple now resides at 17.1%, placing Apple in third place behind Huawei (18.1%) and simply behind Xiaomi (17.2%). Each of the rival corporations noticed will increase, with Huawei rising its gross sales 15.5% year-on-year.
Apple’s place is a substantial drop from This fall 2023, when it had a 20.2% market share and topped the Chinese language smartphone market.
Smartphone model market share in China This fall 2023 and This fall 2024 – Picture Credit score: Counterpoint
The discount in Apple’s place can be worse than simply the market share. The general China smartphone market declined year-on-year by 3.2%, the one quarter to take action in 2024.
Counterpoint additionally launched annual market share figures for the China smartphone market, and it was additionally unhealthy information for Apple. In 2023, it had a 17.9% total share, however Apple dropped down to fifteen.5% in 2024.
Apple endured an total 12.6% decline in gross sales for 2024 over 2023’s figures, which introduced it all the way down to fourth place available in the market total. Vivo leads with 17.8%, with Huawei at 16.3% and Xiaomi at 15.7%.
Analysts imagine China’s smartphone market will proceed to have single-digit progress in 2025. It will partially be aided by a nationwide smartphone subsidy program introduced in January, which ought to assist enhance gross sales.
It’s unclear the place the Counterpoint Market Pluse Service sourced its information, so its absolute accuracy is unknown. Nonetheless, it does appear to correlate with different experiences on the subject.
Whereas Apple does supply insights in addition to an total determine for world iPhone gross sales in its quarterly experiences, it doesn’t supply extra granular particulars. For instance, we all know Apple’s income from China for the quarter, however not how a lot of it was from iPhone gross sales.
In need of Apple providing extra correct monetary particulars, experiences equivalent to these from Counterpoint and different analysts are the one actual method to understand how Apple is faring in China.
Continued unhealthy information
Counterpoint’s report is simply the most recent to say that Apple’s having a tough time in China in the mean time. Though, not each information story within the area is dour.
In October, an IDC report noticed Apple return to a listing of the highest 5 smartphone producers in China for Q3 2024, a small dip of 0.3% from the identical time the earlier yr. It was additionally claimed that the iPhone 16 had seen a 20% leap in gross sales in China over its predecessor, the iPhone 15, in the identical quarter.
On the similar time, the foremost gross sales of Singles Day was reported in November to be extraordinarily unhealthy for Apple. It apparently noticed a double-digit proportion year-on-year decline for the gross sales interval, even with a uncommon early low cost on the brand new fashions.
Even the China Academy of Info and Communications Expertise identified in January that gross sales of foreign-branded smartphones has continued to say no. Whereas not singling Apple out, that class of smartphone noticed year-on-year dips in sale for 4 months in a row.
There was additionally an expectation that Apple Intelligence would assist Apple safe gross sales world wide. Nonetheless, that hasn’t helped in China in any respect, as a result of Apple Intelligence is not out there within the area but.
Apple is anticipating to roll out assist in China sooner or later, however regulatory pressures means it has to supply help from different main tech corporations within the nation. It has reportedly talked to ByteDance and Tencent to make use of their AI fashions, however there has not been any official phrase of a launch within the rapid future.
With rivals already capitalizing on offering AI companies, Apple has an extended method to catch up. Launching Apple Intelligence within the nation may go an extended method to clawing again iPhone gross sales in a area Apple is eager to succeed inside.
