Apple's iPhone sales in China saw a significant decline in the first six weeks of this year that saw it lose the title of China's best-selling smartphone maker to a local vendor.
iPhone sales dropped by 24 percent, pushing Apple down to fourth among smartphone makers in the country, according to Counterpoint Research. Vivo took the top spot, thanks to its success in the budget segment of the market.
That's despite both companies selling fewer phones, owing to a 7 percent drop in the overall Chinese market, which is suffering the effects of a nationwide deflation.
Meanwhile, Huawei saw its market share grow to 16.5 percent from 9.4 percent, thanks to the popularity of its home-grown Mate 60 series. Apple recorded a 15.7 percent market share, falling from 19 percent a year ago, according to Counterpoint's data. Overall growth is likely to remain in the red during Q1 2024 on muted spending and a few new product launches, said the analysts.
Apple's iPhone struggled during the first few weeks of the year for several reasons, according to Counterpoint. "Primarily, it 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," said Senior Analyst Mengmeng Zhang.
"Although the iPhone 15 is a great device, it has no significant upgrades from the previous version, so consumers feel fine holding on to the older-generation iPhones for now," he added.
Apple resellers in China have been increasingly dependent on discounts to shift iPhone 15 stock in a market that has entered a general malaise. The discounts followed Apple's own rare price reductions on its website ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday in February.
Apple sales in China dropped 13 percent to $20.8 billion in the quarter ended December, falling short of the $23.5 billion predicted by analysts, and forecasts for a quick improvement in 2024 do not look particularly optimistic.
Top Rated Comments
Apple's approach seems to be centered around maximizing profits by pushing boundaries with pricing, only to later introduce updates or fixes to regain consumer trust.
In essence, Apple needs to focus on delivering consistent quality and value rather than relying on strategies that may compromise customer satisfaction in the long run.
However, it's essential to highlight when certain hardware specifications, such as 128GB storage, 60Hz display, and around ~3400mAh battery capacity, and many others persist for years without significant improvement. This kind of game (using lower-quality components) can't last forever.
While this may save costs for Apple initially, it becomes increasingly apparent when competitors continuously offer similar or even better specifications, such as 256GB storage, 120Hz display, and battery capacities exceeding 4000mAh for standard models, often at a lower price point.
Something is rotting at Apple. I think it is Tim Cook.
In fact, people were lining up all day to buy Apple products at launch. You don't see that anymore, and don't bring up online sales for that because people were lining up for days to buy iPhone 4 when they could've just ordered online.
Chinese folks don't think it's worth paying extra to get Apple products anymore. iPhone was always the most expensive phone in the market; yet under jobs people lined up for days to get it. Not anymore.
If Apple doesn't change the leadership, it will be facing slow death.