Apple Is The Fifth Largest Smartphone Maker In China [Report]

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iPhone sales
The impact of coronavirus in China could hurt Apple in 2021.
Illustration: Cult of Mac

According to numbers from analyst firm IDC, Apple is now the fifth-largest cellphone maker in China, with 7% of the overall market share.

Apple jumped an entire 1 percent in the last quarter of 2013, based on the success of the iPhone 5s and 5c. This doesn’t take into account the impact of Apple’s deal with China Mobile, which began selling handsets to customers this January.

Samsung continues to dominate the Chinese marketplace, with a number of Android models adding up to 19% of the smartphone market; followed by Lenovo with 13%, Coolpad with 11%, and Huawei with 10%.

Revenue from China accounted for around 14.6% of Apple’s total revenue for the holiday quarter — an increase of 29% from 2012.

The Chinese market is an important one for Apple, with its existing customer base of 140 million 3G subscribers. Analysts have suggested that Apple could add up to 15 million iPhones from this pool alone before the end of 2014.

While smartphone market share isn’t everything (it’s far more important to monetize the market share you do have), it is not a metric that Apple is ignoring.

Tim Cook recently told the Wall Street Journal that, “I do care about … market share,” and noted that, “you want to be relevant.”

Source: Wall Street Journal

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