iPhone 6 and 6 Plus sales hit a new all-time high in urban China in February, capturing a massive 27.6 percent of the smartphone market. For those keeping track at home, that’s an impressive increase of more than 2 percent from the 25.4 percent recorded just one month earlier.
Driving the jump was Chinese New Year, which saw a large number of new activations take place amidst the festivities. It’s no wonder that Tim Cook has claimed that it’s only a matter of time before China overtakes the United States as Apple’s biggest market!
Today’s new figures come from Kantar Worldpanel. According to the analyst firm, the iPhone 6 remained the best-selling phone in China during the three months ending in February; growing its market share to 10.2 percent. By comparison, the larger iPhone 6 Plus is the country’s best-selling smartphone after both the iPhone 6 and Xiaomi’s RedMI Note.
China Mobile — China’s largest network provider, which Apple signed with in early 2014 — accounts for a whopping 59 percent of all Chinese iPhone customers.
As I’ve written before, China is one of Apple’s most important market based not only on the number of people in the country, but also on the fact that the smartphone war has yet to be decided — with saturation levels not yet reached as in more established markets. The majority of smartphone users in the country are just in the process of transitioning from old-style mobile phones to smartphones, which has had the result of heating up competition between giants like Apple and Samsung, and smaller local manufacturers such as Xiaomi and Huawei.
Apple is certainly doing something right, however. Along with increasing iPhone sales, the company recently beat out the likes of Gucci and Chanel to be named China’s favorite luxury brand.
By comparison, today’s Kantar Worldpanel figures show that iOS also grew its market share across Europe’s five major economies during this period, while Android declined. However, Apple experienced a slight fall in popularity in the U.S. during that same timeframe, with market share dropping from 39.3 percent to 38.8 percent.
Given that Apple’s just launched a trade-in program in China to help users upgrade to the latest iPhone, I’d expect iPhone 6 and 6 Plus adoption to grow steadily over the next few months, too.
