Apple’s struggles in China continue. In Q1 2025, the company fell to fifth place, despite the overall smartphone market growing by 3.3%.
Huawei and Oppo made the most of Apple’s fall, registering double-digit growth.
In the first quarter of 2024, iPhone sales in China slid 19.1% compared to Q1 2023. And that’s mainly due to competitor Huawei taking a bigger bite in the premium segment, according to new research. And yet analysts indicated possible signs of recovery for Apple, too.
Just as Apple overtook Samsung as the worldwide smartphone leader in 2023, iPhone also became China’s favorite smartphone during that timeframe, according to a new report Thursday from International Data Tracker (IDC).
Apple captured 17.3% of China’s smartphone market in 2023, up from 16.8% in 2022 — albeit in a shrinking marketplace where smartphone shipments declined 5% overall, but with signs of recovery showing up late in the year.
iPhone shipments increased modestly in the first three months of 2023, according to a market research firm. That’s in stark contrast to Android-makers, most of which experienced double-digit drops.
The trend carried through in China, making Apple the largest smartphone seller in this critical market.
The fact that iPhone sales were down in the first three months of the year is no secret, but new information shows that the decline wasn’t isolated to one or two areas. No, Apple admitted that iOS handset sales dropped in every region of the world.
Although Apple no longer reports the number of iPhone units it sells, the company did admit there was a steep decline in handset revenue in the first three months of this year. Analysts are out with their exact estimates, and the number of iPhones shipped last quarter could have dipped as much as 30 percent.
Taking a close look at Apple’s financial results during the first three months of this year in hard numbers shows how the company is changing. Services are getting more important to its bottom line, and so are iPads. While iPhone is still a big part of Apple’s business, it’s not as significant as it used to be.
Check out these charts that demonstrate with a glance how the changes play out.
The latest round of iPhone price cuts on China have accomplished their goal, according to an analyst with Wedbush. Demand for Apple handsets has increased in that country.
That’s very good news for the company, as CEO TIm Cook said early this year that slow sales in China were the entire reason Apple saw a revenue decease at the end of 2018.
We’ll soon know if Apple made progress drumming up more demand for the latest iPhones in Asia. Weak demand in China caused a surprising year-over-year drop in Apple’s total revenue during the last quarter of 2018.
CEO Tim Cook and co. have just scheduled an earning call with investors for April 30. We’ll find out then if the company managed to improve its situation during the first three months of 2019.
Temporary price cuts in China offered only a temporary boost in iPhone sales, according to industry analysts watching how Apple would follow up dismal year-end figures in the depressed Chinese smartphone market.
To start 2019, Apple revealed unexpected revenue shortfalls, blaming it mostly on a sharp drop in demand for iPhones in China.