iPhone Shipments Up 36% in China, Despite 11% Drop in Smartphone Market [Report]

Apple grew iPhone shipments by 36% in China last quarter, despite a 11% drop in the Chinese smartphone market year over year.

“Apple saw remarkable growth in Mainland China in Q3,” said Canalys Analyst Amber Liu. “Its annual launch is highly anticipated by consumers and channels and strong demand for the iPhone 14 Pro series contributed to Apple’s overall performance. However, lackluster demand of the iPhone 14 series sent a strong signal that even Apple is not completely isolated from weak Mainland China consumer demand. Under an onslaught of Android vendor competition, Apple had to concede to adopt aggressive promotions of its entry-level editions and previous generation devices, especially in the RMB5000-6000 (US$700-800) price band.”




vivo maintained its lead in the market with 14.1 million units in Q3 2022; while OPPO (including OnePlus), shipping 12.1 million units, rose to second place. HONOR lost its H1 2022 growth momentum and slipped to third with 12.0 million units due to a lack of new launches. Apple came fourth with 11.3 million units, while Xiaomi completed the top five with 9.0 million units shipped in Q3 2022.

“The Mainland China market will maintain flat or see a small growth in 2023 which is still a much lower level than 2021 or pre-pandemic as demand is not likely to improve until late next year. The coming Q4 performance will be driven by Apple with bulk shipments of new iPhones and the e-commerce shopping festival,” said Toby Zhu. “Android vendors will push out new launches of high-end devices as well as foldable phones, although production planning should be much more cautious. Vendors have been suffering from rapidly declining demand and high inventory over the past quarters which has severely damaged confidence in the overall supply chain. Vendors must face market reality and put effort into optimizing operations and profitability while building relationships with their existing user base.”

More details in the full report linked below...

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