After the second-best iPhone launch quarter Apple has ever had in China, new gross sales estimates declare that Apple additionally had the most important quarterly drop it has ever had.
Figures from Counterpoint Analysis have already claimed that Apple’s iPhone gross sales for Q1 2024 in China have been down 19.1% yr over yr. Now Canalys says that gross sales have been considerably worse with a 25% drop.
Apple’s decline was the worst amongst the highest 5 distributors, promoting 10 million iPhones, dropping from a 20% market share to a 15% one. That compares to the highest reseller, Huawei, which shipped 11.7 million smartphones, rising to 17% share from 10% in Q1 2023.
Canalys says that Apple’s decline additionally got here because the Chinese language market rebounded after years of steady decline.
Nevertheless, Canalys’s chart of gross sales from Q3 2021 to Q1 2024 exhibits that the iPhone 15 peaked larger than the iPhone 14 the yr earlier than. Then simply as with analysts akin to Morgan Stanley, Canalys expects AI to spice up smartphone gross sales — but it surely thinks that may profit China’s personal manufacturers.
“The Gen AI-capable smartphone presents essential alternatives for Chinese language distributors to distinguish within the high-end in 2024 to problem Apple [further],” mentioned Lucas Zhong, Canalys Analysis Analyst. “Canalys forecasts Gen AI-capable smartphones will attain 12% of shipments in 2024 in mainland China, forward of the worldwide common of 9%.”
In February 2024, Apple reported that China gross sales have been down 13% yr over yr, however this nonetheless amounted to simply over $20 billion in iPhone gross sales within the nation.