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iPhone Sales in China Declined 24% in First Six Weeks of 2024
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No kidding
I spent 30 mins playing with an S24 and S24+ and then a Fold over at BestBuy the other day.
I was blown away at how great it was to use - the speed and feel of it all was awesome.
Beautiful hardware
The economy in China is way worse than most know. People graduating from colleges cannot find jobs. Its estimated by some of the folks I know over there that unemployment among the college graduates is around 30%. This is typically Apple's sweet spot. young people with cash.
You are seeing a shift to less expensive models in China. This is not an Apple problem in my opinion. Its an economic problem on a larger scale than what is typically reported in the west.
Which is an Apple problem no matter what.
Chinese demand is a large portion of what has driven the iPhone through the stratosphere.
It's not people in the West.
A problem with demand there is a massive problem for Apple
I think the sweet spot could be the parents of teenage daughters.
Feels like it from my perspective anyway....😬
When Jobs was alive the iPhone was a NEW SHINY THING. That brought excitement. When a product is mature you see less year-to-year changes and less excitement. Sure they could innovate more. But not much more can be done with a phone slab other than improving all the innards. I personally believe the Vision Pro is something NEW and SHINY but just limited by how much it costs to make it currently. Much more than a phone does. I'm not so sure Jobs would have had any other ways to "innovate" than the current trajectory. But it is armchair quaterbacking for sure.
We say things like this in literally every product category ...
..and yet, then something always comes along
Not really, huawei is just better
If it’s because of these two reasons, iPhone sale would’ve tanked last year or earlier
More indicative of the "notoriously meddling don't teach basic math anymore " party. Percent,%, is "per 100" ( that is why the symbol has two 0 zeros with a divisor going through them. ) . Each one of the columns in the chart should add up to 100% . ( technically they don't. Likely because of rounding to present nice single , digit whole numbers. 99% and 101% respectively. Another digit of precision and they'll likely round to 100%. ). Since the total has to add up to 100, if Apple's numbers go down then other numbers will go up by the same amount. It isn't a conspiracy by the CCP ... it is just basic math. it is how percentages work. This isn't unit sales numbers. Everyone's numbers are being divided by the aggregate total. That aggregate total is a fixed amount for any individual year here. The 'same amount' is driven by the mathematical tool doing the measuring.
The "others" category has other non-Chinese vendors in it too and it only dropped by 1%. The other Chinese phone vendors already were the dominate players in the market. ( not particularly surprising when almost everyones phones regardless of vendor are being made in China. ) . If Apple losses share, it is most likely that most of the share will go to another significantly large competitor in the market.
The CCP meddling in their economy , dubious zig-zags on COVID policy , saber rattling around Taiwan , anti-competitive trade practices, rigid fixation on "one child policy" for too long are all playing some indirect roles here. However, Apple's prices are relatively too high ( which the CCP does not set). Apple's SE4 is stalled ( in sagging economy have even more 'stale' lower priced options.). Apple is ramping up factories outside of China ( pragmatically everything in one relatively narrow geographical region never made risk management sense anyway and never was the CCP's call to make.) . So there are arrogant, 'bonehead' moves that Apple has made also.
And Apple's share is higher in the USA than vast majority of other countries. Meddling by the USA government? Not really. ( no Huawei phone coming to USA any time soon , but they never were a substantive player in USA anyway. )
CCP banning iPhones from government employees wasn't a 'suggestion'. That isn't the total of Apple's fall. There are trade war moves to directly damage the competitiveness of several Chinese government coupled companies. The kicking Apple in the 'shins' here isn't completely arbitrary or 'suggestive'.
Nor is it particularly arbitrary that they will come after your IP if it falls into a strategically or tactically desirable designation. The "billion person market" is used a a lure, but it always was a lure. It was just whether companies wanted to ignore it or not.
So many reasons being given that perhaps aren't the main reason
iPhone innovation has stagnated relative to options in the marketplace, especially in China
iPhone innovation has stagnated relative to options in the marketplace, especially in China
Alls fair in love and war and capitalism. We banned hauwei and other china phones, so they will do the same
Nothing to do with it. The Chinese government was banning government officials from using iOS devices. Not a lot of innovation going on just a fair bit of IP theft and throwing stuff at the wall.
Are you serious? Huawei latest phone was not great and the chip in it was a joke. People really need to stop listening to propaganda. And the chips they did so called make were with western foundries. So not created themselves at all.
Nothing game changing. All brands are just small improvements at this point. Other than maybe foldable, but I personally don't see that as compelling as I like touching glass and haven't felt that my iPhone is too big to carry around.
How is this relevant for Apple's decline in the last 5 months in the Chinese market?
Do you think a change to this would increase their market share in China?
I agree, excellent points. Going forward internally Apple can address these issues, if they choose. However, externally the political landscape in China looks dismal for Apple's growth. I believe the best Apple can do is stop /slow the slide.
Is this really a problem for Apple in the Chinese market?
Shouldn't Samsung have a bigger market share than Apple then?
Under Tim Cook, Apple rose to become the biggest smartphone vendor in China! Samsung was essentially wiped out from the Chinese market.
It's only in last 6 months that Apple has lost the #1 spot. If you follow news about China you'll know it's not all about the price or the quality of the product.
I see several people pushing the idea that the fall in iPhone sales is because of a smaller market. This is, in the main, not true.
If this trend continues, it will soon become a calamity for Apple.
- The market has fallen 7%, but Apples sales have fallen 24%. Even taking out the 7% general fall, Apples sales have fallen 17%. That's a large fall in a short time.
- Phones are having to be discounted to be sold. That means the average revenue per user is lower.
- Much of Huawei's gain is coming from the Mate 60, which is similarly priced to the iPhone (iPhone 15 retails at 5999, but can be had for 500-1000 off - Mate 60 costs 5400). Based on a specs comparison, the Mate 60 spanks the iPhone in everything except raw performance - double the RAM and storage, larger, faster charging battery (including 50w wireless charging), user expandable memory (albeit proprietary), faster usb, etc. Suffice to say it is a high end phone, so Apple is not losing out because people are only buying cheap phones - people are actively buying high end phones, just not iPhones. From what I read, the only thing holding Huawei back from being even further ahead is shortage of supply.
If this trend continues, it will soon become a calamity for Apple.
A sign that Apple may be losing its "cool factor". It may well also be relevant in China.
This is the first (and only? edited: it seems a few others do have some knowledge about the Chinese market) post that seems to have some grasp about the Chinese smartphone market.
Although more Chinese people can afford an iPhone than a tiny minority.
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Which if it was could explain the sales decrease instead of all the other things people have written here.
It's not an increase in anti-American sentiment in China but in an anti-Apple sentiment from a tiny, but powerful group of people in China which might explain some of it.
Tesla will experience the same thing.
What's Samsungs market share in China?
Sometimes, how a market works hasn't anything to do with hardware or software quality.