Apple is struggling due to falling consumer spending in China and government controls on foreign technology.
iPhone sales in China dropped 24% in the first six weeks of 2024, putting Apple in fourth place behind Vivo, Huawei and Honor, according to Counterpoint Research.
According to Counterpoint Research, Apple has lost its throne in China to Vivo, a phone company that focuses on the low-cost segment. Both saw sales decline in the first six weeks of 2024 as the overall market fell 7%. Meanwhile, Huawei increased its market share to 16.5% thanks to sales of the Mate 60 Pro model and a wave of patriotic shopping.
Apple is facing new challenges in China, a key market for the US technology giant. Photo: internet
However, Apple’s problems have persisted for a year due to trade tensions between the US and China and rising nationalism, with customers now prioritizing domestic brands like Huawei.
“Basically, Apple faces fierce competition in the high-end segment from a strongly resurgent Huawei despite facing pressure from competitive prices from competitors such as Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi,” said Mengmeng Zhang, senior analyst at Counterpoint, in a press release. “While the iPhone 15 is a great device, it does not have significant upgrades over the previous version, so consumers feel fine holding older generation iPhones for now.”
Apple shares decreased 2.8% yesterday (March 5). The stock has fallen about 11.6% this year on concerns about weakening sales, especially in China.
China remains an extremely important market for Apple, just behind the US, where the company made huge profits in product launches last year. To partly overcome the decline, Apple is implementing many discount programs.
