Foreign brands are finding China’s smartphone market tough

Apple Intelligence’s Siri animation on an iPhone

A drop in foreign-branded smartphone sales in China continues to hit the iPhone, with the year-on-year dip continuing for the fourth month in a row.

China is a major market for Apple, but the company has had trouble maintaining its position in recent years. A government-affiliated report now indicates the market is even tougher for Apple to compete in.

Data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) indicates that shipments of foreign-branded smartphones in China reached 3.04 million in November. Reuters reports this is a 47.4% drop from the 5.77 million units reported for November 2023.

The data also means that foreign-branded smartphones have seen year-on-year dips in sale for four months in a row. In October, the YoY drop was 44.25%.

The figures should be concerning for Apple, as the iPhone would count as a foreign-branded device for this report. However, this figure is not broken down by vendor, so it’s not possible to determine exactly how much Apple’s iPhone has been affected.

It does, however, offer a glimpse into consumer sentiment, in preferring domestic producers over foreign brands. Overall smartphone shipments in China, including domestic brands, fell 5.1% year-on-year to 29.61 million units.

It is plausible, though, that other foreign smartphone brands have seen a decline in the country, with Apple working to maintain its position.

In October, IDC said that Apple was the second most popular smartphone brand in China for Q3 2024, with a 15.6% market share dipping just 0.3% year-on-year.

That same month, it was determined that the iPhone 16 range had a better launch period in China than the iPhone 15 did. For the first three weeks of availability, the iPhone 16 was approximately 20% better than the iPhone 15’s first three weeks.

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