iPhone shipments in China plunge nearly 50% as local brands surge

[midian182]

What just happened? Apple is facing more problems with China, and not just those related to Trump's tariffs. Shipments of non-Chinese handsets in the country – of which iPhones make up the majority – fell by almost 50% in March, despite overall smartphone shipments increasing.

Apple has long been one of the few western companies to enjoy success in China, but the popularity of its iPhones in the Asian nation is waning as local brands experience growth.

According to figures released by The China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), shipments of foreign handsets in China fell to just 1.89 million units in March, down 49.6% compared to the 3.75 million units that shipped during the same period a year earlier.

For the entire first quarter of 2025, shipments of non-Chinese brands of smartphones fell by over 25%. However, total smartphone shipments increased by 3.3%.

It means that Apple's share of the Chinese smartphone market has crashed to just 8% as domestic brands control 92% of all shipments.

According to Counterpoint Research's sales (not shipments) report from April, US-sanctioned Huawei maintained its lead as China's top smartphone company in Q1 with a 28.5% sales increase to reach its highest ever market share since 2021 (19.4%). It was followed by Vivo (17%), Xiaomi (16.6%), and Oppo (14.6%). Apple was in fifth place with a 14.1% share.

Part of Apple's misfortunes is coming from the Chinese government. China launched a nationwide 15 % "buy-new" subsidy for digital devices priced under 6,000 yuan in January 2025. If you buy a phone, tablet, or smartwatch in China for less than 6,000 yuan in 2025, you can claim 15 % off (up to 500 yuan) once per category, thanks to Beijing's consumer stimulus package. Apple's standard iPhone 16 starts at 5,999 yuan, but it is considering dropping the price of some Pro models ahead of China's 618 shopping festival to encourage buyers.

It's believed that Apple's more cautious approach to integrating AI into its devices has also had an impact on Chinese sales. There's also the Trump tariffs on imports from the country, which has led to some anti-US sentiment among the Chinese public and preference for local brands.

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iPhone shipments in China plunge nearly 50% as local brands surge

 

[Neatfeatguy]

News I'm hearing out of China is that jobs are down, wages are down and people are more concerned about housing and food; not some crappy company that sell overpriced phones.

But, maybe I'm only hearing one side of it all.....

 

[GodisanAtheist]

To paraphrase an old quote from the 90's when an anti-trust suite was being brought against Microsoft "No one hates successful American companies quite like Americans do"

 

[Megalomaniac]

The Neocons are trying to break Russia and China, but they're way behind. Russia and China have been through some of the worst struggles in human history. They'll come out fine on the other side.
America (Trump) meanwhile is making friends into enemies and enemies into aggressors. He'll be gone within 4 years and everything will go back to normal.

 

[Kirby1]

To paraphrase an old quote from the 90's when an anti-trust suite was being brought against Microsoft "No one hates successful American companies quite like Americans do"

I don't dislike Apple because they're successful, I dislike them because everything they make is vastly overpriced yet people buy it anyway as more of a fashion statement than anything else, and that kind of blind consumer loyalty doesn't lead to anything interesting, just mildly iterative gen on gen updates.

Also because they fight hard to make it as hard as they can get away with for consumers to be able to repair their devices. Doing things like attaching a battery to the inside of a laptop case with very strong glue so that it's next to impossible to remove without risking damage or tearing the battery out in an unsafe way is straight up malicious. Apple does things that go against basic common sense just to make it harder for people to repair/upgrade anything they make. There are a lot of very good and fully legitimate reasons to dislike Apple that have nothing to do with their success.

Blanket statements that shift the blame to Americans being petty instead of Apple being terrible only serve to help enable Apple to keep being terrible in the public eye. It's pure ignorance, not to mention that the way Americans feel about Apple has nothing to do with how well iphones sell in China.

 

[p51d007]

The other reason is the Chinese government. China "thinks" you should buy from Chinese manufacturers, or it could hurt you "social credit score" wink wink.

 

[Watzupken]

News I'm hearing out of China is that jobs are down, wages are down and people are more concerned about housing and food; not some crappy company that sell overpriced phones.

But, maybe I'm only hearing one side of it all.....

I think this is the case everywhere and not isolated to China. There’s job losses everywhere and actual inflation numbers is still high despite governments claim of low inflation. I mean you just need to compare prices last year versus prices at the start of the year and I can tell food cost is increasing not just by 2+%.

Apple’s other problem, their products are dull and boring. Each year, the changes are highly predictable and incremental. They look the same, perform a little better, marginally better camera specs, etc. Hence, in face of very aggressive feature updates from Chinese phone makers, it’s no surprise really that interest to upgrade is not there.