Analyst says iPhone sales in China continue to slump

iPhone sales slump in China is deepening and Apple is likely to see volumes decline further this year, according to Jefferies analysts led by Edison Lee — as noted by Bloomberg.

The analyst says the tech giant latest generation got off to an atypically sluggish start in China last year, which most recently expanded to a 30% year-on-year decline, Lee and colleagues said in a note on Sunday, citing industry checks. The rest of the country’s mobile market grew in December, with Huawei growing fastest on the back of its new Mate 60 device lineup.

In the third quarter (Q3) of 2023, smartphone sales in China declined 3% year-over-year (YoY) in a sign the market could be closer to bottoming out, according to Counterpoint Research. 

Counterpoint says that Apple lost share in Q3 2023 as some demand was fulfilled in Q1 and Q2 and because the iPhone 15’s launch sales volume was lower than that of the iPhone 14 series. Apple’s smartphone share in China in Q3 of 2023 is 15.3%. That’s down from 14.2% in Q3 of 2022.

“iPhone sales declined as some demand for older models was fulfilled in Q1 and Q2 2023 due to earlier-than-expected price cuts by channels, which were not offset by the official price adjustment,” according to Counterpoint Research Director Alicia Gong. “This was compounded by initial supply constraints faced by the iPhone 15 series, which resulted in lower sales compared to the iPhone 14 series for the launch period.”

As Lee noted, Huawei was the big winner among smartphone manufacturers, growing 37% YoY on the back of the newly launched Mate 60 series, which is powered by its SoC Kirin 9000S.