Apple appears to be facing an uphill battle to reverse falling iPhone sales in China, with last year's double-digit decline projected to deepen through 2024 owing to strong interest in Huawei's latest home-grown lineup, according to analyst expectations (via Bloomberg).
In an investor note on Sunday citing industry checks, Jeffries analyst Edison Lee said Apple in December suffered a 30% year-on-year decline in iPhone sales in the country while the rest of the market grew, with Huawei seeing the fastest growth thanks to its latest Mate 60 lineup.
Jefferies estimates Huawei shipped 35 million smartphones last year, with only supply constraints preventing it from hitting even bigger heights spurred by a "patriotic fervor" surrounding the phone.
Released in September just weeks before the iPhone 15, Huawei's Mate 60 Pro uses a new China-made 7-nanometer processor tailored for the local market, showcasing the kind of advanced semiconductor manufacturing capabilities that US sanctions were originally designed to prevent.
Jeffries forecasts Apple will see a similar double-digit fall in iPhone sales for 2024, indicated by discounts on Apple's smartphone lineup across various online merchants, which are expected to cut into the average selling price without stimulating volume growth.
Apple's efforts to counter the slump are also likely to be hampered by China's decision last year to ban iPhones from the offices of multiple government agencies and state companies. China has a huge number of state-owned enterprises in power generation, seaport construction, mining, manufacturing, education, and investment markets.
Meanwhile, Huawei's comeback is predicted to continue, with the Chinese company continuing to develop and extend its own operating system, HarmonyOS, designed to rival iOS and Android.
Top Rated Comments
Time for either a price drop an / or more innovations besides just further camera improvements
You may think of the iPhone as Chinese (lol), but the Chinese people certainly don't seem to.
Apple's sales are slowing because they've priced themselves out of the market. The Chinese economy is slowing - they're headed for their own real estate bubble burst - like the US had in 2008. People are tightening their belts and Apple is selling mid-tier hardware at premium prices. Their phones are more expensive and less impressive than they've ever been. Ordinary people in China are tightening their belts too and just can't afford Apple products anymore.
Huawei have got a good product offering for a much lower price, and they have the ability to get the phones into the hands of Chinese celebrities to promote it much more easily, plus Harmony OS doesn't have the same security restrictions as iOS, so they can pre-load and better integrate a lot of the apps that are popular in China.
The Chinese govt banning iPhones from govt agencies and companies is more to do with Apple helping TSMC move manufacturing out of Taiwan, and to expand product assembly to other countries like India. It's not because the Chinese are being patriotic, the Chinese government are punishing Apple, the same way they tried to punish Australia by banning coal and barley. In China, business is politics.
Did I say any of those things? Can you find a single post I've ever written here or elsewhere where I say that?
Nope, because I've never written such a thing.
You just made it up and then pretended it was true so you could feel like you "won" the argument