Apple CEO Tim Cook holds up a brand new iPhone 15 Pro throughout an Apple occasion on Sept. 12, 2023, in Cupertino, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Apple for the first time turned the largest smartphone vendor in China by shipments, new information for 2023 launched on Thursday confirmed.
The iPhone maker’s market share in China stood at 17.3% in 2023, in accordance to the International Data Corporation (IDC), a record-high for the agency in the world’s second-largest economic system.
Apple’s total smartphone shipments fell 2.2% year-on-year in 2023, whereas the total market fell 5%, IDC mentioned. Shipments are the units that Apple sends to its third-party sellers and doesn’t equal direct gross sales. However, they’re a sign of demand.
“Apple’s climb to the top spot in 2023, particularly in gentle of renewed competitors from Huawei and the delicate spending sentiment, marks an amazing success for Apple,” Arthur Guo, senior analysis analyst at IDC China, mentioned in a press launch.
“Apple achieved this thanks to well timed worth promotions in its third-party channels, which stimulated demand.”
Indeed, lots of the on-line gross sales platforms in China supplied reductions on the flagship iPhone 15 in the fourth quarter. Even this month, Apple made a (*5*) to provide reductions throughout the iPhone 15 vary by itself web site in China to sustain momentum.
China’s smartphone market has been hit due to an unsure financial setting in the nation and weak consumer spending.
In 2023, Honor, a spin-off from Chinese firm Huawei, held the second spot with 16.8% market share, adopted by Vivo, Huawei after which Oppo.
Another market analysis agency known as Counterpoint Research additionally got here out with China numbers on Thursday. Counterpoint mentioned it expects the China market to report low single-digit year-on-year progress in 2024, the first 12 months of progress since 2018.
Huawei resurgence
One of the greatest modifications in 2023 was Huawei’s return to the top 5 rating in China throughout the fourth quarter, after greater than two years outdoors of the main group.
Huawei was once China and the world’s biggest smartphone maker. But the Chinese tech big’s handset enterprise was crippled by U.S. sanctions which reduce it off from key applied sciences like modern semiconductors and software program.
However, final 12 months, Huawei debuted a phone that contained quite a cutting-edge semiconductor, manufactured by China’s greatest chipmaker SMIC. This was a giant shock contemplating U.S. sanctions had been designed to cease this taking place.
That new cellphone, the Mate 60, has helped Huawei make massive features in China. Huawei shipments grew 36% year-on-year in the December quarter and it commanded a 13.9% market share, IDC mentioned.
Huawei knocked Chinese electronics maker Xiaomi out of the top 5.
“This will solely intensify the competitors as no distributors will need to lose a top 5 place in the world’s largest smartphone market,” Will Wong, senior analysis supervisor at IDC, mentioned in a press release.