China smartphone shipments rebounding, and that's good for Apple

China sales may have had a boost from Apple giving the iPhone 14 Pro a rare discount

New figures claim that smartphone sales in China have now seen double-digit growth in the build up to the country's 6.18 shopping festival.

Shipments of smartphones have been struggling in China over falling demand. Despite this, Apple has been significantly growing its share of the market in the country, and now the industry as a whole is seeing some improvement.

Accord to Bloomberg, the overall domestic market was still down 2.6% in May 2023 compared to January 2023. However, that was an improvement of 22.6% over April's figures, with manufacturers reportedly shipping 25.2 million smartphones in the month.

That 25.2 million shipments figure is 4 million more than in the same period in 2022. Bloomberg cites the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology for the figures.

May is now the time when Chinese stores and online services are gearing up to mark the annual 6.18 festival. Originally a one day sale at JD.com, marking that site's date of founding on June 18, 1998, it has expanded into practically a whole month, and involving multiple resellers.

For 2023's 6.18 festival, Apple offered discounts on selected devices for one night on May 31, 2023.