Apple's iPhone sales worldwide are up, but in China are down 13% year over year, and CEO Tim Cook argues that it's a reflection of overall economic issues rather the iPhone losing popularity.
Apple's iPhone 15 Pro range
During Apple's Q1 2024 earnings announcement, Apple has reported that its total iPhone sales in China were $20.82 billion. It's a drop of 13% compared to the same period in 2023.
"The dollar is very strong versus the RMB," Tim Cook told CNBC. "And so that negative 13 goes to a mid-single digit number."
"So that's how we did on the phone last quarter," he continued. "The good news is that we're four out of the top six top selling smartphones in urban China."
Quarterly global iPhone revenue as of Q1 2024
Worldwide, Apple sold $69.7 billion in iPhones in the 2023 holiday quarter. This compares to $65.8 billion in the 2022 quarter
Previously, Apple saw a 4% drop year over year in iPhone sales over China's annual Singles Day in November. Despite that, other analyst figures claim that the long-running decline in China's smartphone sales has been stemmed, and Apple was most recently the top seller in the country.