Apple is having a tough quarter in China, with new research claiming that Apple's iPhone sales are down 19.1% year-over-year.
Apple's iPhone 15
All smartphone sales have been in decline in China for some years, but recent reports had said the market was stabilizing. Other reports have said that iPhone sales in the country dropped 56% between January 2024 and February 2024, though this is traditionally when Apple's sales are lowest.
Now new figures from Counterpoint Research have compared like for like quarters, charting Q1 2024 against Q1 2023. Citing Huawei's 69.9% year on year growth as the major factor, Counterpoint says that the iPhone dropped 19.1% over the same period.
Smartphone sales in China (Source: Counterpoint Research)
The company says that Huawei has targeted the same premium market as Apple, but also notes that upgrade demand for the iPhone has been "slightly subdued compared to previous years."
During Apple's earnings call in February 2024, the company reported that sales in China were down 13% year over year. That amounts to $20.82 billion in iPhone sales in China.
Counterpoint does say that it is charting "slow but steady improvement" in iPhone sales "from week to week." It also expects that AI announcements at WWDC could have a marked impact, although presumably not until the launch of the iPhone 16.