Apple is second-biggest smartphone seller in China

Sales of the iPhone are increasing in China, with Apple making a return to the country's top five smartphones thanks to the iPhone 16.

Apple has been having a tough time in China, with rival smartphone producers putting the squeeze on iPhone in the market. Even so, it seems that iPhone is enjoying more support from consumers.

The figures released by IDC on Friday puts Apple in second place in the top five smartphone producers in China for Q3 2024, a return to the list for the company. IDC puts this down to a successful launch of the iPhone 16 in the market.

Apple is listed as having a 15.6% market share, behind Vivo with 18.6%, but ahead of Huawei with 15.3%. Xiaomi and Honor round out the list with 14.8% and 14.4% respectively.

Table showing China's Q3 2024 smartphone market share: Vivo 18.6%, Apple 15.6%, Huawei 15.3%, Xiaomi 14.8%, Honor 14.6%, Others 21.1%. Year-over-year growth included.

Chinese smartphone market share figures - IDC

The percentage is a little bit of a dip from the same period last year, as Apple had a 16.1% share at that time.

While Apple's impressive return to the roster is good, it's not entirely better than last year. While Chinese smartphone shipments grew 3.2% year-on-year in the period to 68.8 million units, Apple saw a year-on-year shrink by 0.3%.

By contrast, third-place Huawei enjoyed 42% year-on-year growth for the third quarter of 2024.

The IDC figures aren't the only numbers indicating an iPhone resurgence. On October 18, Counterpoint Research saw a 20% year-on-year jump in sales for the iPhone 16 versus iPhone 15 sales.

7 Comments

danox 3393 comments · 11 Years

About 3 weeks ago

Only the most competitive smartphone market in the world Apple has 15.6% marketshare which is 15.6% more than Samsung has in China….

blastdoor 3567 comments · 15 Years

Interesting. I’d love to know why people buy iPhones in China.

termsofuse 29 comments · 2 Years

The iPhone is doing great in China the iPhone is doing poorly in China. Another day in the life of the iPhone.

avon b7 8008 comments · 20 Years

danox said:

Only the most competitive smartphone market in the world Apple has 15.6% marketshare which is 15.6% more than Samsung has in China….

There are still unknowns here.

Huawei has yet to release its year end flagship (Mate 70 - rumoured to be slated for three or four weeks from now) so Apple is satisfying the typical pent up demand for its once a year launch without any real competition.

That's going to change very soon.

The Mate 70 series release will be a tough challenge for Apple and around MWC2025 the Pura 80 series will be released, further increasing pressure.

The iPhone 15 range had to be discounted almost from the get go in China. Will the same happen to the iPhone 16?

avon b7 said:

danox said:

Only the most competitive smartphone market in the world Apple has 15.6% marketshare which is 15.6% more than Samsung has in China….

There are still unknowns here.

Huawei has yet to release its year end flagship (Mate 70 - rumoured to be slated for three or four weeks from now) so Apple is satisfying the typical pent up demand for its once a year launch without any real competition.

That's going to change very soon.

The Mate 70 series release will be a tough challenge for Apple and around MWC2025 the Pura 80 series will be released, further increasing pressure.

The iPhone 15 range had to be discounted almost from the get go in China. Will the same happen to the iPhone 16?

There are no unknowns inside Apple, they know exactly how they’re doing in China. No tech or Wall Street financial wizard outside of China is going to know, as they keep proving every year, they don’t have a clue. The biggest known is that Samsung has zero marketshare in China.