Apple loses ‘throne’ in Chinese market

Despite implementing many measures to stimulate consumption, even deeply reducing prices of the latest phone models, Apple still lost the “throne” in sales in the Chinese phone market in 2024 to domestic phone companies Vivo and Huawei.

Apple’s iphone sales fell 17% in 2024, with declines in all four quarters, including a 4% drop in the final quarter of last year, according to data from research firm Canalys. This is the biggest annual decline in sales for the “Apple” company in China ever.

Thus, after 4 years of stable growth, Apple fell to 3rd place in the billion-people market with 15% market share, behind phone company Vivo (17%) and phone company Huawei (16%).

Analyzing Apple’s decline in the billion-people market, Canalys experts said that in terms of technology, the American phone company faces major challenges from domestic phone companies as Huawei continuously launches new products, the rise of foldable phones in high-priced segments, and the continuous technological improvements of phones running the Android operating system such as Xiaomi and Vivo.

The fact that iPhones sold in China cannot use the ChatGPT artificial intelligence application is a factor that reduces Apple’s competitiveness.

In addition, the high price of iPhones also becomes a limitation in the context of China’s slowing economy and deflationary pressure making consumers cautious with spending.

According to the data, sales of low-cost phone brands increased sharply in the fourth quarter, in which Xiaomi recorded an increase in shipments of up to 29%, Oppo and Vivo also recorded increases of 18% and 14% respectively.

In 2024, 285 million smartphones were shipped in China, up 4% year-on-year.