On March 6, according to the latest weekly sales tracking report of China's smartphone market released by market research agency Counterpoint Research, the overall sales volume of China's smartphone market in the first six weeks of 2024 increased by 7% compared with the same period last year, of which Apple fell by 24% year-on-year, and Huawei rose by 64% year-on-year.
Although in the global smartphone market in 2023, Apple's iPhone shipments surpassed Samsung for the first time to become the world's No. 1 smartphone manufacturer in terms of shipments, but in the Chinese smartphone market, Apple has suffered a sharp decline due to the return of the Huawei Mate 60 series equipped with Kirin processors. Data previously released by TechInsights also showed that in the fourth quarter of 2023, Apple's shipments in the Chinese smartphone market fell by 14% year-on-year6% to 14 million units.
According to Apple's financial report for the first quarter of fiscal year 2024 ended December 30, 2023 (fourth quarter of calendar year 2023), although Apple's revenue in the quarter increased by 2% year-on-year to 1,195$7.5 billion, ending the past four consecutive quarters of year-over-year revenue decline, operating profit and earnings per share both hit record highs, but Apple's revenue in Greater China (including Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan) was 12A 9% decline, which was the only region in which Apple saw a year-over-year revenue decline among all of Apple's major sales regions. At the same time, it is also Apple's weakest performance in Greater China in the same period since the first fiscal year of fiscal 2020.
Apple CEO Tim Cook explained in an interview that the first quarter of fiscal 2024 is only 13 weeks, compared with 14 weeks in the same period last year, and the appreciation of the US dollar against the yuan has adversely affected Apple's sales in China. However, he is still optimistic that Apple accounts for four of the top six best-selling smartphone models in China's urban areas.
However, the performance analysis believes that Apple's revenue in Greater China has fallen sharply because the sales of the iPhone 15 series in the Chinese market have been affected by the hot sales of Huawei's Mate 60 series launched at the end of August last year, and this impact is still ongoing.
According to data released by Counterpoint Research, although the overall sales volume of China's smartphone market fell by 7% year-on-year in the first six weeks of 2024, Huawei's shipments rose by 64% year-on-year. In contrast, Apple's iphoen sales fell sharply by 24% year-on-year.
Zhang Mengmeng, a senior analyst at Counterpoint Research, also pointed out that Apple's iPhone in the high-end smart market has been affected by the strong return of the Huawei Mate 60 series, while the mid-range market has also been affected by the fierce ** battle of brands such as OPPO (excluding OnePlus), vivo and Xiaomi, although the iPhone 15 series is an excellent mobile phone, but due to the lack of significant upgrades compared with the previous generation, Chinese consumers have no obvious motivation to change their phones, Still using the previous generation iPhone, or switching to the Huawei Mate 60 series.
Note: Comparison data is based on January 2 to February 12, 2023 and January 1 to February 11, 2024; OEM shares may not add up to 100% due to rounding; OPPO does not include OnePlus.
It is worth noting that in the first six weeks of this year, the sales of smartphones of OPPO (excluding OnePlus) and vivo also fell sharply, with declines of 29% and 15% respectively. Xiaomi also saw a 7% year-on-year decline. Except for Huawei, only Honor achieved year-on-year growth against the trend, with an increase of 2%.
Counterpoint Research explained that the shipments of top smartphone manufacturers in the first six weeks of this year fell sharply year-on-year, partly because of the unusually high sales in the first six weeks of 2023, because the production of some manufacturers was delayed in December 2022, so the sales volume was only included in the beginning of 2023, which also made the year-on-year change in the year-on-year value more obvious.
Ivan Lim, senior analyst at Counterpoint Research, said that the overall growth in the first quarter of 2024 is still slow due to weak spending in the Chinese market and a few new product launches. The Huawei Mate 60 series continues to drive strong demand, which is the bright spot in the smartphone market in early 2024. In the case of Apple, there are many ways to improve in the short term, such as weekend** events being the most classic practice.
However, Tianfeng analyst Ming-Chi Kuo released a research report at the end of January this year on the future sales performance of the iPhone. Due to structural challenges, iPhone shipments this year may fall by up to 15% year-on-year, and may lag behind mobile phones and foldable screen phones that introduce AI technology. In China, weekly iPhone shipments have fallen by 30 to 40 percent year-on-year.
Editor: Xinzhixun-Rogue Sword.