Recently, data released by Counterpoint, a Hong Kong research company, showed that in the first two months of 2024, Apple's smartphone sales in the Chinese market decreased by a staggering 24% year-on-year. The news has attracted a lot of attention in the industry and raised doubts about Apple's prospects in the Chinese market.
Counterpoint analyzed the reasons for Apple's declining sales. First of all, they pointed out that the iPhone 15 launched in September 2023 did not bring a major upgrade, and consumers generally believed that they could continue to use the old model, so they did not feel the urgency to replace it. This makes the new product relatively less attractive, resulting in a decline in sales.
In addition, Apple is facing increasing competition in the Chinese market. Apple's sales fell by 24% while the overall mobile phone market shrank by 7%, while on the contrary, the two major brands, Huawei and Honor, achieved growth against the trend, with Huawei's sales directly increasing by 64%. A significant portion of Apple's lost market share in China has been eaten up by Huawei.
Since the end of 2023, Apple has been on a downward trend in the Chinese market. According to Apple's financial report for the first quarter of fiscal year 2024, Greater China's revenue in the quarter was $20.8 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 13%. In order to recover the decline, Apple launched the "Spring Festival Reward" event in China, and the price of Apple's entire series was greatly reduced, with a direct drop of up to 1150 yuan! However, the sales figures did not improve significantly.
In addition to the mobile phone business, Apple has also suffered a series of difficulties in other aspects. On February 28, Apple announced that it had abandoned a decade-long car-building project; The new Vision Pro also has problems such as wearing discomfort, causing rumors that "the first batch of users have returned a large number of goods"; Recently, he was suspected of suppressing competitors in the App Store and was fired by the European Union 18A huge fine of 400 million euros. This year's Apple seems to have encountered many twists and turns at the beginning.
Apple's misfortune is directly reflected in the stock price. In the U.S. market, Apple has been trading for 5 consecutive trading days, and in the last two trading days, it has evaporated a total of 147 billion US dollars, or about 1,000 billion yuan. In contrast, fellow tech giant Nvidia hit a new high today. As of today's U.S. stock market**, Nvidia shares are trading at 852$37, an increase of 36%, with a market capitalization of more than $2.13 trillion, making it the third-largest company in the world by market capitalization, after Apple and Microsoft.
It is worth noting that Nvidia's market capitalization rose from $1 trillion to $2 trillion in only 8 months, setting the fastest record. By comparison, it took about two years for Apple's market capitalization to rise from $1 trillion to $2 trillion that year. Ming-Chi Kuo, a well-known analyst, said: "If Apple is unable to launch generative AI services that are better than market expectations this year, Nvidia's market capitalization will most likely surpass Apple." ”
The current Apple seems to be in a bad situation, whether it is a turning point of the times or a temporary trough in the wave of progress, we can only wait for this year's Apple to hold back what big moves. Whether it is in product upgrades or market competition, Apple is facing a severe test. How to regain its leading position in the Chinese market and how to deal with the pressure of stock prices** will become a major challenge for Apple. As the tech industry becomes increasingly competitive, Apple needs to work harder to innovate in response to the ever-changing market environment. 2024 is destined to be a challenging year for Apple.