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Perhaps it was bound to happen sometime – after countless years basking in the spotlight, it looks like Apple has now fallen from the top five smartphone brands in China, following fierce competition from local vendors such as Xiaomi and Huawei, to name a couple.
This new information comes from research firm Canalys – mainland China’s smartphone market underwent a 10% year-on-year growth, as shipments grew to exceed 70 million units. With that being said, the top spot currently belongs to Vivo with 19% market share (13.1 million units), followed by Oppo with 11.3 million units, and Honor at 10.7 million. Meanwhile, taking the fourth and fifth place spots were Huawei and Xiaomi, with 10.6 and 10 million units, respectively.
As for Apple, the Cupertino giant fell to sixth place with a market share of 14%. According to Canalys, this marks a decrease of 2% from the second quarter of the previous year. Canalys Research Analyst Lucas Zhong comments:
It is the first quarter in history that domestic vendors dominate all the top five positions. Chinese vendors’ strategies for high-end products and their deep collaboration with local supply chains are starting to pay off in hardware and software features… Conversely, Apple is facing a bottleneck in mainland China. The vendor’s current channel strategy maintains a healthy inventory level and aims to stabilize retail prices and protect margins of channel partners.
Just recently, it has been reported that the upcoming iPhone 16 might launch without Apple’s much-hyped AI features, which might roll out later in October instead of the expected September launch date.
Source: Canalys
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