Apple’s rough stretch in the U.S. and European Union is extending to China, where iPhone sales fell 24% year-over-year in the first six weeks of 2024, according to a new report.
Competition with China’s Huawei, which is seeing a resurgence after releasing a new series of smartphones, is partly to blame for the decline. So are “abnormally high” iPhone sales last January last year caused by production issues in December 2022, which amplified this year’s decline, analysts at Counterpoint Research said.
In addition to competing with the Chinese tech manufacturer for smartphone sales, Apple was “getting squeezed in the middle on aggressive pricing from the likes of Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi,” Mengmeng Zhang, a senior analyst at Counterpoint Research, said in a statement. “Although the iPhone 15 is a great device, it has no significant upgrades from the previous version, so consumers feel fine holding on to the older-generation iPhones for now.”
Although Huawei saw high demand for its Mate 60 smartphone series, analysts found overall smartphone sales in China were down 7% year-over-year for the first six weeks of the year. Oppo’s sales were down 29% year-over-year, while Xiaomi’s sales fell 7% year-over-year. Analysts said growth is likely to remain in the negative during the first quarter of the year, as consumers spend less and companies offer less new products.
“Consumer confidence will need to rise to stabilize the market, but it is a tough call right now with everything that is happening, especially in the real estate sector,” Ivan Lam, a senior analyst at Counterpoint Research, said in a statement. “As far as Apple is concerned, there is more wriggle room in the short term. This weekend’s aggressive promotions are just one example.”
Apple stock was down about 2% in pre-market trading Tuesday and has dropped almost 6% so far in 2024.