Apple has finally reversed its iPhone sales slump in China. According to Jefferies analysts, Apple’s new iPhone discounts have helped the company turn around its underperformance in the Chinese smartphone market, and its iPhone sales outperformed Google and Huawei devices during an annual Chinese shopping festival.
618 is China’s month-long online shopping festival ending June 18. Even though the festival itself wasn’t as popular for Chinese shoppers this year, Apple came out of it shining. Apple’s China iPhone sales for the five week period before and after the festival — beginning four weeks prior to June 18 and ending one week after, to account for delivery times — grew in the high single digits from last year, while Google and Huawei smartphone sales grew in the mid-single digits, Jefferies analysts said.
“We believe if iPhone discounts continue to stay aggressive, its market share will likely have limited downside,” they wrote in a research note June 30. “Between now and the launch of iPhone 16 (end of Sep), we believe iPhone discounts will remain heavier than those of Android flagship as Apple will likely need to defend [its] market share.”
Apple had its worst performance in smartphone sales in the first quarter of 2024 since the pandemic, selling nearly 10% fewer iPhones globally than the same period in 2023. That poor showing reflected its downturn in China since releasing the iPhone 15 last September. The tech giant started offering discounts on its iPhones in the country in January and cut prices way further in May.
Apple’s launch of its AI project Apple Intelligence is expected to boost iPhone sales by a lot in the future. Apple Intelligence will bring a host of AI-powered tools to its cell phones, including a major update to its voice assistant Siri. And Apple is partnering with OpenAI to put ChatGPT on its devices.