A few weeks ago, Tim Cook predicted that iPhone sales will grow in some markets, including China, and he was right on his money. A report from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) shows that shipments of smartphones from foreign brands rose 52% in April – and most foreign brand phones in China have an Apple logo on the back .
So while we don't know the exact number, iPhone shipments saw a huge increase last month, which in turn is an improvement over the 12% increase in shipments in March. This is a recovery after Apple set a record significant drop of 37% for the first two months of 2024. At the time, predictions predicted that Apple's numbers would continue to decline, but it turned out they were wrong.
This turnaround in fortunes is attributed to the deep discounts Apple has offered – up to CNY2,300 ($320) on select models. These discounts should continue to boost iPhone sales in May.
The massive discounts started after Huawei introduced the Pura 70 series in the local market. Huawei overtook Apple to become the second-largest smartphone brand in China, after its former subsidiary Honor.
Based on CAICT's figures, there were a total of 3.495 million foreign-branded smartphones in China in April, up from 2.301 million in April last year. This comes from a total of 22.7 million smartphones sold in April (up 25.5% year-on-year).
Despite a strong startSales of the iPhone 15 series in China were weaker than the 14 series. There are still a few months to go, but soon the iPhone 16 series will take over with a number of improvements.