Apple’s iPhone drops out of the top-five most popular smartphones in China

Apple’s iPhones are losing their appeal in China while local competitors are advancing, according to market tracker IDC. 

iPhone shipments in the country dropped 3.1% year-over-year in the second quarter, the International Data Corporation (IDC) report said, despite China’s smartphone shipments gaining 8.9% overall. The decline pushed Apple out of the top five handset makers in China for the first time in four years, according to the report. 

“In the first half of the year, Huawei was the leader in the market despite the U.S. trade restrictions, further closing the gap with Apple in the >US$600 segment,” IDC senior analyst Arthur Guo said in the report.

Apple’s iPhone has struggled to maintain its popularity in China this year, despite the tech giant launching an aggressive discounting campaign to fight slowing sales in one of its largest markets. Competition has been intense in the past year. Local competitors Huawei and Xiaomi, for example, saw large double-digit growth in the second quarter, according to IDC.

To be sure, it’s difficult to quantify iPhone shipments. For example, iPhone revenue in China grew in the first quarter of this year, despite many believing that shipments had dipped. Apple is set to report earnings for the second quarter on August 1.

Apple hopes to ship at least 90 million of its upcoming iPhone 16 models in the second half of this year, Bloomberg reported.

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