It’s safe to say that Apple got humbled in the world’s largest smartphone market. Why? Well, because of the iPhone sales throughout 2024. One of the main reasons that happened is Huawei, actually.
Apple managed to get humbled in the largest smartphone market last year
Apple’s iPhone sales fell in all four quarters in China. That includes a major 25% drop in the fourth quarter, based on the information shared by a data research firm Canalys. If we look at things annually, iPhone sales fell by 17%.
The number one smartphone OEM in China is Vivo, based on the entire 2024. The company managed to capture 17% of the market, and is followed by Huawei with 16%. Apple, OPPO, and HONOR follow with 15% of the market. Everyone else managed to grab the remaining 22%.
Out of all the top 5 companies there, only Apple has seen a drop in sales annually (Q4 2023 to Q4 2024), and a major one at that. Vivo managed to grow by 14%, while Huawei has seen a 24% growth. Xiaomi grew by 29%, while OPPO managed to increase sales by 18%.
Apple dropped to third place in China, if we look at sales for the entire 2024
Looking at a full year (2024), Vivo sold 49.3 million smartphones in China, while Huawei sold 46 million phones. Apple dropped to the third place with 42.9 million smartphones sold. OPPO is fourth-placed with 42.7 million sold phones, and HONOR is fifth-placed with 42.2 million sold devices. Based on this Apple’s sales fell by 17% YoY, Vivo’s grew by 11%, and Huawei’s grew by 37%. OPPO and HONOR have seen a slight decline of 3%.
Apple is the only company in China that has seen major decline last year. That is quite interesting, as Apple always flew high in China, but things seem to be changing.
Canalys says that Apple’s situation is caused by “intensified competition from domestic brands”. If we look only sales from the fourth quarter, Apple still did best compared to other companies. Yes, it has seen great defeat year-on-year, but it still managed to sell most phones, barely.
The company still managed to sell most phones in Q4 2024, but only barely
Apple sold 13.1 million smartphones in Q4 2024 and is followed by Vivo and Huawei who managed to sell 12.9 million units. Xiaomi sold 12.2 million phones, while OPPO managed to sell 10.6 million smartphones in Q4 2024.
