Apple’s Deep Trouble In China

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Jan 5, 9:49AM EST

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Apple’s Deep Trouble In China — © iso100production / Shutterstock.com

Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL | AAPL Price Prediction) fortunes were troubled in China late last year. It cannot afford to have a drop in sales in what is the world’s largest smartphone market by far—the figure totals just over one billion units. The US figure is about 300 million.

According to new data from CNBC, based on information from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, the sales of foreign smartphones were 3.04 million in November. This was down by 47.4% from November a year ago.

Although the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology does not show information by brand, Apple has most of these sales. “The figures highlight the mounting pressure Apple is under in the world’s largest smartphone market as it battles rising competition from domestic brands,” the TV network reports.

Tech research firm Counterpoint posted data on smartphone shipments in China during the third quarter of 2024. Apple’s market share was sixth among the largest smartphone companies, with a market share of 14%. It lagged behind five local companies, led by vivo, which had a market share of 19%, and Huawei, which had a share of 18%. Three companies had market shares of 15%. They were Xiaomi, HONOR, and OPPO.

Apple’s China sales have struggled recently. In its most recently reported quarter, “Greater China” sales were $15 billion, which was flat from the previous year. Total Apple sales for the quarter were $95 billion, up 6% compared to the previous year’s period.

There has been a worry for some time that local smartphone companies would dominate the smartphone market in China. The November numbers show that is true.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.