Can Apple Stop Its Falling iPhone Sales?

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Jan 14, 8:15AM EST

Quick Read

A recent analysis reveals that iPhone sales are losing ground while the industry is growing worldwide.
Success in China is particularly important to the future of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL).

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New data from one of America’s leading tech research firms show that iPhone sales are losing ground in an industry that is growing worldwide. It is another example of why Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL | AAPL Price Prediction) investors should be concerned with the future of the iPhone 16.

According to IDC, global smartphone shipments rose 2.4% to 331.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2024. Apple’s shipments were the largest among all the companies measured. However, they declined 4.1% to 76.9 million. The really bad news is that two of the largest Chinese smartphone companies are gaining ground quickly.

Samsung is usually a strong number two to Apple in worldwide smartphone shipments. That was true again in the fourth quarter. Its shipments totaled 51.7 million. However, they were 2.7% lower year over year.

One Chinese company gaining ground rapidly is Xiaomi, which had shipments of 47.2 million in the quarter, up by 4.7%. Vivo did even better in terms of growth. Its shipments rose 12.7% to 21.7 million. IDC’s Francisco Jeronimo commented:

This past quarter was particularly remarkable for the largest Chinese smartphone vendors: Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, Honor, Huawei, Lenovo, realme, Transsion, TCL, and ZTE. They achieved a historic milestone as they shipped the highest combined volume ever in a quarter, representing 56% of the global smartphone shipments in Q4.

Does China Matter?

China is critical to Apple’s success.

China is among Apple’s largest problems. The nation is certainly critical to its success. More than a billion people in China have smartphones. That is about triple the number in the United States.

What Apple calls “Greater China” had revenue of $15 billion in the most recent quarter, down a fraction from the same period the year before. Apple’s overall revenue rose 6% to $94.9 billion. Even if the China-based companies do not have large sales outside their home market, they represent a huge challenge to the growth of Apple’s sales there.

Apple’s global shipments face another challenge. The market has given its artificial intelligence play, what it calls “Apple Intelligence,” a cool reception, particularly in contrast to AI products from other tech companies like Microsoft and Amazon. While Apple says it will upgrade the product, it is not off to a strong start.

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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.