Apple Ranks 3rd in China Phone Sales

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) grew its fourth-quarter market share in China to 13.1% with sales of 15.5 million iPhones. Total smartphone sales in China fell 4% for the quarter, however, from 123 million units in the fourth quarter of 2014 to 117.9 million units in the 2015 quarter.

For the full year, China’s smartphone shipments totaled nearly 438 million units, up 3% from shipments of about 424 million units in 2014. The data were reported Thursday by Strategy Analytics.

The market share and shipment leader both for the year is Xiaomi, which shipped 17.5 million units in the fourth quarter and 67.5 million units for the year, up nearly 2.0 percentage points for the quarter and 9.7 percentage points for the year. Xiaomi grew its leading market share from 12.8% in the fourth quarter of 2014 to 14.8% in the same period in 2015. For the year, Xiaomi’s market share rose to 15.4%, up nearly two points year over year.

Huawei held the unit sales lead for the fourth quarter with sales of 17.9 million units and held the second-largest market share in the fourth quarter, 15.2%. For the full year, Huawei sold 62.2 million units and held 14.2% of the market.
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Apple’s unit sales rose from 13.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2014 to 15.5 in 2015. For the full year, Apple iPhone sales rose from 31.1 million in 2014 to 49.5 million.

Apple’s quarterly market share rose from 10.9% in the fourth quarter of 2014 to 13.1%, and for the full year market share rose from 7.3% to 11.3%.

Shares of Apple traded up about 0.3% at $93.66 in the noon hour Thursday. The stock’s 52-week range is $92.00 to $134.54, and the consensus price target is $137.05.