Apple's iPhone shipments in China declined by 9 percent in the first quarter compared to the year earlier, and it was the only major smartphone vendor to see a decline, according to data from research firm IDC.
Shipments of iPhones fell to 9.8 million units, giving Apple a market share of 13.7 percent, down from 17.4 percent in the previous quarter. Apple has now had seven straight quarters of decline.
For local vendors, it was another story. Market leader Xiaomi saw shipments rise 40 percent to 13.3 million units. Meanwhile, industry-wide shipments rose by 3.3 percent.
According to IDC, Apple's premium pricing structure prevented the company from capitalizing on new government subsidies introduced at the start of the year that fuelled growth in the first quarter.
Under the subsidies, consumers of electronics get a 15 percent refund of products that are priced under 6,000 yuan ($820). Apple's standard iPhone 16 starts at 5,999 yuan.
Friday October 30, 2026 2:45 pm PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple today announced that the first iOS 27.3 developer beta will be released next week and enable some Apple Intelligence features in China.
In a press release shared on the Apple Newsroom website in China, Apple said the beta will be released on Wednesday, November 4, but that likely means Tuesday, November 3 in the U.S. due to time zone differences. Apple said iOS 27.3 will then be...
China is doing much of the heavy lifting for Apple's iPhone 18 Pro launch, with a 29% sales increase helping offset declines in the U.S. and Japan, according to Counterpoint Research.
Combined global sales of the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max rose 3.1% during their first three weeks of availability compared with the equivalent launch period last year. U.S. sales fell 4%, while Japan...
Wednesday October 14, 2026 1:24 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Apple plans to bring Apple Intelligence to China in iOS 27.3 after two years of regulatory delays, reports Bloomberg. The launch will include basic Apple Intelligence features for things like photo editing, but Siri AI won't be available. Image Playground and the newer version of Genmoji will be missing, plus text generation tools will be limited.
The South China Morning Post today reported...
And it is only gonna get „worse“. I was in Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong recently and the hardware of these phones there make iPhone look like the Nokia of 2025. Needless to say, I returned with my first ever Oppo device (not even sold here in Germany).
Apple is lucky they got most people in the west hooked on their locked in ecosystem
Not surprised. Smartphone makers around the globe have surpassed Apple when it comes to hardware of their devices. People want more than the same old slab that Apple has been churning out year after year.
I'm not surprised. Even as a lifelong Apple owner/user I can't help but look with envy. When you see what Xiaomi is producing like with the 15 Ultra, of Oppo with the Find N5 that is some amazing kit. Sure the software is running a bit behind in polish, but also catching up rapidly. Or even when you take a look at how Samsung UI7 introduced on the S25 Ultra is progressing and integrating AI well and not just do emoji updates, they are taking the software to another level. Similarly with plain Android and Gemini integrations.
Apple is running behind on the hardware, and on the software. Where they still have the edge, just, is eco system integration. But with the global drive to move away from US services I can't see that lasting long. And the same is happening with Android hardware that is being de-googled.
And it is only gonna get „worse“. I was in Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong recently and the hardware of these phones there make iPhone look like the Nokia of 2025. Needless to say, I returned with my first ever Oppo device (not even sold here in Germany).
Apple is lucky they got most people in the west hooked on their locked in ecosystem
I live in Tokyo and travel to Seoul HK and Singapore every month, and I literally have no idea what you’re talking about. All the hardware looks basically the same.
