In June 2025, shipments of foreign-branded smartphones, including Apple’s iPhone, plummeted 31.3% year-on-year in China, according to Reuters‘ calculations based on data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT).
The figures reveal a decline to 1.971 million units from 2.869 million units in June 2024, underscoring the growing challenges for Apple in the world’s largest smartphone market. As the dominant foreign phone maker in China, Apple’s performance heavily influences these statistics, reflecting intensifying competition from domestic rivals like Huawei and Xiaomi. These local brands have gained ground with aggressive pricing, government-backed subsidies, and innovative features, eroding Apple’s market share.
Economic uncertainty and deflationary pressures in China have further dampened consumer spending, impacting iPhone sales. In response, Apple has implemented significant discounts, with Chinese e-commerce platforms offering up to $351 off iPhone 16 models in May. Despite a slight sales uptick in April and May, the June data signals persistent headwinds.
Analysts suggest Apple’s delayed rollout of “Apple Intelligence” features, due to quality issues (Siri) and China’s strict regulations, are hindering its competitiveness in this critical market.
MacDailyNews Note: According to CAICT, overall phone sales in China fell 9.3% to 22.598 million units in June, according to the data.
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Stupid story – maybe Apple is not down the much as it is all non-China phones – does not break it out.. Hit piece.
Absolutely correct. A bullshit story … a MarketWatch type useless story of people that must show up with an article, any article, to get their piece of revenue for the moment. And they love assdumb, clickbait headlines.
You should have read all the bullshit yesterday morning about NVDA going to the crapper, the sky is falling, the whole market somehow had a concall and decided trash the stock, and after being down $7 it went exactly back to where it started, leaving all these fake MarketWatch journalists, fake analysts, and all the other ignoramuses look like idiots.
And now, the sky is falling in China. Its straight up horseshit.