Apple’s iPhone shipments in China rebound with a 12% jump in March after price cuts

Apple’s iPhone shipments in China rose 12 percent in March after the company and its retailers cut prices, according to data from a Chinese government-linked research firm.

Shipments of foreign-brand phones in China rose 12 percent in March to 3.75 million units from 3.35 million a year earlier, data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) showed on Wednesday.

Although Apple is not specifically mentioned in the data, the company is the dominant foreign phone maker in China’s smartphone-dominated market. This suggests that the increase in shipments of foreign-brand phones can be attributed to Apple’s performance.

Apple’s March sales growth followed an increased discounting effort led by the company and third-party sellers in the run-up to the month, with some iPhone 15 models being offered at discounts of up to 10 percent.

The price cuts appear to have boosted demand and contributed to the company’s growth in the Chinese market. That represents a significant turnaround from the first two months of 2024, when Apple suffered a 37 percent drop in sales, according to Reuters calculations based on CAICT data.

In the first quarter of this year, Apple’s smartphone shipments in China plunged 19 percent, marking their worst performance since 2020, according to research firm Counterpoint. The main reason for Apple’s sales decline was the launch and successful sales of a high-end smartphone by Huawei in August last year.

Apple reported sales of $16.37 billion (roughly Rs. 136,693 crore) for the fiscal second quarter ended March 30 in the Greater China region, down 8.1 percent but beating analysts’ expectations of $15.59 billion (roughly Rs. 130,180 crore), data from Visible Alpha shows.

© Thomson Reuters 2024