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The
jump follows a weak performance by the U.S. tech giant in the
world's biggest smartphone market earlier this year amid
intensifying competition in the high-end smartphone category
from local rivals like Huawei.
Shipments of foreign-branded phones in China increased by 52% in
April to 3.495 million units from 2.301 million a year earlier,
data from the China Academy of Information and Communications
Technology (CAICT) showed on Tuesday.
Apple's shares rose 2.3% in premarket trading.
Although the data did not explicitly mention Apple, the company
is the dominant foreign phone maker in China's smartphone
market. This suggests that the increase in foreign-branded
shipments can be attributed to Apple's performance.
Apple's shipments in China increased by 12% in March, marking a
significant improvement from the first two months of 2024, when
the company experienced a 37% slump in sales.
Sales may see a further boost in May as Apple launched an
aggressive discounting campaign this month on its official Tmall
site in China, offering discounts of up to 2,300 yuan ($318) on
select iPhone models.
Earlier this month, Apple CEO Tim Cook forecast iPhone sales
growth in some markets, including China, after the company
reported an 8.1% drop in second-quarter revenue from the Greater
China region.
The price reduction, double the size of a discount it offered in
February, comes after Huawei introduced last month its new
series of high-end smartphones, the Pura 70, following the
launch of the Mate 60 last August.
Huawei overtook Apple in the first quarter as the No. 2
smartphone vendor in China and is ramping up its retail strategy
by opening more flagship stores and adding more retail
distributors. Huawei spinoff Honor holds the top spot.
Overall smartphone sales in China increased by 25.5% to 22.7
million units in April, data from the CAICT showed.
(Reporting by Beijing newsroom and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru;
Writing by Miyoung Kim; editing by Jason Neely, Philippa
Fletcher and Varun H K)
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