Story: Apple’s iPhone sales in China fell 0.3% in the third quarter.
Rival Huawei, on the other hand, posted a 42% sales jump.
This is because competition is intensifying in the world’s largest smartphone market.
Vivo, which mainly sells low-cost mobile phones, became the top vendor.
Apple took second place with a market share of 15.6%, and Huawei came in third place with a slight difference in market share.
The contrasting developments in sales performance follow Huawei’s return to the premium segment with the Mate 60 series last year.
Analysts say this is a breakthrough domestic chip using advanced technology.
And earlier this year, the company challenged Apple’s position with the Pura 70 model.
Apple faces further headwinds in China, including restrictions on iPhone use by some government agencies.
The US tech giant responded with multiple discount campaigns to boost sales.
Third-quarter results were partially driven by the new iPhone 16, which was released last month.
On the same day, Huawei launched a competing product, a tri-fold phone.
This ongoing sales battle comes at a time when some industries are seeing a boom in Chinese products.
Like electric cars, they are cheap to manufacture, creating fierce competition from rivals in Europe and the United States.
But the latest iPhones are off to a strong start in China, with sales up 20% compared to the 2023 model in the first three weeks of release…
… Showing competition is certainly not a foregone conclusion.
