Are iPhone sales stagnating in China? Holiday season sales in China have plummeted by 18%, while the global market is down by 5%.

According to a report by independent research firm, Apple Inc.'s iPhone sales in China dropped by 18.2% in the fourth quarter of last year, facing a major setback in the second largest market after the United States. Counterpoint Research found that the company's flagship phone was the best-selling phone in China just a year ago, but has now handed over the top position to Huawei. In the past three months, Apple Inc. has slipped to third place in the world's largest smartphone market, holding about one-sixth of the market share. The decline in the Chinese market has resulted in a 5% decrease in global iPhone sales during the key shopping season. This decline in sales highlights the uneven start of the latest generation of iPhones in the Chinese market. The iPhone initially performed strongly in the Chinese market, but its momentum has since weakened. The unique feature of these new devices is the addition of AI upgrade functions, but in China, most of these new features are still not usable because Apple Inc. is looking for local partners to provide on-device and cloud-based AI infrastructure. The company is in negotiations with Baidu Inc Sponsored ADR Class A, Tencent, and startups like Zhiju AI, but no agreement has been reached yet. With the release of the mid-range Nova 13 series and high-end Mate 70 series, Huawei's sales increased by 15.5% year-on-year. With chips manufactured in China and the breakthrough Mate 60 from last year, the Mate 70 is helping Huawei regain its share in the high-end market in China. The broader smartphone market in the country saw a decline in sales for the first time in the last quarter of 2024, after spending most of the previous year recovering growth.