Apple has failed in one of the biggest markets. Is the rise of Chinese brands coming?

The year 2024 is behind us and sales statistics for the past 12 months are beginning to surface. Compared to 2023, the mobile market recovered significantly last year, grew after a long time and 4% more phones were sold. After global sales, I received figures from the purely Chinese market, which is one of the largest and most important ever. What is the situation here?

Apple’s decline continues

Do you remember the year 2023? That was Apple in China, one of the most important markets ever, number one and left all its competition behind. Since then, however, the Californian giant has been falling in this area, and the statistics for 2024 confirm this. The Chinese market, like the global market, grew by a solid 4%, but Apple fell sharply.

According to the current server statistics Canalys is the third-ranked US tech giant in China and has fallen by a massive 17% year-on-year. In 2024, Apple sold 42.9 million iPhones in this market and held 15% of the market. If it continues like this, after this year, it may drop out of the top 5 completely and leave its place to growing competition.

This is what the mobile market in China looked like in 2024 | photo: Canalys

Huawei jako skokan roku

The number one in China for 2024 was the increasingly popular Vivo, which sold 49.3 million phones (up 11% year-on-year) and holds 17% of the market. Right behind it is Huawei, which grew by a whopping 37% compared to 2023 and became the leapfrog of the year in the Chinese market. This manufacturer has sold 47 million phones and has a 16% share.

The third is Apple and the fourth Oppo is breathing on its back, it sold 42.7 million phones (-3%) and has a share of 15%. The fifth Honor is also on very similar numbers. The latter also holds 15% of the market, selling 42.2 million phones in 2024, which is 3% less than in 2023. As you can see, Xiaomi dropped out of the top five, but it did well from a global perspective and is the world’s third.

Apple did not save the strong end of the year either

The Californian giant has therefore experienced another slump in the Chinese market and is starting to lose this important market in the long term. And this despite the fact that he had, as is traditional, a very strong end of the year, which is usually the most abundant for him in terms of sales. In Q4 2024, Apple even became number one in China, selling 13.1 million phones, but that’s still a quarter less than in 2023.