After a faltering performance in the first quarter of this year where its iPhone shipments fell 6.6 per cent year-on-year in China, Apple has managed to stage a strong recovery over the second quarter.
As ChannelNews reported previously, its iPhone sales in the country rose 52 per cent in March. That momentum has carried on with the Cupertino company’s smartphone shipments in China rising nearly 40 per cent in May year-on-year.
Shipments of foreign-branded phones in China increased by 1.425 million in May to 5.028 million units from 3.603 million a year earlier, according to data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT).
Overall phone sales in China increased by 16.5 per cent to 30.33 million units in May, the CAICT reported.
Although the data did not explicitly mention the performance of Apple, the company is the dominant foreign phone maker in China’s smartphone market.
One of the main factors that is believed to have contributed to Apple’s growth in its iPhone shipments is an aggressive discounting campaign on its official Tmall site in China in May, whereby customers were offered price cuts of up to A$474 (2,300 yuan) on select iPhone models.
The price reduction in May, double the size of a discount it offered in February, comes after one of its strongest competitors in China, Huawei, introduced smartphones including the Pura 70 and the Mate 60 over the last few months which are seen as noteworthy competitors to the iPhone.
Huawei overtook Apple in the first quarter as the No. 2 smartphone vendor in China. Huawei’s Honor holds the top spot.
In June, Apple CEO Tim Cook forecast iPhone sales growth in some markets, including China, after the company reported an 8.1 per cent drop in second-quarter revenue from the Greater China region, reported Reuters.
