BEIJING (Reuters) – Apple’s smartphone shipments in China rose 52% in April from a year ago, extending a rebound seen the previous month, data from a government-affiliated research firm showed Chinese.
Shipments of foreign-branded phones in China rose 52 percent in April to 3.495 million units from 2.301 million a year earlier, according to data released Tuesday by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology. (CAICT).
Although the data does not explicitly mention Apple, the company is the leading foreign phone maker in China’s smartphone-dominated market. This suggests that the increase in shipments of foreign brands can be attributed to Apple’s performance.
The sharp increase follows a weak performance earlier this year in the world’s largest smartphone market, as the US tech giant faces increasing competition in the high-end market from local rivals such than Huawei.
Apple’s shipments in China increased 12% in March, marking a significant improvement from the first two months of 2024, when the company saw a 37% decline in sales.
Sales could see another surge in May, as Apple launched an aggressive discount campaign on its official Tmall site in China this month, offering discounts of up to 2,300 yuan ($318) on select models of iPhone.
The price reduction, double that offered in February, comes after Huawei last month introduced its new high-end smartphone series, the Pura 70, following the launch of the Mate 60 last August.
Huawei overtook Apple in the first quarter as China’s second-largest smartphone vendor and is ramping up its marketing campaign by opening more flagship stores and adding more retail distributors. Honor, a spin-off from Huawei, takes first place.
Overall smartphone sales in China increased 25.5 percent to 22.7 million units in April, according to CAICT data.
(Reporting by Beijing newsroom; writing by Miyoung Kim; editing by Jason Neely and Philippa Fletcher)
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