WSJ: iPhone sales fall in China

Not a surprise. In China there is real cellphone competition. Oppo(Oneplus), Xiaomi, Huawei, and others make phones that are frankly far ahead of Apple in terms of technology and capabilities. Thanks to our carriers, we don't have them here, but in China, different story.

The WSJ reported:

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Apple said Thursday that global sales in the January-March quarter fell 4.3% compared with the same period a year earlier. A big reason was China: Sales in what Apple calls “greater China,” including mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, dropped by 8% to $16.4 billion.

Counterpoint Research, a market-research firm, said iPhone unit sales in China fell nearly 20% in the quarter. The iPhone lost its No. 1 spot among smartphone brands in the country, falling to third behind the local rivals Vivo and Honor....

Consumers in China cited the absence of major advancements in hardware and performance as a reason to refrain from getting a new iPhone. Some are switching to Huawei, which has put out advanced phones despite U.S. sanctions, while others are keeping their old iPhones longer.

Tracy Xu, a 41-year-old Shanghai-based human-resources manager, said she found Huawei’s camera, battery life and phone reception superior to the iPhone’s.

Apple executives said they remained confident in the China business. Chief Executive Tim Cook said on a conference call that some iPhones were the top-selling smartphones in urban China, and he said a recent trip to the country had left him optimistic for the long haul....

Deng said recent iPhone releases didn’t offer much excitement and seemed to bring minimal hardware improvements. He said he was still an iPhone fan, but “Android devices do offer more competitive features nowadays.”

Apple, which usually shuns discount sales, ran a multiday promotion in China in January, cutting the price of iPhones by the equivalent of up to $70. The promotion came ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, a traditional gift-giving season....

It found that in China’s premium smartphone market, increasing competition from local brands has caused the iPhone 15 series to underperform overall, although the iPhone 15 Pro Max continues to dominate the topmost segment.

The leading Chinese brands including Vivo, Xiaomi, Huawei and Honor have recently introduced smartphones that use AI for purposes such as translating languages and creating and editing images....

Under Counterpoint’s definition, more than 10 phone makers have introduced more than 30 smartphones with generative AI capabilities, which have become familiar through such programs as ChatGPT. None of those models comes from Apple—yet....

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WSJ