iPhone Becomes Top Smartphone in China for First Time in Six Years (2024)

FAQs

IPhone Becomes Top Smartphone in China for First Time in Six Years? ›

“Apple's climb to the top spot in 2023, especially in light of renewed competition from Huawei and the soft spending sentiment, marks a tremendous success,” said IDC research analyst Arthur Gao. “Apple achieved this thanks to timely price promotions in its third-party channels, which stimulated demand.”

Apple gains top position in China smartphone market for first time in 2023: Report. Apple takes top position in the Chinese smartphone market in Q4 2023, shipping 17.5 million iPhones with a 6% YoY increase. Honor follows closely with a 16% market share and 11.7 million units shipped.

For years, Apple dominated the market for high-end smartphones in China. No other company made a device that could compete with the iPhone's performance — or its position as a status object in the eyes of wealthy, cosmopolitan shoppers.

(Bloomberg) — Apple Inc.'s iPhone was the top-selling smartphone in China for the first time last year, a surprisingly strong showing in the face of fierce local competition and expanding government prohibitions against the American company's technology.

Not only was this the sleekest touchscreen device to hit the market to date, but it was also the first device that offered a full, un-watered-down version of the Internet. The very first iPhone gave consumers the ability to browse the web just as they would on a desktop computer.

On June 29, 2007, the first iPhone was released. The iPod Touch, which came with an iPhone-style touchscreen to the iPod range, was also released later in 2007.

The iPhone was released in the United States on June 29, 2007, at the price of $499 for the 4 GB model and $599 for the 8 GB model, both requiring a 2-year contract.

In part, this is because consumer appetite in China has been knocked hard since the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, demand has been so weak that China's consumer price index fell for the third month in a row in December. But Apple's sales decline also reflects a resurgent interest in homegrown gadgets.

iPhones are good phones that are high quality, as is the software they run. iPhones generally have a reputation of being durable and long-lasting on the hardware front (my iPhone 4S lasted me 5 years and still turns on), and smooth and optimized on the software end.

Yet Apple also faces a more crowded Chinese market. One major competitor is Huawei. The Chinese tech giant's phone sales rose 64% in the first six weeks of 2024, according to Counterpoint. Huawei returned to the premium smartphone market last year with the Mate 60 Pro, a 5G smartphone featuring a homegrown processor.

How did the first iPhone affect the world? ›

Beyond its technical and aesthetic achievements, the first iPhone had a profound impact on society and culture. It ushered in the era of the smartphone, transforming the way people communicate, work, and entertain themselves.

Apple's iPhone combined multiple devices into one, setting the stage for future smartphone innovations. The iPhone's user-friendly interface and touchscreen technology made it accessible to users of all ages. Strategic marketing and hype around the iPhone generated massive demand upon release.

The original iPhone didn't have all of the features other more established platforms had on day one. It lacked MMS, copy and paste and even a developer platform / App Store. Yet, as Vaughn mentions below, it was so radically different and better with the features it did have that the writing was on the wall….

Steve Jobs used an iPhone long before the launch of the original iPhone and continued to use one for the rest of his life. Steve was passionate about the products his company made and his philosophy was that if he didn't want to use it, his customers wouldn't either.

Jobs famously described the ‌iPhone‌ as an iPod with touch controls, a phone, and a breakthrough internet communications device, three distinct areas that no device at the time managed to tackle all at once.

After the iPod became a huge success, Jobs spent little time relishing it. Instead he began to worry about what might endanger it. One possibility was that mobile phone makers would start adding music players to their handsets. So he cannibalized iPod sales by creating the iPhone.

Apple started selling iPhones in China in 2009.

Development trend. Since 2011 smartphones, especially running the open source Android operating system, have become increasingly popular in the Chinese mobile market.

China was categorized as a third priority market. Apple became serious about the Chinese market after it reached a deal with China Unicom for the exclusive sale of iPhone 3 in China in 2009.

2) What Year did Apple Start Manufacturing in China? Apple entered China in 2001 and due to the high demand, Apple partnered with Foxconn and China to assemble the iPhones and iPads in the production facility of Foxconn in Zhengzhou. Later the production and assembling shifted to Shenzhen facility of Foxconn.