From cheap copycats to premium challengers: How Chinese brands are beating Samsung and taking on Apple

After carrying around a pink iPhone 6S for a year and half, Shanghai college graduate Jiang Xinyi switched brands, saying goodbye to Apple which is seen as the most affordable luxury product by Chinese millennials.

What the 23-year-old bought instead was a Huawei Nova 2, a dual-camera smartphone unveiled this summer by China’s Huawei Technologies, priced at 2,899 yuan (US$441) – about two-thirds that of the iPhone 6S.

“I don’t care about brands any more. I simply want a phone that lets me take beautiful selfies and has enough storage capacity for music and movies. The Huawei phone provides exactly what I want at a very reasonable price,” she said, adding that many of her friends who used to be iPhone users have adopted a similar “good enough” view rather than always seeking “super premium”.

Jiang, though not a typically loyal Apple fan in China, may illustrate why the most valuable tech giant in the United States has been losing ground to local Chinese rivals in the world’s biggest smartphone market.

As Chinese smartphone makers move up the value chain and shed their image as cheap copycats, consumers in China are able to enjoy technologies only reserved for Apple’s new premium US$1,000 iPhone X model, but on a cheaper budget. That trend is a big challenge for Apple as it tries to regain its momentum in the market that matters the most outside its home country.