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China is Apple’s ‘most competitive market’, says CEO Tim Cook after biggest iPhone sales drop in nearly 4 years

  • Global iPhone revenue fell 10 per cent in the first quarter, another sign of the competition Apple faces in China, the world’s largest smartphone market
  • Cook said that despite quarterly fluctuations, “over the long haul, I have a very positive viewpoint” on China

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People stand outside a recently opened Apple Store in Shanghai’s Jing’an district on March 26, 2024. Photo: AFP
Kelly Le
Apple reported the biggest drop in iPhone sales since late 2020 during Thursday’s earnings call, in one of the biggest signs yet of weakening demand for the US tech giant’s products in the world’s largest smartphone market amid strong competition from Chinese brands such as Huawei Technologies.

Revenue from iPhones, Apple’s bread-and-butter business, fell 10 per cent from a year ago to US$45.7 billion in the three months through March, according to the company’s latest earning report. In Greater China, a critical iPhone market that includes Hong Kong and Taiwan, sales fell 8 per cent to US$16.4 billion in the same period.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said in the earnings call that China has been “the most competitive market in the world”. But the company maintains “a great view of China in the long term”, he added in comments that came weeks after a “fantastic trip” to the country in March for a new store opening in Shanghai, where he had “very warm and highly energetic” reception.
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“I don’t know how each and every quarter goes and each and every week,” Cook said. “But over the long haul, I have a very positive viewpoint.”

Apple has been losing market share in China’s smartphone market, with iPhone sales dropping 19.1 per cent in the first quarter, according to consultancy Counterpoint.
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It ranked third for the quarter with 15.7 per cent of the domestic market, behind Dongguan-based Vivo and Huawei spin-off Honor, which held 17.4 per cent and 16.1 per cent, respectively.

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