Do you have the data to back up the fact that people are buying these flagship phones and not just cheap Android phones?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Falls to Third Place in China's Smartphone Market Amid Sales Decline
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
That happened more than a year ago. Some will always find new excuses.
In terms of Hardware, those Chinese competitor has really caught up and in many cases out innovate Apple. The SoC side Qualcomm and ARM finally have designs that could compete with Apple within 10-20% pref. In Software Android is closer to Apple than it ever was. Especially when Chinese Android basically copy most of Apple's features.
I think it is either iPhone 14 or iPhone 15 that finally slipped. And now iPhone 16 is on special discount in China selling for $599 USD.
I think it is either iPhone 14 or iPhone 15 that finally slipped. And now iPhone 16 is on special discount in China selling for $599 USD.
We need to be honest here
Take out how you feel about iOS and the Apple ecosystem
The hardware is flat out not competitive on features or value -- which is a huge reason for these types of declines
It's not complicated -- Apple has been lazy and these phones are just very average in terms of the hardware offering
Note: I did not say "not good" or "bad" ... just very average and not particularly compelling to a shopper
Take out how you feel about iOS and the Apple ecosystem
The hardware is flat out not competitive on features or value -- which is a huge reason for these types of declines
It's not complicated -- Apple has been lazy and these phones are just very average in terms of the hardware offering
Note: I did not say "not good" or "bad" ... just very average and not particularly compelling to a shopper
Sure but like I said, its rectangle. What does the Huawei offer that the iPhone doesn't? I think I'm turning into an old man because I have an iPhone 15 Pro, the camera is great, I use it for work not really gaming, watching videos. I wish the island was smaller, but I find it handy to go back to whatever media I was playing and some other features hidden in the island. These guys have a dot, Apple has the island.
Whether in China or the US, businesses like Huawei or Apple have to get used to increased government interference favouring local companies to the detriment of foreign ones.
China is also having a "Buy China" moment, no different than "Buy American" here, and many of their citizens are happy to be on the bandwagon...They have national pride, too, and the current US rhetoric is pushing them more towards Chinese profits and services.
The difference being that there are phones actually designed and built there.
Last edited:
People on forums conveniently overlook that.
Some people may not think that smartphone requires more innovations but in order to keep your customers upgrading their phones more frequent, you really have to bring out something new, albeit gimmick to some people.
All major android phone brands in China, and including Samsung, offers folding phones now. One can argue whether the form factor is really that useful but at least for some customers, that means excitement and reasons to upgrade.
Other features such as collaborating with famous camera brands to bring better quality photos. Example being Xiaomi with Leica.
Faster charging, reverse charging, supper big battery capacity, really bright screen, high screen refresh rate, etc.
There are still things that can get even the "perfect" smartphone a bit better.
All major android phone brands in China, and including Samsung, offers folding phones now. One can argue whether the form factor is really that useful but at least for some customers, that means excitement and reasons to upgrade.
Other features such as collaborating with famous camera brands to bring better quality photos. Example being Xiaomi with Leica.
Faster charging, reverse charging, supper big battery capacity, really bright screen, high screen refresh rate, etc.
There are still things that can get even the "perfect" smartphone a bit better.
Gee...you think the China USA trade war talk has domestic buyers looking for a 'local' supplier? If trade ware talk continues this will be what happens everywhere to American brands. The BUY AMERICAN types who yelped in some recent elections don't quite understand other countries can do that too...Have you looked at how American cars are doing in China? Look it up.
No surprise. Apple hasn’t really brought anything new to the iPhone since the iPhone 13 (Pro). It’s just been the obligatory 10-15% performance boost and slight camera improvements both of which make no difference except in edge use cases.
Lol, keep believing that’s the issue and forget the real reason. Apple is done in China. Not competitive on hard- and software over there.
It has begun. Apple sells the same product with no major changes for forever now. AI changes the user experience and turns smartphone in different devices. Apple Intelligence is crap and Siri was fun when it first shipped with iPhone 4s.
iP17 will be thinner. THINNER!!!! OMG, the old Apple game you know. Thinner, not foldable - others might say „but it will bend for sure“, which might be true.
I really would like to use the Pixel 9 pro (fold?), but it won‘t work with my AW and it can‘t do iCloud copy and paste - which could be fixable …
iP17 will be thinner. THINNER!!!! OMG, the old Apple game you know. Thinner, not foldable - others might say „but it will bend for sure“, which might be true.
I really would like to use the Pixel 9 pro (fold?), but it won‘t work with my AW and it can‘t do iCloud copy and paste - which could be fixable …
Last edited:
Apple has 1 cheap iPhone, other phone makers offer half a dozen cheap phones. So that's why apples sales declined in China and yes price matters to many people. If you want an exciting phone, start your own phone company and make new exciting phones every year that no one will ever complain about it, and let us know how that works out for you.
So a mandate/encouragement from their government had nothing to do with it. OK. Believe what you will.
Lol, keep believing that’s the issue and forget the real reason. Apple is done in China. Not competitive on hard- and software over there.
The same reasons European and American car makers are losing big in China. No competive products with the exception of Tesla. Tesla innovates!
That would reflect the number of iPhone sold much earlier if that was the issue. Apple is losing appeal to other brands with better hard- and software. A memory and chip swap isn’t enough over there.
This is just not a good faith or useful reply
Come on, let’s be a little friendlier than this
iPhone 14-15-16 series are too similar, and you can’t beat China prices, they are making even better phones for almost half of the price
8 years later, and iphones still has the ugly notch penalizing display view size
Apple Intelligence as good as the name implies would be nice. Google tried it over a decade ago with Assistant and it was good but everyone gave up.
They’ve been wasting their time with stuff like Image Playground, but if they could finally get to the point where it’s as good as current versions of ChatGPT but also able to work with the data on my phone, that would be really useful.
But that’s not happening for at least another year now.
In the mean time they are just making the interfaces worse and not keeping up with features and the little bugs keep going unfixed.