iOS Drops to Lowest Share of China Smartphone Market in Nearly Three Years

[mi7chy]

That is true, but also most of the Chinese market is price sensitive. Why spend $1,000 on an iPhone when you can buy a phone from Huawei or Xiaomi with comparable, if not better, specs for a fraction of the price.

It's just common consumer sense. iPhone is just another Made in China phone so it's like comparing Ford and Chevy except the local Chinese brands have better value, design and specs. It's crazy that Apple sells a flagship with 750p display. You only find that in sub $100 non-Apple devices.

 

[BeforeTheMeds]

I agree, I don't know anyone who uses iMessage.

Same here in mexico. Everyone uses whatsapp, lots of different rooms also such as our family has one. I have two contacts that use imessage or regular text message and they are both in the us.

No imessage, facetime or anything apple-centric here.

I can't speak for china but apple had a 6% market share in all things apple last time I saw statistics. I think there are a number of reasons. Price for Sure.

Nobody uses apple centric services. Ios devices are designed more for the cloud, most people do not even have internet at home. Small ciber's are everywhere, people would rather pay 3 pesos for half an hour. Even in small pueblos there are a lot of cibers.

Up toward 90% use pay as you go phone service with no internet. You can receive calls even without a balance.

For 3.00 us a month you have unlimited whatsapp, facebook, etc. Makes no sense to use text messages.

Add all of that up and balance it with the very cheapest iphone 7 being between 8-900 us and its easy to see that most people do not need one.

Now add to it the fact that there is no iphone upgrade program here. If you get one through telcel plans you will pay a big down payment plus 100. Us or so a month for a plan to cover it.

Really the only option is through places like coppel which are similar to us payday loan places in the us where you can borrow monwy or buy stuff. Then it jumps up Several hundred more for that base iphone. People making a few hundred a month see pretty easily yhat it does not "vale la pena". Not worth it.

I know this is about china but for the most part those looking through non us eyes can understand it better. 1st world eyesight is different.

 

[lazard]

Same here in mexico. Everyone uses whatsapp, lots of different rooms also such as our family has one. I have two contacts that use imessage or regular text message and they are both in the us.

No imessage, facetime or anything apple-centric here.

I can't speak for china but apple had a 6% market share in all things apple last time I saw statistics. I think there are a number of reasons. Price for Sure.

Nobody uses apple centric services. Ios devices are designed more for the cloud, most people do not even have internet at home. Small ciber's are everywhere, people would rather pay 3 pesos for half an hour. Even in small pueblos there are a lot of cibers.

Up toward 90% use pay as you go phone service with no internet. You can receive calls even without a balance.

For 3.00 us a month you have unlimited whatsapp, facebook, etc. Makes no sense to use text messages.

Add all of that up and balance it with the very cheapest iphone 7 being between 8-900 us and its easy to see that most people do not need one.

Now add to it the fact that there is no iphone upgrade program here. If you get one through telcel plans you will pay a big down payment plus 100. Us or so a month for a plan to cover it.

Really the only option is through places like coppel which are similar to us payday loan places in the us where you can borrow monwy or buy stuff. Then it jumps up Several hundred more for that base iphone. People making a few hundred a month see pretty easily yhat it does not "vale la pena". Not worth it.

I know this is about china but for the most part those looking through non us eyes can understand it better. 1st world eyesight is different.

Yeah, imessage is rarely used in Asia. China uses WeChat, Hong Kong uses Whatsapp, Korea uses Kakao, Japan uses Line.

 

[Roadstar]

Yeah, imessage is rarely used in Asia. China uses WeChat, Hong Kong uses Whatsapp, Korea uses Kakao, Japan uses Line.

Users in those countries must have watched the iOS 10 keynote with the same "excitement" as I did. Most of the new stuff was either something that wasn't being used (iMessage) or is not available in my country (e.g. Apple News, most Apple Maps improvements, Apple Pay stuff).

 

[I7guy]

Users in those countries must have watched the iOS 10 keynote with the same "excitement" as I did. Most of the new stuff was either something that wasn't being used (iMessage) or is not available in my country (e.g. Apple News, most Apple Maps improvements, Apple Pay stuff).

Its different here. My family/extended family have iphones, as do my friends, business associates etc. Only a few have android devices. So at least in my circle, imessage rules.

 

[BeforeTheMeds]

Yeah, imessage is rarely used in Asia. China uses WeChat, Hong Kong uses Whatsapp, Korea uses Kakao, Japan uses Line.

I have been to all of those places, but not since cell phones have been around, lol.
[doublepost=1492482895][/doublepost]

Users in those countries must have watched the iOS 10 keynote with the same "excitement" as I did. Most of the new stuff was either something that wasn't being used (iMessage) or is not available in my country (e.g. Apple News, most Apple Maps improvements, Apple Pay stuff).

I an the only person that I know of that sometimes watches keynotes here in mexico and even I have not watched the last few.

 

[Technarchy]

well, crappy form factor, very long refresh cycle, course people are ditching Apple.

Tim really has lowered the bar for Apple

I can see the long refresh cycle being a significant factor across Apple's entire product line.

 

[Zaft]

I agree, I don't know anyone who uses iMessage.

Just curious, are you in Finland as well?

 

[lowendlinux]

Just curious, are you in Finland as well?

Germany