iPhone Sales in China Declined 24% in First Six Weeks of 2024

[Silver78]

I used to have 2tb icloud …but after the pricejump I have degraded to the free 5gb tier. Greed should not pay.
Now i daily do airdrop between my devices.
I did not pay for large storage on both iphone and ipad and be forced to pay way too much for having my pictures stored in icloud also.
I hope some day that backup between devices will not force to also pay for expensive icloud storage.
Some type of daily scheduled automatic airdrop between devices would be nice.

 

[ELman]

The Chinese are masters of copying and then selling for less. I'm sure the ban of iPhone's in Chinese government buildings didn't help either.

 

[abrooks]

Article completely fails to mention, presumably because the analyst is not allowed to say, that Apple products are banned from purchase by officials at central government agencies. They are also not allowed to bring them into the office. Communist China has a lot of officials.

[Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-bans-govt-officials-using-iphone-work-wsj-2023-09-06/]

 

[Orange Bat]

Apple is quickly coming to a crossroads with iPhone. They’re really going to have to re-think their philosophy moving forward if they’re going to remain competitive in this market. It may be time for some new blood in leadership.

 

[Flamingdeathbolts]

This is where I get confused. Does Apple want to be a premium brand or a price bargain brand?

I personally rather see Apple be a great quality product that outperform but sure costs more so less people buy iPhone rather than Apple cutting quality and price just to say they are most popular.

 

[Jim Lahey]

You forgot trains and toasters.

And slim bezelled laptops that don't have half a drinks coaster grafted into the display.

 

[j26]

This is where I get confused. Does Apple want to be a premium brand or a price bargain brand?

I personally rather see Apple be a great quality product that outperform but sure costs more so less people buy iPhone rather than Apple cutting quality and price just to say they are most popular.

My G4 PowerBook was expensive, and niche, but it was a great machine. Apple back then didn't care about being the most popular, it cared about being the best.
I think the lure of easy money from being able to sell good phones at premium prices has taken over. Quality has been falling relative to it's competitors for some time now, but the price has remained high - that model isn't sustainable.

 

[Jim Lahey]

It may be time for some new blood in leadership.

Just some leadership would be a start. Feels like their product decisions are all made by accountants these days. None of whom ever talk to each other.

 

[sw1tcher]

Has been for the last 3-4 years, despite having their Foldables on the market for 5 years. Chinese buyers don’t seem to like Korean products, even the less expensive models. Samsung has less than 1% of the Chinese market share.

Maybe it's because Chinese buyers have been boycotting South Korean products for years now because of the THAAD missile system

Chinese Media Call for Boycott of South Korean Goods

Appeal comes after Korean conglomerate approved land swap deal at home that paves way for deployment of controversial US missile defense system

www.voanews.com

Why China's boycott of South Korea is viral marketing genius | GRI

The nature of China's social media environment lets Beijing turn South Korea-bashing into a viral trend and celebrities and companies are cashing in.

globalriskinsights.com

Chinese shun South Korean goods as negative views of neighbour grow

A new survey has found that the recent deterioration in relations between Beijing and Seoul seems to have affected Korean product sales, with negative perceptions of South Korea’s image playing a growing part in consumer decisions.

www.scmp.com

South Korea: estimated economic loss from Chinese boycott against THAAD by industry 2017| Statista

This statistic shows South Korea's estimated economic loss from the Chinese boycott against the deployment of the THAAD missile system after **********, by industry.

www.statista.com

 

[EntropyQ3]

This is where I get confused. Does Apple want to be a premium brand or a price bargain brand?

I personally rather see Apple be a great quality product that outperform but sure costs more so less people buy iPhone rather than Apple cutting quality and price just to say they are most popular.

Apple is creating an identity conflict for their brand. Do premium laptops ship with 8GB memory and 256GB storage? Those are bottom tier specs, and consumers know it.
They need volume to create a market for their profitable services, and providing value is instrumental in driving volume.
Premium prices for premium products are perceived as OK, and doesn’t undermine the brand identity or customer satisfaction. Selling penny-pinched hamstrung systems do. IMO they need to accept lower margins on their hardware, and let that fund improved specs allowing them to regain customer recognition (and maintain premium pricing)

I don’t pretend to know the best path forward for them. But it’s difficult to imagine their current modus operandi working out in the long run.

 

[Alex Cai]

I understand that critiquing Apple in a forum primarily for Apple enthusiasts can be challenging.
However, it's essential to highlight when certain hardware specifications, such as 128GB storage, 60Hz display, and around ~3400mAh battery capacity, and many others persist for years without significant improvement. This kind of game (using lower-quality components) can't last forever.

While this may save costs for Apple initially, it becomes increasingly apparent when competitors continuously offer similar or even better specifications, such as 256GB storage, 120Hz display, and battery capacities exceeding 4000mAh for standard models, often at a lower price point.

Agree.
In China, phones around $200 have 5000mah battery, 90hz, and great thermal design that starts to outperform iPhones after 30 minutes of Genshit impact. Weird that Apple puts battery life as a thing that is made for rich lads.

 

[sw1tcher]

well apple state ai can save their sales there so we'll see

AI smartphones seem to be helping Samsung's sales. This is just one data point, but still...

From Best Buy's most recent (Feb. 29, 2024) earnings call. Page 4 of transcript:

Even though overall, we are expecting flattish sales growth for the full year, there are many examples of innovation both already introduced and expected through the year that we believe will drive interest including the Samsung AI-enabled phone we are already seeing materially more demand than we expected, new emerging content for VR/AR devices, Ray-Ban smart glasses, Bose open year headphones, EV universal charging devices and a proliferation of 98-inch screen TVs, to name a few.

 

[webkit]

1) iPhones are way too expensive for the vast majority of Chinese people;

But hasn't that long or even always been the case? It wouldn't explain the recent sales drop, especially as Apple has reportedly been using discounts/incentives to lower iPhone prices in China.

 

[derekamoss]

My G4 PowerBook was expensive, and niche, but it was a great machine. Apple back then didn't care about being the most popular, it cared about being the best.
I think the lure of easy money from being able to sell good phones at premium prices has taken over. Quality has been falling relative to it's competitors for some time now, but the price has remained high - that model isn't sustainable.

The G4 Powerbook was amazing. The design still looks great today. Also don't forget the 12 inch PowerBook. That think was a beast.

 

[j26]

The G4 Powerbook was amazing. The design still looks great today. Also don't forget the 12 inch PowerBook. That think was a beast.

That's what I had - the 12" G4 1.33. I loved it.

 

[aParkerMusic]

No;

It's the fact that it's locked down. Can't customize much, can't sideload apps, zero options for phones with MicroSD card slots, etc. The most expensive phone on the market doesn't have the most basic features. For some reason MacRumors praises this kind of phone?

Almost no one actually cares about those things. Almost no one KNOWS about those things

You think average consumers are sitting around wondering about alternate app stores and MicroSD cards??!! HAHA

You need to log off the site every once in a while

 

[Bustycat]

Has been for the last 3-4 years, despite having their Foldables on the market for 5 years. Chinese buyers don’t seem to like Korean products, even the less expensive models. Samsung has less than 1% of the Chinese market share.

Samsung phones are overpriced and terrible at localisation in mainland China, and the infamous reputation of promotion is also a factor.

 

[toobravetosave]

So it has nothing to do with the Gub'ment's policy banning the use of iPhones by Gub'ment workers and for government uses last September? You can't fight city hall; you can't beat the bureaucracy.

america bans chinese companies too and i think its a good thing for people to value their domestic producers

especially when iphones have stagnated so severely compared to android hardware and features

 

[deconstruct60]

I used to have 2tb icloud …but after the pricejump I have degraded to the free 5gb tier. Greed should not pay.
Now i daily do airdrop between my devices.
I did not pay for large storage on both iphone and ipad and be forced to pay way too much for having my pictures stored in icloud also.
I hope some day that backup between devices will not force to also pay for expensive icloud storage.

Some day? iTunes backup worked long before Apple ever introduced iCloud. It is moving away from being called "iTunes", but the backup still works.

[ This reminds me of the TV commercial about the "hot news secret special on getting free TV"... just hook this device to the back of your TV and it is "free" with no cable bill. " 'New' government mandated option" ... Errr you broadcast TV that existed all through the 60's ,70's, 80's before cable became dominate? ]

Some type of daily scheduled automatic airdrop between devices would be nice.

Only one single copy to a another mobile device isn't really much of a backup. It is better than nothing, but two big pain points here.

1. the max storage capacity is relatively limited if trying to keep very long term archives.

2. Apple's $/TB price on mobile devices is highly inflated. Complaining about Apple's on device prices versus iCloud is a bit odd. Both are high for backup.


A good backup consists of more than one copy. ( iCloud probably redundantly stores the data. A 'offline' backup of what is being actively used. ). Should be versioned also. a rapid sync betweeen two devices would delete on both.
[ iCloud has issues here also as high quality backup. ]

'Daily scheduled' can burn lots of mobile data if not close together. Both happened to be on same home Wi-Fi has substantially lower security risks. Airdrop is a security hole which is in part why it requires direct user interaction/approvals.

 

[deconstruct60]

My kids iPhones are coming for renewal soon and they were given the choice to get a 13 for free (it's free on the plan) or contribute towards a 14 (it's 200 on the plan, but I'd only expect them to put in about 50 as an exercise in learning about the value of money). They all decided to go for the 13 as "it's basically the same as the 14, or 15 and not worth the extra 50" (their words, not mine)

Interesing lesson when the 13 isn't free. The costs are built into the plan. You are paying for the 13 regardless of whether you get one or not. That doesn't make it free.

the lesson here is make someone else pay for your phone. It should cost some of their money regardless if they are actually suppose to get the value of money notion. The 14 should just cost more.

 

[derekamoss]

That's what I had - the 12" G4 1.33. I loved it.

Yeah it was great! I bought mine working at Fry's electronics the day they came out. NO ONE I worked with understood why I was paying so much for a 12 inch laptop at the time. The titanium Powerbook was still the best looking though. What's crazy is back then I was the ONLY person at fry's who knew anything about Mac's. Apple used to have a certified retailer course which was basically Mac 101 and you got a silver Apple pin for your ID or shirt and I was the only one who had it. It's funny to think now but from 2003 to 2005, I was the only Apple sales associate at the Webster TX fry's location because nobody knew crap about Apple or Mac's. I remember we actually had two SKU's of the iPod, A windows version and a separate mac version and the windows version had to use MusicMatch software instead of iTunes lol.

 

[neuropsychguy]

Do premium laptops ship with 8GB memory and 256GB storage? Those are bottom tier specs, and consumers know it.

Yes, Apple's laptops are premium. Their base models ship with that; ergo premium laptops are shipping with 8GB RAM and 256GB SSDs.

A minority of consumers think that 8/256 is "bottom tier" or care. What I recommend you do is doing a truly randomized poll of real computer users around the world -- not just people who comment online on tech forums. Ask them a non-leading open-ended question like, "How much RAM does a premium laptop have?" Let's see what answers you get. I'd wager your most frequent answer would be something like, "What's RAM?" Even if you said, "How much memory does a premium laptop have?", you're likely to get, "I don't know."

Most people don't care. They just care how a device works. There are not many people who are buying the base models of Apple's laptops who are coming anywhere near stressing the device. You'll get some people filling up the SSD, but a lot of people just use a computer to consume streaming media, use a web browser, and send some emails. Others might do some light office-type work.

I think Apple should include more RAM in the base models of computers, but I also understand why they don't. They have telemetry and other data that suggest most people don't really need it. That's a part of how Apple makes decisions.

 

[j26]

Yes, Apple's laptops are premium. Their base models ship with that; ergo premium laptops are shipping with 8GB RAM and 256GB SSDs.

A minority of consumers think that 8/256 is "bottom tier" or care. What I recommend you do is doing a truly randomized poll of real computer users around the world -- not just people who comment online on tech forums. Ask them a non-leading open-ended question like, "How much RAM does a premium laptop have?" Let's see what answers you get. I'd wager your most frequent answer would be something like, "What's RAM?" Even if you said, "How much memory does a premium laptop have?", you're likely to get, "I don't know."

Most people don't care. They just care how a device works. There are not many people who are buying the base models of Apple's laptops who are coming anywhere near stressing the device. You'll get some people filling up the SSD, but a lot of people just use a computer to consume streaming media, use a web browser, and send some emails. Others might do some light office-type work.

I think Apple should include more RAM in the base models of computers, but I also understand why they don't. They have telemetry and other data that suggest most people don't really need it. That's a part of how Apple makes decisions.

My sister-in-law was shopping for a laptop for one of her children for college. She knows very little about computers, but she was insistent on 16 gigs of RAM.
She wouldn't consider MacBooks because of the RAM, and ended up getting a Windows machine, which by all reports is working admirably.

People are not as ignorant as you may think.

 

[matsan]

Well US and EU has a ban on Huawei and ZTE products. Why should Chinese consumers be different and not avoid US/EU products?

 

[Mousse]

Almost no one actually cares about those things. Almost no one KNOWS about those things

You think average consumers are sitting around wondering about alternate app stores and MicroSD cards??!! HAHA

You need to log off the site every once in a while

Lots of Android users knows all about MicroSD, sideloading, customizing and so on. Apple is keeping its customers ignorant of features that when they add it, they do so with much fanfare.🤫 Google has been copying Apple in removing features like headphone jacks, MicroSD.😒 Guess who's phone no longer registers on my radar?🤨

america bans chinese companies too and i think its a good thing for people to value their domestic producers

Murica doesn't need to ban Chinese companies. We already have a propaganda machine that brainwashed us into thinking everything made in China is junk. It ain't all junk; it's built to a price point. Most stuff are made in China. Some of them highend products, eg iPhones.

especially when iphones have stagnated so severely compared to android hardware and features

You're preaching to the choirboy, brutha.😉