iPhone Shipments Down 9% in China's Q1 Smartphone Boom

[AlanBeyond]

What a huge surprise that a Chinese government subsidized 15% discount would significantly affect market share of unsubsidized competitors. I never would have imagined such a thing could happen with China the guardian of fair trade! Trump could put 125% tariff on them ... oh yeah, I forgot he is essentially doing that to an American company.

I bet you are being sarcastic... I'm in China and this subsidiary plan is not limited in Chinese brands only. Samsung and Apple get it too. Like the S25 and iPhone 16, 16e. They just chose to set their major model's price (like S25 Ultra and 16 Pro Max) higher than the upper limit. This plan came early than their product release.

 

[falainber]

That is Chinese propaganda, which you can learn in the YouTube channels I posted upthread. I am not saying it isn't happening, but this is a move by the CCP to get people in Southeast Asia to purchase Chinese products. They are desperate. The United States has 30% of the world's consumer market.

They are desperate. They have too many smartphones. We, in US, are not desperate at all. Who cares that the prices for us are going to go up significantly.

 

[AlanBeyond]

Could be. It will be interesting to see going forward how this trade war affects the sales of American brands in China.

Trump started raising tariffs in April, and Q1 is Jan, Feb and March. Its because the subsidiary plan. iPhones are too pricy.

Maybe because Xiaomis and Huaweis are made to last just one year?🤣
Just for fun I had bought a Tecno phone recently. It is cheap and ugly as f, but I wanted to see what’s all the fuss about. While modified Chinadroid works ok, phone will nag you with updates each and every second – nice way to bring obsolescence and bugs, and no one will even notice. At this point it is the reality, not even some “conspiracy theory”. Even Koreans do that, you buy Samsung TV and after 3 years of autoupdates the SmartTV is bricked laggard, good if you got Apple TV but not understandable to me that you basically “subscribe to 3 year plan”.

I mean, what? Chinese shareholders are happy, sales go up, customers have no say. I guess we will never get data on how premium Chinese phones sell.

I still use my old iPhone 11 Pro. It is almost 5 years old! It blows most 300$ Chinese phones out of the water in terms of app performance, camera quality and build/design.

Maybe you should try their flagships. Of course low-end Android last shorter, you paid 1/8 of the price of a pro max, what do you expect? Samsung low end models also last shorter. And don't tell me about iOS bringing obsolescence and bugs, remember how they slowed the performance on iPhone 6s? iOS 18 is much buggier than the previous version (Still better than Android but worse than how itself was) and I have submitted many feedbacks in the official feedback app and no one replied nor the bugs are fixed!

 

[danny842003]

That is Chinese propaganda, which you can learn in the YouTube channels I posted upthread. I am not saying it isn't happening, but this is a move by the CCP to get people in Southeast Asia to purchase Chinese products. They are desperate. The United States has 30% of the world's consumer market.

It’s not Chinese propaganda as I’m buying less and I know others who are doing the same. This is worldwide.

 

[AlanBeyond]

People are choosing to buy less American products.
It may not account for all of his but I wouldn’t discount it as a reason at all.

Why does everyone likes to make it about politics. The price is the major reason. macOS just surpassed 10% of the OS market share last month for the first time in China thanks to the subsidiary plan (20% off on all desktop and laptop computers). iPhone Pro models are simply too pricy.

 

[danny842003]

Why does everyone likes to make it about politics. The price is the major reason. macOS just surpassed 10% of the OS market share last month for the first time in China thanks to the subsidiary plan (20% off on all desktop and laptop computers). iPhone Pro models are simply too pricy.

Is that a proven fact that politics plays no part in this?
You’ve had everyone in authority slandering the world since January, you don’t think that has an impact?

 

[AlanBeyond]

Is that a proven fact that politics plays no part in this?
You’ve had everyone in authority slandering the world since January, you don’t think that has an impact?

I'm saying that Trump started the trade war in April so it has nothing to do with the tariffs for apple's Q1 sales. Will it affect the months ahead? Very possible.
I just posted about macOS hitting 10% of market share in China for the first time, with sources, you could check it out.

 

[danny842003]

I'm saying that Trump started the trade war in April so it has nothing to do with the tariffs for apple's Q1 sales. Will it affect the months ahead? Very possible.
I just posted about macOS hitting 10% of market share in China for the first time, with sources, you could check it out.

But I had reduced buying American months before that and I’m not alone.

 

[Stuwil]

That is Chinese propaganda, which you can learn in the YouTube channels I posted upthread. I am not saying it isn't happening, but this is a move by the CCP to get people in Southeast Asia to purchase Chinese products. They are desperate. The United States has 30% of the world's consumer market.

That’s because worldwide you only have 2 choices but in china you have 3 so that is why it’s different in china as that is a factor

 

[weckart]

Except they do as they are made in a special zone, meaning any iPhone (or anything made inside for that matter) moving out of that zone will be subject to tax tariff and whatnot, and with 125% tariff today, iPhone is practically impossible to be sold in China no matter to whom, and Apple will definitely lose Chinese market soon if tariff is not reversed or reduced.

Doesn't origin matter for that, though? China will tax and tariff what it does for Samsung displays from Korea etc but I'm not sure any significant component comes directly from the US. Even the chips are manufactured in China using Chinese raw materials. I'm not sure about Chinese tax laws but I thought that the zone was meant to simplify input costing by having only one set of taxes on completion rather than filling in any tedious import regulations for the odd screw or whatever.

 

[Digital Dude]

Could it be more collateral damage from the trade war?

Been purchasing Apple products for 42 years, and I think it’s more than that. 🫩

 

[transmaster]

Been purchasing Apple products for 42 years, and I think it’s more than that. 🫩

Been an Apple user since 1984. I had to use a PC because the software I needed was not on the Apple machines.

 

[transmaster]

According to China Observer, Xi Jinping's tour of Southeast Asian countries to get them to take what China cannot sell to the US was a failure. As soon as he departed Vietnam, Vietnam stated it wanted to become a direct trade partner of the US. China has no friends in the region. In Thailand, buildings under construction by Chinese contractors because of their "tofu-dreg" construction were badly damaged in the recent earthquake. These Chinese contractors quickly left the country, and Thai construction workers were not paid.

 

[citysnaps]

That is Chinese propaganda, which you can learn in the YouTube channels I posted upthread. I am not saying it isn't happening, but this is a move by the CCP to get people in Southeast Asia to purchase Chinese products. They are desperate. The United States has 30% of the world's consumer market.

Spot-on. That's been reported here on MR over the last year.

 

[Shirasaki]

According to China Observer, Xi Jinping's tour of Southeast Asian countries to get them to take what China cannot sell to the US was a failure. As soon as he departed Vietnam, Vietnam stated it wanted to become a direct trade partner of the US. China has no friends in the region. In Thailand, buildings under construction by Chinese contractors because of their "tofu-dreg" construction were badly damaged in the recent earthquake. These Chinese contractors quickly left the country, and Thai construction workers were not paid.

Except, US has become unreliable lately. Idk what they can do if they don’t want to partner with China.

 

[platinumaqua]

For what it's worth, Chinese users live on the WeChat platform. There's no premium to Apple's ecosystem because the app runs every phone, so it's natural that the market gravitate to the cheaper options that Apple chooses not to compete in.

 

[Mousse]

For what it's worth, Chinese users live on the WeChat platform. There's no premium to Apple's ecosystem because the app runs every phone, so it's natural that the market gravitate to the cheaper options that Apple chooses not to compete in.

Price isn't the driving force. Compare the iPhone to what the Chinese manufacturers offer and you see that the iPhone is a terrible value: higher price for fewer features. The main selling point of the iPhone is Apple ecosystem. Remove that and there isn't a solid reason to pay more for a lesser camera, less storage, less customization, less features.

As you said, the Chinese use WeChat. Apple ecosystem is irrelevant. Apple privacy promise is also irrelevant in China. They have CCTV everywhere. The Gub'ment knows who you are, knows your number. They can send you a fine for jay walking before you finish crossing the street.

 

[transmaster]

Price isn't the driving force. Compare the iPhone to what the Chinese manufacturers offer and you see that the iPhone is a terrible value: higher price for fewer features. The main selling point of the iPhone is Apple ecosystem. Remove that and there isn't a solid reason to pay more for a lesser camera, less storage, less customization, less features.

As you said, the Chinese use WeChat. Apple ecosystem is irrelevant. Apple privacy promise is also irrelevant in China. They have CCTV everywhere. The Gub'ment knows who you are, knows your number. They can send you a fine for jay walking before you finish crossing the street.

Don't forget the CCP's Social Credit system.

 

[scottie2345]

That is Chinese propaganda, which you can learn in the YouTube channels I posted upthread. I am not saying it isn't happening, but this is a move by the CCP to get people in Southeast Asia to purchase Chinese products. They are desperate. The United States has 30% of the world's consumer market.

Mate, thats not quite right, I am in the UK and I refuse to buy US products, this applies to everyone I know, nothing what so ever to do with Chinese, you cannot piss the world of without the world pushing back, I fear its going to take the US years to recover from this I am afraid

 

[FlyingDutch]

And it is only gonna get „worse“. I was in Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong recently and the hardware of these phones there make iPhone look like the Nokia of 2025. Needless to say, I returned with my first ever Oppo device (not even sold here in Germany).

Apple is lucky they got most people in the west hooked on their locked in ecosystem

So you switched an iPhone for an Oppo and you are happy… good for you. I wouldn’t even for free…

 

[transmaster]

Mate, thats not quite right, I am in the UK and I refuse to buy US products, this applies to everyone I know, nothing what so ever to do with Chinese, you cannot piss the world of without the world pushing back, I fear its going to take the US years to recover from this I am afraid

That is your choice, however, there is very little I can find that is made in the UK. I have an Amazon UK account, most everything there, usually with a different name than here in the States, is made in China. Same for my Amazon EU account. It is in Australia where there is some resistance. A couple of shops I deal with that specialize in high-end kitchen knives. Right on their home pages, they proclaim that nothing they sell is from China. You apparently were not around during the Cold War. It seemed most of Europe was pissed off at us over many issues, not so much the people I will point out.

 

[Gotword]

Thats the mini users who left for a droid flip or smaller phone 😂

 

[Gotword]

Climate change existed since before 2G. Let’s not deflect blame. It’s our entire lifestyle, not just cheap electronics. We’re literally burning carbon based things in huge quantities.

E-waste and throwing away rare resources are a major problem, too, but it’s not the significant driver of climate change. And cell phones aren’t even a major source of waste. There are much cheaper electronics that get made and thrown away in much larger quantities (think of single-use vapes, eg).

I think or hope he was being sarcastic lol
Climate change has been a hot news debate since the 50s before phones period

 

[cyb3rdud3]

That is your choice, however, there is very little I can find that is made in the UK. I have an Amazon UK account, most everything there, usually with a different name than here in the States, is made in China. Same for my Amazon EU account. It is in Australia where there is some resistance. A couple of shops I deal with that specialize in high-end kitchen knives. Right on their home pages, they proclaim that nothing they sell is from China. You apparently were not around during the Cold War. It seemed most of Europe was pissed off at us over many issues, not so much the people I will point out.

You missed the point. Refusing to buy US products isnt' about whether something is made in the UK It is about limiting as much as possible to buy products and services from the USA. That sentiment is strong. Also includes tourism. And not just consumers, but also business to business. This is just the beginning.

We don't like rude liars that are insulting, threatening and present bully like behaviour. That is not how you deal in business, that is not how you do politics. The effects of this will be long term. But at least Trump can exclaim he was the best of the best ever worst President, and repeat it several times before his followers.

 

[transmaster]

You missed the point. Refusing to buy US products isnt' about whether something is made in the UK It is about limiting as much as possible to buy products and services from the USA. That sentiment is strong. Also includes tourism. And not just consumers, but also business to business. This is just the beginning.

We don't like rude liars that are insulting, threatening and present bully like behaviour. That is not how you deal in business, that is not how you do politics. The effects of this will be long term. But at least Trump can exclaim he was the best of the best ever worst President, and repeat it several times before his followers.

Given your current PM, the feeling is getting to be mutual. It is too bad people do not have a better grasp of history. You are describing the 1960s. Look up the term "The Ugly American". To me, nothing is new.