news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

apple

core tips:

1. iphone has been in china for 15 years and the situation has changed.

2. since the beginning of the year, iphone sales in china have been declining, while sales of domestic mobile phones such as huawei have soared.

3. analysts say apple still has a strong combination of hardware, platforms and services, which gives it an advantage over its competitors.

when apple ceo tim cook visited china in march, he made no secret of the charm offensive he had mounted for the trip.

he posted videos on weibo introducing his itinerary in china, meeting local celebrities, experiencing local food, and holding an opening ceremony for a new store in shanghai with chinese retail store employees.

cook hopes the charm offensive will pay off as apple unveils its latest iphone 16 lineup at its cupertino headquarters early tuesday morning. it comes as sales in china, its most important international market, are falling, and the company faces challenges as consumer interest wanes.

falling

at the beginning of 2024, apple received strong warning signals in china. according to data from research firm counterpoint, iphone sales in china fell a staggering 24% in the first six weeks of this year. in the following months, this downward trend continued.

counterpoint said that in the first quarter of this year, apple's smartphone sales in china fell 19.1% year-on-year, and fell another 5.7% in the second quarter.

iphone sales in china fell 19% in the first quarter

it’s a worrying sign for apple, which already felt the shift in chinese consumer sentiment during its last full fiscal year.2in fiscal year 2023, apple's net sales in greater china fell to us$72.6 billion, a rare drop from us$74.2 billion in the previous year.

15 years in china

it is worth noting that in the 15-year history of the iphone in china, apple has been the dominant force in the smartphone market. people regard the iphone as a symbol of wealth and feel that holding it can show status. moreover, the performance of the iphone also exceeds that of local competitors.

however, this situation has changed over the past year, mainly due to the rise of domestic high-end mobile phones.huawei has been the biggest winner among apple's chinese rivals as local phone makers look to prove their devices can now compete with the iphone.

huawei mate 60

huawei's smartphone sales grew nearly 70% in the first quarter of this year and another 44.5% in the second quarter, according to counterpoint, as the company benefited from deep discounts offered during the 618 shopping festival.

however, the key to huawei's success has been the new phones it released in the past year, such as the mate 60 pro and pura 70 ultra, which are equipped with advanced processors.

in addition, other local smartphone makers including honor, xiaomi and vivo have also achieved sales growth in the past year.

can ai trigger an upgrade wave?

now, apple is hoping that the new generation of iphones can help it turn things around.

the iphone 16 is about to be released, and it will provide users with apple's new artificial intelligence system, apple intelligence. in june of this year, apple released apple intelligence at the worldwide developers conference, which is only available on the iphone 15 pro and iphone 16.

cook called apple intelligence "really useful intelligence" and he hopes consumers' desire for it will spark a wave of iphone upgrades.

Apple Intelligence

however, chinese users may not be able to experience a key part of apple's new ai features: chatgpt, because openai has not yet launched this chatbot in china. apple is looking for local partners to integrate the most advanced chatbot features into the chinese version of apple intelligence.

on friday, analysts at wedbush securities released a research report saying that with the launch of the "ai-driven, highly anticipated iphone 16" series of mobile phones, they expect "the chinese market, which is critical to apple, to see improved and accelerated growth again."

meanwhile, paolo pescatore, founder of research firm pp foresight, noted:"apple still has an enviable combination of powerful and tightly integrated hardware, platform and services," and still has an advantage over local competitors in china.

so, will consumers buy into this round of ai hype? apple hopes so. (author: xiao yu)

for more first-hand news, please download the phoenix news client and subscribe to phoenix technology. if you want to read in-depth reports, please search "phoenix technology" on wechat.