iPhone’s share in China continues to decline: Jefferies

iPhone’s volume has continued to decline significantly during the Labor Day Holiday week in China, with its market share dropping to the sixth position during the period, compared to third a year ago, analysts at Jefferies noted Sunday.

Citing industry checks, analysts estimate that China’s year-to-date smartphone volume has grown by approximately 2% year-over-year, aligning with their full-year 2024 growth forecast of about 3%.

The growth for the year has been primarily driven by high single-digit increases in Huawei, while Android volumes remained flat and iPhone volumes saw a high double-digit decline. Vivo has emerged as the market leader in year-to-date market share, followed by Huawei and Honor, with iPhone ranked fourth.

In contrast, Jefferies noted an increase in promotional discounts for the iPhone 15 Pro/Pro Max, which rose last week by 2 to 6 percentage points across major online platforms, likely in an effort to boost sales.

The most substantial discounts were found on PDD (PDD), where they reached around 21%, followed by JD (NASDAQ:) with discounts close to 16%. Notably, iPhone’s discounts began to expand even before the start of the 618 shopping festival, which typically kicks off in the last week of May, analysts said.

“For Apple (NASDAQ:) to defend its iPhone market share, we believe it might launch aggressive promotional discounts during 618. This is the focus of our observations for the upcoming 618 event,” analysts at Jefferies wrote.