Apple's iPhone Faces Over 30% Sales Dip in China

Jefferies reported that Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone sales have recently seen a year-over-year decrease of more than 30%. The firm's analysis indicates that, at the close of 2023, iPhone's presence in the Chinese market declined by around 3%, along with a 0.4% drop in market share.

Jefferies noted in a client memo that the decline in iPhone's market share in China was unexpected. The competition seems to be not just from hardware companies but also from other smartphone manufacturers like Xiaomi, Samsung, and ZTE/Nubia. The analysts expect the high sales base of January 2023 to put additional pressure on year-over-year growth, particularly for the iPhone, which had seen high single-digit year-over-year growth and over 40% sequential growth in January 2023.

Contrastingly, Android devices paired with hardware managed to maintain their market position year-over-year, despite a high comparison base. In 2023, according to the analysts, the most significant market share growth was seen by hardware companies, followed by "others" and Xiaomi. However, the analysts pointed out that the shipment volume of hardware, estimated at around 35 million units, was still below the consensus of 40 million, possibly due to supply chain issues.

Furthermore, the data suggests there has been a significant increase in discounts for the iPhone 14/14+ models and a moderate increase for the iPhone 15 Pro/Pro Max models.