The price reduction failed to escape the "encirclement and suppression", and agency data showed that Apple's China shipments fell out of the top five for the first time in the second quarter

Blue Whale Finance

2024-07-26 22:26Posted on the official account of Beijing Blue Whale Finance

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Data on China's smartphone market in the second quarter of 012024 showed that Apple's shipments fell out of the top five for the first time, becoming "Others".

02Although Apple slashed prices during the "618" promotion, the price reduction strategy had a limited effect on its market share.

03 However, Apple still maintains the top three positions in Counterpoint's data, and the gap with subsequent brands is not large.

04Huawei led all mobile phone brands in the second quarter of 2024 year-on-year growth, benefiting from the Huawei Pura 70 series and the hot sales of Nova 12.

05 Domestic manufacturers continue to make efforts in new technologies such as folding screens and AI to try to outperform Apple, and Apple's large-scale model partners in the Chinese market have not yet been determined.

The above content is generated by Tencent's hybrid model and is for reference only

Image source: Visual China

Blue Whale News, July 26 (Reporter Zhang Han) From July 25th to July 26th, the three major market research institutions (IDC, Canalys, and Counterpoint) successively announced China's smartphone sales and market share in the second quarter of 2024. In the report released by IDC and Canalys, Apple has fallen out of the top five smartphone manufacturers and has become "Others", which is the first time in four years that it has lost so much in the competition with domestic mobile phones.

According to IDC data, the top five mobile phone manufacturers in terms of market share in the second quarter of 2024 are vivo (18.5%), Huawei (18.1%), OPPO (15.7%), Honor (14.5%), and Xiaomi (14%); In the market share data released by Canalys, the rankings are vivo (19%), OPPO (16%), honor (15%), Huawei (15%), and Xiaomi (14%).

Image source: IDC screenshot

Image source: Screenshot from Counterpoint

Image source: Screenshot from Canalys

Although the rankings of brands in IDC and canalys data are not the same, Apple does not appear in the top five. However, in the ranking given by Counterpoint, Apple still maintained the top three positions, but the gap with the follow-up brands is not large, and the specific rankings are vivo (18.5%), Apple (15.5%), Huawei (15.4%), Xiaomi (15.3%), Honor (15.2%), and OPPO (14.6%).

The ranking of China's smartphone market in the second quarter of 2024 is of interest because it contains sales data for "618". In the face of Huawei's return and the impact of the high-end of domestic mobile phones, Apple began to significantly reduce prices during the "618" promotion period to stabilize sales, for example, in Jingdong Apple's self-operated store, the starting price of iPhone 15 Pro Max dropped to 7799 yuan, which is equivalent to a 20% discount from the first price. Some Huawei sales channels told the Blue Whale News reporter that affected by Apple's price cut, Huawei Pura 70 series began to reduce prices by 1,000 yuan on June 1 to face Apple's challenge.

According to the data disclosed by IDC and Canalys, Apple's price reduction strategy has played little role, but in Counterpoint's data, Apple still occupies the top three positions, which is actually related to statistical caliber.

There are two types of mobile phone sales: online and offline, and the offline channel includes mobile phone manufacturers shipping to provincial agents, and then shipping to the next level distributors through provincial agents. "OPPO and vivo give us relatively high profit points, so we are also willing to take the goods. Although Huawei's profit point is also high, it will ask to bring some other products when picking up the goods, so that it is actually not as profitable as OPPO and vivo. A mobile phone dealer in Hebei told the Blue Whale News reporter.

In fact, this also explains why the data given by IDC, Canalys and Counterpoint are different. IDC and canalys count shipments, that is, shipments to provincial agents and other distributors. According to Canalys, it combines tracking data from shipments from 40+ vendors across 86 markets around the world with data from Canalys' unique primary and secondary channels. But Counterpoint counts sales data, not total shipments, that is, this data is closer to the real sales situation, according to the data disclosed by Counterpoint, Apple's sales are still showing a single-digit year-on-year decline, but the proportion of Pro model sales has increased.

Although there are differences, the Blue Whale News reporter also found two similarities in the data of these market research institutions: first, vivo ranks first in the three statistical calibers; Second, Huawei's year-on-year growth was the first in Counterpoint (44.5%), IDC (50.2%), and Canalys (41%). In the data of Counterpoint and Canalys, OPPO has the most year-on-year declines. Benefiting from the Huawei Pura 70 series and the hot sales of the Nova 12, Huawei's year-on-year growth leads all mobile phone brands, and the continuous improvement of production capacity has also allowed the Pura 70 to not reproduce the long-term out-of-stock state of the Mate 60 last fall.

Domestic manufacturers continue to make efforts in new technologies such as folding screens and AI, wanting to outperform Apple. Although Apple has announced AI progress, only the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max can be used in iPhone products, and it is still unclear which large model manufacturer will cooperate with in the Chinese market. Foreign media reported that Apple will launch its first folding machine product in 2026, but even if it is launched, it is many years behind domestic manufacturers, and these are the challenges that Apple needs to face in the future.

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