Apple’s troubles in the world’s largest smartphone market continue, drops out of top 5

Apple’s troubles in the world’s largest smartphone market — China — continue. The company’s market share has reportedly seen a further drop in China. Not only this, Apple has also been knocked out of the top five smartphone vendors in China for the first time ever. According to Canalys data, the company’s market share dropped to 14% in the second quarter of 2024, a 2% decline year-on-year.This comes at a time when the overall shipments in the world’s largest smartphone market grew by 10% to surpass 70 million units in the second quarter of 2024.
Vivo reclaimed the top spot with a 19% market share, followed by Oppo, Honor, Huawei and Xiaomi. The latter re-entered the top five with a strong performance fueled by its new electric car launch. Huawei, despite slowed growth, maintained its position in the top four.

How different brands performed in Q2 2024

What analysts have to say

Canalys senior analyst Toby Zhu commented: “The mainland China market’s growth is still behind the global recovery of 11%, which allowed Huawei to seize market share and reclaim the crown quickly. The production and supply shortage of the Mate 60 series improved in the first quarter, propelling it to become the key driver of Huawei’s overall growth. In addition to the high-end lineup, Huawei released the nova 12 series in December, which features Harmony 4.0, expanding the Kirin chipset to more product lines and successfully boosting performance in the mid-range price band. This month Huawei also upgraded the P series to Pura 70, featuring an innovative pop-out camera lens, further sparking market interest. A key strategy for Huawei in 2024 is to focus on building AI capabilities for smart devices from hardware to software at a system level, leveraging its deep R&D capabilities in AI infrastructure and solutions for industry and enterprise customers. With the continued expansion of the HarmonyOS ecosystem, Huawei emerges as the third OS for smartphones and other edge computing devices, breaking the two-horse race of Android and iOS in Mainland China.”