The iPhone 15 series has been warmly received in China with consumers rushing to snap up the latest models of Apple’s smartphone via a variety of sales channels, “staunching those voices that said Apple may struggle amid new competition from Huawei Technologies and a partial government ban,” according to the South China Morning Post.
Within the first 10 minutes of Apple’s commencement of iPhone 15 pre-orders, the tech giant’s official mainland China website crashed amid high demand, the article adds. Pre-order flow at Apple stores on e-commerce sites such as Alibaba’s Tmall and JD.com has also been heavy. (Note that Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.)
The first batch of iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max handsets available for pre-order on the official Apple Store on Tmall were snatched up in less than a minute after orders started being taken at 8pm last Friday, according to a report by local media outlet Jiemian.
Meanwhile, customers of Beijing-based JD.com had placed more than 3 million pre-orders on the Apple store on the platform for all four models of the iPhone 15 as of Monday, according to figures shown on its website. The South China Morning Post says the iPhone 15 was the most popular premium model on JD.com among handsets priced between 4,000 and 6,000 yuan (US$823) on Tuesday, followed by the iPhone 14 and iPhone 13, with one Huawei Mate 40 model coming in fourth.
According to Canalys estimates, smartphone shipments in Mainland China fell by 5% year-on-year to 64.3 million units in the second quarter of 2023. However, it was good news for Apple.
After taking control of inventory levels, vivo retook first place with an 18% market share and 11.4 million shipments, helped by several new launches, notes the research group. OPPO (including OnePlus) followed closely with an 18% market share, driven by solid online performance and improved channel capabilities.
Apple took third with 10.4 million iPhones shipped, followed closely by HONOR, with 10.3 million shipments. Xiaomi improved its market share sequentially to 13% and held on to fifth place.
Apple sold 10.4 million iPhones in China for 16% market share in the second quarter of 2023. That compares to sales of 9.9 million iPhones in the second quarter of 2022 for 15% market share. That’s annual growth of 5%.
“Chinese consumers are increasingly willing to pay for high-quality products,” says Canalys Analyst Amber Liu. “The average selling price of smartphones exceeded US$450 last year and is expected to keep rising in the coming quarters. Apple and Huawei have achieved impressive year-on-year growth with their flagship devices, indicating solid and sustained high-end demand.”
Article provided with permission from AppleWorld.Today