Apple’s Share In Chinese Smartphone Market Falls

Apple’s market share of the Chinese smartphone market fell last quarter, putting the company at risk of falling out of the top five smartphone vendors in the China — showing the waning dominance of the iPhone.

According to news from CNBC, local brand Xiaomi snagged the fourth-place market share spot that was held by Apple, leaving Apple at number five. The new retail market list comes from Canalys, an independent analyst company and includes Huawei at 23 million users, Oppo at 21 million, Vivo at 16 million and Xiaomi at 15 million.

Samsung is also among the top 10 smartphone brands in China, although only the top four brands were ranked by Canalys’ statement. The top five brands accounted for almost 75 percent of the 113 million retail shipments in China.

Apple does not break out figures on sales of individual products in each region and was not immediately available to comment, but a separate report this year found that the iPhone was not the top-selling smartphone in China last year — the first time Apple had been unseated since 2012.

Apple has struggled in recent years in China, with shopping down 14 percent year over year last quarter. But Apple CEO Tim Cook has expressed optimism on the Chinese market, despite strong competition from WeChat’s software ecosystem, which works on Android or iPhone devices. Apple even recently created a new post, managing director of greater China, tapping an executive that has developed China-specific features for iPhone and iPad.

In addition, the iPhone 8 is expected by some analysts to revamp Apple’s influence in China. Sales in greater China are expected to hit $9.96 billion in the September quarter, up from $8.79 billion in the year-ago quarter.