Apple Remained the Smartphone Leader in China in Q4 and even managed to grow Shipments despite COVID Lockdowns
Late Wednesday Patently Apple posted a report titled "In Spite of China's COVID Lockdown issues hurting iPhone 14 Shipments, Apple was still the top Smartphone Company in the World in Q4-22." Today we're learning that Apple was also the top smartphone company in China for Q4.
China’s smartphone sales declined 14% YoY in 2022 to reach their lowest level in a decade, according to Counterpoint Research’s Market Pulse Service. 2022 was also the fifth consecutive year of YoY sales declines in China. Macroeconomic headwinds and the impact of COVID-19 led to the sales plunge.
In Q4 2022, China’s smartphone sales declined 15% YoY. Therefore, sales declined YoY in double digits in every quarter of 2022. The sudden relaxing of the COVID-19 policy in December resulted in a surge in cases and led the market to decline 5% QoQ to record its lowest quarterly sales in the year, instead of posting a typical seasonal increase.
Since the spring of 2022, many cities in China, both large and small, were being subjected to COVID-19 restrictions, which negatively impacted consumer sentiment and further delayed smartphone replacements.
While Apple declined 3% YoY in 2022, it reached its highest-ever quarterly share, capturing 23.7% of the sales in Q4 2022. This was despite the shortages faced by the iPhone 14 Pro versions as well as the comparatively lower popularity of the iPhone 14 series’ non-Pro versions due to limited upgrades compared to the iPhone 13.
For more on this, read the full Counterpoint report.
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