Apple’s iPhone sales in China plunged 18% in holiday quarter

A staff member attends to a customer as the new iPhone 16 series smartphones go on sale at an Apple store in Beijing, China on Sept 20, 2024. The company’s flagship handsets, China’s top sellers a year earlier, relinquished the top spot to Huawei Technologies Co, Counterpoint Research found. — Reuters

Sales of Apple Inc iPhones dived 18.2% in China during the December quarter, according to independent research, a major setback for the company in its biggest market after the US.

The company’s flagship handsets, China’s top sellers a year earlier, relinquished the top spot to Huawei Technologies Co, Counterpoint Research found. Apple slipped to third in the world’s largest smartphone arena over the three months, commanding about a sixth of the market. The drop in China drove a global slump of 5% in iPhone sales during the key shopping period.