This just so happens to be the largest smartphone market in the world in addition to the most populous nation, mind you, so naturally, losing the crown to local hero Vivo after winning the regional title back in 2023 has to feel like a very bitter pill to swallow for Apple's top executives and shareholders.
Apple couldn't even take last year's silver medal
Yes, ladies and gents, as shocking as it may sound, it appears that both Vivo and Huawei managed to defeat the Cupertino-based tech giant in Chinese smartphone shipments in 2024 after ranking second and sixth (!) respectively in the previous year.
Although Vivo's achievement is undeniably impressive, Huawei arguably deserves to receive even more praise for pulling itself up from the deepest pits of irrelevance just a couple of years ago to a position from where the brand can probably go for gold in 2025.
Vivo managed to top the Chinese board in 2024, relatively closely followed by Huawei and Apple.
Huawei's 37 percent progress in yearly sales from 33.5 to 46 million units easily exceeds Vivo's own solid growth of 11 percent between 2023 and 2024 while absolutely crushing Apple, Oppo, and Honor's shrinking numbers. Of the three, Apple saw its figures drop by the largest margin, and if iPhone popularity doesn't quickly bounce back in China, both Oppo and Honor have a good chance at taking home the bronze medal this year.
In terms of market share, the podium battle was so incredibly close that Apple, Oppo, and Honor effectively ended 2024 in a three-way tie, with Vivo and Huawei not very far ahead either. Interestingly, the "others" group jumped from a combined total of 55.3 million unit shipments in 2023 to 61.6 million in 2024, crucially helping the Chinese market grow by 4 percent after two consecutive years of painful declines.
This graph illustrates the incredibly close battle between the top five vendors even better.
That's certainly not a massive improvement, boosting regional sales from 272.5 to 284.6 million units, but it's definitely better than no improvement at all, and intriguingly, it might beat this year's progress, which is currently predicted to take the market to only a little over 290 million units.
The iPhone 16 series didn't exactly sell like hotcakes in Q4
At first glance, Apple can find a little solace for its disappointing full-year Chinese sales result in its Q4-leading 13.1 million unit tally. But when you consider iPhones had an 8 percent market share advantage over Honor handsets in the final three months of 2023, it's hard to view the microscopic edge registered between October and December 2024 as a true victory for Apple.
In fact, both Vivo and Huawei technically tied Apple's Q4 2024 market share, losing the crown by only 200,000 unit shipments, which highlights the relatively muted consumer response to the iPhone 16 family. Don't get me wrong, this was still a decent box-office hit by normal industry standards, but compared to the iPhone 15 series a year before, it performed rather poorly, facing some tough competition from better-than-ever "domestic flagship devices."
Recommended Stories
That's a super-narrow win for Apple, and it certainly doesn't offset the company's overall 2024 loss in China.
Interestingly, Huawei was not the quarter's best performer, yielding that honor to Xiaomi, which however couldn't break into the year's top five vendors group despite remarkably achieving four consecutive quarters of market share growth in 2024.
As far as the industry's overall growth drivers are concerned, Canalys researchers mentioned AI "innovations", the increasingly premium designs and "robust durability" of affordable products, and foldable form factor "breakthroughs" in the firm's latest report... without elaborating on the influence and importance of each of these individual aspects. What's clear is that Apple's first foldable iPhone can't come soon enough, and the same goes for the budget-friendly iPhone SE 4, aka iPhone 16E.
Create a free account and join our vibrant community
Register to enjoy the full PhoneArena experience. Here’s what you get with your PhoneArena account:
Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian's passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for 'adequate' over 'overpriced'.
Recommended Stories
Loading Comments...
COMMENT
All comments need to comply with our
Community Guidelines
Phonearena comments rules
A discussion is a place, where people can voice their opinion, no matter if it
is positive, neutral or negative. However, when posting, one must stay true to the topic, and not just share some
random thoughts, which are not directly related to the matter.
Things that are NOT allowed:
Off-topic talk - you must stick to the subject of discussion
Offensive, hate speech - if you want to say something, say it politely
Spam/Advertisements - these posts are deleted
Multiple accounts - one person can have only one account
Impersonations and offensive nicknames - these accounts get banned
Moderation is done by humans. We try to be as objective as possible and moderate with zero bias. If you think a
post should be moderated - please, report it.
Have a question about the rules or why you have been moderated/limited/banned? Please,
contact us.
FCC OKs Cingular\'s purchase of AT&T Wireless
Things that are NOT allowed: