The new iPhone 14 series is expected to launch in September, but demand for Apple’s iPhone 13 is still strong. Bloomberg reports that iPhone’s China shipments surged in June after COVID-19 lockdowns lifted in the country.
In March this year, China experienced another COVID-19 wave and immediately went into a countrywide lockdown. The lockdowns not only heavily affected iPhones’ production but also their demand.
Previously, the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology reported that smartphone demand including iPhone had declined by more than a third in April Y-o-Y in the country. However, the situation began to improve in May. iPhone sales grew by 13% Y-o-Y in that month and the upward trend continued in June.
In China, Apple has taken over Samsung as the country’s fourth-largest smartphone brand
While domestic OEMs saw a decline in their smartphone shipments in China, Apple thrived. According to the report, mobile shipments in China increased by 9.2% in June this year which were dominated by Apple and Samsung Electronics.
Luckily for the Cupertino tech giant, “the bulk of the rebound in demand was for iPhones” in the recovering Chinese economy.
Domestic brands like Xiaomi Corp., Oppo and Vivo were down 0.5%, official data showed. Samsung no longer commands a significant share of the country’s smartphone market whereas Apple is the fourth-largest player.
The report also mentions that iPhone sales in China might have been boosted by annual sales and discounts offered by retailers like JD and Alibaba.
Recently, Reuters said that iPhone 13 shipments were unusually high in July because “sales of current iPhone models tend to slow down in July and August as consumers await new models that Apple traditionally releases in September.”
Canalys also reported that Apple’s share of the global smartphone market grew by 3% in Q2, 2022 at a time when consumer demand is waning because of economic headwinds and regional uncertainties, owing to the success of the innovative iPhone 13 series.
