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Chinese sales of foreign phone makers, including Apple, drop 9.7% in May

Apple has faced increased competition from domestic rivals and has cut prices to stay competitive.

Customers line up at an Apple Store in Shanghai, China, Sept. 23, 2023. White House and congressional officials have been scrutinizing Apple’s plan to strike a deal to make Alibaba’s AI available on iPhones. (Qilai Shen/The New York Times)

Sales of foreign-branded mobile phones in China, including those of Apple Inc, fell 9.7% year-on-year in May, according to data released by a government-affiliated research company on Friday.

Calculations based on the data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) showed that May shipments of foreign-branded phones in China fell to 4.54 million handsets from the same month last year.

As the largest foreign mobile phone maker in China’s smartphone-dominated market, Apple’s performance plays a significant role in the overall data on foreign-branded phone sales in the country.

Apple has faced increased competition from domestic rivals and has cut prices to stay competitive. Chinese e-commerce platforms offered discounts of up to 2,530 yuan ($351) on Apple’s latest iPhone 16 models in May.

The CAICT data did not give specific figures for Apple.

Shipments of phones within China were down 21.8% year-on-year to 23.72 million handsets for the month, the data showed.