Breaking Down Apple's Surprise iPhone, China Sales Declines

Nabila Popal, IDC senior director of data and analytics, reacts to Apple's surprise sales declines for both the iPhone and its China business during the pivotal holiday season on "Bloomberg The Close." Apple said revenue from China plunged 11% to $18.5 billion in the fiscal first quarter. Sales of the iPhone dropped less than 1% to $69.1 billion. Wall Street projected $71 billion.
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[@whereisjustice5112]

China should force Apple to sale. Just like Tik Tok. Allow Apple in China is a National Security. Same as Tesla and Oracle.

[@RealSerie26]

Lol. You are clueless. There are exactly 0 U.S. social media companies operating in China.

[@fendermon]

Us isn't hacking China.

[@Mr300zx90]

the apple is ROTTEN OLD & nothing new boring

[@rontsang4308]

Exactly and these talking heads continue to scratch their collective heads asking why. it's the product, stupid. The amount of user driven feature development is much much more in China than in anywhere else in the world. Chinese brands have to innovate or else they die, just that simple. Apple is marketing hype but rightfully so, no one there is buying this BS anymore.

[@barty8980]

Sure is. Apple only managed to sell $69.1B worth of iPhones last quarter. Meanwhile, Samsung sold, hmm, this can’t be right, about $15.4B worth of smartphones in Q4 2024, and $70.6B in all of 2024. That’s right, despite being “old and boring”, Apple sold almost as much smartphone revenue as Samsung did in one 2024 year. What about Samsung’s innovative Foldables, the Z Flip and Z Fold. Well, in 2023, they sold about 11.5M combined, and 2024, looks to be about 10.5M, a decline. The newest Z Flip 6 and Z Fold 6 sold LESS than the previous 5 series over the last 5 month, about 4.9M 2.8M Flips, 2.1M Folds, meaning they’ll barely break 10M, another decline. That particular innovation has hit a sales wall, well below early optimistic projections that said the entire Foldables market would clear >35M by 2025. Are you buying Foldables? Maybe the Android market either isn’t interested in Foldables, or can’t afford them, or just isn’t into innovation. I mean the entire premium >$600 Android market is barely 65M units out of 980M sold, or less than 6.6%, and innovation isn’t happening at the Android mid price or low price tiers or models.

[@manonamission2000]

apple needs to refocus on the basics... the iOS keyboard is a disaster

[@vangrijaa]

@@manonamission2000 hmmm how

[@jaym9846]

Apple has more rabbits up its sleeve than Playboy has bunnies.

[@rayandsharica362]

@@jaym9846 lol

[@clearminds22]

who knew overcharging people for something that has become a commodity wouldn't last? like Tesla apple is getting clobbered in every way by local competition at half the price or less...

[@fendermon]

Cool story. Utter nonsense, but still cool...

[@barty8980]

Only in China, and partly because the Chinese consumer has been hit hard by declining economics in China, plus efforts by the Chinese government to rally folks to buy Chinese OEMs as a patriotic measure. The bulk of increased non-Apple sales in China has occurred in the low and mid priced tiers as usual.

[@johnnyy1186]

@@barty8980cut the crap

[@barty8980]

@johnnyy1186 Hey, in 2024, according to IDC, Samsung came in second to Apple as largest sales, Apple selling 232M iPhones while Samsung 223M, total sold 1239M, meaning Android sold 1007M. Samsung is the biggest and likely most profitable Android seller, with Xiaomi third at 168M. Samsung made aprox. $70.6B in 2024 smartphone sales (90% of their MX division, rest being tablets, computers and wearables). At 223M units sold, their ASP is just $317, LESS than the price of a midrange phones, showing the bulk of their sales are cheaper midrange $1000, has THE highest ASP’s, and makes the most revenues and profits, All because they have loyal users and switchers who like the high performance, reliability, and longevity, plus long 6-7 yr iOS support, much better customer service, >530 Apple retail stores for support and sales, and a highly integrated ecosystem worth paying for. But don’t let facts get in your way.

[@jw999]

Chinese girl asking Latina about China... 🙄🙄

[@logomo7]

Apple = Stable = Boring. And its expensive.

[@niyibanks9881]

The Chinese phones are simply better. It has nothing to do with nationalism.

[@xiphoid2011]

It absolutely has something to do with nationism. Everyone in China can see the government has been fanning nationalism for many years now. The call to boycotting of Samsung in China during mid 2010s was all over the government controlled media. Being chinese, I can tell you the decline of sales in China is inevitable as more Apple users feel pressure to switch by nationalists around them.

[@Jacktan9203]

Apple should just get out of China. Oh wait, they have no choice because they can't manufacture phones in India. Huawei for the win 🎉🎉

[@oscc9035]

@@xiphoid2011 绿蛙反贼 别冒充中国人 NC玩意

[@muhammad-bin-american]

Absolutely!

[@SamuelPaddyMchome]

@@xiphoid2011 what about the ban of Huawei in Us that's nationalism

[@lisaneal3043]

Your videos are the best out there. The quality is unmatched!

[@Rishabh_Sharma]

Apple needs new CEO

[@fendermon]

They just recorded 36B in earnings in 3 months. I think they'll be okay :)

[@Geeskgonegangsta]

Maximum bubble goes pop.

[@stevewise75]

It’s because China is making it increasingly difficult for Apple to feature its AI and iCloud functions. By doing this it’s helping its domestic brands get more of an edge over Apple. Eventually Apple will be driven out of the market just like every other product. At this point Apple needs to focus on the rest of the world and make more affordable phones that use the Apple ecosystem otherwise Chinese domestic brands will swoop in and get everyone using harmonyOS

[@MWENDA-vv5im]

China has asked Apple to chose a Chinese AI partner. China has at least 3 world class AI developers including Deepseek. All they have to do is choose one of them as a partner. That notwithstanding, Apple's market share will continue to reduce as Huawei, its subsidiaries and partners catch up and overtake Western tech providers. I believe very soon, in about 5 years, we will see the Chinese force all phones being sold in China to be pre-installed with Chinese OS and Chinese chips.

[@bruxi78230]

@@MWENDA-vv5im ----- Looking at stats by IDC, Counterpoint etc lead people to conclude the wrong thing. I'm surprised that a business channel like Bloomberg continues to broadcast nonsense reports about "Sales in China". First of all these so called market share reports are estimating how many boxes are shipped from factories to the retail channel. It does not take into account the price of these devices. Companies like Huawei and Xiaomi are so far behind Apple it's laughable. Huawei last year had revenues in China of 22 billion (and that is their home country). Apple in China last year had revenues of 72 billion. Why is it so different? Huawei's average sales prices is $150 bucks, selling low end cheap phones. Apple sells high end phones that average $850. That means that Huawei would have to sell 5.5 phones for every phone Apple sells to produce the same revenue. They don't come close, they are both operating in totally different markets.

[@djstrobe606]

Apples china sales decline is not a surprise. Everyone's been talking about it for about 2 months.

[@lagillas]

Apple is like that rich kid that does a shitty homework, but it gets the best Score, because it is "nice and inclusive" and Samsung/android is like that asian kid that actually does a better homework than Apple, but he gets only 90/100 score, because "it lacks personality"

[@DesmondSG]

The guest offered nothing new to the discussion. What a wasted opportunity.

[@tomawey2141]

China phones are sometimes better than apple at lower cost

[@pad9x]

the nvidia sanctions are pointless. if i were mgmt of nvidia i'd be pissed off at washington and their stupid trade war.

[@muhammad-bin-american]

You're telling me Apple is running out of suckers?

[@samanthaw4955]

Hate Apple products…don’t have an IPhone because Apple is always trying to sell me s**t. I use an android system because of this sales pitch harassment…😂

[@barty8980]

Are you kidding? Apple has choices like other makers, and you can opt out, avoid, or decline ANY Apple comment, plus you can use ad blockers, and opt out of advertising as a choice. But Android has built in ads, built in data gathering, and you can’t turn them off. Why do you guys put up with that? Because the hardware is cheap, so it’s a necessary part of the OS?

[@MrFernanrc]

Apple still has a great computer but the sales are in the Iphone and the CEO is doing something wrong. DEI CEO ? he is working hard with the president to make sure Huawei does not sell in the US. I can't pay $1300 over and over for a iphone. I bought a X years ago for $1000 in less than 3 years the battery swoll up and they didn't want to deal with it but ended up giving me a new battery because they where afraid of my push of consumer rights. After they messed up the face recognition, they couldn't fix that and would not give me a new phone. I have a Iphone 13 max pro and do like it. $1300 is way too much for this phone.

[@RealSerie26]

Decline in sales and lack of innovation thanks to a lame CEO that is not focused on the basics and has zero vision. Yet, the stock keeps going up. What am I missing?

[@Cordycep1]

slowdown is everywhere even Samsung so why bother saying thing are bad.

[@teebone2157]

you didnt watch the video, chinese brand sells are growing double digit percentages

[@jtgoinvest2687]

Assuming AAPL implement Apple Intelligence in English / International version first and then a more tailored version for China, the time lag will be too long as I anticipate other Chinese competitors would have implemented AI quicker than AAPL. Many China iPhone users would have switched to other China brands by then. Speed of AI implementation is of utmost importance in this competitive AI race. It would not be surprising for AAPL to continually lose market share in China in the near future. Some uncertainty in this aspect

[@ChalrieD]

There’s too much radiation coming off the new phones. I don’t want one. If Apple wants to sell new phones, make an E-ink version, lot less radiation and better on the eyes,

[@lastChang]

Apple's iPhone 16 makes the Chinese 🇨🇳 Huawei Mate look like a *museum version,* even without Apple Intelligence in it. They are at least 10 years apart in technology.

[@StanleyJohnson-b4v]

Yeah, that's why Apple sales was lacking... I would be pissed if I were paying you.

[@masahirogo3330]

So what. People in China were never big consumers of iPhone

[@billinsf88]

@@StanleyJohnson-b4vbingo!

[@UndoEverything]

Huawei Mate(d) your mom and you wee born, now you are cursing your father.

[@Withnail1969]

@@masahirogo3330 China was Apple's biggest market. Are you mentally defective?

[@jjbully]

not surprised at all

[@jazzbeats8168]

after 15 years thety still haven;t gotten SIRI right...lol

[@fendermon]

AI will give Siri a boost.

[@jazzbeats8168]

@ they should have done that ages ago…. SIRI is AI . Instead they waste resources adding useless features to an already great product. When it’s not broken don’t fix it .

[@fendermon]

@ Fair enough.

[@asdfasdffdcd]

China economy is not as good as before. All sale decline there. 😂😂

[@cricketarena4926]

Apple should allow other 3rd aprty keyboards

[@zuffykiller]

Single digit growth on top and bottom line is being priced at PE 40. 😢

[@fendermon]

PE is warped by their one time $10B EU fine last qtr.

[@riccia888]

iphone down while japanese flip phones are up

[@barty8980]

Which Japanese flip phones? Sony doesn’t make any AFAIK and there aren’t any other Japanese smartphone makers.

[@riccia888]

@ google Sharp aquos 601sh or Kyocera 902kc. I have both and they are super cool. I dont use my iphone anymore.

[@barty8980]

⁠@@riccia888ah, OK, didn’t know about those as not generally available in US. The Sharp phone is a retro flip w/physical keyboard, separate small display, 1GB of Ram, and 8GB memory although you can add 32gB in an SD card, reviews say it’s laggy, and you have to check that it’s compatible with your country wireless system. At around $240 USD new,

[@riccia888]

@ thats the point having a dumb phone but I can still use insta, messenger, discord and apple music so, it has all what I need. If you really want a modern flip phone with all the bells and whistle you can buy Mive folder phone. Its a bit bigger than the japanese phones but it has touch screen.

[@barty8980]

@ great, glad it works well for you.

[@shayargilani]

Maybe the Chinese can’t afford it womp womp

[@DaneReidVoiceOver]

Chinese phones are bolder and Chinese are becoming prouder of nationally developed products

[@foxtrot762]

Apple is crap

[@fendermon]

Keep telling yourself that.

[@JohnJones-k9d]

@@fendermonUS garbage. IM HOPING CHAIN BAN APPLE ON NATIONAL SECURITY AND MAKE APPLE SELL ITS CHINESE BUSINESS ON NATIONAL SECURITY GROUNDS.

[@johnnyy1186]

Because iPhones made in India, so bye apple

[@barty8980]

Hardly. Made in India iPhones are primarily to serve and sell in the India Market, any extra are imported to other markets like Middle East, rest of Asia, Africa, Europe. As the India market for iPhones continues to grow, more and more India made iPhones will be sold there while production also increases. Currently Apple has 15% or about 34M iPhones made in India out of 232M sold in 2024, selling ~$10.5M worth in India, about 12.5M sold in 2024, leaving ~22M to be sold elsewhere at ASP of $870 or about $19B worth..

[@obsideon1343]

As a Iphone user... no need to buy one every year. overpriced and overrated. Not much new oh new color.

[@barty8980]

Most iPhone users DON’T upgrade year over year, only about 20-25% because they want the latest. Haven’t you heard, average time between upgrades is now about 4.5 years, so this year dates back to iPhone XS or 11. From those users’ perspective, the improvements in cameras, displays, photography, computing power, even the modems, satellite texting, etc. are big differences you can see and feel. So whenever an iPhone user is ready, Apple has a model available for them at various price points, or even discounted older flagships.

[@obsideon1343]

@@barty8980 That includes me.