Chinese iPhone Market Share Reduced By Nearly Half

by Mike on August 24, 2012

A major decline in market share is never a good thing and when we hear that the world’s biggest company is the one that is facing this challenge in China comes as a surprise. Compared to the first quarter, Apple saw almost a 50% reduction in market share in the second quarter with the Cupertino company now owning about 10% of the Chinese market.

There are a couple of possible explanations that could be attributed to this trend. From the positive side, it could be that Chinese customers are expecting the iPhone 5 to launch in September and are waiting for the new model. On the other hand, one that Apple wouldn’t want to see, it may also be that customers have moved on to a competitor’s smartphone. With the drop in market share, Apple has moved from the second spot in China during Q1 to the number 4 spot in Q2. The remainder of the top 5 mobile phone leaders in China for Q2 include Samsung in the top spot with a 19% share, Lenovo in the second spot with an 11% share and ZTE in the third spot. The fifth spot belongs to Hauwai.

According to the IDC, there were 44 million smartphone shipments in the communist country in Q2 which is 51% of China’s total 87 million mobile phone shipments.

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