iPhone shipment in China to decline more due to Huawei: Kuo

Apple may continue to see a decline in iPhone shipment in China due to various reasons including the return of Huawei, says analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. He mentioned that the labor protest caused the company a big Q4 2022 during the time of the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max units release.

On Thursday, Apple said its sales and profit beat Wall Street expectations with high iPhone sales and services revenue. However, it was also noted that the company’s revenue in China declined by up to 2.5%. Meanwhile, Tim Cook, CEO of Apple said that the new iPhone 15 models are doing well in China.

The Cupertino-based company shared sales for the fiscal fourth quarter that ended September 30 fell roughly by 1% to $89.50 billion with nearly $1 billion more in services revenue than Wall Street expectations.

Meanwhile, Apple predicted that its Q4 2023 revenue would be similar to the same duration last year. This would also suggest that the decline may led by its market loss in China.

Holiday Forecast:

Apple’s Chief Financial Officer, Luca Maestri’s forecast on Q4 2023 led to a 3.4% drop in after-hours.

“I’d say it was surprising to see how confident Tim Cook was on future China performance given the many potential geopolitical challenges that we know exist for that market,” said Bob O’Donnell, chief analyst at TECHnalysis Research.

Kuo says iPhone shipment will further decline in China due to weak consumer demand and competition from rivals such as Huawei throughout 2024. Counterpoint Research estimates that the new iPhone 15 series is down 4.5% as compared to the predecessor sales in China within 17 days of the release.

Huawei:

In August this year, Huawei launched the Mate 60 Pro flagship phone, which comes with a new chipset, 5G connection, and better design. The consumers love this phone and it’s reported that the company sold about 1.6 million smartphone units within 6 weeks of launch in the home grid.

(source)