By Star Chang, posted Dec 6, 2012 at 11:57 AM, 810 views,

Apple’s Ranking in China Smartphone Market Drop Out of Top 5 (Again)

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Apple’s rank in China’s smartphone market, which is set to become the world’s largest this year, fell to No.6 in the third quarter as it faced tough competition from local Chinese brands. China is seeing competition intensifying in its smartphone sector, with global and homegrown vendors trying to outgun one another in terms of price and features. Research firm IDC said Apple saw its third-quarter ranking by market share fall two notches from its position in the second quarter. Its market share by shipments was under 10 percent in the third quarter, when China’s smartphone shipments hit a record high, at more than 60 million units …

Galaxy-maker Samsung, the world’s No.2 PC maker Lenovo and global No.2 telecom equipment maker Huawei retained the top two and No.5 spots, respectively. Chinese brand Coolpad made a three-spot leap to No.3 in the country, but ZTE dropped one place to No.4 in the July-September period. The research firm did not give the market share numbers of any company except Apple. Analysts expect a rebound with the launch of the iPhone 5 in China next week. IDC’s report comes a day after Apple’s shares fell more than 6 percent on the Nasdaq, logging its biggest single-day loss in four years and losing $35 billion of its value, on concerns about rivals gaining ground in the mobile devices market.

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Apple is losing its magic in China.

The communist nation now has more than one billion mobile phone subscribers though less than a fifth are 3G subscribers. Local mobile carriers have been doling out generous handset subsidies to try to attract higher-end users keen on online gaming and social networking. Chinese vendors are also offering smartphones in the sub-1,000 yuan (US$160) category. Chinese vendors are having strong performance in their home market, showing that it is not impossible for Chinese vendors to surpass international vendors. Price continues to be king and Chinese consumers are starting to show a lack of interest in Apple products. The Cupertino could be in trouble.

SOURCE: IDC via REUTERS


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  • MagicMouse

    That’s normal .Did you see the price they sell their iphone in China.Chinese know iphone are being product by foxcom on their territory and yet iphone in china are in the most expensive in the world.
    You couple that with iphone that for this price range has nothing special + good local brand phone Xiaomi,Meizu + competitor like samsung.
    I frankly buy the first iphone in new york and it was a revolution.I keep it until iphone 4 (buy it with china Unicom deal) because at that time android OS was still lacking behind and even android phone just start to begun to be something.

    But today in 2012-2013 let’s be clear i will never buy an iphone 5 5s 6 and probably 7.That’s just sodomy.
    And if i’m a mood to throw that much money in a phone i would only consider SAmsung galaxy sIV or III.

    China got crazy fanboy like everywhere else but when it come to MONEY，even fanboy will use their brain.And right know iphone have nothing to justify their high price.

    O and it an era of cloud , sharing etc etc.Iphone is so close.You wanna give a mp3,document to a friend from your iphone .How you gonna do it?and if he want to give you?
    At least the android phone can be browse like a usb.and you don’t need fricking ITUNE

  • iCry

    Apple is losing its magic in everywhere.

  • Richard

    Lenovo, Huawei and ZTE are taking market share away from Samsung in China.

  • jbelkin

    IDC is unaware just a few dozens of MILLIONS of Chinese are able to travel abroad or to HK to buy iphones to bring home with them. They seem unaware that there’smore than one way to use an iphone in China …