Jefferies Says that Smartphone Sales in China Will Drop by Double Digits

According to Lee and colleagues' note, the iPhone maker's most current generation had an unusually slow start in China last year, which most recently increased to a 30% year-over-year loss. 

With the launch of its new Mate 60 smartphone series, Huawei Technologies Co. saw the fastest growth in the country's mobile market in December compared to the other players.

Huawei brought back some of the customers it had lost to Apple with the launch of the Mate 60 Pro, which runs on a new system processor produced in China, a few weeks before the iPhone 15 went on sale in September.

According to Jefferies, Huawei will sell 35 million phones in 2023, albeit a few supply issues would limit the company's ability to ship more.

iPhone sales in China to decline

December witnessed a double-digit drop in Apple's volume, and Jefferies predicts a similar fall in 2024. 

Last week, more online retailers began offering discounts on Apple's smartphone lineup. 

This reduced the average selling price without encouraging an increase in volume.

After Huawei was shut off from the top chipmakers in the world, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., in 2020 due to US sanctions, Apple increased its market dominance in China. 

The electronics company located in Shenzhen has regained its competitiveness in the mobile industry and is currently creating its own software ecosystem to take on Alphabet Inc.'s Android and Apple's iOS.

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