See full gallery on TechnoBuffaloApple has been putting a huge emphasis on China in an effort to gain market share in the rapidly developing country, but the company is still struggling to compete with local rivals. A new report from Counterpoint Research (via Bloomberg) shows the iPhone-maker slipping to fifth place in China.
Apple’s mobile market share dropped to just 10.8 percent of the devices sold in China in May, down from 12 percent a year earlier. Meanwhile, Chinese giant Huawei is surging with 17.3 percent of sales in the same month. The rest of the list includes popular startup Xiaomi along with Vivo and Oppo, which are both owned by the same Chinese corporation BBK Electronics
Apple confirmed that it was struggling in China earlier this year during an earnings call in April. At the time the company revealed that revenue in China was down 26 percent that quarter compared to a year earlier.
Apple has been pushing hard in China in an effort to maintain growth, and it’s opened a fleet of new stores across the country in the past few years. But Cupertino’s also faced plenty of pushback from the Chinese government along with copyright lawsuits from local firms. We wouldn’t count the company out anytime soon, but maintaining a foothold in China may be tougher than expected.
Source: Bloomberg