In what would be a stamp on the continued ascendance of China’s homegrown smartphone makers in the country, Apple has now registered its seventh consecutive quarterly decline in shipments. According to data from research firm IDC, the company’s smartphone shipments in the first quarter of 2025 fell by 9% year-over-year, making it the only major manufacturer among its peers to suffer a downturn during this period.
According to reports, during the first quarter of the year, the company shipped 9.8 million iPhones in China, marking a notable drop from the 10.8 million units recorded in the same period last year. This decrease reduced the company’s market share in the Chinese smartphone market to 13.7%, down from 17.4% in the final quarter of 2024. Apple currently ranks fifth in China, trailing behind major domestic brands such as Xiaomi, OPPO, and Vivo.
IDC analyst Will Wong attributes part of Apple’s ongoing struggle to its pricing strategy, which has left it largely unable to benefit from recent government stimulus efforts aimed at boosting consumer electronics sales. In January 2025, the Chinese government introduced subsidies that refund consumers 15% of the cost on electronics priced below 6,000 yuan (approximately $820). This initiative helped fuel an uptick in demand for affordable smartphones, favoring domestic manufacturers with mid-range offerings. Apple’s premium devices, particularly its Pro line, exceed the price threshold for these subsidies, leaving the company out of a crucial consumer incentive scheme.
In contrast, Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi experienced a surge in demand during the same quarter. The company’s shipments jumped 40% year-over-year, reaching 13.3 million units, solidifying its position as the market leader in China. The overall smartphone market in the country also grew modestly by 3.3%. Still, the government’s focus on revitalizing consumption via subsidies has mostly proved to be a boon for Chinese vendors. Vivo, for instance, experienced a 6.3% year-on-year growth, while OPPO regained its fourth-place ranking in the domestic market despite a challenging performance in the global arena (marking an annual drop of 6.8%).
While Apple’s performance in China faltered, its global performance painted a different outcome. According to preliminary figures from IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, the total global smartphone shipments in the first quarter of 2025 increased by 1.5% year-over-year to 304.9 million units. Apple recorded its best-ever Q1 globally in terms of units shipped, largely due to strategic stockpiling ahead of potential US tariffs on imports from China. The firm successfully shipped a total of 57.9 million units for the quarter, capturing a market share of 19% and clocking an annual growth of 10%. It fell behind Samsung (which topped the charts with a total shipment of 60.6 million units and a market share of 19.9%), which grew by 0.6% on an annual basis, bolstered by strong sales of its Galaxy S25 and Galaxy A series. OPPO and Vivo continued to leverage domestic demand and subsidies to maintain their market positions, and shipped 23.5 million units and 22.7 million units respectively for Q1 2025.
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