Apple rebounded into the top five smartphone vendors in China in the third quarter of 2024, capitalizing on the tailwinds of its latest iPhone 16. According to IDC, Apple currently accounted for 15.6% of the Chinese smartphone market, placing it second by market share; that came at the cost of a small year-over-year decline, though, down to 16.1% in the same quarter last year. Apple’s year-over-year shipment growth did not budge during the period.

Huawei has also taken a very close lead over Apple in this competitive arena and stood at the helm with 15.3% market share. In fact, technological giant has witnessed an impressive revamp from what all it has envisaged, and its smart phone shipment ramped up by 42% on a year-over-year basis reflecting tremendous recovery in the world’s largest smartphone market. Recovery for this MNC mainly arisen after the success of Mate 60 smartphone, and advanced chip technology paved way for the rejuvenation of its re-entry in the Chinese market.

With the Mate 60, which it released last year, the competition from Apple and Huawei has hit an all-time high. Although Huawei is regressing, primarily due to U.S. sanctions that have disqualified it from using high-end semiconductors and even access to the latest software, Huawei still does not stop trying, revealing this overly ambitious tri-foldable Mate XT.

This is a tremendous competitive pressure on Apple because the company had slipped out of the top five smartphone rankings in China earlier this year. Analysts point out that Huawei has shown steady growth during each of the last four quarters, and its recent launch of a tri-foldable phone has huge potential for catapulting the foldable smartphone market further.

Given this competitive trend, Apple is relying on its iPhone 16 series to put the shine back in China. Also, it plans to launch a new set of AI functionalities called Apple Intelligence, which will roll into the US market by fall. A release date for China hasn’t been announced because regulatory conditions are complex there.

The country leader in the Q3 in volume share was Vivo with 18.6% and a year-on-year shipment growth of 21.5%. Xiaomi and Honor ranked fourth and fifth, respectively. “In China, the iOS shipments declined by 6 per cent YoY, continuing a decline that started earlier this year, said Canalys, underlining further how the company is facing trouble as the competition firm and optimistic.