iPhone claws back market share, tops charts in China after Apple makes an exception

Phone Arena

26-05-2025

For months now, the iPhone has been losing market share across the Chinese smartphone sphere. That is all in the past now, as Apple topped the charts this week and blasted past all competitors to take the crown, after making a few exceptions that we don't generally see from the company.
Apple is known to almost never reduce the prices of its products. If you see a discount on an Apple device, it's likely from the store instead of the company. But after losing market share for so long, Apple introduced massive price cuts on the iPhone for Chinese consumers. This simple yet effective trick worked, and the masses rushed to buy the latest and greatest iPhone 16. According to a report, China saw over 520,000 iPhone 16 Pro models and over 320,000 iPhone 16 Pro Max models get activated in a single week. The iPhone rocketed to having over 21.5 percent market share during the week as well. Some users laughed at how easy it was for Apple to sway consumers, while others said that domestic brands would have to work even harder from now on.
The iPhone 16 Pro is Apple's most powerful smartphone at the moment. | Video credit — Apple
Apple had been seeing rapidly declining market share in China for a multitude of reasons. For starters, Apple Intelligence — the biggest selling point for the iPhone 16 series — is still not available in China. Another reason was the fact that domestic offerings from Huawei, Xiaomi, and others have brought a lot of value to the table in recent years.Yet another cause of declining iPhone sales in China stemmed from current geopolitical tensions. U.S. President Donald Trump's promises of steep tariffs on imported Chinese goods made some consumers switch to local products in a show of patriotic support. Apple's current plans to move production out of China to skirt around tariffs has also been poorly received by the Chinese market.However, the Chinese government also provided Apple with subsidies in addition to the company lowering the costs of its products. This mutual collaboration has helped Apple regain a very strong foothold in the country, and might even factor into the company's negotiations with the current American administration about tariffs.
I suppose cheaper price tags are really hard to beat, no matter how good the competition may be.