iPhone shipments in China saw a sharp decline in December 2024 | Infinium-tech

Ming-Chi Kuo released a new market report on Apple in December 2024, which found a huge decline in sales year-on-year in China. Apple’s iPhone sales in the country declined by 10-12% compared to December 2023.

Kuo believes the main culprit is a lack of innovation. The iPhone 16 series was not well received in China due to minor improvements compared to the previous generation. It is important to note that Apple’s decline comes amid fairly stable market conditions in the country. Overall smartphone sales in China remained stable throughout December.

Looking ahead, Ming-Chi Kuo believes Apple will lose even more sales in the first half of 2025. The launch of the upcoming iPhone SE4 will generally not be enough to compensate for the poor sales performance due to the limited impact of the SE lineup.

Kuo is also not very optimistic about the iPhone 17 lineup. With rumors that the new iPhone 17 series will rely exclusively on eSIM with no physical SIM support, Ming-Chi Kuo believes the Chinese market will not respond well. Not all carriers in the country offer eSIM support, so this will be a challenge for some users.

Analyst predictions call for a total of 225 million iPhone sales worldwide in 2025, slightly higher than 2024’s 220 million shipments but still below the expected 240 million units.

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