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Apple takes the top smartphone spot in China for Q4 2021

In This Article

In This Article

Apple has become the top smartphone vendor inChina for the first time since 2015, with a dominant Q4 of 2021.

According toCounterpoint Research, the company reached a record 23% market share for the fourth quarter of 2021. Its unit sales grew 32% year-on-year.

There are a number of factors for Apple’s wildly successful quarter. For one thing, it coincides with Huawei’s ongoing struggles and withdrawal from the premium market, as the once dominant home brand suffers from prohibitive sanctions on western technology and market access.

The Chinese smartphone market isn’t quite vibrant as it once was, either, with a 9% drop in total smartphone sales.

Another important factor is that this spike in market share coincided with the launch of theiPhone 13family, which was priced lower for the Chinese market this time around.

Finally, the global chip and component shortage has made this an unusual year when it comes to supply and release strategy. While Apple hasn’t been immune from these trials, it’s proved more resilient than most other smartphone manufacturers.

In terms of the bigger picture, Apple finished 2021 as the third biggest smartphone vendor in China, behind Vivo and Oppo. It secured 16% of the market for the whole year.

Those contrasting fortunes for Apple and Huawei are perfectly illustrated by the fact that Apple’s unit sales rose 47% across 2021, while Huawei’s dropped 68%.

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Jon is a seasoned freelance writer who started covering games and apps in 2007 before expanding into smartphones and consumer tech, dabbling in lifestyle and media coverage along the way. Besides bein…

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Founded in 2003, Trusted Reviews exists to give our readers thorough, unbiased and independent advice on what to buy.

Today, we have millions of users a month from around the world, and assess more than 1,000 products a year.

Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.

We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.