Apple's iPhone slips to 5th spot in China market
Source: Agencies |
February 18, 2012, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
APPLE Inc's share of China's booming smartphone market slipped for a second straight quarter in the October-December period, as it lost ground to cheaper local brands and as some shoppers held off until after the iPhone 4S launch last month.
China, the world's largest mobile phone market, has not been easy for Apple, which is grappling with a lawsuit from a local firm over the iPad trademark and issues at its suppliers' factories over wages and working conditions.
With the number of mobile subscribers set to top 1 billion in China this year, there is cut-throat competition among Samsung Electronics, Nokia, Apple and local firms, including Huawei Technologies Co and ZTE Corp.
While Apple regained its top spot as the world's largest smartphone vendor in the fourth quarter and for last year as a whole, it slipped to fifth place in China, overtaken by ZTE.
Apple's China smartphone market share slid to 7.5 percent from 10.4 percent in the July-September quarter.
In the last quarter, Samsung knocked Nokia off the top slot, taking 24.3 percent of the market, more than three times Apple's share, data from research firm Gartner showed yesterday.
Nokia's market share more than halved last year, from above 40 percent in the first quarter to below one-fifth by the fourth quarter.
"Chinese handset makers have been actively promoting their smartphones with China's three telecoms operators, so we saw ZTE and Huawei gain significant market share," Taipei-based Gartner analyst CK Lu said.
Gartner said it expected Apple's iPhone market share to decline for a couple of quarters as the novelty of its latest 4S model wears off.
In the first quarter of last year, ZTE had a market share of just 3 percent, but ended 2011 ranked fourth with more than 11 percent market share.
Chinese firms are gradually shifting up toward the higher end of the market, unveiling more feature-packed smartphones.
"If you want to sell handsets to the mass market, a simple rule of thumb in China is that the handset price has to be close to 70 percent of the monthly salary," said Jayesh Easwaramony, an analyst with Frost & Sullivan in Singapore.
"Today, an iPhone is more than two months' salary."
China, the world's largest mobile phone market, has not been easy for Apple, which is grappling with a lawsuit from a local firm over the iPad trademark and issues at its suppliers' factories over wages and working conditions.
With the number of mobile subscribers set to top 1 billion in China this year, there is cut-throat competition among Samsung Electronics, Nokia, Apple and local firms, including Huawei Technologies Co and ZTE Corp.
While Apple regained its top spot as the world's largest smartphone vendor in the fourth quarter and for last year as a whole, it slipped to fifth place in China, overtaken by ZTE.
Apple's China smartphone market share slid to 7.5 percent from 10.4 percent in the July-September quarter.
In the last quarter, Samsung knocked Nokia off the top slot, taking 24.3 percent of the market, more than three times Apple's share, data from research firm Gartner showed yesterday.
Nokia's market share more than halved last year, from above 40 percent in the first quarter to below one-fifth by the fourth quarter.
"Chinese handset makers have been actively promoting their smartphones with China's three telecoms operators, so we saw ZTE and Huawei gain significant market share," Taipei-based Gartner analyst CK Lu said.
Gartner said it expected Apple's iPhone market share to decline for a couple of quarters as the novelty of its latest 4S model wears off.
In the first quarter of last year, ZTE had a market share of just 3 percent, but ended 2011 ranked fourth with more than 11 percent market share.
Chinese firms are gradually shifting up toward the higher end of the market, unveiling more feature-packed smartphones.
"If you want to sell handsets to the mass market, a simple rule of thumb in China is that the handset price has to be close to 70 percent of the monthly salary," said Jayesh Easwaramony, an analyst with Frost & Sullivan in Singapore.
"Today, an iPhone is more than two months' salary."
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