14 DAY TRIAL // They say Apple is currently having a mid-life iPhone crisis in China, as the company can’t make the most of the local booming market, but it looks like despite all the problems, it’s still doing better than most analysts estimated.
Statistics provided by The Korean International Trade Association and published by Yonhap show that the iPhone is currently leading the Chinese market with no less than 171 million units in use, followed by local player Huawei at a big distance with 132 million units.
Huawei has recently become the second-largest phone manufacturer in the entire world, overtaking Apple and going after leader Samsung, but it looks like Cupertino actually managed to overtake it into its own market.
Third in the charts is Chinese company Oppo with 124 million units, followed by Vivo and Xiaomi with 108 million and 68 million devices in use, respectively. In case you’re looking for Samsung, the South Korean firm is only sixth with 48 million units, so Apple has an installed base that is 3.5 times bigger than Samsung’s in China, despite all the struggles that we talked about.
Samsung lost customer confidence in brand
Chinese companies have obviously experienced a major boom lately, and the report claims that it all happened because they offer excellent value for the money, which absolutely makes sense given that Apple and Samsung typically charge a premium.
Huawei, however, is trying to offer an uncompromised mix of affordable and premium, with the upcoming Mate 10 launching in October positioned by the company as a direct competitor for high-end devices from Apple and Samsung.
The analysts claim Samsung has a hard time to convince users to abandon Apple and buy its devices, as it lost customer confidence in its brand.
“Only 7.2 percent of Samsung phone owners repurchased Samsung products in the second quarter, far lower than 53.4 percent for iPhones and 25-26 percent for Oppo and Vivo. Samsung should regain customer confidence in its brand and establish a base of loyal customer again,” the research reads according to the cited source.