Stats show increasing sales for Apple’s iPhone

May 13, 2019 07:34 GMT  ·  By

Sales of Apple’s iPhone are once again going up in China after previously declining dramatically year-over-year.

A note sent to clients by UBS analyst Timothy Arcuri indicates that the decline of the iPhone YoY in April was reduced to only 3 percent, whereas in the first three months of 2019, the performance was down 66 percent.

The analyst says the market increased 6 percent last month, and May will represent an important moment for Apple regarding the 2019 sales performance of the iPhone in China, mostly because the market could be impacted by the new tariffs set in place by the United States.

“One of the reasons Apple CEO cited for China improvement was increased consumer confidence due to easing of US-China trade tensions. However, in recent days, trade tensions have escalated and it bears watching whether this affects China consumer sentiment; supply chain checks the past few weeks have yet to show any negative inflection,” the analyst says.

Phone market up in China

Arcuri explains that the typical replacement cycle for an iPhone in China is approximately three years, and most customers go for first-hand devices.

“The overall China smartphone market remains a little stronger than Apple (29% month- over-month growth compared to 19% for Apple) and Apple may have lost a little more share, though it is hard to read into monthly data as there are seasonal factors,” he notes.

The trade tension between the United States and China has previously been considered a key factor of Apple’s decline in China, so it’ll be interesting to see if the latest decision of the Trump administration would generate a similar drop.

iPhones aren’t targeted by the new tariffs on Chinese imports, but the dispute could at some point affect Apple’s suppliers as well, eventually leading to another sales drop in one of the largest smartphone markets.