Apple's mobile phone sales in China are in a hurry again.。

Huawei is seizing the Chinese market for the iPhone

On March 5, according to Counterpoint, Apple's iPhone sales in China plunged 24% year-on-year in the first six weeks of 2024 as it faced fierce competition from Chinese-made phones such as Huawei.。In contrast, Huawei's mobile phone sales increased by 64% during this period.。

After the data was released, Apple's share of the Chinese smartphone market fell to 15.7%, ranking fourth; Huawei rose to second place in China with its outstanding performance, with market share up from 9% in the same period last year..4% to 16.5%。In the same period last year, Apple's share of the Chinese smartphone market was as high as 19%, ranking second.。

Counterpoint senior analysts said that Apple is facing fierce competition from Huawei's rise in China's high-end market, and in the mid-market, Chinese handset makers such as OPPO, vivo and Xiaomi are also constantly attacking Huawei with aggressive pricing.。

In order to boost sales, Apple launched a 3-8 Women's Day promotion last week, and in a rare move at Apple's official flagship stores on Tmall and Jingdong, it lowered the prices of the iPhone 15 series of models (iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max), some of which were priced at 1,300 yuan ($180) lower than usual.。

This is the second time that Apple has lowered the price of iPhone series in China in 2024.。Earlier, Apple's official Chinese website made a rare cut in the official price of the latest mobile phone during the Lunar New Year, announcing the opening of the "New Year Limited Offer" on January 18-21.。Among them, iPhone15 series 4 models price cuts reached 500 yuan, iPhone15 starting price fell through 5,000 yuan。

In the face of Huawei and other domestic mobile phone new forces squeeze, Apple's price reduction promotion in China can recover how many markets still have to put a question mark。However, it is worth noting that as early as 2022, Apple also slashed the price of the iPhone14 series during the 618 event by up to $2,000.。Under the price reduction promotion, Apple was successfully elected the first mobile phone sales in 618 big promotion that year.。iPhone sales in China may increasingly rely on promotions。

Apple facing huge EU fines says it will appeal

In addition to facing the "internal worries" of the iPhone15 in China, Apple has recently faced the "external troubles" of huge EU fines.。

Just yesterday, the European Commission announced that it would impose a fine of more than 1.8 billion euros on Apple for abusing its dominant position in the music streaming app distribution market.。

The reason for Apple's fine stems from allegations made by European streaming giant Spotify in 2019.。The company claims that the way Apple's App Store operates has forced the company to raise prices for subscription services。Specifically, music streaming users can make in-app purchases from the Apple App Store, but Apple will take a 30% cut of the service; users can also subscribe to the service directly through the relevant music site without paying for the cut.。

However, the European Commission investigation revealed that Apple triggered the so-called "anti-steering clause" (anti-steering), which holds that Apple prohibits developers from notifying iOS users within the App about subscription offers offered on the external Internet and related content such as price differences between subscriptions within Apple's App and subscription services elsewhere, which constitutes unfair trading conditions for other streaming music service providers.。

The Commission said that after taking into account factors such as the duration and severity of the infringement, Apple's total turnover and market value, the Commission decided to add a one-time payment fine of 1.8 billion euros to the basic fine amount to ensure that the overall fine against Apple was sufficiently deterrent.。According to several foreign media reports, this brings the total fine against Apple to 18.€400 million ($2 billion)。

In response, Apple issued a long article on its official website, saying that the so-called "anti-boot clause" is actually a common market behavior.。The idea is that developers can't use a platform to drain to get paying users, but avoid the platform when users actually have to pay。

Apple believes Spotify and other music streaming services can still market to consumers through channels such as email, social media, text messages and online advertising, even if officials fail to inform them of offers on the outside Internet。In addition, payment through the "Reader" App is also allowed under Apple's rules.。

In its long article, Apple discusses Spotify and its relationship with the European Union in detail, with the intention of clarifying that the European streaming market has been free to develop and fully compete over the past decade, and that Spotify is the fastest growing platform and the number one market leader.。Apple said the European Commission has not presented any credible evidence of consumer harm, ignoring the reality of a booming, competitive and fast-growing market, and will appeal the EU ruling.。