Reports: Apple Iphone sales fell drastically in Fourth Quarter

Apple Inc iPhone sales in China fell 20 percent year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2018, while sales for smartphones made by home-grown rival Huawei rose by 23 percent, as reported by IDC on Monday.

The report is the first to put a well-founded number on the scale of a latest decline in Apple’s fortunes in the China, after Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook pointed to China as a big factor in a rare cut in the company’s quarterly sales forecast last month.

The Cupertino headquartered company no longer breaks out detailed numbers on iPhone shipments in its quarterly results, meaning that surveys and channel checks IDC and similar research institutes are often the clearest pointer of shifts in sales.

The numbers in the report revealed a 19.9 percent fall in Apple’s smartphone shipments in the concluding quarter of 2018, while Huawei’s increased by 23.3 percent. This caused Apple’s market share to reduce to 11.5 percent from 12.9 percent a year earlier, the report stated.

“Besides regular performance upgrades in 2018 and small changes to the exterior, there has not been any major innovation that supports users to continue to change their phones at the greatly increased price,” the report stated.

“The severe macro environment in China and the assault of domestic brands’ innovative products have also been reasons for Apple’s continued decline.”

Hong Kong-based Counterpoint, also released a separate report earlier this month that confirmed a similar sharp fall in sales in India, which is another big emerging market where Apple is struggling.

Counterpoint stated that iPhone sales in the fourth quarter, which includes India’s electronics sales-heavy Diwali festival, fell 25 percent on the year, reducing total sales in 2018 to 1.7 million units from 3.2 million a year before. 

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