In November, Apple experienced a significant slump in its sales in China, a situation that spiraled into a series of troubling reports about its performance in the smartphone marketAs the new year approaches, the impact of these trends is not only being felt within the company but is shaking investor confidence in the tech giant's future prospects.

On January 13, Bloomberg delivered a harsh verdict via the authoritative findings of market research firm Counterpoint Research: Apple’s iPhone market share globally has unmistakably declined, dropping by a full percentage point to 18%. To add to the pressure, overall sales for the year decreased by 2%, which ballooned to a startling 5% in the critical fourth quarter—an alarming contrast as the global smartphone market thrived with a 4% growthThis stark statistic suggests that, even amid a booming industry landscape, Apple's devices are lagging behind, slowly eroding the competitive advantage that they once enjoyed.

Earlier this month, media reports indicated that shipments of foreign mobile brands fell dramatically, with numbers for November reaching merely 3.04 million units—a staggering decrease of 47.4% year-over-year and a month-over-month drop of 51%. Much of this decline is attributed to Apple, emphasizing its dire position in the Chinese market

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Since 2024 began, Apple’s struggles in this territory have been glaringIt briefly fell out of the top five smartphone suppliers in China in the second quarter, saw a minor recovery in the third quarter yet still faced a 0.3% year-on-year decline, culminating in November's crash.

Further concern is reflected in analyst Ming-Chi Kuo's latest report from TF Securities, where he expressed deep worries regarding Apple's trajectory in ChinaHe pointed out the continuous decline in iPhone shipments, leading to a gradual erosion in market shareKuo predicts an additional 6% decline in shipments during the first half of 2025, emphasizing a lack of substantive evidence that Apple’s recent forays into AI solutions are creating meaningful hardware upgrades or a significant boost in service revenueDismally, the allure of 'Apple Intelligence' seems to be waning when compared to popular cloud-based AI offerings, placing Apple further behind its competitors.

As the largest market for Apple outside the United States, China holds monumental significance for the companyThe sharp decline in its market share serves as a grim warning signalReflecting on last September, Apple launched the long-anticipated iPhone 16 series, aiming to rebound in the market via a suite of AI-enhanced features under "Apple Intelligence." The irony, however, is that these much-ballyhooed AI functionalities remain unavailable in China to this dayReports suggest that Apple is actively pursuing collaborations with local partners to roll out features like AI writing assistance and image generation, yet progress has been sluggish, failing to meet market demands and consumer expectations.

In the meantime, local Chinese smartphone manufacturers have risen to the occasion with remarkable speed, showcasing their robust competitiveness in a fiercely contested market

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