Registering its best performance in China in two years, Apple's iPhone sales for the third quarter of 2017 hit 11 million units, up from eight million units sold during the third quarter last year.
"Apple's success in the third quarter was due only to 'pent-up demand of iPhone upgraders'. Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, Apple's shipments will again decline," Mo Jia, a research analyst with Canalys, was quoted as saying by The Fortune late on Monday. "Apple is unlikely to sustain this growth in the fourth quarter," Jia added.
Despite their struggle, Chinese brands such as Huawei, Vivo, Oppo and Xiaomi have outpaced Apple in terms of units sold in China. The Cupertino-based tech giant's upcoming iPhone X is attracting huge demand but its high price and limited supply could combine to result in few sales and will not help iPhone sales in China, the report added. The company is slated to report its fiscal fourth quarter earnings, including China sales numbers, later this week.
Meanwhile, according to a survey conducted by Financial Times, Huawei was the top choice in the country with more than 31.4 per cent of respondents opting for the brand. The smartphone maker also surpassed Apple for the first time in global smartphone sales consistently for June and July. The weaker demand for the iPhone 8 was partially blamed on Apple loyalists waiting for the super-premium iPhone X, according to the FT report.
The survey said Apple's new models — iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus — were underperforming when compared with the previous launches in China.
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