Apple Was Fastest Growing Smartphone Brand in China in Second Quarter, Buoyed By Strong iPhone SE Sales

Apple's iPhone was the fastest-growing smartphone brand in China in the second quarter, according to data published by Counterpoint Research.

Counterpoint YoY growth of smartphone sales units in Q1 2020 China market by OEMs
Bouncing back from the decline in the market in Q1 following the global health crisis, Apple grew 32% year on year thanks to the continued popularity of its ‌iPhone‌ 11 lineup and heavy discounting at an annual shopping festival that Apple doesn't usually participate in.

This year's new ‌iPhone‌ SE also entered into the top three best-selling iPhones in the quarter, mirroring the more affordable device's performance in the United States in the same quarter.

Apple's reversal of fortunes in China are particularly impressive given that it saw an almost 60 percent slump in iPhone sales in February compared to the previous year, shifting fewer than 500,000 handsets across the country.

The surge in ‌iPhone‌ sales in Q2 comes amid a 17% year-on-year decline in overall smartphone sales in China. In addition, one third of total smartphone sales during the quarter were 5G devices, which is the highest adoption of 5G in the world and bodes well for Apple's 5G "‌iPhone‌ 12" lineup, expected this fall.

Tag: China

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching in Three Months With These 12 New Features

Saturday June 14, 2025 5:45 pm PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of June 2025:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone X through iPhone 14 Pro have a...
iPadOS 26 App Windowing

Apple Explains Why iPads Don't Just Run macOS

Friday June 13, 2025 7:46 am PDT by
iPadOS 26 allows iPads to function much more like Macs, with a new app windowing system, a swipe-down menu bar at the top of the screen, and more. However, Apple has stopped short of allowing iPads to run macOS, and it has now explained why. In an interview this week with Swiss tech journalist Rafael Zeier, Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi said that iPadOS 26's new Mac-like ...
Logitech Logo Feature

Logitech Announces Two New Accessories for WWDC

Friday June 13, 2025 7:22 am PDT by
Alongside WWDC this week, Logitech announced notable new accessories for the iPad and Apple Vision Pro. The Logitech Muse is a spatially-tracked stylus developed for use with the Apple Vision Pro. Introduced during the WWDC 2025 keynote address, Muse is intended to support the next generation of spatial computing workflows enabled by visionOS 26. The device incorporates six degrees of...
iphone 16 pro models 1

17 Reasons to Wait for the iPhone 17

Thursday June 12, 2025 8:58 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup. If you skipped the iPhone...
iOS 26 Feature

Apple Seeds Revised iOS 26 Developer Beta to Fix Battery Issue

Friday June 13, 2025 10:15 am PDT by
Apple today provided developers with a revised version of the first iOS 26 beta for testing purposes. The update is only available for the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 models, so if you're running iOS 26 on an iPhone 14 or earlier, you won't see the revised beta. Registered developers can download the new beta software through the Settings app on each device. The revised beta addresses an...
Mac Studio Feature

Apple Begins Selling Refurbished Mac Studio With M4 Max and M3 Ultra Chips at a Discount

Thursday June 12, 2025 10:14 am PDT by
Apple today added Mac Studio models with M4 Max and M3 Ultra chips to its online certified refurbished store in the United States, Canada, Japan, Singapore, and many European countries, for the first time since they were released in March. As usual for refurbished Macs, prices are discounted by approximately 15% compared to the equivalent new models on Apple's online store. Note that Apple's ...
m4 macbook air pink

Apple Now Selling Refurbished M4 MacBook Air Models

Friday June 13, 2025 3:34 pm PDT by
Apple today added M4 MacBook Air models to its refurbished store in the United States, making the latest MacBook Air devices available at a discounted price for the first time since they launched earlier this year. Both 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air models are available, with Apple offering multiple capacities and configurations. The refurbished devices are discounted by approximately 15...

Top Rated Comments

Agit21 Avatar
64 months ago
Apple is the only the brand that offers high quality flagships with small dimensions ?
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
nicho Avatar
64 months ago

Apple is the only the brand that offers high quality flagships with small dimensions ?
The research suggests they're buying iPhone SEs, not iPhone 11 Pros.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
0924487 Avatar
64 months ago

The research suggests they're buying iPhone SEs, not iPhone 11 Pros.
iPhone anything is flagships. SE is just the lower end of the premium market.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
LeeW Avatar
64 months ago
Strong sales on a cheap iPhone, who would have thought it.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
nicho Avatar
64 months ago

iPhone anything is flagships. SE is just the lower end of the premium market.
They're not the same thing.

It is a premium phone. It is a very good phone. But it is most definitely not a flagship model unless you're saying it is - objectively, not subjectively because you have small hands - better than an iPhone 11 Pro.

https://www.wired.com/review/apple-iphone-se-2020/
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
boss.king Avatar
64 months ago

iPhone anything is flagships. SE is just the lower end of the premium market.
You may want to look up what the word flagship means.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)