New insight into China's premium smartphone market has revealed that 46% of phones more than $400 sold in Q2 were iPhones, as Apple continues to dominate the growing sector.
Counterpoint Research this week revealed that premium sales rose to 33% in Q2 2022, up from 31% of all smartphone sales in the country last year.
This is because while the smartphone market as a whole declined some 14% year on year, the premium segment only declined by 10% in terms of unit sales, accounting for the growth. Sales of devices worth more than $600 actually increased.
King of premium
Counterpoint's Mengmeng Zhang said that Apple "did well in the $1,000 and above segment, recording 147% YoY increase," stating that both Apple and Samsung have benefited from Huawei's decline and "the shift in purchase trends towards premium phones in China."
According to cCounterpoint's figures, 46% of the premium smartphones sold in Q2 2022 were iPhones. The next bigger vendor was vivo with just a 13% market share.
The news can only mean that devices like Apple's best iPhones, the iPhone 13 and iPhone 12, are proving very popular in the country. Despite this, Apple held a rare discount on the iPhone 13 last month to try and buoy sales of some of its devices ahead of the iPhone 14. At the time, Bloomberg reported that China's economy was trying to bounce back from COVID lockdowns in business hubs like Shanghai and China and that companies like Apple were fighting weakening consumer demand, inflation, and supply chain issues.
Apple will likely be able to capitalize on its premium momentum in the country when it unveils its new iPhone 14 next month. The company is tipped to unveil the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro at an event in early September, with sales to begin the following week.
