Apple surpassed by Xiaomi, Huawei in China as iPhone market share falls

Apple itself admits that it didn’t have the greatest quarter ever in Q2 when it comes to China. Now, a report from market research firm Kantar Worldpanel ComTech confirms just how bad it was. According to Kantar, the iPhone’s China market share has dropped to 17.9 percent, putting it behind domestic competitors Huawei and Xiaomi.

Specifically, Kantar says that Huawei now has 25.7 percent of China’s mobile market, while Xiaomi controls 18.5 percent of it. Apple’s 17.9 percent is down 1.8 percent year-on-year; the company controlled nearly 20 percent of the market at this time last year.

Apple’s iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are still the top-selling smartphone models in China, according to Kantar. But domestic handsets like the Huawei Mate 8, Huawei P9, Xiaomi RedMi Note 3, Xiaomi Mi 5, and Oppo R9 are increasingly giving Apple a run for its money.

The saving grace for Apple in China might be strong demand for its budget-priced iPhone SE – supply constraints prevented that model from making a bigger sales dent, so if the phone becomes more readily available in Q3 its sales should see an uptick. Also, Apple will announce and launch its new iPhone 7 models in the third quarter. New models typically help drive sales up, so Apple’s dip below Xiaomi could be just a temporary setback.

Kantar’s numbers also show a drop in iPhone market share in Japan, from 42.2 percent of the market a year ago down to 38 percent this year. Although the iPhone still holds a larger chunk of the market in Japan than anywhere else Kantar surveyed (including the US), the year-on-year drop of 4.2 percent was also the worst in any region.