Price Cuts Help Apple Win Top Phone Sales Spot in China in May

Apple’s move to slash the price of its iPhones helped the US tech giant secure the top sales spot in China in May.

Data from Counterpoint Research showed Apple’s global sales grew 15% year-on-year during April and May. And that was the group’s strongest performance for the two-month period since the Covid-19 pandemic.

The increase in global sales was primarily driven by a return to growth in Apple’s two largest markets, China and the United States, preliminary data from Counterpoint Research showed.

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The company was aided in part by tariff dodgers and also saw double-digit increases in Japan, India and the Middle Eastern markets, Counterpoint said.

“Q2 [second quarter] iPhone performance looks promising at the moment, but as always, swings either way are dictated by two markets – the US and China,” Ivan Lam, a senior analyst at Counterpoint Research, said.

Calculations based on data from the government-affiliated China Academy of Information and Communications Technology showed that April shipments of foreign-branded phones in China rose to 3.52 million units from 3.50 million a year earlier.

Apple has faced increased competition from domestic rivals in China and has resorted to price cuts to stay competitive.

Chinese e-commerce platforms were offering discounts of up to 2,530 yuan ($351) on Apple’s latest iPhone 16 models in May.

Tata to handle Apple repairs in India

Meanwhile, Apple has brought in Tata Group to handle repairs for iPhones and MacBook devices in its fast-growing Indian market, signalling the Indian conglomerate’s deepening role in the US tech giant’s supply chain, two people familiar with the matter said recently.

As Apple looks beyond China for manufacturing, Tata has fast emerged as its key supplier and already assembles iPhones for local and foreign markets at three facilities in south India, with one of them also making some iPhone components.

In its partnership expansion, Tata has taken over the mandate from an Indian unit of Taiwan’s Wistron, ICT Service Management Solutions, and will carry out such after-sales repairs from its Karnataka iPhone assembly campus, both sources said.

The market for repairs is only going to boom in India, the world’s second-biggest smartphone market, as iPhone sales skyrocket. Counterpoint Research estimates around 11 million iPhones were sold in India last year, giving Apple a 7% market share, compared to just 1% in 2020.

The latest contract award signals Apple’s growing confidence in Tata as it hopes to win more business from the world’s most valuable smartphone company.

“Tata’s deepening partnership with Apple could also pave the groundwork for Apple directly selling refurbished devices in India, like how it does in the United States currently,” said Prabhu Ram, a vice president at Cybermedia Research.

The takeover from ICT by Tata is currently ongoing, both sources said, who declined to be named as they were not authorized to speak on the matter.

Apple and Wistron did not respond to requests for comment, while a spokesperson for Tata declined to comment.

While Apple’s official service centres across India can do basic repairs, they would now ship phones and laptops to Tata’s facility for more complex issues.

Wistron’s ICT, however, will continue to service other clients excluding Apple, one of the sources told Reuters.

Amid international concerns over US President Donald Trump’s tariffs, India is also emerging as a favoured destination for iPhone exports. Apple CEO Tim Cook has said the bulk of iPhones sold in the United States during the June quarter will be made at factories in India.

However, Trump’s insistence that Apple should be making iPhones in America, remains a major concern for CEO Tim Cook.