Think again: Apple will likely recover from its slump in iPhone sales
Apple Inc faced a significant challenge recently: declining iPhone sales. This trend, a stark contrast to the company’s record of rapid growth and dominance in the global smartphone market, raises critical questions about the future of one of the most iconic products in consumer electronics. A recent Bloomberg article highlights Apple’s woes, listing 10 reasons why it is in trouble (bloom.bg/3wKhj1z).
I will touch on some of these, but also address some critical strengths Apple has that seem apparent but need analysis through an alternate lens. First, the article. It states that demand for the iPhone has declined globally, primarily due to Chinese competition and a ban by the Chinese government on iPhones being used in any government department.
Meanwhile, Xiaomi’s IQ handset shipments grew by almost 34% year-on-year. Huawei’s re-entry into the market with its own chip and the Harmony operating system has also dented iPhone sales in China, its largest overseas market. Bloomberg calculates that iPhone sales in China fell from 12.6 million units in January and February 2023 to 7.9 million in the same period of 2024.
From a global standpoint, in the first calendar-quarter of this year, iPhone sales slumped by 10%. Its first-quarter shipments were a shade over 50 million units, 10 million units behind its chief rival, Samsung, which shipped a little over 60 million units in the same time frame. However, it is not all gloom and doom for Apple.
It still has a large installed base. It had over 1.8 billion active devices in 2022, the last time CEO Tim Cook shared these numbers. Even conservative estimates would put today’s figure at well over a billion iPhones.
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