Apple Inc reclaimed the top spot in China after iPhone shipments jumped 28 percent year-on-year during the holiday quarter despite a memorychip shortage, according to Counterpoint Research.
The iPhone 17 series of devices drew consumers, with Apple’s handsets accounting for one in every five shipments in the December quarter, the research firm estimated. That growth came at the expense of Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Xiaomi Corp (小米), both of which experienced double-digit percentage declines. Overall, shipments in the world’s largest smartphone arena fell 1.6 percent from a year earlier during the final quarter of last year.
From Micron Technology Inc to Xiaomi, a growing number of companies are warning about the uncertain impact from a growing deficit of the semiconductors used to store data on devices. That shortage, which arose after memory makers devoted more of their capacity to high-end memory for Nvidia Corp artificial intelligence chips, is driving prices higher while squeezing undersupplied smaller players.
Photo: Reuters
“Looking ahead, memory prices are expected to rise further, increasing by 40 percent to 50 percent in Q1 2026, followed by an additional increase of around 20 percent in Q2 2026,” Counterpoint analysts said. “Smartphone OEMs are expected to optimize their product portfolios, with a particular focus on scaling back low-end models to preserve margins.”
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) CEO C.C. Wei (魏哲家) highlighted the uneven impact of the memory crunch last week, saying high-end smartphones remained largely unaffected. Apple, whose entire lineup resides in the upper tiers of the market, is showing greatest resilience. A new round of Chinese consumer subsidies is helping alleviate cost pressures on manufacturers, Counterpoint said.
For the calendar year, Apple came in slightly behind Huawei at the top of China’s shipments ranking, with each taking roughly a 17 percent market share. Apple’s shipments last year climbed 7.5 percent year-on-year. One blemish on its record was the novel iPhone Air, which launched later in China than elsewhere and sold poorly.
“The iPhone Air underperformed,” Counterpoint analyst Ivan Lam (林科宇) said. “The late launch and trade-offs between thinness and the feature set resulted in a slow start.”
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