Tim Cook said in October that it was “just a matter of time” before China overtook the USA as its biggest market, and it seems that time may be arriving sooner than expected – at least as far as the iPhone is concerned. The Financial Times reports that analysts expect tomorrow’s Q1 earnings call to confirm that Apple sold more iPhones in China than in the US.
Analysts at UBS estimate that China accounted for 36 per cent of iPhone shipments in the most recent quarter, compared with 24 per cent for the US. During the same period last year, 29 per cent of units were sold in the US and 22 per cent were in China, UBS said.
The view was supported by Creative Strategies, which forecast that Apple has sold around 2M more iPhones in China than in the US in the final calendar quarter of 2014 (Apple’s financial Q1) …
While the predictions relate only to iPhone sales, rather than to Apple’s total earnings, it would certainly be a huge step towards the future Cook predicted. The iPhone accounts for more than half of Apple’s revenue, and a greater share of profits. Creative Strategies analyst Ben Bajarin believes this represents a tipping point for Apple.
“They will likely do more in China than US from here on out,” he said. “It certainly shows how important the China market is to Apple’s upside.”
Apple is opening retail stores in China at a rapid pace, the most recent one on Friday, with three more due to open before the Chinese New Year. The company also has plans to launch Apple Pay in China, possibly through a partnership with the country’s market-leading ecommerce company Alibaba.
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Not too shocking given that there seem to be a much greater amount of smartphone buyers there vs. in the USA where most folks already have one. There’s other factors too, but the enormous difference in population sizes certainly helps.
It is both incredible and pedestrian at the same time. Incredible how fast the growth there is, but pedestrian due to population.
I am also assuming that this is based on sales in each country. So the volume of iPhones in China is even higher. Pretty incredible when you think about it.
Perhaps we are already well on our way to becoming Reavers…
;)
Food for thought: In five years, China’s “middle class” will be larger than the ENTIRE POPULATION of the USA.
Just saying…
And a good chunk of the phones sold here went right back to China anyway. So I wonder how many of those phones got slipped back into the market and double sold?
I thought the analysts said Apple wouldn’t be able to sell many iPhones in China because they’re too expensive for Chinese citizens to buy. Android had the biggest edge by a huge amount because they sell those cheap $100 smartphones. Also, there were analysts who claimed the China Mobile deal wouldn’t amount to anything in the first year. I’m glad Tim Cook was right and the idiot, Apple-doubting analysts were wrong. I hope they burn for misleading many of their clients. I can’t stand those charlatan, crooked analysts always trying to devalue Apple for highly suspect reasons.
Those analysts just sit at their desk and look at numbers only. They need to go to east asia and look at the culture there. Asian people love to show off their money and having an iPhone is a status symbol. I think if the bigger the middle class grows in china the more demand for the iPhone.