By Dan Strumpf WSJ Tues., Feb. 12, 2019 HONG KONG—iPhone shipments in China slumped far more than overall smartphone shipments there last quarter, costing Apple Inc. further ground against local rival Huawei Technologies Co. in the world’s biggest smartphone market. Apple’s smartphone shipments in China in the last three months of 2018 were down 20% from a year earlier, according to International Data Corp., putting a finer point on Apple’s shrinking sales in China late last year. Last month, Apple CEO Tim Cook blamed declining iPhone sales in China on the economic slowdown there. That slowdown—and a global trend among phone owners of upgrading less frequently—contributed to a 9.7% drop in overall smartphone shipments in China in the quarter. Apple’s decline sent its China market share falling to 11.5% from 12.9% a year ago, according to IDC. Apple, now the fourth-biggest vendor in China, was the country’s top smartphone seller as recently as early 2015. Huawei’s shipments were up 23%, giving it 29% of the market and cementing its position as the country’s top phone vendor, according to IDC, which reported Huawei also gained at the high end of the market long dominated by the likes of Apple. “The high price point of the iPhone X in 2017 has lengthened the replacement cycle of users, while the new models of 2018 don’t have enough innovations to make users buy,” said Xi Wang, an IDC analyst in China. Huawei, by contrast, has taken technological strides that have made its devices more… [Read full story]
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