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It seems more and more that sales of iPhones are dominated by the fickle buying habits of Chinese customers. When sales in China are soft, Apple has trouble, when sales in China pick up, Apple feels the love. Are shareholders getting what they think they’re getting when they buy shares of Apple? Is the company a high beta bet on Chinese consumer spending? Tripp Mickle reports:
China has posed the biggest test for Apple. The iPhone, which surged in sales in 2015 and 2016 behind the iPhone 6, declined in market share during the September quarter to 8.5% from 10% a year earlier as low-cost Chinese smartphone makers gained, according to Counterpoint Research.
Still, revenue from Greater China—which had declined each of the previous six quarters—rose 12% in the latest period to $9.8 billion. Mr. Cook said Apple increased its market share for products including the iPhone, which he said increased unit shipments by a double-digit percentage.
Tarun Pathak, Counterpoint’s associate director, said he expects demand for the X model among China’s 100 million iPhone users to be strong enough to lift volumes and sales in the quarters ahead.
Supply-chain issues have caused analysts to slash iPhone X sales projections for the critical holiday sales period this year. Market-research firm Strategy Analytics cut its projections to fewer than 30 million units from 60 million earlier this year.
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