Apple iPhone loses ground to Oppo, Huawei, and Vivo in China; market shares down

Failure is inevitable. Even Apple, one of the most (in fact, the most) valued company on the planet couldn’t escape from the hands of failure. It witnessed a first decline in profits last year including the Chinese market as iPhone sales were not as good as expected.

There are quite a few reasons for such decline in the sales. One such reason is the fact that Chinese vendors are gaining momentum by offering the best features at affordable prices.

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For example, consider Oppo, Huawei, and Vivo. Did you know that these three Chinese vendors accounted for almost half of the smartphone market in China last year?

Yes, that's right! The said three vendors have occupied more than 48% of market share in China with Oppo taking 16.8%, Huawei 16.4%, and Vivo 14.8%. On the other hand, Apple managed to get only 9.6% of the market share which is a significant drop from 13.6% share in 2015.

Xiaohan Tay, a senior market analyst with IDC Asia and Pacific, said, "Increased dependence on mobile apps has led consumers to seek phone upgrades, thus helping drive the large growth in the fourth quarter of 2016. In lower-tiered cities, there was a similar demand by consumers, which Oppo and Vivo met by aggressively pushing mid-range smartphones in these cities.”

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If this is the case in China, we only wonder how Apple is going to grab the market share in India where price is the only deciding factor.

That said, Apple, with the support of Indian government, is finally going to manufacture iPhones in India. What this essentially means is that the iPhone prices may eventually go down (by Rs.10,000 approximately) as the extra 12.5% taxes won’t be levied anymore.

However, one big question still remains. Will the reduced price will be enough to lure customers into buying Apple iPhones in India despite the availability of smartphones from Chinese vendors at affordable prices? Well, time will only answer that question.