Apple still maintains its global leadership of the premium phone market despite losing some steam in China, the world’s largest market. Recent data by Counterpoint Research shows Apple no longer control the premium phone segment in China. The data also shows that Huawei is the biggest beneficiary of Apple’s slump in China. Huawei has emerged as the king of premium phones in China, ahead of Apple in the first quarter of 2019. The premium segment as categorized in the research consists of phones priced between $600 and $800.

Apple’s struggle in China has been in the making for some time now but last year, the company still controlled the premium phone market. However, Counterpoint data shows the US company secured a 37% market share in Q1 2019. This way lower than the 82% market shares the company enjoyed in Q1 2018. It is also lower than the market share the company scooped in Q4 2018 (40%).

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In contrast, Huawei recorded a 38% jump in its market share year on year. In Q1 2018, the company had a market share of just 10% while it secured a 48% share of the premium phone segment in Q1 2019. This is just a slight 11% higher than Apple’s market share but that could triple in the next few quarters as the company shifts its focus to the domestic market in an effort to mitigate the effect the US ban could have on its smartphone sales overseas.

However, Apple still controls the Super-premium smartphone segment which consists of phones priced above $800. The Silicon-valley company leads this segment by a wide margin with a 74% market share as against Huawei’s 14% share. However, Huawei grew by 12% YoY from a meagre 2% last year while Apple’s shipment fell by 16%. This is an indication that Huawei may close the gap in no distant time with models such as the Mate X 5G which would be priced above $1000. Huawei’s growth may be affected by the US ban overseas but not in China where it will be looking to flaunt the products from its huge investments in smartphone R&D.

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(source)

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