Apple Inc's (NASDAQ:AAPL, XETRA:APC) iPhone shipments in China rose 20% in the first quarter, the strongest growth of any major vendor in the world's largest smartphone market.
The result arrived in a quarter when the overall Chinese smartphone market fell 4%, dragged down by supply chain disruptions and rising memory chip costs that forced rivals to push up prices on budget handsets.
The American tech giant held second place with a 19% market share, just behind Huawei at 20%.
"Apple is widely viewed as best positioned to navigate the ongoing global memory crunch, supported by its premium product portfolio and strong supply chain management. In the near-to-medium term," said Counterpoint Research.
"It is more likely to absorb rising costs internally and expand its market share."
Value in a market turning cautious
Analysts attributed Apple's outperformance to a straightforward proposition: Chinese consumers believe iPhones hold their value.
That perception is key in a market where buyers are weighing cost more carefully.
Xiaomi's shipments fell 35% in the quarter, though experts pointed to a high base effect, after the company benefited from aggressive price cuts and government subsidies in the same period a year earlier.
Oppo and Honor fell 5% and 3% respectively, while Vivo rose 2%, supported by Lunar New Year sales.
Not a blip
The first-quarter performance fits a broader pattern. Apple's iPhone sales in China grew 8% in the second quarter of 2025, its first quarterly growth since the second quarter of 2023, according to Counterpoint Research.
By October 2025, iPhones accounted for one in every four smartphones sold in China, the first time Apple had reached that threshold since 2022, Bloomberg reported.
Fourth-quarter shipments rose 28% and Apple led the Chinese market outright for the period, according to Counterpoint Research.
For the full year, Apple recorded 26% growth in mainland China, driven by strong demand for the iPhone 17 series, according to IDC.
The momentum extended on the back of a product cycle that resonated with Chinese buyers: the standard iPhone 17 models held their price from the previous year despite storage upgrades, reinforcing the value argument at a moment when local rivals were raising prices.
The risks that sit underneath the recovery
The outlook for the second quarter was cautious. Market research points to more headwinds as Chinese brands pushed prices higher, though he said Apple and Huawei were likely to weather the pressure better than most, with Huawei potentially seeing further growth from strong demand for its lower-end devices.
The medium-term picture is more complicated.
Apple has been working with Alibaba to bring its Apple Intelligence suite of AI features to iPhones in China, but the project has stalled after applications from the two companies failed to receive approval from the Cyberspace Administration of China, the Financial Times reported.
Sources familiar with the matter told the Financial Times that the delay was connected to rising trade tensions between Washington and Beijing.
The stalemate has given Huawei and Xiaomi room to push ahead in the premium segment, with Huawei integrating domestic AI models into its devices.
Morgan Stanley analyst Erik Woodring cut his Apple earnings forecast for fiscal year 2026 from $8.52 to $8.00 per share, citing tariff costs and the delayed AI rollout.
The question the data cannot answer
Apple's China renaissance is interesting and, by recent standards, represents a sustained upturn. The brand retains a pull among Chinese consumers that two difficult years have not erased.
But the conditions that drove the first-quarter surge, a weak market, rival price increases, and a strong product cycle, are not permanent.
The AI approval blockage is a significant one. Whether this recovery holds will depend less on Apple's product decisions than on the state of US-China relations, a variable no quarterly shipment figure can capture.