For the sales decline, Apple still has not found a good response. The road to price cuts will certainly not be the main means. As for now, data from Gartner shows that in March of this year, Apple’s iPhone share in the global smartphone market fell to 11.9%, compared with 14.1% in the first quarter of 2018, and sales fell from 54.1 million to about 44.6 million.
The list is still led by Samsung, but its sales are also falling. At the same time, the market share of the South Korean manufacturer fell from 20.5% to 19.2%. Huawei’s smartphone market share rose from 10.5% to 15.7%, surpassing Apple. Its sales were 58.4 million units. OPPO’s and VIVO’s share increased from 7.3% and 6.1% to 7.9% and 7.3%, respectively.
Due to such a poor sales performance, Citigroup has lowered its earnings forecast for Apple. It said that the recent trade situation has led to a decline in iPhone sales in the second half of this year, and thus lowered iPhone’s target price from $220 to $205. Citigroup also pointed out its research shows that Chinese consumers see the iPhone as a brand with decreasing appeal.
At present, some analysts said that the iPhone is becoming less and less attractive in the Chinese market. With higher prices and weak innovations, Apple can’t compete with domestic smartphones. This is the main reason why the iPhone is slipping.
Previously, Apple has been running a price policy that wasn’t accepted by millions of users though it was bringing a lot of benefit to the company. Now seems this strategy is outdated. That’s why Apple is continuously reducing prices for the iPhone. This may be a good solution in a short period of time, but in the long run, it should offer more innovation to make competition to the Chinese brands.