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Investing.com-- Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) dominated China’s Singles’ Day smartphone sales this year, powering a rare 3% year-on-year rise in overall market volumes even as most domestic rivals struggled amid a cautious consumer backdrop, research firm Counterpoint said on Thursday.
Counterpoint said the iPhone 17 series drove the bulk of the gains, with strong demand for the base model helped by upgraded storage, improved camera optics, and advanced sensors offered at last year’s price.
Promotions, including discounts of about 300 yuan on Pro variants, also helped lift sales. Analysts said that sales of the base model more than doubled, while Pro and Pro Max shipments rose by mid- to high-double-digit percentages.
Excluding Apple, Singles’ Day smartphone sales fell 5% from a year earlier, underscoring soft consumer sentiment and weak momentum heading into the fourth quarter.
Counterpoint noted that many buyers had already upgraded earlier in the year to take advantage of subsidy programmes, while major brands shifted attention to newly launched premium devices -- a strategy that raised average selling prices but weighed on unit volumes.
Huawei posted the steepest decline among major brands after its flagship Mate 80 series missed the sales window by two weeks. Xiaomi ’s (HK:1810) sales fell 11% year-on-year as its Xiaomi 17 series launched too early to benefit from the November shopping period.