iPhone 13 Is China’s Highest-Selling Smartphone for Six Consecutive Weeks

BY Chandraveer Mathur

Published 13 Jan 2022

iPhone 13 Pro Camera

When the iPhone 13 series made its debut in China, it caused a stampede. A recent report suggests that the phone’s demand is still strong. The iPhone 13 has been the country’s number one smartphone for six consecutive weeks.

Counterpoint Research’s China Smartphone Weekly Tracker shows that Apple has been the top-selling smartphone brand in terms of the number of units sold for six straight weeks now. The company ascended to the top spot following the iPhone 13’s launch and held it for a majority of the time, sometimes giving it up to rival Chinese smartphone brand Vivo.

The research firm attributes the iPhone 13’s success to its new camera system, support for 5G, and lower launch price. The gathered statistics show that the vanilla iPhone 13 accounted for a whopping 51 percent of the iPhone sales while the top-of-the-line iPhone 13 Pro Max contributed 23 percent. The iPhone 13 Pro accounted for 21 percent of the iPhone sales while the iPhone 13 mini, just 5 percent.

Although the numbers don’t account for the sale volumes of older iPhones, the report notes that the iPhone 13’s healthy demand “is also followed by the strong performance of the iPhone 12,” which contributed “to an increase in Apple’s overall sales.” The iPhone 13 models sold more in China than any iPhone model before it.

The firm’s research director Tom Kang notes that Apple’s true competitor in China, at least up until recently, was Huawei. The company is now plagued with serious production issues due to the US sanctions that prevent it from enabling Google services and other offerings from American companies. Kang speculates that Apple is “likely to continue its high performance in China until other competitors catch up in both brand and quality.”

The iPhone 13 lineup’s massive success in China and other parts of the world is also mildly surprising because it was merely an incremental upgrade over its predecessor.

[Via Counterpoint Research]