iPhone Shipments Jump in China as Lockdowns End

Shipments of Apple’s iPhone rose in China last month, part of a rebound in smartphone sales following the end of the country’s COVID lockdown.

As Bloomberg News reported Wednesday (July 20), mobile phone shipments overall increased 9.2% in China in June, led by Apple and Samsung. At the same time, a number of China’s domestic smartphone makers saw their shipments drop by 0.5%.

According to Bloomberg, Samsung no longer holds a large share of the Chinese smartphone market, while Apple is the fourth-biggest player, which indicates much of the rebound in demand came from iPhones. Apple is set to offer more details about its business in China when it releases its earnings later this month.

The report notes that Chinese smartphone companies have had trouble building enthusiasm for their devices this year as costs go up and consumer sentiment curdles. Sony warned earlier this year that sales of premium phone camera sensors to customers in China came in lower than expected and device shipments have held to that downward trend.

And research firm Canalys said this week that each of the Chinese smartphone powerhouses saw drops in their global second-quarter shipments.

Read more: China COVID Lockdowns Hamper iPhone Production

In May, Apple ordered its suppliers to increase the pace of iPhone development after China’s stringent lockdown rules slowed the schedule for at least one of the phone models. The country’s zero-COVID policy caused iPhone assembler Pegatron to suspend operations earlier this year at its Shanghai and Kushan plants.

Shanghai — one of the world’s financial hubs — was more or less shut down by a weeks-long city-wide lockdown.

As PYMNTS has reported, Apple hopes to draw in customers with a more groundbreaking version of the iPhone. While the iPhone 13, launched in 2021, was considered a minor update, the iPhone 14 — set to be in stores this fall — is expected to offer more screen sizes and new features such as satellite-based text messaging.