Apple’s iPhone sales in China rose more than 18% last month, according to CNBC calculations using government data published by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, a government think tank. The iPhone manufacturer shipped 3.2 million of their phones in China through December - up from 2.7 million units shipped in December 2018, according to the data.
Apple stock rose more than 2% on the news Thursday, reaching a new all-time high of $309.63 when markets closed.
In Q1 2019 Apple reported revenue from China of $13.17 billion, down $5 billion from the same time period in 2018.
“If you look at our results, our shortfall is over 100 percent from iPhone and it’s primarily in greater China,” Apple CEO Tim Cook told CNBC’s Josh Lipton in an interview in January 2019. “It’s clear that the economy began to slow there for the second half and what I believe to be the case is the trade tensions between the United States and China put additional pressure on their economy.”
According to November data from Counterpoint Research, Apple had just 8 percent of the market share in China during the third quarter of 2019, down from 9 percent during the same time period in 2018. Huawei remains ahead of other companies in their home market with a 40 percent share, trailed by Vivo, Oppo and Xiaomi.
