How iPhones Made a Surprising Comeback in China

After a prolonged slump, Apple’s business is suddenly thriving again in China. The tech giant said in its latest earnings report last week that revenue from the country rose 38 percent year over year in the last quarter, primarily driven by surging demand for iPhones. The rebound came after Apple’s China sales had declined for 18 consecutive months between 2024 and early 2025.

In a call with analysts, CEO Tim Cook said Apple set a new record for iPhone upgrades among Chinese customers and saw double-digit growth in the number of users switching from other operating systems to iOS. “Overall, a great quarter in China. We could not be happier with it,” Cook concluded in his signature monotone voice.

Apple’s fantastic performance came as a surprise to many observers of the Chinese smartphone market. In recent years, homegrown brands like Huawei and Xiaomi have chipped away at Apple’s market share by releasing premium, feature-packed devices that directly compete with the iPhone. Huawei, for instance, stunned the tech industry when it released a $2,800 smartphone with a trifold screen in September 2024, long before competitors put out similar products.

The most striking thing about Apple’s comeback in China is how it pulled it off. Instead of trying to compete by developing flashier tech, it simply released a new iPhone that is both powerful and competitively priced, experts tell WIRED. Even though there are devices from local brands that technically have better cameras and more sophisticated artificial intelligence capabilities (Apple Intelligence is not yet available in mainland China), many buyers still opted for Apple’s iPhone 17 line.

That suggests Chinese consumers continue to care more about Apple’s brand power and design features than marginal technical improvements. “It’s a good story if you’re Apple. It’s the same old story if you’re not Apple,” says Gerrit Schneemann, a senior analyst covering Apple at Counterpoint, a global technology research firm.

Apple owes much of its success in China last quarter to sales of the baseline iPhone 17 model. Traditionally, consumers who buy iPhones at launch tend to gravitate toward the higher-end Pro and Pro Max devices But in 2025, the baseline iPhone 17 represented a much bigger step up from the iPhone 16 than usual, including features traditionally only associated with the Pro series. That may have motivated more people to upgrade sooner than usual after the new phones came out, Schneemann says.

But Apple’s product strategy wasn’t the only important factor here. The iPhone 17 was priced low enough to qualify for a massive electronics subsidy program launched by the Chinese government last year. To help stimulate the economy, Beijing spent some $43 billion subsidizing domestic purchases of electronics, appliances, and cars in 2025. Smartphones sold for less than 6,000 RMB (about $860) were eligible for up to a 15 percent discount. Apple listed the iPhone 17 in China for 5,999 RMB, ensuring price-sensitive buyers would be able to benefit from the government policy.

The state subsidy also arrived at a moment when many Chinese iPhone users were likely due for an upgrade anyway. “Apple’s last peak sales period came with the iPhone 13 series, and after a span of three to four years, its existing users have gradually entered the upgrade cycle this year,” says Arthur Guo, a Beijing-based research manager at IDC, a global market analysis firm.

None of these explanations indicate that Apple’s Chinese competitors are doing anything wrong. Guo notes that domestic brands have also experienced significant growth recently. Expensive flagship models from brands like Xiaomi, Vivo, and Oppo have “remained strong across the board—with even more notable growth recorded for the higher-priced Pro/Pro Max variants,” Guo says.