Investing.com - Evercore ISI recently provided a detailed look into the performance of the Chinese smartphone market, highlighting a second consecutive month of accelerating shipments.
According to the analysis, the market saw a significant year-on-year increase of roughly 29% in April, a noteworthy improvement from the 5.5% downturn reported in March.
The data provided by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) indicates that multinational corporation (MNC) shipments, predominantly Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), rose by approximately 52% year-on-year, totalling 3.5 million units. This is a considerable acceleration compared to the 12% growth reported in March. The surge in shipments is likely a result of channel restocking after MNC shipments fell by about 27% in the first quarter.
The analysts noted that "China's iPhone market looks to be holding up much better than feared. If China continues to hold up relatively flat we think emerging markets and the AI super cycle could result in solid growth for iPhone in FY25 and beyond."
This uptick in shipments should assuage investor concerns regarding Apple's market share risk in China. While Huawei is becoming increasingly competitive in the market's high end, their gains seem to be primarily at the expense of other players. Apple reported that its mainland China iPhone revenue remained stable year-on-year in the first quarter.
Apple has reportedly used discounting via third parties to help maintain its market share. However, these discounts appear to be relatively limited in scope, being available for approximately one week of the quarter in February and May. It remains unclear how much of the discount is provided by Apple versus third parties.
Evercore ISI maintains an "Outperform" rating for Apple, with a target price of $220.