Here’s another reason to expect Apple AAPL -3.52% to report record iPhone sales in China later today: for the first time ever, the company became the top selling smartphone maker in China this last quarter by units shipped, according to new stats from research firm Canalys.
Remarkably, Apple appears to have vaunted over low-cost competitors like Xiaomi and Huawei, even though the average selling price of its handsets is nearly double theirs, the research firm notes.
This is a big jump for Apple’s China ranking. In the last seven quarters its highest position in the country has been 4th, and in the last quarter of 2013 it was in 6th place, according to Canalys.
The research firm didn’t break out its estimates for how many iPhones Apple had sold in China, but said the big drivers were its introduction of the larger-screen iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.
Jumping on the large screen and LTE trends in China “have been vital to [Apple's] success, along with a well-timed launch and a clampdown on gray exports of its products out of Hong Kong,” Canalys said in a note, sent out just hours ahead of Apple’s release of its first quarter financial report.
Analysts expect Apple to report fiscal first-quarter sales of anywhere between 61 million and 70 million iPhones later today, and potentially say that iPhone sales in China have surpassed those in the United States (though Forbes contributor Chuck Jones suspects that won’t be the case).
Canalys says the four largest smartphones vendors in China by units shipped in the forth quarter, were Apple, Xiaomi, Samsung and Huawei, respectively.
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