In the second quarter of 2016, iOS continued to post year-over-year declines in urban China: 17.9% of smartphone sales in the period were iOS, a drop of 1.8 percentage points from 19.7% in the second quarter of 2015 according to Kantar.
iOS share decline has also pushed Apple behind Huawei (25.7%) and Xiaomi (18.5%) facing increased competitors from local smartphone models such as Huawei’s Mate 8, P9, Xiaomi’s RedMi Note 3 and Mi 5, and Oppo’s R9. iPhone SE only accounts for 2.5% of smartphone sales in Q2 2016.
Related: China Android App Stores Insights Q1 2016
iPhone only had 8.2% domestic smartphone market share by total shipments in April 2016 according to Sino Market Research.
Over one-third of China smartphone users would replace smartphones for new ones at least once a year; over three-quarters of Chinese would do so every two years according to a Tencent survey. If an iPhone user is to replace his phone with an Android phone, Huawei is the top choice.