For quite some time, Apple had problems with figuring out the Chinese market and what could it do to perform better there. Now, there’s at least one analyst who thinks that things have started to pick up with the release of the iPhone XR. Ming-Chi Kuo claimed in a recent report that the sales of most domestic phone manufacturers from China saw a drop each year during the Golden Week (the first week of October, when a national holiday takes place).
iPhone XR Innovation
Kuo doesn’t exclude the lack of innovation from the equation but he also supposes that this year the iPhone XR might have been a reason as well. Kuo’s report predicts that despite the rest of the market suffering, Apple will observe a demand for the more affordable XR in China when it will be launched. Apparently, he thinks that this phone’s sales will exceed what the iPhone 8 was capable of bringing home during the same period of last year.
Kuo’s report was picked up by 9to5Mac and it apparently states that the only notable Chinese manufacturer that saw an increase in its yearly shipments was Huawei. The rest of the Chinese industry reported declines in their sales and the industry dropped 10 to 15 percent as a whole in China.
Kuo is really confident that the iPhone XR, thanks to its low retail price, will overtake last year’s iPhone 8 and 8 Plus not only during launch sales but over the rest of its lifetime as well. The pre-orders for this year’s budget iPhone will open up on the 19th of October, the first shipments were expected to arrive starting with the 26th of October. The XR manages to mirror the design of the iPhone XS, although it comes with lower specs, of course, and it comes with a $749 price tag in the States.