iPhone sales
It seems that Apple’s new flagship series has changed the company’s fortunes in China. A new report from Counterpoint Research shows that iPhone sales in the country have increased by 22 percent year-on-year in the first month of availability of the iPhone 17 lineup, which shows a big improvement from the decline Apple faced after the launch of the iPhone 16 last year.
Statistics show that after September 19, about 4/5 of all iPhones sold to Chinese customers were of the iPhone 17 range. This is very similar to Tim Cook’s very upbeat comments during the company’s Q4 2025 earnings call, where he said that Apple is “very pleased” with the response it has received in China. After a long period of low sales in the region, Cook said that the new lineup has been “very well received” and will lead Apple back to growth in the ongoing quarter.
Cook also made it clear that any weak performance last quarter was due to oversupply rather than low demand. He said that customer traffic in China remained high year-on-year and new devices were growing rapidly despite not being heavily dependent on government rebates. Many Apple products do not qualify for those discounts due to their price, so the current uptick is largely coming from genuine customer demand.
Market decline, yet Apple’s sales increased
Counterpoint’s data further strengthens this point. According to Reuters report, while the entire Chinese smartphone market declined by 2.7 percent during the same period, Apple registered good growth on the basis of its new models. For comparison, last year, sales declined by 5 percent in the month following the iPhone 16 launch, which shows the significance of this sharp increase.
The strong early performance of the iPhone 17 lineup not only boosts Apple’s confidence in the region, but also represents a sea change in one of its toughest markets. The company is moving forward with the goal of regaining steady growth in China, and the new figures show that Apple’s new flagship devices come at just the right time.