Apple iPhone 6S (Photo : Reuters)
Cupertino-based Apple enjoyed good sales in the last quarter of 2015 of its iPhones in China even if the global smartphone market was weak for that period.
Bloomberg reports that based on data from the China Academy of Telecommunication Research, the research arm of the country's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the number of smartphones which do not used the Android operating system that was shipped to China in Q4 increased by 33 percent.
That's about 24.3 million smartphones, mostly iPhones made by Apple. China is now Apple's second-largest market. For Q1 2016, Apple is expected to ship 55 million iPhones.
Because of anticipated weakness in the smartphone market, shares of Apple and its competitors and suppliers declined. HSBC Global Research analysts Steven Pelayo and Lionel Lin, in a report dated Jan. 12, confirmed that tech hardware makers suffered a depressing year in 2015.
The data surprised Hong Kong-based Alberto Moel, analyst for Sanford C Bernstein. He explains in an email, "Consensus is not pricing in any major blowout in Q4 for Apple, so this would be counter to the current investor sentiment."
Even for PCs, Apple also bucked the trend and hiked its shipment of Macs in 2015, according to a report, released on Tuesday, from two research firms.
Gartner says that all PC makers shipped 288.7 million personal computers in 2015, an 8 percent contraction from 2014 figures. But International Data Corp. analysts estimate the shipment was 276 million, which was a 10.4 percent drop. But the two companies report that Apple logged a 6 percent boost in PC shipments last year. Like the smartphone market, China is also Apple's biggest PC market outside the U.S.
