Chinese phonemakers are promoting apps that help users switch from the iPhone in a race to gain market share as Apple struggles to roll out artificial intelligence features in the world’s largest smartphone market.
The top five domestic phonemakers, which compete fiercely in China, have all touted programs this year that make it easier for customers to migrate from Apple’s iOS operating system or to use their Chinese phones alongside Apple devices.
The campaigns come as China’s internet regulator has delayed the approval of Apple’s planned rollout of AI features because of geopolitical tensions with the US.
“Chinese smartphone vendors are clearly moving faster and with greater openness in AI development,” said Lucas Zhong, an analyst at consultancy Omdia. “While it may take time for these strategies to deliver meaningful conversions, they will undoubtedly add pressure to Apple’s operations in China.”
The country’s smartphone market is highly competitive, with no company holding a share greater than 20 per cent. Apple, previously a market leader, was dethroned last year by Vivo, which commanded 18.5 per cent as of the third quarter of this year, according to research group Counterpoint.
Apple, Honor, Oppo, Xiaomi and Huawei each held between 13.6 per cent and 16.4 per cent in the third quarter.
Chinese phonemakers have struggled to convert Apple users because the US company makes transferring files and apps to new devices seamless.
But domestic manufacturers now believe their AI-powered features, along with innovations such as foldable phones, have made their products attractive enough to win over Apple devotees.
AI assistants on Oppo’s latest smartphones, for example, can track daily spending using screenshots of digital transactions and can give real-time guidance on how to use gym equipment using the phone’s camera.
Honor’s latest models can help shoppers find discounts by comparing multiple coupon sites, book taxis faster by co-ordinating between different ride-hailing apps and create short videos.
“Apple is a truly great company, and it’s one our entire industry should learn from, benchmark against and even surpass,” Xiangdong Li, AI product director for Honor’s Android-based Magic operating system, told the Financial Times. “If Apple moves slowly, that presents a great opportunity for us, right?”
Honor, which was spun off from Huawei in 2020, recently updated its Device Clone app allowing users to migrate photos, messages and contacts from an Apple phone by scanning a QR code. Its Honor Connect app lets users exchange files with iOS devices similar to Apple’s AirDrop function.
Li said 37 per cent of online buyers of Honor’s latest flagship phone, the Magic V5, had switched from Apple devices using these tools. “We’ve been effective in attracting high-end Apple users,” he said.
Other Chinese groups are following suit. At a phone launch event in September, Xiaomi founder Lei Jun said the company welcomed Apple users as he touted new features such as file transfer, screen sharing and notification synchronisation with iPhones.
Oppo’s latest operating system, released in October, allows users to answer calls, reply to messages and view notifications from their Apple devices directly on their Oppo phones.
For its part, Apple has its own Move to iOS app targeting Android users. Sales in China fell 4 per cent year on year in the quarter to the end of September, but chief executive Tim Cook said during an earnings call in October that he expected Apple to “return to growth” in the current quarter.
Counterpoint estimated China sales rose 22 per cent year on year in the month after the iPhone 17 was released in mid-September, suggesting consumers were less concerned about its lack of AI features than Chinese competitors had expected.
Apple declined to comment.
Analysts said the new features had yet to make a significant dent on Apple’s hold over the premium segment outside China.
The best-selling Chinese brand in western Europe’s premium market during the second quarter of this year, Xiaomi, had a share of just 3 per cent, according to analytics provider IDC.
Nonetheless, the Chinese phonemakers’ efforts to convert users represented a legitimate concern for the Cupertino-based group, especially given slower, single-digit growth in annual smartphone sales globally in recent years, said Will Wong, an analyst at IDC.
“This kind of strategy is allowing the Android [phonemakers] to really break the barrier of Apple’s closed ecosystems,” he said.
