Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) saw its stock decline 0.5% in premarket trading on Wednesday after data indicated a significant drop in foreign-branded phone sales in China, one of the company’s key markets.
New figures released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), a government-affiliated research body, show that shipments of foreign-branded smartphones in China fell 31.3% year-over-year in June.
Reuters’ analysis of the CAICT data found that foreign-branded phone shipments, including Apple’s iPhone, dropped to 1.971 million units in June from 2.869 million units in the same month last year.
The decline reflects a broader slowdown in China’s overall smartphone market, where total phone sales fell 9.3% to 22.598 million units in June, according to the CAICT data.
China has long been a critical market for Apple, historically contributing a large portion of the company’s revenue. The sharp decrease in foreign-brand shipments underscores the growing competitive pressures Apple faces in the world’s largest smartphone market.
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