China's phone market had a rough quarter. Apple did not get the memo.
Total phone sales in the country slipped 4%. Apple's jumped 20%. That is the widest gap between Apple and the rest of the China market in years.
New research out this week shows Apple grew faster than any other major brand in China last quarter. Huawei was the only other big name in the green - and just barely, up 2%.
Most rivals went the other way. Supply hiccups and a jump in memory chip prices - the chips that store your photos and apps - squeezed the budget phones that make up most of the Chinese market.
Huawei still led with 20% market share, its best showing since late 2020. Apple came in right behind at 19%.
One reason keeps showing up: the phone lasts. Chinese buyers see iPhones as holding up for three-plus years before they need a new one.
With cheap Androids getting more expensive thanks to memory chip costs, paying up for a phone that lasts starts to look less like a splurge and more like math.
Think of it like buying one good pair of boots versus two cheap pairs a year. The sticker price is higher. The cost per wear is not.
Apple's China story has been written off more times than anyone can count. Tariffs, nationalism, Huawei's comeback - plenty of reasons to stay away.
Q1 says the high end of China's phone market is still Apple's to lose. And while rivals hike cheap phone prices to cover chip costs, Apple's fat margins on the high end are holding up.
For a stock that trades on every headline about China, a 20% jump in its most-watched foreign market is a number worth sitting with.
