Apple Inc. (AAPL) regained the top spot in the Chinese market, Bloomberg reports, after iPhone shipments increased by 28% during the holiday quarter.
Devices of the iPhone 17 generation accounted for one in every five shipments in December. Apple’s growth came at the expense of Huawei Technologies Co. and Xiaomi, both of which saw double-digit declines. Overall, smartphone shipments in China fell by 1.6%.
Additionally, manufacturers including Micron Technology Inc. (MU) and Xiaomi noted rising prices for memory chips used for data storage, as much of the capacity has been redirected to producing memory for Nvidia (NVDA) AI chips, Bloomberg reports.
Memory prices are expected to rise 40–50% in the first quarter of 2026 and another 20% in the second quarter. According to Bloomberg, smartphone manufacturers will optimize their product portfolios and reduce the production of budget models to maintain profitability.