Apple is set to announce its earnings for the fiscal first quarter of 2015 (Q4 2014 calendar) on Tuesday, and Financial Times reports that the company may just report that for the first time ever, it sold more iPhones in China than in the United States.
According to analysts from financial firm UBS, China accounted for 36 percent of iPhone shipments in the most recent quarter, compared to 24 percent for the U.S. The analysts also compared the numbers to 2013, noting that a year before China accounted for only 22 percent of shipments with the U.S. at 29 percent.
Analyst Ben Bajarin of Creative Strategies agrees with the report, saying he expects that around two million more iPhones were sold in China than in the U.S. during the quarter. He expects the trend to continue.
“It’s already been a good year, building up to the climax of this quarter,” said Bajarin, referring to Apple’s momentum in the world’s largest smartphone market. “It leads to a lot more optimism for China . . . Their potential headroom in China is higher than it is here [in the US].
They will likely do more in China than US from here on out,” he said. “It certainly shows how important the China market is to Apple’s upside.”
The Chinese market has long been an important one for Apple, and recent moves by the company such as partnering with popular Chinese mobile payments firm Alipay, and planning the opening of multiple retail stores in China indicate the country will continue to be of utmost importance to the Cupertino firm.
Apple struck up a partnership with China’s number one wireless carrier China Mobile in 2014, allowing the iPhone to be sold in more than 3,000 more cities where Apple previously had little to no presence.
Apple will announce their earnings for the first fiscal quarter of 2015 (4th quarter of 2014) on Tuesday, January 27.
The quarterly earnings statement will be likely be released around 1:30PM Pacific/4:30PM Eastern time. A conference call to discuss the report will be held at 2:00PM Pacific/5:00PM Eastern time.
The earnings release and call will include the sales of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus during their first quarter of availability, as well as the initial sales of the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3, both of which debuted in October.
As usual, MacTrast will be providing coverage of both the earnings release and conference call, so be here then.
