Huawei has reportedly dethroned the Apple iPhone in China

Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) is in focus this morning following a report that Huawei has started to outsell its iPhone in China.

Apple’s iPhone 15 is not doing all that well in China

Edison Lee – a Jefferies analyst said in a report this morning that overall sales of smartphones in the largest Asian economy has been in an uptrend.

But the iPhone, he added, wasn’t getting the same love. The sales momentum was in fact driven by the likes of Huawei and Xiaomi.

Apple’s flagship smartphone is down double-digits – and volume growth since the launch of the iPhone 15 has actually been negative on a year-over-year basis, as per the Jefferies analyst.

Huawei now leads the market in China with a 23.22% share versus Apple Inc at the second spot with 22.21%. Apple shares are currently down close to 10% versus their year-to-date high.

My big play today is to wait for as possible #FADE on $AAPL, I do not trust the #chinese economy and this name gets hit because of it.

Apple $AAPL faces challenges in China as iPhone 15 sales decline 4.5% compared to the iPhone 14. Factors include economic struggles, Huawei's… pic.twitter.com/S8VddFn4oh

— tradertvshawn (@tradertvshawn) October 16, 2023

Morgan Stanley also lowered its iPhone expectations today

Edison Lee expects Apple Inc to come in short of expectations in terms of global shipments in 2023 now that Huawei has dethroned it in China despite the recent launch of iPhone 15.

More importantly, he’s convinced that volume growth in Android is not particularly related to discounts as the average markdown on those smartphones “is not high”.

On Monday, experts at Morgan Stanley also trimmed their quarterly expectations for the iPhone by 8.0%. They also trimmed their price objective on Apple shares to $210 today.

Apple is scheduled to report its Q4 results on November 2^nd. Consensus is for it to earn $1.39 a share this quarter versus $1.29 per share a year ago.