Supply-chain report says Xiaomi, Huawei & other Chinese brands being hit hard by iPhone SE on home turf

While Xiaomi and Huawei may be battling it out for the top spot in China, both brands are reportedly being hit hard by Apple’s cheapest-ever iPhone, the iPhone SE.

It was previously reported that third-party retailers in the country received 3.4M preorders before the iPhone SE went on sale, and now a supply-chain report says that Apple is taking market share from local brands.

The launch of relatively low-priced iPhone SE in China has squeezed market share from local brands, including Huawei, Xiaomi Technology, Vivo and Oppo, affecting the earning performance of these brands, said the sources.

The source is Digitimes, so caution is advised, but makers of camera modules for local brands are reportedly seeing only 70-80% of predicted orders.

Kantar recently reported that Apple had experienced its first fall in market share in China in the twelve months ending in February, but did note then that the iPhone SE had the potential to reverse the drop.

Local brands will, of course, be working hard to compete, Xiaomi launching its extremely impressive Mi 5 back in February, while Huawei has the hardware but has work to do on the software side.

Photo: Steve Kovach/Business Insider