Appleโs having a hard time in China this year. For the first time ever, it reported a decline in year-on-year revenue and lost the iPhone patent case. Beijing also imposed strict rules on online publishing and Appleโs online stores for iBooks and movies were closed in April.
China is the largest iPhone market in the world by the number of activated smartphones in China in 2015. This might change, however. Now Apple ranks fifth in China in smartphone market share, elbowed out by local vendors Huawei, OPPO, Vivo, and Xiaomi. According to Appleโs third quarter 2016 report, China ranks third in revenue, behind the Americas and Europe.
On Thursday, the iPhone 7 was released, but there was a less buzz among Chinese netizens compared to when the iPhone 6 launched. To find out the offline reaction of Chinese consumers, we hit Sandbox, a co-working space in Shanghai, and asked Chinese people (five male, five female interviewees) if they would consider buying a new iPhone 7.
Here are their answers. Only one person out of ten people considered buying the new iPhone 7.
Qing Liu (27) Sports socks brand entrepreneur
I donโt want to buy the iPhone 7. I have an iPhone 6 and Iโm happy with it. I currently have an iPhone 6 Plus and OPPO. The iPhone 6 Plus is for personal use and the OPPO phone is for work. Our company gave me the OPPO phone. The OPPO phone is slow to react when I swipe from one screen to another, but now the OPPO phone reacts smoothly as well. Before, when I clicked an app on my phone, I needed to wait five seconds to open it, but now it opens instantly.
The China market is now leaning towards domestic brands like Huawei. These days, Chinese entrepreneurs like Huawei phones more. Thereโs not a lot of differences between smartphone brands now. Itโs almost the same. Many people now think buying a โMade in Chinaโ phone is more economical.
Roy Lee (30) film website business development
I donโt want to buy an iPhone 7. I already have an iPhone 6S and I donโt want to buy the new one. I chose to buy an iPhone over a Chinese smartphone because of the iOS network โ itโs linked to my Apple devices. (He is using a MacBook Air).
Weiqi Qian (61) Seawater electricity generating company CEO
I donโt want to buy an iPhone 7. Huaweiโs phones are now better than [Appleโs]. Apple is now falling behind. We like Huawei. We love China-made products and Huawei is made in China.
Iโm using a Lenovo phone. The government gives out a 2,900 yuan ($434 USD) monthly pension for retired people like me and I couldnโt afford a Huawei phone. Thatโs why I bought a Lenovo phone with 500 yuan ($75 USD). [โฆ] I donโt have money and thatโs why I started a startup. I want to make my dream come true. Would you invest in my company?
Jiaojia Wei (24) App โWeChangeโ Product Manager
I watched the keynote of the iPhone 7 release. I saw the new iPhone 7 and it didnโt satisfy me. I use an iPhone 6. I donโt want to buy an iPhone 7. Apple dropped the headphone jack and instead added an adapter that will enable traditional headphone users to connect their existing headset to the new iPhone.
That means you can either plug in your headphone or charge your phone but you cannot do both. That means I cannot watch a movie while charging my phone. I watch movies using my phone, so it was an important part of my decision not to buy the iPhone 7. The waterproof feature is really useful though. Water can easily smear onto your phone so I think itโs a good feature.
Bowang Lee (19) University freshman, doing research
I donโt want to buy the iPhone 7. Iโm using the Huawei Honor. I bought it because itโs the product of my country and in some ways itโs better than the iPhone. Itโs true. The internal memory of the iPhone is only 1 GB, but Huaweiโs is 4 GB. If you have more memory you can run more apps at the same time and it works more smoothly. Iโd say Huaweiโs quality-to-price ratio is better than the iPhoneโs.
Mia Klum Liu (24) app UI designer
Iโm an app UI designer and the details of a phone really matter to me. I want to buy the iPhone 7. I want to experience what itโs like. I saw the pictures of the new iPhone this morning. It didnโt reach my [expectations] of an ideal phone. There werenโt many differences or changes made to it than previous ones. Now I think Android is better than iOS. Iโm okay with the iPhone [hardware] itself, but I feel like Android has gone through more improvements, and I think there was not much improvement made to iOS.
I mentioned the weak points of the iPhone, and yes, thereโs a gap between the iPhone 7 and my ideal phone, but still I want to experience the new iPhone and I still like the iPhone. I have an iPhone 5. I bought it with the money I saved from when I was working at the university helping other students. So if I have a chance later, I will consider buying the iPhone 7.
Nuria Ni (26) Business group Project manager
This morning I read about iPhone 7โs release on Weibo, but I donโt want to buy the iPhone 7. I already have an iPhone 6S Plus. Chinese phones are also good, like Huawei is really good. But Iโm now used to Appleโs iOS, so I wonโt consider buying a Chinese phone. Appleโs system is much more convenient. I also bought a MacBook and itโs really convenient to link the two devices.
Vera Yang (22) New media operation
I donโt want to buy the iPhone 7. Iโm using an iPhone 6 and I can still use it and Iโm satisfied with the features. I have another phone, a Meitu phone made by Meizu. Meitu is for work and I bought it myself. When I take a selfie, I look more beautiful on pictures taken with my Meitu phone. I bought two phones because I donโt want to see my personal phone when Iโ m working. The features I use in both phones are the same โ WeChat, QQ โ I have them all on both phones. Itโs just the contact lists that are different on two phones. If my iPhone 6 is out of order, then I might consider buying a new iPhone.
Apple Lee (35, female) HR in a startup
I donโt want to buy the iPhone 7. I have never used an Apple product in my life. Iโm using Xiaomi 4C, which came out last year. I would rather buy Huawei or Xiaomi than the iPhone, because if I buy an Apple product and leave it on my seat for awhile, another person will steal it.
At first, I used a Nokia phone, but it was not a smartphone. Then my friend sent me a Samsung smartphone, but the screen broke when I dropped it. Then I started to only buy Xiaomi phones. I previously used a Xiaomi 4.
Sherry Shen (23, female) Event planning
I donโt want to buy the iPhone 7. Iโm using a Huawei MateS and I bought it this year in March. Huawei has a better reputation among my friends and the iPhone is too expensive. Huawei has a better quality-to-price ratio. When I used the iPhone 5, I thought it was very smooth and had many apps. Using Wi-Fi on an iPhone is not so convenient.
Image Credit: TechNode
