iPhone 18 Pro Tops China Sales After Just Three Days

Counterpoint Research reports Apple captured 33% of China's weekly smartphone sales with the iPhone 18 Pro on sale for only three days.

Apple captured 33% of China's weekly smartphone unit sales during the week of September 14–20, 2026, topping Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo, according to Counterpoint Research. The striking detail is timing: the iPhone 18 Pro series only went on sale on September 18, so it was available for just the final three days of the seven-day measurement window. Counterpoint reports that sales during those three days were 12% higher than the iPhone 17 Pro series managed during its entire first week on the market a year earlier. The result came even as total Chinese smartphone sales fell 17% below the same week in 2025, making Apple's gain a share shift against a contracting market rather than simple growth.

The surprise is not the launch-week spike itself but the contrast around it. Weekly sales in China have been declining by double digits year-on-year since July, according to Counterpoint, under pressure from weak consumer demand and rising component costs. VnExpress also notes Apple had already been building momentum: its iPhone sales in China rose 23% year-on-year during the first nine weeks of 2026 while the overall market contracted 4%.

The headline number needs careful reading. According to Gadget Review, the 33% figure reflects weekly unit sales for a single seven-day period, not a quarterly trend or revenue share, and Counterpoint reported it as a snapshot tied directly to the iPhone 18 Pro launch. Gadget Review also cautions that the 12% improvement over the iPhone 17 Pro's first week may be inflated, because the 18 Pro was available only three days while the prior-year comparison covered a full seven days. Those caveats do not erase the result — they sharpen it, since Apple topped the market with even less time on shelves than the raw comparison suggests.

Counterpoint senior analyst Ivan Lam attributed the result to two converging forces. First, price hikes of more than $200 on many Chinese flagship models raised the price anchor, strengthening the iPhone's relative value proposition for buyers weighing their options. Second, the delayed launch of the base iPhone 18 — a timing detail attributed to supplier Pegatron, though Gadget Review notes no primary confirmation from Apple or Pegatron was available — may have steered consumers seeking the latest generation toward the more expensive Pro models. With no lower-priced option in the lineup, some demand concentrated in the Pro tier, amplifying the launch-week share figure.

The backdrop is an industry-wide cost squeeze. According to VnExpress, contract prices for standard memory chips were expected to rise 13–18% in the third quarter after surging about 60% in the previous quarter, citing TrendForce data via Forbes — Gadget Review likewise reports TrendForce forecasting conventional DRAM contract prices up 13% to 18% quarter over quarter, driven by AI server demand. Counterpoint attributed part of Apple's resilience to longer-term supplier agreements that may have reduced its exposure to component-cost increases, though that characterization is a research attribution rather than independently verified fact. The next test is the iPhone Duo, Apple's first foldable, which goes on sale October 23, and UBS, cited by the South China Morning Post in VnExpress's report, notes Chinese consumers show outsized interest in foldables.

Whether Apple can hold momentum after the Pro launch spike matters more than one strong week, as Gadget Review puts it: a single launch window is a data point, and a trend takes longer to establish. The near-term markers are clear. The iPhone Duo's October 16 pre-orders and October 23 retail rollout across more than 70 countries will test whether the foldable segment, projected by IDC to reach 22.9 million units in 2026 with 12.6% year-over-year growth, can accelerate Apple's position further. Counterpoint estimates roughly 6 million iPhone Duo units in 2026, contingent on production ramp-up, and UBS maintained its forecast for Apple to ship 261 million iPhones this financial year, up 15.4% year-on-year.