Apple’s China iPhone Shipments Soar 12% in March After Discounts

Chinese iPhone shipments jumped about 12% in March after Apple Inc. and its retailers slashed prices, official data showed, suggesting efforts to arrest an accelerating decline in sales are yielding early results.

Government data showed shipments of foreign-branded smartphones — the vast majority of which would have been Apple’s marquee device — grew to 3.75 million units in March from a year earlier. That’s an about-face from a 37% slump in the first two months of 2024, according to Bloomberg’s calculations off a monthly report by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology. The official readout emerged after Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook, addressing an analyst’s question last week about the March quarter, said the iPhone business in mainland China grew without offering more details.