Bart Yee on Counterpoint: iPhone shipments in China grew 23% YOY in June quarter - 'For the China market: “The major foldables in China are dominated by domestic giants—Huawei, Honor, Vivo, Oppo, and Xiaomi—who consistently lead the global market in ultra-thin engineering, massive silicon-carbon battery capacities, and alternative form factors. Unlike the global market where Samsung dominates, China’s “OVMH” (Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi, Huawei, Honor) ecosystem prioritizes aggressive structural innovation, resulting in hardware that is vastly thinner and lighter than Western counterparts. 1. Huawei (The Market Dominator) Huawei commands the largest market share in China’s foldable sector. • Huawei Mate XT Ultimate: The world’s first commercial tri-fold smartphone. It folds into a standard phone size but expands twice into a massive 10.2-inch tablet. • Huawei Mate X7 / X6: Their premium dual-fold book-style flagship. It is renowned for its ultra-slim profile, satellite connectivity, and an advanced periscope camera array. • Huawei Pura X Max: A unique, wide-screen premium entry featuring industry-leading generative AI tools and highly advanced native camera sensors. 2. Vivo (The Camera & Battery Powerhouse) Vivo emphasizes massive hardware specs w/o sacrificing a thin profile. • Vivo X Fold 6 $1,749.99 These devices boast the largest battery capacities in the foldable industry (up to a massive 7,000mAh using next-gen silicon-carbon technology). They are widely considered by tech reviewers to have the most color-accurate cameras on any foldable, thanks to Zeiss optics and a 200MP main sensor. 3. Honor (The Thinnest Layouts) Honor focuses heavily on extreme pocketability and ergonomics. • Honor Magic V6 $1,997.00 One of the absolute thinnest book-style foldables ever made, measuring a staggering 4mm unfolded and just 8.75mm when closed. It handles its thermal load using the Snapdragon 8 Elite processor & features an aerospace-grade aluminum chassis. 4. Oppo (The Crease Innovator) Oppo focuses on screen perfection and ergonomic ratios. • Oppo Find N6 $1,595.99 Marketed as a pioneer in “zero-crease” technology, utilizing a state-of-the-art waterdrop hinge that leaves the internal display almost entirely flat to the touch, heavily outperforming Western alternatives in stress-test consistency. 5. Xiaomi (The Slim Photography Alternative) • Xiaomi Mix Fold 4 $1,699.99 Xiaomi’s ultra-slim contender relies on incredibly sleek hardware & a Leica-engineered camera system. While heavily praised for its performance, it remains largely exclusive to the mainland China market.“ “What were actual annual sales of Foldables in the China market by each vendor?” According to consolidated data from industry tracking firms like International Data Corporation (IDC), China’s total foldable market volume reached approximately 10.6 million units. Huawei alone was responsible for roughly 7.6 million of those shipments. The rest of the market was highly fragmented among rival Android vendors, who saw their positions shrink relative to Huawei’s massive expansion. 2025 Chinese Foldable Market Share & Estimated Units Because tracking firms traditionally report exact market share percentages rather than raw retail transaction numbers, the exact sales breakdown across the top five domestic vendors maps out as follows: Huawei 71.6%, ~7.60M Honor 10.9%, ~1.15M Vivo ~6.5%, ~0.69M Xiaomi ~5.0%, ~0.53M Oppo ~4.0%, ~0.42M Others (Samsung, etc.) ~2.0%, ~0.21M Key Market Takeaways From The Year The Huawei Monopoly: Huawei’s transition to in-house Kirin 5G chips and its new HarmonyOS Next ecosystem triggered an aggressive wave of premium domestic upgrades. Their 71.6% footprint effectively squeezed the growth of all other brands. Samsung’s Struggle in China: While Samsung remains a massive global giant in foldables overall, its market share inside mainland China hovered at near-negligible levels. Premium Chinese buyers overwhelmingly chose domestic alternatives over the Galaxy lineup. Flip vs. Book Volumes: Cheaper clamshell-style devices like the Huawei Nova Flip and Honor V Flip drove massive volume spikes in lower-tier Chinese cities, expanding the total size of the foldable market beyond high-end tech enthusiasts.” “Would you like to examine how Huawei’s global foldable numbers stack up against Samsung, or look into the projected changes for the market now that the 2026 models are out?”'
on Premarket: Apple is red - 'Darren: Good question. The AH spike in Intel’s share price was tempered by comments on the earnings conference call about an increase in the capex spend forecast. Intel may successfully make a market for itself with CPUs, now some GPUs as well as lower-margin chip demand in an environment of constrained production capacity. I’m not enamored with the company and see more productive areas for investment and total return in the AI era. I don’t think one needs to look far and wide to find them.'
on Premarket: Apple is red - 'Hi Robert. Yes all those chats we had about defence stocks 4 years ago turned out to be very educational for me. I have played the sector twice now. Each time buying after negative sentiment and temporary declines over quarterly results. Sure enough sentiment changes, wars start, earnings beat and the stocks rise again and I take a good profit. One thing I have noticed is the big pull backs only last for a day or a few and then recover. The recoveries are much stickier – so it pays to be ready. I never get the negativity about defence stocks that comes around every quarter or two. Huge moats. They have massive ever growing backlogs from increasing sales to other countries. Free cash flow machines. Often dividend kings. They might be overvalued from time to time but equally they don’t deserve to be punished every 12 months or so.'
on Premarket: Apple is red - 'A model railroad friend who worked for CSX at one time sold t-shirts (fundraiser for his dog’s medical expenses). It says “CSX – Tomorrow’s Freight Delivered Next Week” 🙂'
on Premarket: Apple is red - 'I’m thinking (hoping) today’s selloff is sympathetic to the selloff of others in the AI sector, who are expanding capex, with no further discussion on AI revenue generation. That AI revenue wall looms larger and larger, and it growth seems to correspond with discoveries about Apple’s on device hardware initiatives (aka rumors). Apple’s strategy is the right one. Even if on site AI servers aren’t ready for prime time (all indication Mac Minis are the preferred platform TODAY). In two years Apple is going to own this market. Of course, that means Apple is going to own the on device market, and that means Apps as well.'
on Counterpoint: iPhone shipments in China grew 23% YOY in June quarter - 'Hi, Daniel, That’s part of the reason for the drop, but there’s also the AI over-exuberance back flow.'
on Counterpoint: iPhone shipments in China grew 23% YOY in June quarter - 'Positive news being overshadowed by Iran conflict escalation. At least as far as Apple stock price movement today.'
on Premarket: Apple is red - 'It’s just getting started. The fine doesn’t even take into account the AI access the EU is demanding. Apple and Google can never do what the EU is mandating. https://daringfireball.net/2026/07/ec_google_guidance_android_ai_and_search_sharing'
on Premarket: Apple is red - 'Blood in the streets today. Tesla is down over 12%. Google Dow over 6%. Apple down nearly 2%. Brent crude over $100.'
on Premarket: Apple is red - 'If we can’t say the G-word…Eddie Munster is on today’s Odd Lots podcast.'
on Premarket: Apple is red - 'OT, but I just saw an article in the Guardian indicating Google was fined one billion by the EU. IIRC there was a recent article criticizing Apple for fighting the EU and not working with the EU like Google was. Riiight! Not that I’m terribly sympathetic to Google, but where does this crap end?'
