Ming-Chi Kuo: iPhone 17’s strong sales hit Xiaomi and Huawei hard
Apple has launched one of its most successful lineups yet.
The base iPhone 17 has turned out to be a strong success – drawing significant attention from Chinese consumers – and prompting many potential buyers to shift away from local brands. Xiaomi appears to be taking the biggest hit with its newly launched lineup – the Xiaomi 17, 17 Pro, and 17 Pro Max – according to respected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
Kuo reports that Xiaomi is already scaling back production orders for these models. The company initially planned to produce around 10 million units, but current forecasts have dropped below the levels reached by the Xiaomi 15 – the previous generation (the 16th series was skipped) – which saw around 8 million units manufactured across all versions.
The main issue lies with the base Xiaomi 17 – it was expected to account for 50–55% of total sales, but has only managed 15–20% in reality. While the 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max performed slightly better than expected, their growth wasn’t enough to compensate for the weaker demand for the standard model. As a result, the overall gap between forecasted and actual sales stands at roughly 20% – meaning the Pro models’ gains didn’t offset the decline.
Huawei is also facing challenges – though for different reasons. After an initial wave of patriotic enthusiasm drove strong HarmonyOS sales, the company’s premium models are now struggling. The main obstacle is HarmonyOS’s limited compatibility with Android apps. According to Kuo, Huawei is even considering releasing a version of HarmonyOS that supports Android applications. In the meantime, many Chinese consumers are choosing iPhones over Huawei’s high-end devices.