The photo taken on September 18, 2022 shows customers at an Apple store in Yichang, Hubei Province. Photo: VCG

China surpassed the US as the largest single market for iPhones with the most shipments in the second quarter of 2023, according to market analysis site TechInsights.

Apple's iPhone shipments to the global market hit 43.1 million units in the second quarter of 2023, down by 9.3 percent year-on-year, accounting for 16 percent of global market share. This is the largest second quarter decline since 2016, said TechInsights.

Apple's performance in the Indian market, its fifth-largest market, saw strong growth with a 50 percent year-on-year increase in shipments during the period.

However, the Financial Times reported on Monday that India's import restrictions on China-produced smartphone parts and its lack of infrastructure has made observers and executives at Foxconn, the largest manufacturer of iPhones, skeptical that India could match China's role as a global technology manufacturing hub.

Young Liu, chairman and CEO of Foxconn, told the Global Times on the sidelines of the 14th Annual Meeting of the New Champions, also known as the Summer Davos Forum, that Apple has no plans to transfer its supply chain out of the Chinese mainland.

Global Times