How do you like them 苹果?
Apple is now the biggest smartphone provider in China, according to research firm IDC.
To get to the top, Apple overtook Xiaomi, a Chinese-native smartphone company, with the companies respectively controlling 15% and 14% of what has become the world's most lucrative market.
[seealso slug=http://sale-online.click/2015/01/18/what-is-xiaomi/%5D%3C/p%3E%3Cp%3EThe change in rankings comes after Apple reported impressive growth in China, logging a 72% increase in the number of smartphones sold in the first quarter of 2015 compared to the same period last year.
Analysts have attributed Apple's recent overseas success with the iPhone 6 and 6+ products to the larger screens, which are generally more popular in emerging markets.
Many analysts had expected that China had become Apple's largest market, although the company's CFO denied that assertion in an interview with Reuters. Still, China is an integral part to Apple's continued record-setting profits. The company is planning to increase its number of retail locations in the country from 15 to 40 over the next two years.
Apple, Xiaomi and Huawei all increased market share, according to the report, with Samsung the big loser. It dropped from 19.9% to 9.7% over the year.
Apple's momentum is putting pressure on China's native smartphone makers -- particularly as Chinese consumers appear to be buying fewer smartphones.
China's massive market for smartphones has long been seen as the vast, untapped opportunity for companies thanks to its massive amount of people moving into the middle class. Not so much any more.
China's smartphone market contracted by 4% in the first quarter of 2015 compared to the same period a year ago, IDC reported. The country still received shipments of 98.8 million smartphones, meaning China retains the title of the world's largest smartphone market.
But the days of there being enough growth for everyone are over.
Xiaomi and Huawei became major players in the global smartphone industry thanks to the meteoric rise of the Chinese market. Now, with Apple making inroads, China's homegrown smartphone companies are branching out, confronting Apple on its own turf.