This comes as the US tech giant faces stiff competition in the country from local rivals.
During the same period, China’s Huawei saw its sales increase by 64% in its local market, according to the report.
Apple and Huawei did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the BBC.
In addition to a resurgence in Huawei’s sales in the higher-end segment of the Chinese smartphone market, Apple was also “squeezed in the middle due to aggressive pricing by brands like Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi,” wrote Mengmeng Zhang of Counterpoint Research.
China, which is one of Apple’s largest markets, also saw overall smartphone sales decline by 7% in the same period, according to the report.
Huawei struggled for years due to US sanctions, but its sales increased after launching its Mate 60 series of 5G smartphones in August.
It was a major surprise as the Chinese company was cut off from key chips and technology required for 5G mobile internet.
Honor, which is the smartphone brand spun off from Huawei in 2020, was the only other top-five brand to see its sales increase in China during the period, according to the report.
Sales of Vivo, Xiaomi, and Oppo also fell in the first six weeks of the year, Counterpoint said.
Its report also said that Apple’s market share in the Chinese smartphone market fell to 15.7% from last year’s 19%, putting it in fourth place, down from second.
Meanwhile, Huawei rose to second place as its market share grew to 16.5% from last year’s 9.4%.
Despite its sales falling by 15% over the past year, Vivo remained the best-selling smartphone manufacturer in China, Counterpoint said.
Apple began offering discounts on its official websites in China last month before subsidizing certain iPhone models through its flagship stores on Alibaba’s Tmall platform last week.
A slowdown in demand in China could affect Apple’s revenues, which already disappointed investors when the company reported its earnings last month.X.X.X;X.X
The firm said that sales in China were $20.82 billion (£16.4 billion) in the last three months of 2023, down from $23.9 billion the previous year.
Apple’s shares fell 2.8% in New York trading on Tuesday.
