BEIJING (Reuters) – Apple’s smartphone shipments in China were 52% higher in April than a year ago, extending a rebound seen in the previous month, according to data from a research firm affiliated the Chinese government.

Shipments of foreign-branded phones in China increased by 52% in April to 3.495 million units from 2.301 million a year earlier, data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) showed on Tuesday.

Although the data did not explicitly mention Apple, the company is the dominant foreign phone maker in China’s smartphone-dominated market. This suggests that the increase in foreign-branded shipments can be attributed to Apple’s performance.

The big increase follows a weak performance earlier this year in the world’s biggest smartphone market, as the U.S. tech giant faces intensifying competition in the high-end market from local rivals such as Huawei.

Apple’s shipments in China increased by 12% in March, marking a significant improvement from the first two months of 2024, when the company experienced a 37% slump in sales.

Sales may see a further boost in May, as Apple launched an aggressive discounting campaign this month on its official Tmall site in China, offering discounts of up to 2,300 yuan ($318) on select iPhone models.

The price reduction, double the size of a discount it offered in February, comes after Huawei introduced last month its new series of high-end smartphones, the Pura 70, following the launch of the Mate 60 last August.

Huawei overtook Apple in the first quarter as the No.2 smartphone vendor in China and is ramping up its marketing campaign by opening more flagship stores and adding more retail distributors. Huawei spinoff Honor holds the top spot.

Overall smartphone sales in China increased by 25.5% to 22.7 million units in April, data from the CAICT showed.

(Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Writing by Miyoung Kim; editing by Jason Neely and Philippa Fletcher)