--- title: "Apple faces \"double headwinds\"! iPhone sales in China drop 19% in a single month, while a surge in storage prices forces Mac and iPad price increases" type: "News" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/290903933.md" description: "UBS's research report pointed out that Apple's iPhone sales in the Chinese market fell by 19% year-on-year in May, compounded by the price increase of storage chips leading to higher prices for Mac and iPad, creating a \"double headwind.\" Although the iPhone did not increase in price, supply chain pressures and weak demand have disappointed investors. UBS maintains a \"neutral\" rating on Apple, with a target price of $296, and expects limited upside potential in the short term for the Chinese market. As a result, Apple's stock price has significantly declined" datetime: "2026-06-26T02:37:02.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/290903933.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/290903933.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/290903933.md) --- # Apple faces "double headwinds"! iPhone sales in China drop 19% in a single month, while a surge in storage prices forces Mac and iPad price increases According to the latest research report from international banking giant UBS, citing statistics from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, Apple (AAPL.US) saw a significant year-on-year decline of 19% in sales of its iPhone series products in the Chinese market in May. This data adds to the challenges faced by Apple, which has recently been under pressure from skyrocketing prices and shortages of memory chips. On Thursday, Apple raised the prices of most of its consumer electronics (excluding the iPhone series), attributing these changes to unprecedented strong demand caused by large-scale purchases of memory, solid-state drives, and other storage chip components for artificial intelligence data centers. "Although shipping times may fluctuate significantly month by month, this data is slightly disappointing for investors given the previous selling momentum," stated the UBS analyst team led by David Vogt in an investor report. "Additionally, the significant year-on-year decline indicates that the headwinds in the iPhone supply chain may face incremental pressure, whereas we originally expected these pressures to have been largely resolved by the end of the quarter ending in March." UBS's forecast data suggests that in the first two months leading up to the June quarter, unit sales of the iPhone series in the Chinese market may have significantly declined by about 10%. "Given that the incremental sales in June are typically relatively small, and that sales data in the summer months often experiences seasonal declines, we believe the short-term upside potential for the iPhone in the Chinese market appears unlikely," analysts including Vogt added. UBS continues to give Apple a "neutral" rating with a target price of $296. After the company raised the starting prices of several Apple consumer electronics, including the MacBook Neo, due to an unprecedented shortage of memory and storage chips, Apple's stock price fell significantly by 6.12% to $275.15 as of Thursday. However, the iPhone was not included in the price increase. Apple is currently facing both headwinds in Chinese demand and pressure from rising storage chip prices, and these two pressure lines are amplifying each other. As UBS cited data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, the iPhone's "sell-in" (i.e., channel inventory) in China declined by 19% year-on-year in May, with a cumulative decline of about 10% in the first two months leading up to the June quarter; UBS also maintains a "neutral" rating on Apple with a target price of $296, believing that June is typically a summer off-season, reducing the likelihood of an upside surprise for the iPhone in China. More challenging is that Apple's cost side is also being squeezed by AI data centers. TrendForce previously estimated that traditional DRAM contract prices would rise by 58%–63% quarter-on-quarter in the second quarter of 2026, and NAND Flash contract prices would rise by 70%–75% quarter-on-quarter, clearly indicating that DRAM suppliers are continuously shifting capacity towards AI server cluster-related data center infrastructure applications, while NAND capacity is increasingly allocated to enterprise-grade SSDs, with consumer electronics applications being reduced due to cost pressures. In other words, AI cloud vendors are seizing storage capacity with higher prices, longer contracts, and stronger procurement certainty, forcing the bill of materials (BOM) costs for hardware such as Macs, iPads, gaming consoles, and PCs to rise The storage supercycle benefits upstream manufacturers like Micron, SK Hynix, and Samsung, while continuously pressuring the gross profit structure of downstream hardware platforms like Apple: If Apple fully passes the costs onto consumers, the Mac/iPad may experience the "demand friction" that Wall Street investment firm Evercore predicts; if not, the profit margins will be completely eroded by the rising prices of DRAM, NAND, and SSD. Micron's latest performance exceeded expectations and disclosed a $22 billion customer commitment, which precisely proves that storage manufacturers have gained unprecedented revenue visibility and bargaining power, while Apple must rebalance between weakening iPhone momentum in China, rising prices of non-iPhone hardware, and a significant increase in memory demand for future AI edge devices. The real breakthrough point for Apple lies in transforming "passive cost increases" into "active functional premiums" through AI Siri, hardware configuration upgrades brought by edge AI upgrades, service subscriptions, and much more expensive foldable iPhones and high-end product structure upgrades; otherwise, the surge in storage chip prices will continue to compress the valuation elasticity of its consumer electronics hardware. On the hardware side, the foldable iPhone may become Apple's long-awaited catalyst for "high-end new categories + ASP leap." Media reports indicate that Apple will prioritize launching the highest-end iPhone models in 2026, including the first foldable iPhone, and postpone the standard iPhone 18 to the first half of 2027 to optimize resources, reduce production risks for foldable devices, and maximize revenue and profits from high-end models against the backdrop of rising storage and material costs. Wall Street financial giant JP Morgan stated that any price increase for the iPhone may be lower than expected; however, the firm indicated that Apple might shift part of its pricing benchmarks to the much more expensive foldable iPhone, as consumers still have "limited understanding" of its pricing details; at the same time, Apple may also raise subscription prices related to its service business ### Related Stocks - [AAPL.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AAPL.US.md) - [AAPB.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AAPB.US.md) - [AAPX.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AAPX.US.md) - [AAPU.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AAPU.US.md) - [AAPD.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AAPD.US.md) - [AAPW.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AAPW.US.md) - [APLY.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/APLY.US.md) - [AAPY.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AAPY.US.md) - [MAGX.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/MAGX.US.md) - [UBS.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/UBS.US.md) - [EVR.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/EVR.US.md) - [MU.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/MU.US.md) - [SSNGY.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/SSNGY.US.md) - [JPM.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/JPM.US.md) - [SMSN.UK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/SMSN.UK.md) - [JPM-M.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/JPM-M.US.md) - [JPM-C.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/JPM-C.US.md) - [JPM-D.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/JPM-D.US.md) - [JPM-L.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/JPM-L.US.md) - [8634.JP](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/8634.JP.md) - [JPM-K.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/JPM-K.US.md) - [JPM-J.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/JPM-J.US.md) ## Related News & Research - [Apple increases prices for Macs and iPads, blaming a shortage of memory chips](https://longbridge.com/en/news/290869989.md) - [It's official: your Mac and iPad just got more expensive](https://longbridge.com/en/news/290839340.md) - [Apple Hikes M4 Pro Mac Mini Starting Price Amid Rising Memory Costs](https://longbridge.com/en/news/290838295.md) - [UK tribunal gives go ahead for $4 billion lawsuit against Apple over iCloud services](https://longbridge.com/en/news/290561864.md) - [DiPaolo Financial Group Inc. 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