(Bloomberg) — Sales of Apple Inc. (AAPL) iPhones dived 18.2% in China during the December quarter, according to independent research, a major setback for the company in its biggest market after the US.

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The company’s flagship handsets, China’s top sellers a year earlier, relinquished the top spot to Huawei Technologies Co., Counterpoint Research found. Apple slipped to third in the world’s largest smartphone arena over the three months, commanding about a sixth of the market. The drop in China drove a global slump of 5% in iPhone sales during the key shopping period.

The decline underscores an uneven debut for the latest generation of iPhones, which started off strong in China before losing momentum. The new devices distinguish themselves with the addition of artificial intelligence upgrades — but in China, most of those new features are still not accessible as Apple seeks out a local partner to provide on-device and cloud AI infrastructure. The company’s in talks with everyone from Baidu Inc. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. to startups like Zhipu AI, but no deal has yet been concluded.

“This is the first time since the US ban that Huawei regained the leading position,” Counterpoint analyst Mengmeng Zhang said. “Huawei’s sales increased 15.5% YoY driven by the launch of the mid-end Nova 13 series and high-end Mate 70 series.”

The Mate 70 handsets released during the period are the first to give users the option to use software completely free of US technology, via Huawei’s HarmonyOS Next operating system. Powered by made-in-China chips and following up on the breakthrough Mate 60 of the prior year, the Mate 70 is helping Huawei’s push to reclaim share of the premium segment in China.

The country’s broader smartphone market saw its first decline in sales in the final quarter of 2024, after returning to growth for most of the year.

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