Huawei’s trifold proving popular among Apple iPhone fans in Beijing

BEIJING — Many of Apple‘s affluent iPhone users in China are just as interested in Huawei’s pricier trifold phone, CNBC found during spot checks at stores Friday, the day the iPhone 16 and Mate XT launched in the country.

Out of 10 people CNBC talked to on Friday, eight said they are interested in both the new Huawei and Apple phones. CNBC talked to five individuals at each company’s store during a workday morning.

Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei has sought to rebuild its smartphone business after U.S. sanctions in 2019. Huawei ranked fourth by China smartphone market share in the second quarter, according to Canalys.

U.S.-based Apple dropped out of the top five, giving domestic players the top five spots for the first time, the data showed.

The iPhone 16 Pro Max starts at $1,199, and the iPhone 16 at $799. Huawei’s trifold Mate XT starts at the equivalent of more than $2,800.

The price gap was even more apparent on online platforms selling secondhand goods.

The Huawei Mate XT was selling for 50,000 yuan to 60,000 yuan ($7,100 to $8,520) on second-hand shopping platform Xianyu as of 1 p.m. Friday afternoon. The Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max was selling for 10,500 yuan to 16,300 yuan, the site showed.

Earlier in the day, the listed resale Mate XT price was 19,000 yuan, while the Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max was selling for 9,999 yuan, the site showed.

People in Beijing lined up as early as 5:30 a.m. to get the new iPhone when doors opened at 8 a.m.

But there were no lines outside Huawei stores in Beijing and Hefei, a smaller city west of Shanghai. The Chinese company started delivering the new phones at 10:08 a.m. to people who had reserved the trifold device.

During the 1 hour and 20 minutes that CNBC was at the Huawei store, a couple dozen people went to the second floor to an area reserved for Mate XT buyers.

It was not clear if all of them purchased the device. Many were people buying for resale purposes.

Huawei’s website on Friday showed it had halted sales, and planned to resume them at 10:08 a.m. on Saturday. The page said the company planned to complete deliveries by Sept. 30.

The first person CNBC talked to at the Huawei store arrived at 10 a.m. just to try out the trifold phone. The individual, surnamed Yang, declined to share his first name due to concerns about speaking with foreign media.

He said if he buys the trifold Mate XT, he plans to try it out for a few days before deciding whether to keep it, give it to a friend, or sell it. Yang expected the device could sell for 2,000 yuan more than the list price.

Yang also said he uses an iPhone, and was interested in trying Huawei’s new trifold features because Apple wasn’t offering much that he felt was new.

Even the first person in line at the Apple store, Wang, said he also wanted to get the Huawei trifold phone, but hadn’t gotten a text message yet saying his device was ready to pick up.

He said he bought the iPhone 16 because he heard its battery lasted longer, but was willing to wait for the iPhone 17 for any artificial intelligence features.

— CNBC’s Sonia Heng contributed to this report.