Apple posted a 23% surge in China smartphone sales in the first nine weeks of 2026, bucking a broader market decline as some Android phone makers raised prices in response to higher costs for memory chips. China's overall smartphone market fell 4% year-on-year in the January-to-early-March period, with government subsidies introduced at the start of the year doing little to revive sluggish consumer demand, data on Thursday from research firm Counterpoint showed.