Apple Topples Competition To Become The Largest Smartphone Vendor In China

Research firm IDC recently released a report on Chinese smartphone shipment, according to which Apple Inc. AAPL toppled all other major smartphone makers in the first-quarter of 2015 to become the largest smartphone vendor (by shipment) with a market share of 14.7 percent.

CNBC's Jon Fortt, investor Kevin O'Leary and Jon Steinberg, The Daily Mail North America CEO, were recently seen discussing this report.

Disastrous For Xiaomi

“If you are Xiaomi, you don’t want to see this happen,” Fortt said. “If your whole idea is we are selling an Apple quality handsets at practically zero margin to pickup business on the backend through services and software, Apple should never be outselling you.”

China: An Upgrade Market?

On China having reached saturation point in terms of smartphone sales and now being an upgrade market, Steinberg said, “A lot of these markets are upgrade markets. Look at Tim Cook on the earnings call saying it’s 20 percent of the installed base of the iPhones have now upgraded to an iPhone 6 or an iPhone 6 Plus.”

“So, you have to get there in China. Obviously the fact that the market is now saturated is a negative sign. But all of these markets basically have to earn it now.”

Apple: Not A Consumer Electronics Company

O'Leary was asked for his view on Apple currently. He replied, “I am no longer looking at Apple as a hardware company. I am a long Apple guy, I have got a 5 percent [weight in] this name and I have come to the conclusion that the iPhone 6…is actually an input device to a platform.”

“That’s the way I look at it and I say,’ what the heck?’ I got to believe that otherwise if I thought of it as a consumer electronics company. I should have sold the stock a long time ago,” O'Leary concluded.