Apple no longer has the best-selling phone in China for the first time in five years, after it was toppled by Oppa Electronics.

The Oppa R9 managed to achieve four per cent market share in 2016, denying the US tech giant’s iPhone 6S top spot with its two per cent market share, according to Counterpoint Research.

“Apple with slowing traction for its flagship iPhone 6S during the year saw its double digit negative growth being somewhat offset by relatively healthy demand for the newer flagship iPhone 7 series in Q4 2016,” said MengMeng Zhang, research analyst at Counterpoint. “However, Apple still remains in a vulnerable position and there is higher expectation already with the next year flagship which is rumoured to be substantial upgrade from both design and components perspective.”

This is not the first example of Apple’s struggles in China. In July 2016, the iPhone maker reported a drop of 33 per cent drop in Q3 revenues, for the three months ended 25 June, year-on-year (YoY) in the East Asian country. Its misery was further compounded in October when it reported a drop of 30 per cent in Q4 revenues. Apple saw a drop from $12.5bn to $8.8bn for this period YoY.

Despite Apple’s evident struggles in the world’s second largest economy, its shipments grew six per cent YoY to 465m units for the whole of 2016 in China.