If Apple loses against China so will the West

It has been a long time since the West dominated shipbuilding, or steel making. We are already aware that we are losing ground in consumer goods, as well as in finance and transport. Add it all up, and we no longer expect the US, Europe or its allies to control the global market in most major industries. Still, even as other industries lost ground there was one thing most economists and industrial experts would have felt sure we could rely on: Apple. Whatever else happened, nothing would knock its world-beating iPhone – without question the world’s most profitable product – off its well-secured perch. But hold on. Apple’s market share is now falling at an accelerating pace, and its Chinese rivals are rising fast.

According to figures out on Monday, Apple is no longer the world’s biggest manufacturer of smartphones, after a steep fall in sales in the first quarter of the year.