Source: 21st Century Business Herald, China News Service, Public Information
The new iPhone marks the beginning of an exciting new era! "Said Apple CEO Tim Cook. At 1am Beijing time on September 10th, the 2024 Apple Autumn New Product Launch Event was officially held, during which the iPhone 16, as well as new AirPods and Apple Watch products were released.
On the same day, netizens searched the Apple official website and found that only the 15 and 15 Plus models of the iPhone 15 were available for sale, and the official website of the iPhone 15 Pro series had been taken down.
Screenshot of Apple's official website
Is the newly purchased iPhone 15 Pro out of stock? Apple customer service response
According to a report by China News Service, Apple's official customer service responded that because they had just launched the 16 Pro series, the official website had taken down the 15 Pro series. If customers need it, they can go to their offline stores to see if there is stock available.
Regarding whether the 15Pro series will be re launched on the official website in the later stage, customer service stated that there is currently no clear message. It is uncertain whether offline stores will replenish their inventory after it is sold out, and the information from offline stores should prevail.
At present, in terms of pricing, the Apple iPhone 16 and Pro series have the same storage versions as the previous generation iPhone 15 and Pro series, and will be available for pre order at 8pm on September 13th and released on September 20th.
This action has sparked a heated discussion among netizens, with some saying, "I just bought the 15Pro during this year's 618 shopping festival. Is this an out of print version?" "Is it because I know that the 16 has no good value for money and I'm afraid everyone will buy the 15Pro, so I took it down
In addition, the five colors of the newly released iPhone 16 were roast by netizens about being like autumn pants and garbage bags, and topics such as # Apple's ugly color matching # # Apple's autumn pants color matching # once hit the hot search. Some netizens teased "good cheap color" and "15's color matching is better", and some netizens said that "it doesn't matter whether it's ugly or not. Anyway, you need a phone shell".
Some netizens thought of their own iPhone 12. At that time, the brand new blue color scheme of the actual product did not match the rendering, and was called "slipper blue" by many people. However, when they arrived at the scene, they were still amazed by the actual product.
iPhone 16 goes on sale, multiple e-commerce platforms have promotional activities
With the release of new products, Apple sales on e-commerce platforms are also heating up. At the beginning of the campaign, various e-commerce platforms have "scaled up their tactics" and launched discount strategies that were originally only available at major promotion nodes. At the same time, instant retail is also regarded as one of the most powerful weapons in this battle.
The release of new products by Apple has always been a hot topic, and it is normal for e-commerce platforms to compete for the first release. This year is no exception, "said Zhuang Shuai, a special researcher at the E-commerce Research Center of NetEase and founder of Bailian Consulting.
At present, the official flagship store of Tmall Apple Store has launched an iPhone new product reservation channel; JD's self operated flagship store has also opened a reservation channel for the iPhone 16 series; Suning.com offers a maximum subsidy of 1000 yuan for the new iPhone product through trade in, and stores and apps have fully started pre ordering.
Choosing high brand products on e-commerce platforms is of great significance for enhancing or consolidating the platform's position. At the same time, Apple also cleverly uses the power of the platform to accurately place advertisements, which greatly benefits the sales of new products, "said Liu Junbin, a special researcher at the E-commerce Research Center of NetEase.
Cao Lei, director of the E-commerce Research Center of NetEase, pointed out that cooperating with internationally renowned brands such as Apple is a way to enhance brand value for e-commerce platforms. Through the launch event, "giants" can showcase their strength, service level, and market influence, thereby attracting more high-end users and brand merchants' favor, which is also a way to attract traffic.
He pointed out that although Pinduoduo did not announce its new iPhone release policy this time, based on its past sales, selling such hard currency through billions of subsidies has provided great help in boosting GMV and revenue, and has also increased users' trust in the platform.
Cao Lei gave an example that in 2022, Apple's sales in China were approximately 54 million units, with approximately 6.67 million units sold on Pinduoduo, accounting for about 12%. That is to say, for every 10 iPhones sold, at least one comes from Pinduoduo.
Unlike in the past, this year, multiple e-commerce platforms launched promotional activities that may only be available during major sales events such as Singles' Day when the Apple 16 went on sale.
For example, the official flagship store of Tmall Apple Store supports interest free installment payments for the entire iPhone 16 series for the first time during the new product launch period. JD.com has also launched a series of activities for Apple's new products. Customers who purchase designated A+member versions of iPhone 16 and Apple Watch S10 on JD.com will receive a price guarantee until Double Eleven. For designated models, an additional 49 yuan will be added to receive a one-year AppleCare+and up to 1500 yuan in trade in coupons.
Mo Daiqing, director of the online retail department and senior analyst of the online economic and social e-commerce research center, said that in order to attract consumers, JD, Tmall, Kwai and other major e-commerce platforms may conduct price competition through price cuts, coupons and other ways. However, relying solely on price wars is not enough. E-commerce giants need to provide differentiated services, such as faster delivery speeds, better after-sales service, etc., to enhance consumer experience.
In addition, after the release of the new iPhone 16 series, the second-hand market also responded to the news. According to data from Zhuanzhuan, the volume of inquiries for iPhone recycling has increased by 96% month on month, and the search volume has increased by 101% month on month.
Not only on comprehensive e-commerce platforms, but also on 3C second-hand e-commerce platforms such as Xianyu, Zhuanzhuan, and Zhaoliangji, Aihuiquan, Paijitang, etc., the iPhone has great popularity and can be said to be an important category that leverages its GMV Cao Lei stated.
Can iPhone 16 start a replacement cycle?
After Apple launched the AI system of Apple Intelligence this year, the industry is optimistic about the trend of using generative AI to drive the replacement of Apple phones.
According to a previous report by investment bank Wedbush, the iPhone 16 series will embark on the largest upgrade cycle in Apple's history, with an expected initial shipment of over 90 million units, exceeding market expectations of 80 million to 84 million units. Approximately 300 million iPhones worldwide have not been upgraded in over four years, laying the foundation for a significant surge in demand.
However, many analysts believe that the iPhone 16 is still difficult to initiate Apple's "super sales cycle" because the incomplete form of Apple Intelligence is not enough to attract consumers to buy, and the replacement cycle is still growing.
Nabila Popal, Senior Director of IDC's Global Data and Analytics Team, analyzed in the press conference preview that 2019 is crucial as macro environmental challenges are impacting the market. The Android market has significantly declined, while iOS has been climbing year by year since then, reaching a peak market share of 20% by 2023. As the dividends of Apple's birth stagnate or decline, the market focus is on Android. At the same time, Apple also faces competition, especially challenges from the Chinese market.
This year, IDC's forecast for the entire smartphone market is a 6% growth, but most of the growth will be 7% for Android and approximately 1% for Apple, "said Nabila Popal.
In other words, the growth driven by iPhone 16 will not come immediately. Nabila Popal pointed out, "Apple Intelligence cannot change the rules of the game, but to some extent, it has prevented Apple's decline and stabilized its position. I believe that the app that truly changes the rules of the game will emerge soon, which means that Apple's growth will come a little later
At the same time, other leading mobile phone manufacturers are actively embracing AI. For example, in the AI big model, there are Huawei's Pangu big model, Honor's Magic big model, Samsung's Gauss big model, OPPO's Andes big model, vivo's Blue Heart big model, Xiaomi's MiLM, and so on. At the IFA exhibition, Honor also released the industry's first cross application open ecosystem intelligent agent, Honor AI Agent, which will be commercially deployed on the next generation flagship Honor Magic7 series.
It can be seen that the top manufacturers are all gearing up to compete for the voice of AI smartphones. This year, there is also homogenization competition in the landing applications of generative AI on mobile phones, mostly focused on voice assistants, AI image recognition and editing, and Chatbots. If Apple does not have more comprehensive differentiated AI solutions, consumers still have many choices.
Ryan Reith, Vice President of Global Intelligent Terminal Research at IDC, believes that the current popularity of AI smartphones is more driven by supply side factors. For example, Android's strategy is to quickly popularize AI in low-end smartphones, but many smartphone manufacturers do not have the strong comprehensive capabilities of Apple or Samsung, so the AI smartphone market is not easy to obtain. In the current global macroeconomic situation, even if some expensive devices are sold, the development of the AI smartphone market remains challenging without promotions and significant discounts.
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