China Economic Weekly - Economic Net News on January 15th: Apple's official website in China has launched a rare event preview today, which will start the "New Year limited time discount" from January 18th to 21st.
According to Apple, purchasing a designated product through a payment method that meets the conditions can save up to 800 yuan.
Apple's official website has launched a limited time discount for the Chinese New Year: the iPhone 15 series is reduced by 500 yuan, and the MacBook Air is reduced by 800 yuan.
The specific discounts are as follows:
IPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, or iPhone 13 can save up to 500 yuan.
13 inch or 15 inch MacBook Air (M2 chip model) and 13 inch MacBook Air (M1 chip model) can save up to 800 yuan in a row.
IPad Pro, iPad Air, iPad (10th generation), or iPad mini can save up to 400 yuan.
The Apple Watch SE can save 200 yuan instantly.
AirPods (third-generation) and AirPods (second-generation) can save up to 100 yuan.
The Apple Pencil (second generation) can save 50 yuan instantly.
According to the official website, this activity is only for end user consumers to use Alipay, Huabei, WeChat payment, or use China Merchants Bank, China Construction Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China or other credit cards with the logo of Visa and MasterCard and pay in a specific way. It cannot be enjoyed together with any other promotions, discounts or concessions. Each customer is limited to 2 items per product category.
It should be noted that the number of products available for this promotion in the Apple Store retail store is limited (30000 iPhone products, 5200 iPad products, 750 Mac laptop products, 1000 Apple Watch products, 2500 AirPods products, and 540 Apple Pencil products), and will be sold out.
Regarding this news, some netizens said, "People who have bought it before don't want to see price reduction notices." "If you don't buy it, I won't buy it. I'll have to lower it by 800 yuan another day." "If I just finished buying it, I'll lower it by 500 yuan. Can I refund the price difference?" "I can only comfort myself by buying it early and enjoying it early." "Even if I lower the price, I can't afford the series." "Only when domestic phones improve and become more and more affordable, will Apple phones lower their prices."
According to previous reports, according to Reuters, analysts from investment bank Jefferies pointed out in their latest report that in the first week of 2024, sales of iPhones in the Chinese market significantly decreased by 30% compared to the same period last year, influenced by fierce competition among domestic brands in China, especially Huawei's strong return to the high-end market after the release of the Mate 60 series in August 2023.
The report points out that although the new models of Apple's iPhone 15 series have lowered prices on multiple e-commerce platforms, their sales are still significantly declining. Among them, on the Pinduoduo platform, the price reduction of this series is as high as 16%. Jefferies analysts believe that in the Chinese market, Apple's year-on-year decline in 2023 was 3%, which is equivalent to a 0.4% decrease in Apple's market share.
From the market share rankings in recent months, although Apple still ranks among the top, its market share and sales have been decreasing year-on-year. According to data from market research firm BCI, in November 2023, in the high-end mobile phone market priced above 4000 yuan, Apple still ranked first, occupying more than half of the market share. Huawei ranked second with 22.3%, and Xiaomi ranked third with 14.4%. However, Apple fell by 21.2% year-on-year, while Huawei and Xiaomi rose by 8.8% and 11.8% respectively.
Based on the data of the Chinese mobile phone market in the third quarter of 2023, according to IDC, although a new iPhone 15 series was released during the third quarter of 2023, the market response was lower than expected. Apple's market share in the third quarter was 16.0%, a year-on-year decrease of 4.0%, ranking third. In contrast, other domestic brands have seen varying degrees of year-on-year slight increase in market share.