On January 15th, Apple announced on its official website that it would launch a limited time discount. At 2 pm, an Apple store in Shenzhen had put up a promotional sign, and five or six customers were inquiring about the discount situation. "The situation of price reductions across the entire range of new machines has almost never happened before, and there were no promotions throughout last year," said a salesperson.
According to the price reduction plan on Apple's official website, from January 18th to January 21st, purchasing iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, and iPhone 13 through eligible payment methods can save up to 500 yuan. Among them, iPhone 15 or iPhone 15 Plus can save up to 400 yuan, which means that 128GB iPhone 15 may drop to 5599 yuan on Apple's official website in the near future. In addition, purchasing M2 chip models such as 13 inch and 15 inch MacBook Air can save up to 800 yuan.
The reporter from First Financial visited offline stores in Shenzhen and learned that the discount plan for Apple's direct stores is consistent with the official website. SUNION's authorized Apple stores have lowered prices earlier and offered greater discounts. Starting from January 1st, all memory versions of iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus will be reduced by 800 yuan, while all memory versions of iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max will be reduced by 500 yuan. According to sales personnel, the price reduction should continue until the end of January. At the same time, iPhone 14 also has a discount, with a price reduction of 500 yuan compared to before.
The price reduction of Apple's official channel's new series of phones is unusual. The sales staff of Apple's direct stores said that the price reduction of the new iPhone series usually did not involve the Pro and Pro Max versions in the past, and this discount is quite special. Apple did not participate in shopping festival promotions such as 618 and Double 11 in the past. Prior to the launch of iPhone 15, reporters visited offline stores and learned that iPhone 14 still maintains its original price and will gradually decrease in price only after the launch of the iPhone 15 series.
The reporter searched e-commerce platforms and found that some stores have even greater price reductions for iPhone 15. At present, the official flagship store of Taobao's Apple Store displays a selling price of 5999 yuan for the 128GB iPhone 15. As of the time of publication, there is no information indicating that it will be synchronized with the official website's price reduction campaign. The price of the 128GB iPhone 15 coupon on the Pinduoduo 10 billion subsidy channel can be as low as 4598 yuan. The Pinduoduo 10 billion subsidy shows the words "official subsidy of 1201 yuan, low price across the network". In the Taobao Billion Subsidy Channel, the subsidized price of the 128GB iPhone 15 in the official store also shows 4598 yuan, which is the same as the price of Pinduoduo. Compared to the discounted price on the official website, the current price of the 128GB iPhone 15 e-commerce platform with a billion yuan subsidy is 1001 yuan cheaper.
The reporter noticed that even before the price reduction on Apple's official website, e-commerce platforms had recently lowered the price of iPhones. During the 2023 Double 11 period, the price of the Pinduoduo 128GB iPhone 15 coupon was 5199 yuan, and it has been reduced by 601 yuan so far. During the Double 11 period, Taobao's 10 billion yuan subsidy once stated that "the iPhone 15 hit a new bottom price of 5048 yuan", and now the selling price has also dropped by 450 yuan after the "bottom price".
Behind the rare price reduction of the Apple iPhone 15 series, the sales of this model in China are not ideal. Analysts at investment bank Jefferies stated in a report that despite significant price reductions for multiple iPhone models on major Chinese e-commerce platforms, iPhone sales still decreased by 30% in the first week of the new year compared to the same period last year.
Apple's stock price has also been facing a decline recently. Apple's stock price reached $198.11 per share in mid December, with a total market value exceeding $3 trillion, but then fluctuated and fell. On January 13th, it closed at $185.92 per share, with a total market value dropping to $2.87 trillion, surpassing Microsoft with a market value of $2.89 trillion.