Just half a month after the start of the Chinese New Year, Apple announced a price reduction. Is it a New Year promotion or is it unsold? "As a first-time buyer, I am truly regretful now. The regret in my heart cannot be expressed in words," said one of the first users to purchase the iPhone 15 Pro Max from the official website.
From breaking through to actively lowering prices
On January 15th, Apple launched a rare large-scale price reduction event on its official website in mainland China. On the evening of January 17th at 8 o'clock, the Tmall New Year Shopping Festival officially began selling. Among them, Apple has also joined the Tmall New Year Shopping Festival this year. Starting from midnight, the Tmall Apple Store official flagship store has launched a "Spring Festival limited time discount" activity, and all Apple products have been officially reduced, reaching the full network bottom price of Apple's official channels.
It is reported that compared to the 500 yuan discount on the official website, the iPhone discount on the official flagship store of Apple and Tmall is greater this time. During the evening of January 17th from 8pm to 31pm, the Tmall Apple Store flagship store will offer a discount of 1000 yuan on the full range of iPhone 15 coupons, starting at 4999 yuan, which is 500 yuan cheaper than Apple's official website. It can also be used in 12 installments with interest free, and only costs about 13 yuan per day.
This price reduction has sparked heated discussions among netizens. Some netizens expressed that they do not want to buy and save 5000 yuan, while others expressed that it is still too expensive and support domestic production.
The New Year promotion is held by Apple every year, but this time it's a bit different. Not only is the discount strong, but there are also the latest generation iPhone products on sale. Moreover, the significant price reduction of the iPhone 15 series can be described as a "diving style", breaking the 5000 mark for the first time, with a minimum price of only 4949 yuan. This not only surprised consumers, but also shook the entire smartphone market. After all, in the minds of many people, Apple has always been synonymous with high-end and expensive products. But now, the price range of the iPhone 15 series has been lowered by one level, which undoubtedly greatly lowers the purchasing threshold for consumers.
Compared to years ago when it was hard to find a single phone, the iPhone now has lost its novelty and many reasons for consumers to pay for it, as it was queued up in the early morning of its first sale. On September 22, 2023, the iPhone 15 series officially went on sale, and the regular version was released on the same day.
Apple's market value surpassed by Microsoft's bet on new growth points
On January 12th, Apple, with a market value of $2.87 trillion, was surpassed by Microsoft, which had grown by over $1 trillion in market value over the past year. According to Dow Jones market data, Microsoft's market value last led Apple in November 2021.
Since entering 2024, Barclays, investment bank Piper Sandler, and investment firm Redburn Atlantic have successively downgraded the rating of Apple's stock, believing that the growth rate of Apple's smartphone sales has peaked, and concerned that its smartphone inventory in the first half of 2024 will be too high.
A data released by research firm Counterpoint Research this year also shows that in 2023, Apple's market share in the high-end smartphone market (wholesale prices above $600) decreased from 75% to 71%, while Samsung's market share increased from 16% to 17%, and Huawei's market share increased from 3% to 5%.
Apple is also trying to bet on new growth points. On February 2nd, Apple will launch its first wearable hybrid reality headset device, the Apple Vision Pro, in the US market, with a starting price of $3499. This is a product that Cook highly values. Cook once said that this device marks the beginning of a new era of computing technology, "just like Mac takes us into the era of personal computing, iPhone takes us into the era of mobile computing, and Apple Vision Pro takes us into the era of spatial computing."
Behind the price reduction, can't it be sold anymore?
Although Apple launches promotions every year during the New Year, this is the first time that the entire lineup of iPhones has participated. According to Apple's tone, there will be no promotion for no reason.
Behind the price reduction is a significant decline in sales of Apple's iPhone series products. Analysts at Jefferies, a Wall Street investment bank, reported in a report that iPhone sales in China decreased by 30% year-on-year in the first week of 2024.
Talking about Apple's price reduction and promotion this time, IDC China Senior Analyst Guo Tianxiang analyzed that: First of all, it should be confirmed that this price reduction is only a limited time promotional activity, and offline stores are still limited in quantity. It is uncertain how long this promotional activity will last and whether there will be further promotions in the future. Secondly, the iPhone 15 series has always been discounted on e-commerce platforms, and the discounts have continued even more since Double Eleven. Finally, at the beginning of this year, Apple has already been the first to adjust the channel prices of the iPhone 15 series The adjustment was made for the first time in history, indicating that there is still greater room for price adjustment in some third-party channels and e-commerce platforms. Overall, the main reason is that the upgrade of the iPhone 15 series itself has limited appeal to Chinese consumers
Guo Tianxiang also stated: "The current increase in competitiveness of Chinese brands in flagship products is not only due to Huawei's return, but also to Xiaomi's 14 series, vivo's X100 series, and Honor's foldable screen series, which have put significant pressure on Apple's market performance. However, it cannot be denied that although facing increasing challenges, Apple's overall competitiveness is still the strongest, so after significant price discounts, it will still attract more consumers to purchase."
Nowadays, Apple's price reduction is putting pressure on domestic smartphone manufacturers. For domestic smartphones such as Huawei, Xiaomi, and OV, Apple's price cuts have also given channel operators room to further lower prices, which will inevitably have an impact on the sales of domestic flagship products.
Upstream news sources include Daily Economic News, Beijing Business Daily, Paper, Shangguan News, Apple's official website, and more